March 20, 1919. Pershing has visitors, Villa let's his unwilling guests go, the 148th FA set to return home, Red Army seeking to be unwelcome guests.

King Albert and Queen Victoria of Belgium visited Gen. Pershing on this day in 1919.

In Mexico, Poncho Villa, who had taken a part of Mormon figures prisoner a few days prior, let them go.  The released prisoners were residents of Colnia Dublan and still had a ways to go to get home, as he didn't return them to their town.

And news arrived that the 148th Field Artillery was soon to sail home.

The same news was printed in Cheyenne, along with a photo that appeared here sometime ago of a teenage plowgirl.

Both papers printed distressing news that the Soviets appeared set to invade Germany. That news was not merely a rumor.  As the fronts swung wildly in the Russian Civil War it seems that those who saw the Russian Revolution as a global revolution to occur immediately were indeed planning just that.

From the vantage point of a century later, that goal seems insane, and there were those with in the Soviet power circles who disagreed with it then, such as one Josef Stalin.  Those who backed it, such as Trotsky, were not without their own logic however.

The Reds were in fact gaining in the far north and were about to push the Allied mission in Northern Russia out of the country.  At the same time, however, the White offensive in the east was meeting with huge success and observed from there, there were reasons to hope that the Whites would prevail.  In the west, however, the Soviets were now fighting the Poles, who were doing well, but who also formed a wall between Red Russia and a Germany which seemed to be on the brink of falling into the hands of German Communists any day.

The really amazing thing, in retrospect, is that the Allies were rushing home their forces in Europe in the face of all of this.  A Red victory in Germany, which was a possibility at the time, would have resulted in the spread of Communism throughout Europe fairly rapidly, with other countries teetering on the brink of Communist revolution.  Even seemingly stable countries, such as the UK, were having some problems at this point.

Of course, long term, the Reds would prevail in Russia but not in Poland, although they nearly did.  Their failure to win there meant that they were not able to proceed into Germany.  It also meant that Stalin's star rose while Trotsky's fell.

Blog Mirror: Mont Saint André, March 18, 1919

Mont Saint André, March 18, 1919

March 18, 1919. Pershing inspects. King Albert loans. Red Cross drives.

General Pershing adderessed the 4th Division at Kaiseresch, March 18, 1919.

 Red Cross garage at Rue Laugier, Paris.  March 18, 1919.

Red Cross garage at Buffalo Park, Paris.  March 18, 1919.

Red Cross dining room at St. Germaine en Laye, a chateau that was loaned to the Red  Cross by the King of Belgium.

March 13, 1919. Pershing visits Treves, Women seek to hold on to jobs, Communists seek global revolution, Ireland seeks independence, Anti Saloon League seeks to stop 3%.

General Pershing at the American Red Cross facility at Treves, Germany.

General Pershing was touring part of the American Zone of Occupation on this day in 1919.

American Red Cross personnel in formation for the inspection of General Pershing at Treves, Germany.

In doing that, he stopped by the Red Cross facility at Treves.

He clearly delivered a speech while doing that.  Note how the Red Cross men appear as soldiers, which they were, many male members of the ARC having been taken into military service by the U.S. Army upon the American entry into the war.

Further to the East, the Communist were meeting in what was becoming the Soviet Union and advocating for a world revolution.  On the same day, interestingly enough, Admiral Kolchak's Whites launched the start of a spring offensive, the second White spring offensive launched this year, both of which were seeing a lot of initial success.

Women, who are commonly believed to day to have been introduced to commercial labor by World War Two, were arguing to retain their World War One jobs.

And the Anti Saloon League was arguing against even 3% booze, 3% being the typical amount in some session ales, such as Guinness Stout, and modern "American light lager", i.e, light beer.

Post Armistice Training, November 11,1918 to March 11, 1919, 93rd Division

March 1, 1919. The Saturday Evening Posts does what we do here, New Canteen on the docks in France, Protests in Korea, Remounts in northern Wyoming.

Hmmm. . . that article by Henry Watterson is what we do a lot of here. . . 

The Army Corps of Engineers built a new canteen on the docks for the Red Cross, to service soldiers and sailors in the task of transporting the Army home.   The Major General in the photograph is wearing a trench coat, an item newly introduced to the world by the British, and regulation riding boots.

 This appears to show a group of sailors in the canteen.

Inspired by Wilson's Fourteen Points, students in Korea presented a declaration of independence to the world demanding that the Japanese end their murky role in Korea.  The Japanese violently put it down.  Due to this event, this day is regarded as Korean Independence Day, although the goal, a free, united, Korea has never been obtained.

The Army was just entering the breeding of horses at this time, reflecting concern over the decline in the quality and number of remounts in the civilian market.  A Remount breeding program in fact got started near Sheridan (which is near Buffalo) after World War One, but it bread riding mounts, not draft mounts, in so far as I'm aware.

February 26, 1919. Grand Canyon and Acadia National Parks established, Soldiers and Sailors Club finds home in Casper, Mexican Federal Troops take positions up in Juarez, Dry Frontier Days

On this day in 1919, President Wilson passed legislation creating the Grand Canyon and Lafayette National Parks.  Lafayette National Park in Maine would be renamed Acadia National Park a decade later.

A Park Service item on the act and parks:

Unlikely SiblingsAcadia National Park, Grand Canyon National Park

Lots of strife was reported on in the Casper paper, but we've added this one to note the formation of the Soldiers and Sailors Club with temporary housing in the Oil Exchange Building.

That building, renamed the Consolidated Royalty Building, is still a prominent downtown Casper office building.  It was a new building at that time, having been built in 1917.

In Cheyenne, Frontier Days was announced to be "Dry" for 1919.

Mexican Federal troops were reported to be taking up positions to guard American interests around Juarez.

And in Cheyenne Carey was signing new legislation as the Wyoming State Tribune was making fun of human nature and the occupation of Germany.

January 14, 1919. Papers, Boards, Decorations and Murders.

Photographer Herbert E. French buying a newspaper, January 14, 1919.

Members of the National War Labor Board, including former President Taft, on the steps of New York's city hall, January 14, 1919.  Note that Basil Maxwell Manly is smoking a cigarette, something that had only barely become acceptable for men to do, and which had become acceptable due to World War One.  A fellow in the background is smoking a cigar.  The fellow looking at Taft is wearing the new sporty Arrow collar and a shiny new fedora.

U.S. Generals, including some notable ones (Mitchell, Summerill), after receiving the French Legion of Merit).

Estonian Bishop Platon who was murdered by Russian Bolsheviks on this day in 1919.  The Estonian Bishop was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in exile, along with two fellow priests who lost their lives due to communist barbarism at the same time, and by the Greek Orthodox Church in 2000.  He became the first Estonian Orthodox saint.

January 12, 1919. Laying down the law and up, up and away.

Cpt. Earl Almon, Commander Company M, 16th Infantry, reading the order of the day to the Mayor and Town Crier of the town of Leuterod, Germany.  Note the somewhat stout young lady behind Cpt. Almon with the gigantic stein and three beer glasses.  Almon, also, is wearing private purchase "trench boots".

U.S. Navy C Class blimp before taking off from Rockaway Naval Air Station in New York for Florida.

The blimp's crew.

January 11, 1919. Casper Gets Gas (no. . . really). Women ponder keeping their jobs.

Wyoming Oil World, and industry paper in Wyoming with a circulation of about 18,000, reported that Casper was going to be piped for natural gas.

It's somewhat odd to think of a time that Casper didn't have natural gas.  When I was a kid, natural gas in Casper was so cheap that the gas company would install gas yard lamps for free.  One of our neighbors had one.  Because of the way it worked, it burned night and day in their backyard, an odd thing to think of now, although gas flares, of course, aren't exactly a thing of the past in the oil patch.

Powder River Basin gas flare.

Elsewhere airmen who would later climb to higher heights of fame were now on occupation duty in Germany, including the legendary Billy Mitchell, and Lewis H. Brereton who would have air and ground commands during World War Two.

A group of serious looking American airmen; Brigadier General William Mitchell, chief of Air Service, his staff. From left to right: French Capt. R. Vallois, Ltc. Lewis Hyde Brereton (1890-1967, who rose to senior command in World War Two), Brigadier General William Mitchell, Maj. Ira Beaman Joralemon (1884-1975, who became a mining engineer), Capt. O. E. Marrel, First Lieutenant E. F, Schwab.  Dierdorf, Germany, January 11, 1919.

Some Americans were still in France, of course.

90th Division officers Major General Henry Tureman Allen, Cavalry (1859-1930).  He'd been commissioned after graduating from West Point in 1882 and was a veteran of the Spanish American War, the Philippine Insurrection, and the Punitive Expedition.  His son Captain Henry T. Allen Jr. (1889-1971). The Younger Allen would participate in the 1920 Olympics as an Army equestrian competitor. At the time, all equestrian competitors were Army officers. And Captain Sidney Webster Fish (1885-1950), of the famous New York political family.  Cote d'Or, France, January 11, 1919.

And some women weren't excited about giving up their wartime jobs.

And of course, there were always donuts.

The Freistaat Flaschenhals

Currency of the Bottleneck Free State.

The Freistaat Flaschenhals, or the Bottleneck Free State, came into existence on this date in 1919 on territory that was within the German borders but outside of the jurisdiction of the Weimar Republic or any of the occupying Allied forces. 

The unofficial German microstate fit between the French and American bridgeheads and formed due to the necessity of their being some government in the region that was home to 17,000 Germans.  Due to economic and travel restrictions, it was cut off economically from Germany as well and all goods had to be smuggled into it.

Given the absolutely chaotic nature of post war Germany, the microstate, which would normally have never have planned for any sort of real status, aspired to one and planned on having relations with "foreign" powers including Germany, thus preserving its national status.  It's status as an independant entity came to an end with the French occupation of the Ruhr on February 23, 1923.

January 8, 1919. Officers of the Rainbow Division in Germany.

Senior officers of the Rainbow division sitting for a portrait on this day in 1919.  Or at least this the claimed date (the vegetation makes me wonder).  Berlin was aflame on this date, but they do not appear to be demonstratively concerned, on occupation duty in the Rhineland.

New Years Day, 1919

Leyendecker portrayed the New Year letting the dove of peace out of its cage, which was appropriate if not universally true following the end of World War One in Europe.

It was January, 1919.

The dawn of the year following the Great War. . . not that peace reigned everywhere by any means.

117th Field Signal Battalion perssonel (1st Bn, Signal Corps, Missouri National Guard) Bachem, Germany.  January 1, 1919.

A large number of those Americans woke up in Germany that day, in uniformed service.  1919 would see the draw down, but not the end, of occupation duties in Germany for the U.S. Army.

Dinner at Chateau Villegenis, the home of Mrs. Corey New Years Day, 1919.  Mrs. Corey loaned the home to the American Red Cross as a convalescent home for Army Officers. It was officially known as "Officers Convalescent Home #8."

Quite a few were in France.

Red Cross canteen in France, New Years Day 1919.

Some with the Red Cross spent the day visiting villagers returning to their wrecked villages in France.

Some were hoping to return home, but were finding that journey perilous.

Rescuing the stranded from the S. S. Northern Pacific, which ran aground off of Fire Island, Long Island, New York.  January 1, 1919.

For some, that journey would never complete that day.

The Admiralty yauch HMS Iolaire which wrecked off the Outer Hebrides on New Years Day while returning sailors to their homes with the loss of over 200 lives.

The Wyoming State Tribune offered a helpful tip for writing the date of the new year correctly.

The Cheyenne paper was reporting that Chancellor Ebert favored a republic of new men.  While that was in fact Ebert's desire, he was facing a Communist revolution that was on the verge of taking over in Berlin.  The Cheyenne paper was hoping that the pen was mightier than the sword at the same time, which Ebert likely was at that point too, but which he'd have to reconsider shortly.

And in case you wondered, a team of Marines played a team of Sailors that year in the Rose Bowl.