The 100 Days Offensive: Pershing writes a letter. August 31, 1918.

General Pershing, following the events of yesterday, wrote Marshall Foch a lengthy memorandum on this day in 1918.

The memorandum was mostly a recap of the arguments that Pershing had set out the previous day in his face to face argument with Foch.  It contained, however, a concession.  Pershing thought the original planned offensive at St. Mihel could include a change in direction following its original objective without pausing.

That concession would prove key to breaking the impasse.

The 100 Days Offensive: The 27th and 30th Divisions fight the Battle of Vierstaat Ridge

On U.S. 27th Division and the U.S. 30th Division, attached to the British Second Army when it appeared that the Germans had abandoned Mount Kemel in front of them.  They were supported by the British 34th Division.  The advance soon demonstrated that while the Germans had in large withdrawn, they had left behind machineguns to cover their withdrawal in dug in positions.  These slowed the Allied advance but the Americans none the less took their objections by 17:30.

Insignia of the 27th Division.

The attack resumed the following morning at 07:00 and carried through September 3.

The 27th Division was a unit made up entirely of New York National Guardsmen, making it one of three U.S. Divisions that were comprised of National Guardsmen entirely from a single state.  At the time of the battle of Vierstaat Ridge it was commanded by John F. O'Ryan, a New York City lawyer who had been in the New York National Guard since 1900.

John F. O'Ryan.

After World War One he pursued commercial pursuits and was active in protesting the German treatment of the Jews as early as 1933.

Shoulder patch of the 30th Division.

The 30th Division was also a National Guard Division, and had originally been designated the 9th Division after being mustered and assembled.  it was made up of National Guardsmen from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.  It was commanded at this time by Maj. Gen. Edward Mann Lewis, a career office in the U.S. Army.

Maj. Gen. Edward Mann Lewis.

American Troops under British and French Command in the Great War.

Yesterday I noted that the US 32nd Division was, at this point, advancing under French command.

They weren't alone.

It's really popular to imagine that General Pershing insisted that the US have its own Army in the field and that he was universally successful. So when Americans marched into battle in France, they did so exclusively under overall U.S. command.

That's a myth.

Indeed, we've already seen here recently that the U.S. First Army was only formed in August and that it only took over the St. Michel Sector on August 30.  But Americans had already been in heavy combat for weeks prior to that as individual divisions were placed under higher foreign commands by necessity.

And that hadn't stopped due to the First Army being formed.

The U.S. 33d and 80th Divisions were part of the British Fourth Army and had been fighting with the British as part of the Second Battle of the Somme, which we've read about here a bit.  The American II Corps was also part of the British Fourth Army and would be up until late October, 1918, by which time it had suffered 11,500 casualties under British command.  

In other words, the II Corps fought under the British Fourth Army until the end of the war as a practical matter with one final U.S. Division remaining under official British command at the war's end.

The 92nd and 93d Divisions, which were made up of black enlisted men, fought the entire war under French command.  The American III Corps was part of the French Sixth Army until mid September, when its two divisions became part of the U.S. First Army. 

In October the 37th and 91st Divisions were attached, by Pershing, to French Army of Belgium, at Foch's request.

All of this is significant in that the role of the U.S. Army is subject to a double set of myths, one being that the U.S. Army fought the whole war under American command and the other being that the US role was minimal.  In fact, while there did come to become a U.S. First Army, U.S. divisions served under French and British command in numbers that became significant during the German 1918 Spring Offensive and throughout the 100 Days Offensive.  While after the formation of the U.S. First Army, American command of its troops in the field became extensive, there was never a day when there were not U.S. soldiers under British and French command, and they were needed.

Birdseye view, N.D. Marine Barracks, Quantico, Virginia. August 31, 1918.

Daily News Bulletin, American Red Cross. August 31, 1918.

The 100 Days Offensive: The Battle of Mont Saint Quentin. August 31, 1918

On this day in 1918 under-strength Australian forces followed up on a failed front attack on German forces on the  Somme by charging up Mont St. Quentin. The bravado took the Germans by surprise who surrendered in large numbers which allowed the Germans to continue to the main German line and cross the Somme.

The Australians were pushed off the hill in a German counteroffensive but did hand on just below the summit which allowed them to retake it on September 1.

Friday Farming: "Working In King's Garden" Women pushing a cart possibly at Kew Gardens or Buckingham Palace gardens, London, England. August 30, 1918.

The 100 Days: Foch and Pershing Argue and the American Army takes over the St. Mihiel Sector

Pershing and Foch shaking hands in 1918, as Pershing was departing to return to the United States.

And they didn't resolve their dispute either.

The dispute was about a planned upcoming American offensive. Following Soissons, the U.S. First Army was formed which gave the US an independent army in the field, must like the British Expeditionary Force.  The US, in other words, was ready to fight on its own.  

And it had planned an offensive which contemplated the strategic situation at the time planning commenced.  The problem was, however, that it no longer did, and Foch, the Supreme Allied Commander, knew it.

Pershing's plan, developed before the recent Allied advances had become so successful, called for the U.S. First Army to advance straight north from its positions on a broad front towards Sedan.  In other words, truly straight north, towards Belgium.  It made sense when first conceived of.

Foch, on the other hand, wanted to scrap that and have the U.S. Army, with a French contingent, close a salient sought of Verdun and take a hard right towards the German city of Metz, and take it.  Foch would have had the U.S. Army swing right.

Foch was right.

That would have meant, however, that the U.S. Army would not have been operating fully independent.  Pershing wouldn't have that.

The argument was not resolved.  It was heated.  Most American historians give Pershing credit for sticking to his guns and thereby making certain that the U.S. Army would be an independent one.

But, in reality, the proposed line of advance that Pershing wanted was now obsolete due to the spectacular recent advances of the British Expeditionary Force.  Foch's plan, however, was strategically dynamic and would have put the Allies right into a German city.

Foch was right.

On the same day, in spite of the argument, the American 1st Army took over the St. Mihiel Sector.

The 100 Days Offensive: The 32nd Division takes Juvigny

Insignia of the 32nd Division.

If you've been reading the posts here (and I know that darned few do), you will have been reading a fair amount the British Expeditionary Force, which comprised of units from all of the British Empire, advancing on the Allied left flank.

At the same time, you will have been reading of French advances, although I have not posted any of the campaigns in detail. Suffice it to say, the French were advancing as well, as the headlines indicated.

On this day, the U.S. 32nd Division, which was part of the French Tenth Army, took Juvigny, a strategically important location in the line of the French advance.  The 32nd was a National Guard comprised unit made up of units from Wisconsin and Michigan.  The unit compelled the Germans to withdraw in their sector and on September 9 the 32nd would become part of the U.S. First Army.

Juvigny is not a battle that's thought much of today, but the accomplishment of the 32nd was significant.  Moreover, the event demonstrates that while the U.S. First Army had only come into existence on this day, US units were engaged in the 100 Days Offensive already, attached to French and British commands.

Mutiny in the Home Guard?, Mexican border pacific, and bar tenders won't march: The Casper Daily Tribune, August 30, 1918.

A rumor that casualty figures were being suppressed was circulating in Casper's Home Guard, and causing discontent.  The story was originally attributed to Gen. Leonard Wood, who denied its accuracy.

Well, while things were getting heated in Casper, things seemed to be calming down on the border with Mexico.

But they were getting heated as to alcohol.  The Bartenders Union refused to march in the upcoming Labor Day parade in protest of the looming specter of Prohibition.  The Anti Saloon League was being asked to fill in.

Fanny Kaplan shoots V. I. Lenin

Fanny Kaplan (Fanya Yefimovna Kaplan (Фа́нни Ефи́мовна Капла́н; real name Feiga Haimovna Roytblat, Фейга Хаимовна Ройтблат, an anarchist member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, shot V. I. Lenin, red menace, as he emerged from a factory.

 Kaplan

Kaplan hit Lenin twice and, while he was severely wounded, he survived (rather obviously).  She was executed on September 3.

Kaplan was a pretty damaged person by 1918, having served a prison sentence for a terrorist plot some years earlier, during which she was beaten. She suffered from partial loss of sight and debilitating headaches.  Some doubt that she actually was the would be assassin and was, instead, simply framed for the attack.  If she did do it, it was because the Socialist Revolutionaries, though they were divided into left and right camps, had taken more seats in the 1917 election than the Communist had and were essentially deposed.

Mid Week At Work: Today In Wyoming's History: August 29, 1870. Mt. Washburn ascended.

From Our Companion Blog, Today In Wyoming's History:

Today In Wyoming's History: August 29:  1870  Mount Washburn in Yellowstone National Park ascended for the first time by members of the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition.   The scientific/topographic expedition was under a military escort lead by U.S. Army Cavalry officer, Lt. Gustavus Cheyney Doane, who made this report:

The view from the summit is beyond all adequate description.  Looking northward from the base of the mountain the great plateau  stretches away to the front and left with its innumerable groves and  sparkling waters, a variegated landscape of surpassing beauty, bounded  on its extreme verge by the cañons of the Yellowstone. The pure  atmosphere of this lofty region causes every outline of tree, rock or lakelet to be visible with wonderful distinctness, and objects twenty  miles away appear as if very near at hand. Still further to the left the snowy ranges on the headwaters of Gardiner's river stretch away to the  westward, joining those on the head of the Gallatin, and forming, with  the Elephant's Back, a continuous chain, bending constantly to the  south, the rim of the Yellowstone Basin. On the verge of the horizon  appear, like mole hills in the distance, and far below, the white  summits above the Gallatin Valley. These never thaw during the summer  months, though several thousand feet lower than where we now stand upon  the bare granite and no snow visible near, save n the depths of shaded  ravines. Beyond the plateau to the right front is the deep valley of the East Fork bearing away eastward, and still beyond, ragged volcanic  peaks, heaped in inextricable confusion, as far as the limit of vision  extends. On the east, close beneath our feet, yawns the immense gulf of  the Grand Cañon, cutting away the bases of two mountains in forcing a  passage through the range. Its yellow walls divide the landscape nearly  in a straight line to the junction of Warm Spring Creek below. The  ragged edges of the chasm are from two hundred to five hundred yards  apart, its depth so profound that the river bed is no where visible. No  sound reaches the ear from the bottom of the abyss; the sun's rays are  reflected on the further wall and then lost in the darkness below. The  mind struggles and then falls back upon itself despairing in the effort  to grasp by a single thought the idea of its immensity. Beyond, a gentle declivity, sloping from the summit of the broken range, extends to the  limit of vision, a wilderness of unbroken pine forest.

William Henry Jackson on Mount Washburn a few years later.

If reading this description, and looking at this photo, makes you think that this work was considerably more exciting, interesting and valuable than your own today. . . well it probably indeed really was.

More news from the border, Noyon falls to the French, mule reunion, and twenty personal questions. The News. August 29, 1918.

Sniping was still going on, but I don't know if this ultimatum was delivered or not.  It may have been.

The Casper paper was also reportign that Gen. Cabell had issued an ultimatum.

As usual, the Laramie Boomerang was less dramatic about things.  But there was disturbing news about new "sin taxes".

The Wyoming State Tribune lead with the fall of Noyon to the French, as did every other paper.  But it also had a touching story on an equine reunion and discussed the twenty personal questions new draftees would be asked.  Along with a story on the events in Nogales.

Speed Goat: Local beer makes good. . . really good.

Casper Brewery Advertisement from 1914, the year the brewery commenced operations.

When I was a kid, it was sort of a matter of local trivia to know that there had once been a local brewery.  Hillcrest Brewery, to be precise.

Now, admittedly, it wasn't the world's greatest trivia question, but it was surprising to us.  A brewery here in town?  Outlandish.  What made it such an odd trivia question was the mere thought that there had once been a local brewery.  In the age of Budweiser, Coors, Olympia, and Millers, what an wild thought.  Local breweries?  Eee gads.

I really don't know the history of Hillcrest even now and I've seen different stories about that.  At least one beer website claims that it started brewing beer in 1914 and that it stopped operations in 1930. If that's true, it only really brewed beer from 1914 to 1919, as that's the year that the Volstead Act went into effect and brewing, except under some exceptions, would have ceased.  There's still a Hillcrest water company here that bottles water from a spring on Casper Mountain, so maybe there's some connection there.

Of course, if that is correct, it sadly went out of business just two years before brewing could have started up again.  But by then, the Depression was on in force.

But I don't think that is correct and a website with more detail fits more into what I thought was the case.  It claims that The Casper Brewing Company was closed for the entirety of Prohibition, which makes sense, but that it resumed operations in 1934, when beer was once allowed as the repeal of Prohibition allowed for stepped in resumption of the consumption of alcohol.  According to that source, it operated again from 1934 until 1944, and the had to shut down due to wartime shortages, but then started back up after the war only to close back down in 1948.  I suspect that's correct.

 Old Hillcrest beer bottles.  This was last up in 2016 in a thread that noted that a local brewery was going to open up. So far as I know, it still hasn't, so I wonder if something happened to that plan. Be that as it may, a brewpub will open up soon locally in the former of the Gurner Brothers Brewery, to be located in the old Petroleum Club building.  Anyhow, this is a display at the veterans museum at the Natrona County International Airport which, if correct, would place Hillcrest as a beer still being consumed locally in the 1940s, and indeed one of the few sources I can find would have Casper Brewing Company operating from 1914 to 1919, and then from 1934 to 1944, and then again from about 45 or 46 until 1948.

Apparently, at least at one time, the big beer, and maybe the only beer, brewed by the Casper Brewing Company was Wyoming Light Lager.   Indeed, from the very onset in 1914 the company announced that this was to be its intended brew.  I don't know if this ever changed, but I would note that the company's beer bottles from the 1940s, if the photo above is illustrative of anything, was by that time simply calling its beer "Hillcrest Lager Beer".  It was probably the same thing, however.

Prior to Prohibition, Wyoming's liquor laws were much different than they are now.  Indeed, alcohol was nearly unregulated.  Hence, the reason you could call the brewery and order a case.

Now that too is interesting, as if that's correct, and it would seem to be, they anticipated by a long margin a bit of a trend, or rather two trends.

Anyhow, in 1948 Casper Brewing apparently closed. By that time, Hillcrest Water, a company supplying water coolers that's still around today, had been operating for over a decade.  I've sometimes wondered if there was a connection between the two, but I don't know.  Anyhow, local brewing went out.  Locally, the big US brands we all know from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s became the norm.

Wyoming Light Lager was on tap at The Oil Exchange Bar and popcorn for sale at the Smoke House.  I'm not sure where the Oil Exchange Bar was, but it had advertised in the Casper papers since at least 1911.

And then the microbrewery boom hit.  

But not here at first.

I recall when it actually hit.  Cooper Smiths opened in Ft. Collins, a brew pub, when I was an undergraduate at UW. When we'd go down there, we'd often check it out. The beer and foods was good, and even a college student could afford it. 

A real hint that something was about to happen, however, was when a friend of mine and I were in there, seated at the bar, and a guy came in and asked to see the brewer.  The brewer came up from the basement at his request, and the asker identified himself as another brewer from a brewery that was just getting built and he needed some pointers.

The brewery that was getting built was New Belgium, the brewer of Fat Tire and other now well known brews.

Well, over a long expanse of time some Wyoming breweries opened up.  There was Lander Brewing Company in Lander Wyoming, which purports to be a re-opening of another pre-Prohibition Wyoming brewery, and the related Jackson Hole Brewing Company, as well as Jackson's Snake River Brewing. And there's Black Tooth Brewing in Sheridan and there's also Melvin Brewing in Alpine.

And that's not all.

And among the various breweries is Ten Sleep Brewing, in Ten Sleep Wyoming.

And something interesting has happened with it.

All the Wyoming brew pubs have followers, although as noted Casper has been freakishly unable to get a brewery started (there's been several attempts, none have gone anywhere so far).  That's about to change, however, and soon there will be a real brewery here as well.

What is a big surprise is to see a single beer from a microbrewery, Fat Tire notwithstanding, become a regional success and start to crowd out other beers. And Ten Sleep has accomplished that with Speed Goat. 

They discuss Speed Goat on their website as follows:

Speed Goat Golden Ale

Speed Goat is a golden ale loaded with 2-row and C-15 on the malt side and featuring subtle use of Willamette hops for bittering and aroma. Locally produced Bryant Honey from Worland provides a crisp dryness with a slight honey finish. Easy drinking for folks born and raised on lighter fare, the Speed Goat may go fast, just like its namesake

Sounds sort of like Wyoming Light Lager.

I first heard of Speed Goat a few years back when I bought some for a Christmas Party.  One of my brothers in law, it turned out, was quite a fan and everyone at the party really liked it.  It was a big hit.

Recently I noticed that it has started showing up on tap at local restaurants.  I didn't think that much about it, however, as some of the local restaurants will feature microbrews that are local.  Indeed, quite a few of the newer ones do.

But then we had another family gathering and again went to get some growlers of beer.  While there the person who filled the taps noted that they had Speed Goat which they can't keep around long. Apparently people call in to find out when a shipment is coming in and it clears out nearly immediately.

Now that was a surprise.

And since then I've found that not only is that the case in regard to the example noted, but there's a real local following  And just the other day I saw a sign one one of the real old time local bars, a real  neighborhood bar, which said "Proudly serving Speed Goat".

Now that's a huge surprise.  One of the real, old time, neighborhood bars with a local microbrew on tap.  That I would not have expected at all.

Riots at the Democratic Convention. August 28, 1968.

On this day the Democratic Convention in Chicago nominated Hubert Humphrey for President.  The event was overshadowed, however, by riots that occurred on the same day.

Following the liberal Humphrey's nomination, protesters, who had been in Chicago all week, head towards the convention in protest, supporting even more liberal Eugene McCarthy.  Opposition to the war in Vietnam was the source of their motivation.  On the way, they were met by Chicago police, armed with clubs.

In what has sometimes a "Police Riot", the confrontation quickly turned violent leaving an enduring American memory of the disaster of 1968, given as it was televised.

The Battle of Ambos Nogales hits the Papers

The battle was fought yesterday, August 27, late in the afternoon.  It was on the front page the next day:

The reporting was, of course, initial, and not entirely accurate.

And in the case of the Cheyenne paper, racist epitaphs were used as well.

Of course, the Great War still predominated. But Mexico was back on the front page for the 28th.

Depot Brigade, Camp Custer, Michigan. August 28, 1918.

Blog Mirror: Beanies, Brooms and Bother: UW Freshmen Get the Initiation Treatment (and Lex Anteinternet: Freshman Caps? The Wyoming Student, November 2, 1917.)

November of last year (no doubt the result of mining newspapers for entries on World War One and the ongoing crisis with Mexico), I posted this item from the Wyoming Student (today's Branding Iron) regarding Freshman Beanies:

Freshman Caps? The Wyoming Student, November 2, 1917

As noted, I was amazed as I'd never heard of UW having Freshman beanies.  

In trying to look those up, I ended up quoting from materials about other universities as I really couldn't find much in regards to the University of Wyoming and Freshman Beanies.

Well now the American Heritage Center in Laramie has run this item:

Beanies, Brooms and Bother: UW Freshmen Get the Initiation Treatment

That article reveals that at least as late as 1967 UW freshmen still wore beanies. Apparently they wore them, at that time, from the start of school until the first home football game.  The story further reveals:

After the UW Cowboys scored their first touchdown, the students threw their beanies in the air and never had to wear them again. The tradition of beanies apparently goes back to 1908 when male students had to wear green caps and women green stockings. During the 1920s, freshmen had to wear the beanies until Homecoming.

Weird.

And that would have been trouble for me.  I went to the University of Wyoming for a grand total of six years, three as an undergraduate and three as a law student, and I never once saw a UW football game.  I guess I would have, had I gone then, as getting rid of the beanie would really have been a goal.

All that's a form of hazing, of course, but fairly gentle hazing.  It seems absurd now, but almost every outfit that's tight knit in some fashion has rituals of that type, whether it be getting to wear your soft cap in basic training or getting to ditch your beanie at university.  A ritual of belonging.

Now all that has gone away, it seems.  And frankly I wouldn't have lamented the beanie one darned bit.  I'd have hated that.  Of course, in the 1960s I would have been unlikely to endure that as Casper College opened up in the 1940s and I'd have been more likely to have gone there.  Indeed, just knowing myself, if I'd been a high school graduate in 1961, instead of 1981, I'd like have attended CC until 1963 and then graduated with an undergraduate degree in 65 or 66 and in 67. . . I'd have probably been in Vietnam.  A sobering though.

Anyhow, just pondering it, these rituals are gone.  In their place, but only tangentially, are mandatory classes on diversity in the broadest sense.  Changed times, to be sure.

The American Heritage Center article also discusses the hill at UW with a big W on it.  Apparently a custom of white washing the big W started in 1917, but it's long died out as well.  The W can still be seen if you know where to look for it.  The article features a photo from 1953 of the white washing, which is interesting in that its two male students directing two female students in the activity. . .hmmmm.

Casper College also had a hill with a C on it, called appropriately enough "C Hill". The C is long gone.

Well, it's fall, and the students head back.

No doubt true, but hard to avoid this year.

It's been really smokey.

Where There’s Fire, There’s Smoke and it’s Bad for your Health

In Memoriam. John McCain

Governor Matthew H. Mead, pursuant to President Donald Trump's Proclamation issued today, has ordered both the U.S. and State of Wyoming flag be flown at half-staff statewide for Senator John McCain immediately until sunset on the day of his interment. “I join the many people across the United States and throughout the world in mourning the loss of Senator John McCain,” said Governor Matt Mead. “He demonstrated unparalleled loyalty to our country. He was a dedicated public servant. He was an American hero. We will miss him.”

Back on the Border: Battle of Ambos Nogales. August 27, 1918

 Nogales in 1899.

On this day elements of the 35th Infantry Regiment and the 10th Cavalry Regiment engaged Mexican Mexican forces at Nogales on the Mexican border.

The entire thing came about basically by accident, and ongoing border tension.

On this day at about 4:10 in the afternoon Mexican carpenter Zeferino Gil Lamadrid attempted to cross the border back into the Mexican side of Ambos Nogales.  The town was, and is, on both sides of the border in Arizona and Sonora respectively.  He was carrying a bulky parcel and was stopped ordered to stop for inspection.  A Mexican customs agent countermanded the order as he had actually crossed into Mexico by that time.  Gil Lamadrid became confused by the competing orders and the ensuing argument. 

 Border guards.  U.S. soldiers on left, well armed but poorly outfitted Mexican soldier on the right.

At this point, a Pvt. William Klint of the 35th U.S. Infantry attempted to cause Gil Lamadrid to return to the U.S. side of the border by brandishing his rifle which he then fired for an unknown reason.  Gil Lamadrid dropped to the ground for protection and Mexican Customs officer Francisco Gallegos returned fire killing Klint.  U.S. Customs Inspector Arthur G. Barber then drew his revolver and opned up, killing Gallegos and Mexican Customs Officer Andres Cecena.  Gil Lamadrid fled in the confusion (he'd be killed in a bar altercation many years later).

Mexican civilians, alerted to something going on due to the gunfire, armed themselves and rushed to join Mexican soldiers who likewise had started engaging under the assumption something was going on.  Perhaps fortunately most of the Mexican Federal soldiers (i.e., the soldiers of the now officially recognized Carranza government) were out of the town at the time fighting rebel soldiers loyal to the governor of Sonora, Plutarco Calles, who would later rise to the be Mexican president himself, and found the PRI Party, and whose hostility to Mexican Catholicism resulted in the Cristero War.  Calles rather obviously was always a controversial figure and that was already proving to be the case in Sonora.

For this reason, the majority of the Mexican combatants were civilians.  On the U.S. side, however, the combatants were soldiers, first of the 35th Infantry and then of the 10th Cavalry.

Soon thereafter Mexican forces joined in the gunfight, on the probable assumption that a battle was up and rolling.  The 35th Infantry at the start of the battle called on the 10th Cavalry for assistance which shortly arrived under the command of Lt. Col. Frederick Herman, who ordered an assault across the border to seize hills overlooking the town.  Those hills were the site of trenches and machinegun emplacements which had been put in several weeks earlier and Herman wanted to occupy them before Mexican forces did.  Mexican combatants in turn rushed the home of Gen. Alvaro Obergon, the Mexican revolutionary hero, who was absent, but whose house made a good fortress due to its stone walls.  In an irony typical of this battle his terrified family was escorted to the safety of the U.S. side by the U.S. Consul in Nogales.

Following this, and under fire, U.S. infantry and dismounted cavalry fought through the town with the 10th Cavalry, a regular U.S. unit comprised of all black enlisted soldiers, taking the red light district of the town where, in another irony, they were met with relief on the part of the town's Mexican working girls who soon went to work as impromptu nurses.  They were joined by American civilians in the same effort with both attending the wounded of both sides.  American civilians also became involved in the combat by firing from houses on the American side of Nogales which proved to be a hindrance to the U.S. Army.

A cease fire was upon when the Mayor of Nogales, Sonora, Felix B. Peñaloza, took a white handkerchief, tied it to his cane and ran into the streets of his city in a brave effort to stop the fighting.  He was in turn shot by a round fired from the American side, and did thirty minutes later.   This panicked, justifiably, Mexican town officials and the Mexican Consul in the American Nogales who caused a white flag to be raised over the custom house.  Snipers on both sides continued to fire for some time, but the battle basically concluded at that point.  Mexican civilians began to evacuate the town out of a fear of further violence.  The border remained closed the following day.

Both governments dispatched representatives to learn what happened.  Calles represented the Mexican government and Gen. DeRosey Cabell, a veteran of the Punitive Expedition, represented the U.S.   Both government expressed regrets about the incident.  Sniper fire continued to come from the Mexican side for some days during this process with the Mexican government maintained that they could not control, but the Mexican government did make an effort to seize civilian arms in Nogales.  The border reopened, but one further American soldier was killed by rifle fire from the Mexican side and a Mexican soldier killed by an American soldier in reprisal before the violence ceased.  By the time this occurred, four U.S. soldiers had died and twelve American civilians, while about thirty Mexican soldiers and one-hundred Mexican civilians had lost their lives.

American participants in the battle persistently maintained that German military men, in uniform, were present at the battle, but there is little evidence of that.  Their insistence was based on first hand observation, so it cannot be entirely discounted, and it is correct that a German officer was in fact killed in an earlier battle skirmish of this type.  However, while it is not impossible, this battle featured a lopsided proportion of Mexican civilians on the Mexican side, which partially explains why the Mexican causalities were predominantly civilians and why the Mexican effort fared fairly poorly in spite of being dedicated in nature.

In a final irony, Gen. Cabell recommended that a border fence be placed on the border through the town and for a distance of two miles.  His recommendation was followed and it was the first such border fence placed on the U.S-Mexican border.  A fence remains in place in the town today.

So, oddly, this forgotten battle is not only a tragedy, overshadowed by the greater tragedy of World War One, it remains oddly contemporary. 

Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky. August 26, 1918.

Base Hospital.

Field Artillery Officers Training School.

Scene at Divisional Headquarters.

The 100 Days Offensive: Arras

On this day in 1918 the British Commonwealth forces expanded the Second Battle of the Somme with a Canadian night attack at Arras.  All four Canadian divisions would participate in the assault which would carry through until September 3.