|
The trip
from New
York
to Camp Wadsworth
took the 7th New York Infantry Regiment two days. At
1 P.M.
on September 13, the 7th Regiment disembarked for their Pullman
cars just a little north of Camp
Wadsworth
at Fair Forest
station. The 7th Regiment marched into Camp
Wadsworth
through the ankle deep
dust that characterized the installation in dry weather.
The site that greeted them filled the men
with mixed emotions. No company streets
had yet been constructed, and brush remained everywhere.1 In a letter written home on September 14th,
Sergeant Kenneth Gow recorded that:
"The
country and the camp location are perfect. The
camp is very incomplete, and
its size is inconceivable. Total lack of
organization; that, of course, will come later. Half of our camp site is situated on land
that was heavily wooded, and the
other
half on what was a cotton field, the crop never having been picked. We drew
the woods. The trees had been cut down,
but the stumps were left, consequently
the company had to grub. It was
exceedingly hard work, most of the
timber being oak. The ground is very
rough. We seem to be situated on a plateau. The camp
runs up and down hills, a level piece of
ground being a
rarity. Mess-shacks
are very fine, with electric lights … The soil is either sand or a very
heavy clay.
It
makes bad holding for tent-stakes. The
amount of work to be done fairly
staggers one. I am having the unique
experience of sitting on a stump and
bossing
the gang, waxing very proficient at the same."2
Through hard work,
the 7th Regiment's camp began to take on a more habitable and organized
appearance. By September 20th, Sergeant
Gow could report that "It is now a conviction of the 7th N. Y.
Infantry.
That a pine stump is the toughest and hardiest plant that grows. They are slowly disappearing though, thank
Heaven."3 Neat lines of
pyramidal tents and company streets emerged where brush and stumps had
recently
predominated. Drainage ditches were dug,
drill grounds laid out, and bayonet runs constructed.
The 102nd
Ammunition Train arrived at Camp
Wadsworth
four days before the 7th Infantry Regiment. Like
the troops of the 7th Regiment, they were more
than a little
disappointed with the status of their camp. A
soldier in the 102nd Ammunition Train recalled
that on:
"Sunday
morning, September 9, when we awoke it was announced to us that we were
in Camp Wadsworth. We looked out of the windows.
A camp! Ye Gods! And
where? A big field
of
cotton was pointed out to us, our camp. We
accepted it
good naturedly or
otherwise, mostly otherwise, rolled out, set to work, and soon had enough
space cleared to pitch our
tents. We rested a day or two when arms
were issued to the Ammunition Train. The
arms consisted of picks, shovels, wheelbarrows,
and garden rakes. Our first battle took
place in the aforesaid cotton field. Company 6 made a gallant attack and when the
dust had cleared away
a clean, level
parade ground and a graded company street lay before us. This
did not end out stevedore work, however, for we were at it from time to
time all
fall, building roads and
trenches."4
Regardless of what unit an enlisted
soldier was serving in
at Camp Wadsworth,
his accommodations were almost always the same. Standard
housing was the large army pyramidal tent. Each
pyramidal tent housed a squad of eight
men, and initially lacked a floor. Consequently,
finding adequate lumber to floor and wall ones tent was a top priority
since
winter was fast approaching. In a letter
written on September 16, Gow reported:
"We
are gradually getting into shape, although there still remains a lot to
be
done. I
have a board floor already for my tent, and yesterday I went to Spartanburg
and ordered a table and chair.
I still have quite a few things to get, such
as a pail, basin, lumber for the
sides of my tent, etc. It costs about
$10 to floor an A tent alone.
We thought
lumber would be plentiful and
cheap here, but we guessed wrong."5
The men of
the
Ammunition Train were not so lucky, and had to wait until the first
week of
December before they could floor and wall their tents.
A member of the unit recorded: "…during this
eventful week we
received information that our floors and side walls
for our squad tents were finished, but as no means of transportation
was available, the company
proceeded to furnish
its own. This necessitated the carrying of
the cumbersome pieces
from the
Q.M. yards to camp, a distance of about
a mile, and, after putting them in place we were ready to call it a
day's work."6
Each tent
was
furnished with a small heating apparatus known as the Sibley stove. Dating back to the late 19th century, the
Sibley stove was of iron construction and conical shape.
It was fueled with a small amount of wood and
regarded as quite efficient. Smoke was
carried out via a stove pipe that passed up through the center of the
tent. This was an obvious fire hazard, and
occasionally
resulted in tents catching ablaze. The
Sibley stove's heat output was very limited, and it was the subject of
frequent
jokes and ridicule. Enlisted men slept
on canvas cots, though spring bed frames were eventually provided.7
Due to the
amount of labor necessary to make Camp
Wadsworth
habitable, actual combat
training did not begin at a rapid rate. In
mid September, the soldiers engaged in
calisthenics and drill while
not working on the camp. In addition to
grubbing stumps and building roads, the soldiers at Camp
Wadsworth also
began the back
breaking task of digging training trenches. The
trenches at Camp Wadsworth
were the first constructed in the United
States
for training during the First World War. Laid
out by the 22nd Engineers, it was left to the
other units to
actually dig them. The History
of the 107th Regiment records that the trenches:
"…extended
over an area about 1000 yards by 400 yards. The
total length of the front
line, support, and reserve trenches was about eight miles.
The infantry of the entire
division did the actual digging and in doing so became
quite expert in the handling of two of
the most important weapons of war, the pick and shovel. After
the completion of the trench system a battalion at a time was sent to
occupy them. The
first tour of trench duty for each
battalion was
of 24 hours
duration. Succeeding tours in the lines were of 72 hours
duration."8
While the
infantry labored to construct Camp
Wadsworth's
trenches, the 22nd Engineers attempted to improve the local road
situation. As early as- 1917, General
O'Ryan himself had almost been injured in an auto accident resulting
from the
atrocious road situation. In a letter
dated September 16, Sergeant Gow commented that "The roads the
contractors
have built are a joke; in fact, it is an insult to a good road to call
them
such. The present road to town is seven
miles long. Gen. O'Ryan is having a
military road built which shortens the route to Spartanburg
to three miles."9 The primary
road linking Camp Wadsworth
to Spartanburg was the
infamous Snake Road. This
was a curvy, deeply rutted dirt path that was barely passable in the
best of
weather. The 22nd Engineers were given
the unenviable task of straightening and paving the Snake
Road. Spartanburg
County loaned
the army a number of
African-American chain-gangs to help with the heavy construction. The 22nd Engineers straightened the road as
best they could, and paved it with brick. The
improved path was rechristened the Vanderbilt
Road in honor of the 22nd Engineer's
commanding
officer, Colonel Cornelius Vanderbilt. Unfortunately,
not even the work of the 22nd
Engineers could make the Vanderbilt Road
truly acceptable. It remained curvy, and
became almost
impassable in bad weather. Only when the National
Highway
opened in
1918 did a good road between Camp
Wadsworth
and Spartanburg come into
existence.10
On October
1, orders were issued that required the reorganization of almost every
unit
stationed at Camp Wadsworth. The Sixth National Guard Division was
redesigned the 27th Division. The men
of the various commands accepted this with heavy hearts.
Many of the New York National Guard regiments
had proud histories and traditions that went back to the mid-19th
century. History and tradition gave way to
necessity,
however, as the amalgamation and skeletonization of the old units was
necessary
to create regiments that met war time strength requirements. Prior to reorganization, the largest units at Camp
Wadsworth
totaled only around 1500 men. Reorganization
brought the four infantry regiments
of the 27th Division
up to the required strength of over 3500 men each.
Though it increased regimental strength,
reorganization had a decidedly negative impact on unit pride and
cohesion.11 Mrs. James Scott
Moore visited
the camp in
December and was appalled by results of reorganization.
She voiced her concerns in a letter to the
office of the Secretary of War, stating:
"I also found that the
spirit-de-corps
has been much broken by the changing about. The
boys realize
that it had to be done; and
find no, fault with the fact, but with
the way it was done. The units that were
augmented by men from the tough New
York companies cannot feel the same. Those men are a danger, and a corporal barely
escaped being bayoneted by
one of them. One Brooklyn
troop was given a number of
them, all diseased, and I believe got rid of them.
The 102nd
Trench Mortar Battery has a number of them. Captain
Pearson tried to get members
of Company H, Rochester,
to
complete his quota; but was unsuccessful, and
these filthy men were sent instead. One
is a gunman who, was mixed up in some
notorious case in New York. When I was at the camp Monday, December 3rd,
everything in one tent was airing,
as one of these men was alive with lice, and
in the tent with boys from good homes and families, who continued to
live clean
in a tent … I know that the army is
supposed to be a leveler, but it cannot safely
be cut adrift from human consideration."12
The pain of
reorganization hit the 1st New York Cavalry the hardest.
The men of this outfit considered themselves
to be in the premiere branch of the service, and were fiercely proud of
their
status. Modern warfare, however, had
made horse cavalry obsolete. The men of
the 1st New York Cavalry were ordered to be reorganized into trench
mortar and
machine gun troops. With great
resignation, the former cavalrymen surrendered their gold hat cords
(signifying
cavalry) for ones of artillery red and infantry blue.
Regarding this matter, Mrs. Moore wrote
"I would like to ask one favor for the Trench Mortar Battery-that
they be given a cord designating their branch of the service. Their pride is much hurt by having to give up
the yellow, and wearing the artillery red. There
is no green cord, I think - could they not have
a cord of green and
the yellow they love?"13 The
War
Department showed no such consideration to the cavalrymen.
The saddest moment of the entire process
occurred when cavalrymen and mounts were separated.
Major Shanton Whitney of the 105th Machine
Gun Battalion records that "On October 13, 1917, as we left the train at Spartanburg,
the 105th Machine Gun Battalion sprang into being.
The first big wrench came soon; we were ordered
to turn in all horses, drawing those to which we - as a Machine Gun
Battalion - were entitled. Remember that
we were (or had been) Cavalrymen and took that intense pride in the
fact which
is a part of every Cavalryman's nature. But
orders had to be obeyed and we turned in our
horses. They had been on our picket lines
for only a
very short time; but, some few days later, they stampeded from their
new
location and, in the dead of night, returned to us.
Straight through an Army Camp of some 20,000
men they came back to their old picket lines. Now
can you understand what a wrench it was for us
to turn in horses
like those! They were immediately taken
away from us again although we did not offer much help to the men who
came
after them. Horses that had been cursed
and sworn at, once they were take away from us, seemed to have acquired
new
attributes of speed, docility and intelligence. The
mount once referred to as 'that damned beast'
was mentioned as 'that
bully little mare I used to have.' We
knew we were at war - we had again suffered casualties; we had lost our
horses."14
For Notes please see Appendix C - Bibliography
|