1916: Guns On The Border

1916: Guns On The Border: A century ago, Mexican bandits were a clear and present danger to the citizens of the United States, and the 'Punitive Expedition' proved to be an important test of arms.

Mexican Raid on Brite's Ranch, Texas. December 25-26, 1917.

On this day in 1917 Mexican raiders attacked Brite's Ranch in Texas. This resulted in a two day running fight that ultimately involved the U.S. Army's 8th Cavalry, including motorized elements of the same.

 Brite's Ranch in 1918, including small fort built on the location by the Texas Rangers for defensive purposes.

The Mexican forces responsible for the raid were never clearly identified.  Villistas were logically suspected for the raid at first, and may well have been responsible. However, Carrazaistas came to also be suspected to have been involved. Whether or not they were has never been determined. At the same time it cannot helped but be noted that the border had become lawless and the raids that came out of Mexico in this time period did not necessarily have any political motive and some of them were simply armed criminal expeditions.  Some had mixed purposes.

The raid started at about dawn when a party of about 45 or so Mexican raiders rode into Brite's Ranch, which was not only a ranch headquarters but a small town as well.  Only one man, Sam Neill, the son of the ranch manager, was awake at the time but realizing what was happening he armed himself and engaged the raiders. This soon awakened others there and the fight expanded and went on for some time until the Mexican raiders captured two Mexican ranch hands and bargained for their lives for entry in to the general store, which was then granted to them.  As they were robbing the store, a postal carrier with two Mexican passengers arrived and all three of them were killed by the Mexican raiders, bringing the total deaths in the raid to four.

The Neill's were hosting a Christmas party that night and as a result as the hour for the party arrived guests began to arrive and this resulted in the resisting party being expanded and the alarm being spread.  The message was carried to Lucas Brite in Marfa by telephone and then to the 8th Cavalry and the local sheriff, who formed a joint posse and cavalry detachment that then drove the raiders back into Mexico.

The following day men of the 8th Cavalry, who had arrived at Brite's Range by automobile, borrowed horses from the ranch and launched a punitive raid into Mexico, hoping to catch the responsible parties.  They met with additional cavalrymen near the Rio Grande and a detachment of about 200 troopers entered Mexico. The cavalrymen caught up up with the raiders and engaged them near Pilares, killing about 29 of them and recovering some of the stolen property.

This story would not end here, unfortunately, as the events that were unleashed by the raid on Brite's Ranch inflamed feelings on the border and would lead to tragedy, as we will see in a later entry on our real time exploration of the Punitive Expedition and the events that preceded and followed it.

So, while all eyes were on France, things were getting tense again on the Mexican border.

 The Brite's Raid made the cover of the Casper Record in a not very Christmasy issue, along with something that would actually happen the next day rather than on Christmas Day.  Hooverize?

December 22, 1917: The United States Guards Authorized

Red Cross repsentatives marching with members of the New York State Guard in 1918. This is, of course, the State Guard, not the United States Guards. 

Showing a distinctly different approach to things than would be taken during the Second World War, something that will continue to be the case as we read more about Woodrow Wilson's approach to Federalism during World War One, the United States Guards were authorized on this day in 1917. They were part of the National Army, i.e. that part of the Army raised from civilians for the war, as opposed to those parts made up of the combined National Guard and Regular Army.  While they were part of the National Army, they were under the authority of the Militia Bureau (today's National Guard Bureau).  Of interest, at the same time the Federal Government was encouraging states to raise units of State Guards.

Some explanation of what these various units are or were is necessary to make much sense out of this story, of course.

The National Guard is well known to Americans, of course, and the nature of the National Guard would be evident to anyone who has been reading this blog over the past two years, as various National Guard units were called up and deployed to the Mexican border to be followed by the mass call up, and then mass conscription for odd legal reasons, of the National Guard in 1917.  As has also been seen, and a much different practice from what would occur in later years, states actively recruited for National Guardsmen right up until they were formally inducted into the U.S. Army and even proposed new National Guard units, much like they had done with the formation of state units during the Civil War.

Much different from the Civil War or even the Spanish American War, however, changes to the structure of the American military establishment following the Spanish American War had formalized its status as a reserve of the Army and caused the Militia Bureau to come about to deal with that.  The regularization of the National Guard as the state militia country wide created, in all states and in some territories the creation of those units to fill both a local militia role and to be the reserve of the Army in time of war.  In a few states this was controversial and they ended up accordingly splitting their state establishments between the National Guard and a State Guard, with the liability of the State Guard in times of war being fairly unclear.  The latter would seem to have been so liable as long as the fighting was to occur within the boundaries of the United States.  Rhode Island provides us one such example, Maryland another.  Most states did no such thing, however.

When the US entered the Great War in 1917 the National Guard, lately back from the Mexican border, was first called up and then conscripted in mass.  Indeed, it was expanded and therefore the result was that the states now lacked, for the most part, men for local militia service, should it be needed. That was one perceived problem.

A second was that, in spite of how we recall it today, the U.S. entry into World War One, while largely popular, was not entirely popular everywhere.  We've already had the example of a revolt against conscription and perhaps the war in general in Oklahoma.  To compound that, the teens were at the height of the radicalization of the American labor movement and labor was much less willing to go along with the Federal government as part of the war effort than it would be in later years.  Those who have read the newspaper entries here have seen the ones about trouble in the vital coal and rail industries, two industries that literally had the ability to completely cripple the nation.  Beyond that, the Administration of this era was highly intolerant to radical dissent and tended to see the events in Russia as if reflected in a distant mirror in the United States.

Given all of that, the Federal Government perceived there being a need for internal security forces at a national level.  To take up that role, it formed 48 regiments of United States Guards.  By the end of 1918, 1,364 officers and 26,796 men were serving in the United States Guards, stationed in the continental United States and the Territory of Alaska. 

These men were taken from the many men found unfit for service in the National Army, something which the readers of the newspapers here would also have noted, although the regulations provided that such departures from physical standards had to be "minor".  While physical standards for service were far less strict than they are now, frankly American health wasn't what the covers of The Saturday Evening Post and Leslie's might suggest.  Plenty of men were too old, infirm or in ill health so as to go to France with the National Army.  18,000 of the men who served in the United States Guards fit the category of men with a "minor" physical defect who had been conscripted but, because of their condition, could not go oversees. They were volunteers from the National Army into the United States Guards.  The balance were men whose condition precluded them from being drafted in the first instance, or who were above conscription age as the United States Guards would take able men who were above the service age.  After August 1918, when the Selective Service operated to process all incoming servicemen, a crack in the door that had existed for overage men to attempt to volunteer for the National Army was closed but they could still volunteer for the United States Guards. Some of them ended up in the 48 regiments of United States Guards maintained to keep the wolf at bay in the US itself.

 Enormous panoramic photograph of Michigan state troops, June 1917.  I've never been certain if these cavalrymen are National Guardsmen or State Guardsmen. If they're National Guardsmen, they're irregularly equipped in that they're carrying riot batons and lever action rifles, both of which would be extremely odd for National Guardsmen of this period even taking into account that prior to the Punitive Expedition some units were still privately equipped to some degree. This suggests state equipage, which was common for State Guards.

They didn't do it alone.  The various states had to form State Guard units as, even though its rare, State Governors lacked an armed force for internal security in the event of riots or disasters.  Substitute militia units were authorized and formed in every state, drawing from the same pool, to some extent, as the United States Guards, but with less connection to the formal National Army.  They were also less regularly equipped as well, relying on old or irregular weapons.   

For the most part, these units saw no action of any substantial type at all, but there is one notable exception, the Texas State Guard, which remained constantly deployed on real active service on the Mexican border, augmenting the United States Army which carried on in that role all throughout the war.  The United States Guards did provide security in Alaska, wild and far duty at that time (the initial unit was made up of men from a waterways unit), and in controlling IWW strikes in Arizona in 1918 and 1919. They also were used to suppress a race riot in North Carolina in 1918.

After the war, the United States Guards were disbanded, with that formally coming in 1920 but with actual demobilization starting on November 11, 1918 and continuing on into 1919.  The states largely disbanded the State Guard units, but a few retained them, with states that had such units before the war being in the forefront of that.  During World War Two State Guard units were again reestablished everywhere, after the National Guard was federalized in 1940, although this did not have happy results everywhere.  No effort was made to re-create the United States Guards and no need to do that was seen.  Today, some states still retain State Guard units that augment their National Guard establishments, but most do not.

Photographs, we'd note, of the United States Guards are exceedingly difficult to find, and therefore we've posted none.  They were issued obsolete U.S. arms, like the Krag rifle, or non standard arms, like rejected Russian Mosin Nagants.  While not equipped with the latest weapons going to France, these arms were more than adequate for the role the units performed.  Uniforms were initially going to be made up of blue dress uniforms of a late pattern, which did not vary greatly from field uniforms of the late 19th Century, but this was soon rejected on the basis that it deterred enlistment on the part of the men who did not want to be identified with rejected uniforms for rejected service.

Their service is obscure, but like that provided by State Guardsmen on the Mexican boarder during the war, it was real service.  It started on this day in 1917.

November 16, 1917: All the Distressing News. US Back in Mexico, in Combat in Europe, flag shaming in Lander, and Temptation in Philadelphia

The Laramie Boomerang correctly noted that the United States had crossed back into Mexico, but just right across the border.  This was something that the US would end up doing in a worried fashion for years, showing that while the Punitive Expedition might be over, armed intervention, to a degree, in Mexico, was not.

At the same time, the press was really overemphasizing US combat action in Europe. The US wouldn't really be fighting much for weeks and weeks.

And the on again, off again, hope that the Japanese would commit to ground action was back on again.

Meanwhile, in Lander, things were getting really ugly.  "German sympathizers" were being made to kiss the flag.

That probably didn't boost their loyalty any.

Villas expanding plans were also being noted. And, also, The Temptation Rag, a film, was being reported on, on the front page, something that takes a true scandal to occur now.

The Wyoming National Guard had gone to the Mexican boarder as infantry. . .

and they'd been mobilized in 1917 as such as well.

But they wouldn't be going to France as infantry.

Today the news hit that the unit was being disbanded and reformed into artillery, machinegun, and ammunition train units.

I'm  not sure what happened to the machinegun and ammunition train elements, or if those actually happened. They likely did.  I do know, however, that the artillery unit was in fact formed and is strongly associated with the Wyoming Guard during the Great War. 

This was not uncommon.  As the Army grew, the Army would be taking a lot of smaller units such as this and reconstituting them as something else. Both Regular Army and Guard units experienced this.

It's hard to know what the men thought of this.  A lot, but not all, had served and trained as infantry just the prior year along the border.  Did they have a strong attachment to it?  Hard to know.  Were some relieved, perhaps, that their role, in some instances, wouldn't involve serving as infantrymen in the trenches?  We don't know that either.

Changing times. The centennial of the 94th Aero Squadron. August 20, 1917-2017.

Pilots of the 94th, including 1LT Reed Chambers, Capt James Meissner, 1LT Eddie Rickenbacker, 1LT T C Taylor and 1LT J H Eastman, in France with a Spad XVIII.

While this blog, now that the Punitive Expedition has concluded, no longer does that many daily anniversaries (save for photographs) here's one worth noting.

On this date, in 1917, the 94th Aero Squadron, the Hat In The Ring Squadron, was formed at Kelly Airfield in San Antonio, Texas.  The squadron, now the 94th Fighter Squadron, is the second oldest formation in the United States Air Force.   The unit chose a red, white and blue top hat going through a ring as its symbol, signifying the Uncle Sam throwing his "hat in the ring" of World War One. That is, the unit symbol commemorated the United States' decision to enter the war.

The way it was at first, Curtis Jennys being used in training at Kelly Air Field.

The unit being formed might not seem particularly remarkable, but the U.S. Army. . . and all aircraft were in the Army at the time (prior to the war they were in the Signal Corps and the official establishment of a separate Air Force was decades and one major war away) had only had one single squadron, all equipped with the already obsolescent JN4, just months prior to that. As we've seen on this site before, that unit, the 1st Aero Squadron, would cut its teeth and prove its worth in Punitive Expedition of 1916, at which those Jennys constantly operated at the upper limit of their service ceiling, showing just how inadequate they really were.  Now, the Army was rapidly expanding its air arm.

The 94th in fact would make the crossing to France in October and November.  In France training continued and the unit was equipped with Nieuport 28s.  

Eddie Rickenbacker, a pre war automobile racer, with a Nieuport 28. Rickenbacker transferred into the unit in France.  He actually got into the unit by making a deal with a commanding officer for whom he was a driver, concerning an on the spot emergency repair of an automobile.

It would first see action on April 14, 1918.  It would go on from there to have a famous combat record and, of course, served to give the US some of its first pilot heroes.  While in France it would under go a degree of consolidation with the 103th Aero Squadron, although that unit would remain a a separate unit throughout the war.

Pilots of the 94th, November, 1918.

The unit continued to serve in post war Europe up until the spring of 1919, and then was returned to the United States and demobilized in June 1919 but the unit shortly continued on as a regular Army aviation unit, changing its designation to the 94th Pursuit Squadron in July 1923.  At that time, the 103d was folded into it so that the ongoing 94th would retain both units' lineages.  The unit received constant aircraft upgrades prior to World War Two, which was a feature of all air forces at the time as aviation was progressing at a blistering pace.  Prior to World War Two the unit was equipped with P-38 Lightnings.

 German aircraft shot down by Capt. E. Rickenbackerand Lt. Reed Chambers, 94th Aero Squadron, Oct. 2. 1918.

As with all other fighter squadrons in the United States Army Air Corps, the unit was re designated as a fighter squadron in 1942, during which time it served in North Africa and then later in the Mediterranean and Southern Europe, flying out of Italy.  The unit was one of the very first to receive what would become P80s, actually receiving the jets in April, 1945, and flying two missions (without encountering German aircraft) with them prior to the war's end.

It continues on in its existence to this very day, making it one of the oldest formations in the United States Air Force.  It's currently equipped with F22 Raptors.

F22s of the 94th Fighter Squadron.

Today In Wyoming's History: August 8. The ongoing mystery of Pvt Dilley.

Today In Wyoming's History: August 8:

From Today In Wyoming's History for this day in 1916:

1916   The Cheyenne State Leader for August 8, 1916. The mysterious disappearance of Private Dilley 

Guardsman Pvt. Dilley mysteriously disappeared.

And he still was missing a year later.

Indeed, as we earlier noted, he never reappeared and it was widely presumed that he'd deserted.

I wonder what he was doing, assuming that to be the case, a year later.  Men his age had been required to register for the draft. "Shirkers" were being arrested.  It's hard to believe that he'd still be able to avoid service.

Did he enlist under an assumed name a year later?  Did he register but something kept him from serving? Did whatever it was about the Punitive Expedition that deterred him now seem small?

Today In Wyoming's History: August 5, 1917. National Guardsmen Conscripted.

 Mustered Illinois National Guardsmen, August 4, 1917.

From:  Today In Wyoming's History: August 5: 

1917 The entire National Guard, only recently released from duty due to the crisis with Mexico, and then recalled due to the outbreak of World War One, was conscripted into the U.S. Army. The technicality of conscription was necessary due to an Adjutant General's opinion that the National Guard could not serve overseas.

This is an interesting and in some ways curious event.  Unlike mobilizations that would come subsequent to World War One, how exactly to muster the National Guard into Federal Service wasn't entirely clear.  You would think, the Guard having been recently Federalized for border service, that it would have been, but it wasn't.

The real oddity that developed concerned the deployment of Guardsmen overseas.  It had long been presumed that Federalized militia, then being in Federal service, could serve overseas.  Indeed, Federalized militia had served overseas before.  The militia mobilized for the Mexican War served in Mexico, and militia Federalized for the Spanish American War, including those units then called "National Guard" units, had served in both Cuba and the Philippines.  Indeed, National Guard units had fought in the Philippine Insurrection, our first foreign war against guerilla insurgents.

In practical terms there was no earthly way that the United States could even contemplate fighting in France in the Great War without the National Guard.  Quite a few Regular Army officers hated the idea and resentment against the Guard dating back to the late 19th Century was pretty strong.  But the Guard made up about half of the body of men who were armed, uniformed, and at least theoretically prepared to fight.  Moreover, mobilization for Punitive Expedition had sharpened their abilities. They had to go.

Unfortunately for the Wilson Administration, the Adjutant General of the United States Army didn't think they could.  His opinion, a really questionable one at that, was that Guardsmen were only liable for duty in the Continental United States.  This was based on his reading of "Militia Clause" of the United States Constitution, which noted that state militia's cold be called out to "execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrection and repel invasions."  The war with Germany was not, he reasoned, any of those, and therefore the National Guard could only serve domestically.  This problem had to be solved, and easily was, by conscripting them all. . .which occurred on this date in 1917.

The Deportation of the Lowell Miners, July 12, 1917

On this day in 1917 up to 1,300 striking miners, members of the IWW, were deported by a deputized mob from what is now Bisbee Arizona to Tres Hermanas in New Mexico.  A committee formed to back the deportation ruled the town for a few months thereafter.  In New Mexico, the Republican Governor pleaded with President Wilson for assistance and received the same.  The refugee miners were then housed in Columbus, New Mexico, lately the location of the famed raid that started off the Punitive Expedition, for a couple of months until their plight could be addressed.  A Federal Commission declared their forced relocation to be "wholly illegal and without authority in law, either State or Federal".

What a year and a half for Columbus. Small  border town, site of a major raid, giant Army camp, and now a refugee center in one of the worst labor abuses in American history.

And just when you thought border troubles with Mexico were off the front page. . .

replaced by war news from France (and today Greece). . .

It was back. 

In the form of a cross border raid by "Mexican bandit" who attached a patrol of the 8th U.S. Cavalry.

Of course the rest of the news had a focus on the war in Europe, to be sure. 

General Pershing, 100 Years Ago Today, June 13, 1917.

Quite a change from where he'd been just a few months ago.

That horse on the license plate, everyone knows its Steamboat. Right?

 This spectacular depiction of a rodeo horse at the University of Wyoming does in fact depict Steamboat.  And it might also depict what lead to the first athletic symbol for UW and the therefore also the license plate symbol. . . . maybe.

Well, everyone knows that.

But is it?

 A photograph of the last model of Wyoming's license plate. This plate is being replaced by a new one, but that one will also feature Steamboat.

Not so fast there, buckaroo.

Let's start off by admitting that Steamboat was one heck of a rodeo horse. There's no doubt about it. Steamboat was great.  So great that I'd post a photograph of the real Steamboat but all the existing on line photos of the horse are closely guarded by copyright claims, so I won't.  But he was fine roughstock, to be sure.

But he wasn't the first horse to be used as a symbol for Wyoming.  And not even the first bucking horse.

That horse would be Red Wing.  And here's where the tale grows complicated.

Red Wing was a privately owned horse that hailed from Montana but was brought into military service by Sgt. George N. Ostrom of the Wyoming National Guard.  Ostrom, who was a bugler with the Wyoming National Guard and who had already seen service in the "border war", purchased the horse on the Crow Reservation in southern Montana, although its unclear to me if he purchased it privately or if he purchased it with the intent of it being accepted as a Remount.  I suspect he did the latter as he worked with Army Horse Purchasing Officer Chester Cotton of the Army's Remount station in Sheridan Wyoming to take the horse into Army service.  The accounts I've seen (and their may be others) are quite unclear on this, but that's likely because the authors aren't hugely familiar with the Remount system of the day.  Chances are high that Guardsman Sgt. Ostrom was detailed to acquire horses for Remounts for the Wyoming National Guard, or perhaps more specifically the 3rd Regiment Wyoming National Guard. Even though the unit was an infantry unit at the time (it would become part of the 148th Field Artillery Regiment that September) it would have required a fair number of horses as even infantry units of that era had a substantial number of Remounts.

 

Ostrom was a talented illustrator.  He drew this depiction of a New Mexican town while stationed in Deming, New Mexico, with the Wyoming National Guard.

Sgt Ostrom worked with Cotton (who may or may not have been a Guardsmen as well) to take Red Wing into service, which isn't really all that remarkable as a large number of horses were being purchased at the time and a lot of them were fairly rank.  The horse was then shipped at some point to Ft. D. A. Russell and then chosen by Major Louabaugh of the Wyoming National Guard as his personal mount.  Maj. Louabaugh had the bad misfortune, however, of being mounted on Red Wing when the horse encountered two bears brought into the unit as mascots (an oddly common thing at the time), the bears having been brought out on the parade ground.  As horses do not approve of bears, Red Wing blew up with Maj. Loubaugh mounted on him.  Apparently Cotton went with the horses to Ft. Russell as at that point Ostrom and Cotton were given the task of finishing the horse.  The horse must have retained some fairly rank qualities at the time as it bucked with Cotton fairly spectacularly during this process.

Red Wing survived the First World War and made it all the way over to France to serve with the 148th.  He didn't come back, however, as he was retired to a stable in France.  Horses being what they are, it's unlikely he appreciated the equine odyssey that he experienced, nor is it likely that he was ever aware that his fame would decline in comparison with Steamboat, who pretty much stayed in Wyoming.

At any rate, when the Army began to approve of the policy of units adopting unit symbols, the memory of Cotton on Red Wing was fresh and Ostrom designed a symbol featuring the two of them for submission to a contest for such a symbol for the unit.  It won.

The unit insignia, as displayed at the Wyoming Veterans Museum in Casper.

The story of unit patches in the Great War has become a little skewed, unfortunately, and is confusing in any event.  It would not have been the case, I should note, that this symbol ended up getting sewn on every Wyoming doughboys shoulder.

 I sometimes manage to really screw up a photograph, such as this one.  I didn't have this one anywhere close to being properly aligned. Anyhow,t he top image is what was adopted as the shoulder insignia, although these really wouldn't have been added until after World War One. the bottom one is the image that was painted on vehicles and equipment. . . . or maybe not, note that this Wyoming "artifact", a US M1917 helmet has the equipment insignia painted on it:  M1917 Helmet.

In fact, for the most part, unit insignia didn't get widely used until just after the shooting stopped.  But at that point it went on to a pile of things, and it was already on a lot of equipment by the war's end.  Because standardization was in a state of flux at the time, not every application was as uniform as the item above would suggest, but that it went on to a lot of things cannot be doubted.

 

Very nice example of National Guard collar insignia, which we'll throw in for the sake of completeness, from this period in the upper left, and a subdued chevron on the right.  Subdued chevrons would be a feature of the uniform all the way into the early Vietnam War but rank structure for enlisted men constantly changed.  This insignia hearkens back to the 19th Century with its bugler specialty device and would pass into history before World War Two.

So, the troops came home and it ended up on license plats, making Steamboat just a horsey fraud, right?

Well no.

Steamboat was a legendary rodeo horse, as already noted, prior to World War One.  He's remembered in a charming fashion now, but he was flat out rank.  One story is that he got his name to the vapor coming from his snorting nostrils, something that anyone who has been around a really hot, and I mean agitated, horse on a cold day has seen.

Steamboat entered the rodeo circuit early in the 20th Century and was widely photographed.  Given that, when the University of Wyoming went to adopt a symbol for its athletic program, photos of the rank bronc were easy to find.  It seems to be the case that UW athletic equipment manager Deane Hunton, used a photo of Guy Holt, maybe, riding him when he went to adapt a symbol for athletic uniforms in the 1920, although the identify of the rider is disputed, and some claim the rider is a composite of the many riders photographed attempting to ride Steamboat.

A display at Wyoming State History Day featuring a University of Wyoming football helmet, which prominently features Steamboat.

In 1936 Wyoming put the symbol on its license plates, which sparked a controversy that was hot at the time and is still lukewarm now.  Veterans of the Wyoming National Guard from World War One felt their symbol had been stolen. UW hotly denied that it had appropriated Red Wing and defended the symbol as Steamboat.  For that matter, a World War One pilot who had painted a very similar symbol on his fighter plane during the Great War maintained that  the symbol was really his.

In the end, however, it seems clear that the horse on everything Wyoming, except military stuff, somewhat, is Steamboat. The rider?  Who knows.  Not that Red Wing has been completely forgotten.  He seems to have probably been the horse that lived on symbolically to re-adorn Wyoming Army National Guard equipment during the Korean War, or maybe not.

Steamboat?  Probably Red Wing.  Or maybe not.

On the other hand, the Wyoming Army National Guard, right about the same time, went to a different horse and rider symbol, recalling a different lineage, that of the 3d U.S. Volunteer Cavalry during the Spanish American War.  The blue and yellow patch symbolized a cavalry heritage that the Wyoming Army National Guard had after World War One through the early 1950s (loosing its horses in 1943 or so), but which it could legitimately track back to the volunteer cavalrymen of the Spanish American War.

That symbol, however, has yielded to a degree to a new one for most Wyoming Army National Guardsmen.  Steamboat again?  Almost certainly.

 Symbols of the state.  The buffalo inside our state flag surrounding its image that's in the state flag, and the state flag superimposed on Steamboat.

And indeed, Steamboat was always a unique image and has become totally ascendant.  Its the state's most recognizable symbol, only rivaled, and not effectively, by the buffalo that appears in the center of the state's flag and, oddly, by "307", the state's area code that strangely adorns all sort of stickers now.

Red Wing or Steamboat, or none of the above.  The symbol adopted by Pendleton whisky, maybe the last somewhat clear example of a bucking horse symbol that isn't Steamboat, but then its not from Wyoming.

John J. Pershing informed he is to lead American troops in France.

I've backed off nearly daily entries from 1917 here, now that we no longer have the Punitive Expedition to follow, and returned more of the traditional pace and focus of the blog, but there are exceptions and today is one.

On this day, in 1917, John J. Pershing, recently promoted to Major General, was informed by Secretary of War Newton Baker that he was to lead the American expeditionary force in France.

This now seems all rather anticlimactic, as if the appointment of Pershing was inevitable, and perhaps it was, but he was not the only possible choice and his selection involved some drama, to some extent.  Pershing was then 56 years old, an age that would have put him in the upper age bracket for a senior office during World War Two, but not at this time in the context of World War One.  Indeed, his rise to Major General had been somewhat unusual in its history and course, as he had earlier been advanced over more senior officers in an era when that was rare, and it is often noted that his marriage to Helen Warren, the daughter of powerful Wyoming Senator Francis E. Warren, certainly did not hurt his career.  Often regarded as having reached the pinnacle of his Army career due to "leading" the Army during the Punitive Expedition, he was in fact technically second in command during that event as the commander of the department he was in was Frederick Funston.

Funston is already familiar to readers here as we covered his death back in  February.  Not really in the best of health in his later years, but still a good five years younger than Pershing, Funston died suddenly only shortly after the Punitive Expedition concluded leaving Pershing his logical successor and the only Army officer then in the public eye to that extent.  Indeed, as the United States was progressing towards entering the war it was Funston, a hero of the Spanish American War, who was being considered by the Wilson Administration as the likely leader of a US contingent to Europe.  His sudden death meant that his junior, Pershing, took pride of place.

But not without some rivals.  Principal among them was Gen. Leonard Wood, a hero of the later stages of the Indian Wars and the Spanish American War who was a protégée of Theodore Roosevelt.  Almost the exact same age as Pershing, Wood was backed by Republicans in Congress for the position of commander of the AEF.  Not too surprisingly, however, given his close association with Roosevelt, he was not offered the command.  Indeed, it was this same week when it became plain that Roosevelt was also not to receive a combat command in the Army, or any role in the Army, for the Great War, to his immense disappointment.

Pershing went on, of course, to command the AEF and to even rise in rank to the second highest, behind only George Washington, rank in the U.S. Army.  That alone shows that he was an enormous hero in his era. He lived through World War Two and in fact was frequently visited by generals of that war, many of them having a close military association with him from World War One.  His personality dramatically impacted the Army during the Great War, so much so that it was sometimes commented upon to the effect that American troops were all carbon copies of Pershing.  Still highly regarded by most (although some have questioned in recent years his view of his black troops) he is far from the household name he once was for the simple reason that World War Two has overshadowed everything associated with World War One.

The Cheyenne State Leader for March 30, 1917: Guardsmen mobilzing at Ft. D. A. Russell.

Ft. D. A. Russell was being used for Guard mobilization this time.  It hadn't been a year prior for the Punitive Expedition.

The Douglas Budget for March 15, 1917: Douglas soldiers return home.

Douglas Guardsmen were returning just as Douglas JrROTC cadets were getting ready for their annual show.

The Douglas paper may not have been a daily, as the troops had actually returned that prior Saturday.

The Laramie Boomerang for March 14, 1917: Laramie welcomes home its Guardsmen

Laramie's Guardsmen returned to an enthusiastic welcome. . . and speeches.

The Douglas Enterprise for March 13, 1917: Company F makes it home.

Douglas' Company F arrived home the prior Saturday and the news was reported that Tuesday.  If they were home, chances are that all the men from central Wyoming had likewise returned.

In other news high school baseball teams were already playing each other, even though it was only March and that's still a winter month in Wyoming.  The high schools in the state today no longer have baseball, which isn't surprising as the weather simply isn't conducive for it.

The World War One oil boom had hit Converse County, as this paper gives evidence of.  Converse County remains a major oil location today.  The oil fields referenced in the paper largely spread out towards Casper, which was having a huge oil boom at the time.

The Laramie Boomerang for March 12, 1917: Laramie Guardsmen to arrive on No. 19.

On Monday March 12, the news came that the Laramie contribution to the Wyoming National Guard had been mustered out of service and taken down to the Union Pacific depot in Cheyenne.

 

Union Pacific Depot in Cheyenne.

The unit was expected in Laramie that evening.

The Cheyenne State Leader for March 11, 1917: Laramie planning welcome for its Guardsmen

Laramie's troops were still delayed in Cheyenne, but Laramie was planning a big welcome for them when they returned.  Otherwise, Ft. D. A. Russell's contingent of Guardsmen were leaving for all points.

The Laramie Boomerang for March 10, 1917: Laramie's troops retained in Cheyenne

The Laramie Boomerang was reporting that Laramie's Guardsmen had been unexpectedly detained in Cheyenne. 

There could be several reasons that this decision came about. For one thing, Laramie's unit was a medical detachment, not too surprisingly as the location of the University of Wyoming in Laramie gave the unit an educated population to draw from.  So perhaps it was kept at Ft. Russell until the other troops had cleared in case medical needs popped up.

Additionally, these troops were only traveling 50 miles, as oppose to the long distances being traveled by other Wyoming troops.  There may not have been available transportation space, in which case retaining the troops going back to Laramie would have made sense.

And finally, as many of these men were students, they didn't have much to go back to.  It was too late in the semester for the many students to return to school, and a lot of them probably were leaving right from Laramie on to their actual homes, or were competing for what little work there was in Laramie.

At any rate, while the rest of the Guardsmen were leaving Cheyenne, they stayed an extra couple of days.