Col Charles Howland and staff, Germany, December 3, 1918. Note the Chaplain, far left. Note also that some of these officers have gone to the new pattern of overseas cap that was already replacing the French patter. It looked better, but was actually less functional. But that pattern of cap is pretty dysfunctional any way you look at it. Howland and an officer next to him are wearing trench coats. This was a design that was a product of the Great War and was a British item. The U.S. would come to adopt trench coats, but I don't think they had at this point. The officer on the far right is wearing a shearling lined winter coat which definitely was not a uniform item but which was pretty common for American officers in World War One.
12th Division at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, December 3, 1918. Part of the National Army, it wold be demobilized by the end of January 1919. This is an odd unit in that it was partially made up of Regular Army troops who formed part of its cadre, demonstrating an odd aspect of the U.S. Army during World War One. No American division was made up entirely of Regular Army soldiers and at no point did the entire pre war Regular Army rank and file end up serving in Europe in spite of the massive American commitment to the war. Some of the troops in this unit would have been in it nearly the entire war, training to go overseas, and never make it. Some had likely just joined the unit through late conscription.
The news of the day was pretty typical for the immediate post war. One item to note, however. Strikers employed by a railway in Ohio were demanding that the railway fire its women employees. Chances are that the women were wartime hires and the men wanted them to go, now that the war was over, and their conscripted colleges would be returning. The railway apparently had ignored a prior promise to let them go.
And Wilson's troubles with some members of Congress were becoming more and more evident.
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