Thursday, August 18, 2016

Today In Wyoming's History: August 18, 1916

Today In Wyoming's History: August 18: 1916   Fire destroyed coal chutes and four freight cars that
belonged to the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company in Douglas.  Attribution:  On This Day.

Douglas has a nice park dedicated to railroad today.

Douglas Wyoming railroad sites
 

These are scenes from Douglas Wyoming, which is the location of a Railroad Interpretive Center.  The old Great Northwestern depot serves as its headquarters, as well as the chamber of commerce's headquarters.











  
 







The last photograph is not at the Railroad interpretive center, but is nearby. This is the former Burlington Northern depot, now a restaurant.







Updated on April 28, 2015, from the original March 31, 2012 publication.  Most of these photos depict things already photographed, but an old railroad building of some kind, now in use for another purpose, also now appears.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Mid Week at Work: Working at the dairy, 1916


 LOC Title:   Edgar Kitchen 13 yrs. old gets $3.25 a week for working for the Bingham Bros. Dairy. Drives dairy wagon from 7 A.M. to noon. Works on farm in afternoon (10 hours a day) seven days a week--half day on Saturday. Thinks he will work steady this year and not go to school. See previous labels in June. Not in Div. 5 or 6. Lives in Bowling Green. Location: Bowling Green [vicinity], Kentucky / Lewis W. Hine.  Published August 18, 1916.




U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Abram I. Elkus leaving New York

U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Abram I. Elkus leaving New York on the ocean liner Oscar II with wife Gertrude Hess Elkus, daughters Ethel J. and Katharine, son James Hess Elkus. The previous ambassador Henry Morgenthau stands with them. August 17, 1916.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Confessions of a Writer of Westerns: Writing the Blogs

Confessions of a Writer of Westerns: Writing the Blogs: Have you ever noticed how bloggers come and go? I started blogging toward the end of the year in 2006, eleven years ago – how time flie...

USS Maine, August 16, 1916


LOC Caption:  Photograph shows civilians on a training cruise on the U.S.S. Maine where they learned to be sailors as part of the Preparedness Movement before the entry of the United States into World War I. The ship left New York harbor in August, 1916. (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2014).  

Note, date on negative.

The Migratory Bird Treaty entered into.

The Migratory Bird Treaty, a major piece of international conservation and a great success, was entered into between the United States and Canada.  The United Kingdom signed for Canada, given its dominion status at the time.

Monday, August 15, 2016

The Punitive Expedition and technology. A 20th Century Expedition. Looking at Horses and Tack. Part 3(a), the Equines


 Remounts, World War One.

We earlier posted this item entitled  The Punitive Expedition and technology. A 20th Century Expedition.This went into some of the new technologies that were making their appearance in the expedition.  So, it might seem now to reuse the same title, or recall the earlier one, as we start to delve into something we really should have before.

The story of the expedition is, of course, tied up with the horse.

 Jumping, 1920, Ft. Meyers Virginia.

Indeed, so much so, we should have covered this a long time ago.  But it's actually such a big story, with so many facets, it's harder to do than it might at first appear.  Indeed, the more you know about horses, the harder it is to actually do.  I suppose a lot of topics work this way.

It is almost impossible to describe the significance of the horse to the military of 1914-1918, even before we consider the Punitive Expedition itself.  Contrary to the widespread popular myth, the horse was very far from obsolete and World War One would not change that.  Perhaps that's why dealing with the horse in the Punitive Expedition is so difficult as it isn't as if military horse use was unique, but it was the rule, and those who look into the topic are well aware of that.  So, what seems perhaps an exceptional swan song, is in fact not.

Indeed, the British author of the multi volume series on the history of the British Cavalry found that he was forced to dedicate several volumes of his work to World War One, far more text than he was required to dedicate to any other British conflict.  Every army in the Great War relied tremendously on horses and not only in the context of horses in draft used for artillery and material transport, but also in terms of cavalry, and even a bit for infantry.  Indeed, it's arguable that the German defeat in 1918 came not because its fighting men were exhausted, although they were, but rather because they'd exhausted their supply of horses.  In March 1918, during their final offensive, they were reduced to trying to use specialized infantry in the cavalry role, and it didn't work.  The British expected the German cavalry to appear at any moment and overrun them, just as the large numbers of retained British cavalry would have done, and ultimately did do, to the Germans. The Germans no longer had them.

German lancer, World War One.  It was men and horses like these that the Germans lacked in March 1918, to their tremendous detriment.

Its hardly surprising, given the context of the situation that the conflict with Mexican irregulars presented that cavalry would be the predominate arm of the U.S. Army in the Punitive Expedition.  The country was open and the enemy, fully mounted, was highly mobile.  Cavalry was the only arm capable of catching the Mexican raiders, and of course ultimately, it didn't.  But it did remarkably well.  Indeed, but for the interference of Mexican Constitutionalist forces, which themselves were also fighting Villa, the U.S. Army might very well have caught Villa, although it would have been frightfully deep in Mexico when that would have occurred.

 Villa's Division del Norte, 1914.

The US sent five cavalry regiments into Mexico, organized into two cavalry brigades.  The cavalry regiments were the 5th, 7th, 10th, 11th and 13th Cavalry.  The 10th Cavalry was an all black regiment in the segregated Army of the day. The Army also sent two infantry regiments organized into a single brigade.  Support artillery and engineering units also went with the infantry and cavalry. The Army's brand new 1st Aero Squadron, the only fully motorized unit in the U.S. Army, was also committed.  Ultimately four infantry regiments would be committed, and two artillery regiments.  The Apache Scouts were also sent.  Horses were used in all of these units except for the 1st Aero Squadron.

 
10th Cavalry in Mexico.

American cavalry in 1916 had entered a new era, as is so often noted, but what is little appreciated is that its mobility was increasing, not decreasing.  The use of trucks for supply, as earlier discussed, liberated the cavalry from its slower logistical tail.  And its combat effectiveness had not decreased at all, and indeed was arguably increasing. Cavalry had always been a scouting arm and at a disadvantage with infantry, but contrary to the common assertion to the contrary, the introduction of automatic weapons had not rendered the battlefield so hostile as to render it ineffective in combat.  Indeed, the British experience in Europe would prove that.automatic weapons had almost no impact on the cavalry in the charge, and indeed charging cavalry remained such a freighting prospect that massed infantry continued to panic in the face of it, supported by machine guns or not.  What did prove to be a problem for cavalry was barbed wire and the shell caused lunar landscape.

 The 5th Cavalry at Las Cruces stopping for a meal.  Note the rolling kitchen.  This troop had ridden 34 miles prior to this stop.

Indeed, this latter situation would prove to be the undoing of Pancho Villa.  Villa, for all his odd peculiarities and strange character traits, was truly a great cavalry commander.  He was, however, more of a mid 19th Century type of cavalrymen and adjusted poorly and slowly to wire and trench. It was wire and trench, in the end, that did him in, as the Mexican Constitutionalist forces began to deploy the same in the same way that the French, Germans, and English were in Europe.  This shows, in spite of our romantic recollections of ti, that the war south of the border was a much more modern war than we care to remember.

And in that war, just as in World War One in the Desert, and on the Eastern Front, and occasionally on the Western Front, cavalry remained a very real factor.  And it was particularly important in the Punitive Expedition which was, after all, a cavalry pursuit in pursuit of cavalry, with our cavalry supported by artillery, infantry, radio, telegraph and aircraft, and the Villistas supported by the native population.  In the end, it was the native population that really made the difference.


The US Cavalry that entered Mexico in 1916 came at a time of significant transition for that arm in the American military.  Nearly everything about the cavalry was in a period of transition, right down to the horses themselves.

Cavalry, and hence cavalry horses, had not been a feature of the Regular Army for as long as people tend to imagine.  Cavalry had existed during the Revolutionary War, but Washington did not favor it and it decreased, rather than increased, as a US combat arm during the Revolution in spite of giving some solid performance during the war.  During the War of 1812 American cavalry was to be found in the mustered state forces, not in the standing Regular Army.  But as the nation pushed west the need for horse soldiers became too significant to ignore and cavalry was reestablished just prior to the Mexican War.  Dragoons, a type of mounted infantry, and Mounted Rifles, true mounted infantry, were  a feature of the American forces during that war, and in some ways they set the pattern for American cavalry, which always tended to be nearly mounted infantry, thereafter.  The dragoons, as a category, yielded to being redesignated as cavalry just prior to the  Civil War, and that war saw the only period of time in which US Cavalry was truly classic cavalry, rather than mounted infantry.

Following the Civil War cavalry entered what might be regarded as its golden age in some ways as it played such an important role in the American West.  That role featured a lot of hard learned lessons and one of those lessons was that the US Cavalry was not ideally mounted for a frontier campaign. During the decades of the Indian Wars the Army came to incorporate more and more "range horses" which were hardly grade ponies raised in the western regions, although the Army also continued to acquire larger grade horse that were purchased by conformation rather than by breed.  This situation continued on throughout the balance of the 19th Century.

As the Indian Wars closed, however, American cavalry officers began to be more and more attracted to the type of hot blooded horse favored by European cavalries.  A debate broke out in the US Army about this, and whether the Army should start to look more towards horses like Thoroughbreds and Arabians rather than the range horses and big American horses that had carried it through the Frontier period. By the early 20th Century this debate had yielded towards a definite trend toward more hot blooded horses although by 1916 this had not yet produced a full scale remount program as it would soon after World War One.

 Jumping demonstration, some time around World War One.

In the years leading up to World War One the U.S. Army still acquired horses largely by conformation, rather than breed, although Morgan brood stock had been donated to the Army for artillery horses and formed a bit of an exception.  The United States was a major horse producing nation and this system worked to provide the horses needed by the cavalry branch of the Army and the National Guard although, even by this time, there were real concerns that the inroads made by automobiles were cutting into a reliable supply of saddle horses.

This concern wasn't just the U.S. Army's.  The British Army, which relied upon imported horses for saddle mounts, also had this same concern.  Indeed, the British determined during the early stages of the war to rely upon the United States more than Canada as it was worried that American horses would become denied to it if the US entered the war, in which case the Canadian horses would still be there.  As it was, British remount agents, and French ones, combed the country looking for mounts and a horse boom ensued.

None of which kept the Army from having sufficient mounts for the Punitive Expedition and for the Guardsmen stationed along the border.  A sufficient supply of big American horses existed such that each cavalryman had a mount.

The situation with officers differed a bit.  It had long been the case that officers were expected to supply themselves with a horse but it was also the case that in the event of a campaign an officer could and usually did check out a public mount. So, officers drew saddle mounts from unit stocks for field usage. On occasion, however, they might use their own mount, or they might bring their own mount with them.  Maj. Frank Tomkins, for example, who served throughout the Punitive Expedition used both a unit mount and his own Arab that he brought with him, switching back and forth between the two with the other used a s pack horse while he was not riding it.

As noted, cavalrymen had but one horse.  If the horse became injured or disabled, or dead, he was afoot until he could be supplied with a replacement, if he could be.  But there were far more horses than just cavalry horses in any military formation.

Horses were also present in infantry formations.

 Company A, 6th Infantry, coming into camp with pack mules including what appears to be pack artillery.  Note mounted men in the rear.

For one thing, officers rode in infantry formations, and not merely for convenience but by necessity.  The same role that Jeeps would play in World War Two was played by the hose right up until that that war.  Officers needed the ability to get quickly from one spot to another and therefore they needed to ride. As late as the start of the US involvement in World War One newly minted officers were required to buy their own tack (more on that below), with many actually opting for French patterns that were similar to the US ones they were required to buy. They were, obviously, required to know how to ride.

The conditions described above would also, of course, apply to an officers staff and to certain personnel whose role was to deliver messages.  As we've already discussed in this series of topics on the Punitive Expedition other means of communications were rather unreliable, as opposed to a man on horseback (and as we'll see, a man on a motorcycle).

 Machine gun troop in Mexico.

Artillery of all types was very dependent on the horse, going down, obviously, to the smallest pieces but also up to very large ones.  Artillery tractors were just coming in, but they were truly tractors.  While the US Army would experiment with, and use, heavy trucks during World War One for heavy guns, artillery remained nearly universally horse drawn for all but the heaviest guns in this era.  Artillery, as we've noted, did go south of the border during the Punitive Expedition, although it seems to have seen little use.

Indeed, artillery is a bit of a remount exception in the US Army in this period, as the Army had acquired a Morgan farm or an interest in one at this time for a supply of remounts. That story is outside the context of this post, but starting in 1905 the Army had a direct supply of Morgans, unlike other types of horses.  Morgans generally fit into a class of horse known at the time as a "chunk".  Today we tend to think of horses being riding horses and draft horses, but that's quite inaccurate. Large draft horses were generally not favored for anything except very heavy draft work.  Chunks, a more versatile smaller, but still stout horse, were favored for most hauling, including hauling artillery.  The supply of chunks was declining in this time period due to the increase of motor vehicles in cities for hauling. The Army's acquisition, therefore, of a direct supply of Morgans was fortuitous, even if it did not supply every artillery horse in the U.S. Army.

 C Battery,  4th Field Artillery, with pack howitzers, in Mexico.

 
Expedition headquarters site of Colona Dublan, 1916.

With cavalry such an important arm in the expedition, and horses in every other kind of combat unit, it probably is obvious, if underappreciated, to what extent horses were vital in transportation, i.e., logistical transportation.

 
Soldier on the back of a horse in draft, New York National Guard mobilized for border duty.


 Army wagons in foreground, Army truck in the background

Some time ago we posted a movie made of Army wagons during the Expedition that more than give a hint at this.  The Expedition saw the introduction of transport trucks, as we've already discussed in an earlier thread, for transport.  But the Army wagon very much remained.  Wagons were present in the Army in large numbers, were capable in rough terrain, and they didn't break down at the rate that trucks did.  None of this is to say that trucks were not revolutionizing logistics, as that would be untrue. They did. But the wagon remained.

In addition to the reliable wagon, thousands of pack mules were deployed south of the border.

The use of mules, we should note, is extremely interesting in that its really the last example of a long running US history of contract mules.  The Army did have its own mule packers, to be sure, in the Quartermaster Corps.  But in addition to Army packers, the Army made use of a lot of civilian packers.  This had been the case throughout the Army's role on the Frontier and the use of civilians in Mexico was a logical extension of that.  Quite a few Army posts in the West had packers who were more or less permanently contracted to the Army at that location, with huge strings of mules, and naturally they went along with the units that they were contracted to.   The Punitive Expedition was the last time this would happen, however.  When the Army deployed to France the following year the packers didn't go, or if they did, they went as soldiers.  It wouldn't be until the war in Afghanistan until the US military would hire civilian packers again, and the use of substantial contractors in a transport role would not reappear until the second Gulf War.

All of which is to say that, while the Punitive Expedition did see the introduction of motorized transport, it remained very much a horse driven affair. But then all of the armies of the period were, and its perhaps only because of its cavalry focus, and the misunderstanding of the role of cavalry in World War One, that perhaps we conceive of it as a unique swan song.   Indeed, if Pershing had his way, a large amount of American cavalry would have been deployed to France during the Great War, but shipping concerns prevented that from occurring.

So much for the horses, next we look at the tack.

For more information, check out the excellent Society of the Military Horse website.  It's the source for information on everything military equine.


Related Posts:

Monday at the Bar: Courthouses of the West: City and County Building, Cheyenne Wyoming

Courthouses of the West: City and County Building, Cheyenne Wyoming:


This is the old City and County Building in Cheyenne Wyoming which, at one time, housed all of the offices of the City of Cheyenne and Laramie County, including the courts.


This building has been partially replaced by the Laramie County Government Complex, which physically adjoins it.


This Federal style Classical Revival building was built completed in 1919.  A better view of the building would be from its front, rather than the sides as depicted, which would show its classic columns, but under the constraints of time when this photograph was taken, that couldn't be done.

8th and 9th Training Regt's, Platsburg, August 1916

8th and 9th Training Regt's, Plattsburg, August 1916, published August 21, 1916

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Some Gave All: Ft. Fred Steele, Carbon County Wyoming

Some Gave All: Ft. Fred Steele, Carbon County Wyoming: In the past, I haven't tended to post fort entries here, but for net related technical reasons, I'm going to, even though these a...

Changing times; the electronic newspaper.

I've been posting a lot of newspapers up here recently. . . from 1916.  Part of my effort to focus on that year and things about it, in the context of the purpose of this blog.

This morning, however, I had a different interaction with our local 125 year old newspaper.  I read the online copy, which is now, an electronic copy that's 100% duplicative of the paper version.

I woke up really early, something I've been plagued with recently, and the hard copy wasn't here yet.  I've noted that the electronic copy looked pretty good. . . well, I stumbled into that as I'd been ignoring the daily emails on it and finally opened one up.  But, well, it's quite well done.  It may actually be, for some odd reason, more readable than the paper version.

That's great, I suppose, but I worry how they'll continue to keep on keeping on in the electronic era.  Good though it is, I wouldn't subscribe to it.  Perhaps others would. But for the paper version, I wouldn't be getting it.  Which I suppose is part of the reason that local papers are in trouble now days.

Cheyenne Sunday Leader, August 13,1916: Deutschland Sunk?, Guard to the border, Wyoming Guard sure it will go.



Lots of sobering news in this Sunday edition of the Leader.  Guard to deploy, French and Russian gains in Europe, and the Deutschland reported potentially sunk. She wasn't and would survive the war.

The weather was going to be partly cloudy with a chance of rain, much like our weather today, a century later.

Sheridan State Enterprise, August 13, 1916. All National Guardsmen to deploy to the border.


All Guardsmen were ordered deployed to the border, and the situation with Mexico appeared to be getting a bit more tense again.

Meanwhile, the Russians and French were reported gaining in the war in Europe, and a front page cartoon worried that Japan was taking US trade while the US focused on war production for Europe.

The Basin Republican for August 13, 2016. "Great Scott Woodrow! I've been Up in the Air Almost Four Years!"


As we'll see with the two following posts, the Basin Republican was one of the local papers that must not have subscribed to a wire service, and therefore published almost all local news.  It did, however, in this election year run an add directed at Woodrow Wilson, captioned "Great Scott Woodrow!  I've been Up in the Air Almost Four Years!"

Friday, August 12, 2016

Lex Anteinternet: Queen Elizabeth II in Canada. Has the Queen been deposed?

Almost from the very moment I posted it, this post has been in our photograph of a young Queen Elizabeth in Canada has been one of the top ten here.


Well now, suddenly, it isn't.

I was always surprised it was so popular (although not anywhere near as surprised as I am about the Niobrara County Courthouse thread, I have no idea why it so popular.  People just like the Queen, I suspect.  I'd often find that "young Queen Elizabeth" was a popular search term that brought people to the site, and I suspect it still will be.  And it could get back in to the top ten, it isn't far off. But it might be soon.  The bottom half of the top ten are mostly recent arrivals, and in the last couple of weeks, and indeed, the last few months, new threads have appeared and shot up into the top ten very rapidly, replacing ones that had been there for months or now even years.  In the bottom half of the top ten, only the post about the Girl Scout's manual remains from the older set of posts.

Queen Elizabeth had been up there since nearly the moment her photograph was first posted.  Indeed, at one time that post was the second most popular post here.  Not that this means a lot.  When it slipped off the top ten it was a little shy of 300 individual views, which isn't that many.  The perpetually popular post on hats has over 1,500, but that's not really that many either.  There are blogs where individual posts no doubt get that many viewers in a single day.  This blog, right now, has a little over 150,000 views for the whole blog, which really isn't that many either.  There are apparently a fair number of email subscribers who get daily posts, which is evident from how quickly some posts get views, but very few of them have registered on the blog as "followers", which you do not need to do in order to get the email updates.  So it's not like we're one of those blogs that gets thousands of views a day.

Recently, however, we've been getting a lot more views than we used to.  It started off when we posted a series of newspaper front pages on the Punitive Expedition or perhaps when we started posting on the Punitive Expedition in general.  Recently we've been getting over 10,000 views per month with some days having really high viewership.  Very recently we posted a few items on the 100 Years Ago Today subreddit, and that explains the items that recently shot up to the current top ten in part.  Not entirely, however, as the one on How The West Was Settled merely referred to another site, but it shot up almost instantly.  Likewise the commentary piece on Playing Games with Names shot up very quickly.  They must have gotten linked in somewhere or circulated on some email chain as there's no other easy way to explain it.

The popularity of a couple of threads is fairly inexplicable in and of itself.  Why the Niobrara County Courthouse thread has been popular forever is beyond me.  No other courthouse thread is, and that same courthouse on our less viewed Courthouse blog sure doesn't receive that much attention.  It's odd.  I suspect that people are looking for the courthouse and hit upon this site, but not the lesser viewed Courthouse blog one. But why just that one?  And Niobrara County is the state's least populated county, so are that many people actually looking for the courthouse?  Well, maybe, if we keep in mind that its only a few hundred views.

One that went out with Queen Elizabeth was the Mid Week At Work photo of workmen working on the furnace of the Shoreham Hotel.  That one also always baffled me.  It was, until recently, just ahead of Queen Elizabeth.  When she briefly popped back up into the top ten she came out ahead of it, of course, but she didn't stay there long.

She popped back in, I'll confess, as I posted a link to that photo on a couple of sites hoping she'd make it back into the top ten.  I like that photo.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

1916 Election and Foreign Policy. C-Span

1916 Election and Foreign Policy.

The New York Times (via Reddit's 100 Years Ago Today) reports Army's Apache Scouts restless

The NYT was reporting on this day that the U.S. Army's Apache Scouts, were restless in camp due to inactivity and were accordingly placed in a separate camp due to the same. 

This news would seem to suggest that the pursuit of Villa had, indeed, grown cold, which of course would reflect the changed nature of the mission in Mexico following Constitutionalist resistance.

Walther H. Page arrives from the UK in New York August 11, 1916.

American Ambassador to Great Britain Walter H. Page upon his arrival in New York City aboard the S.S. Philadelphia on August 11, 1916.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

WHEELS THAT WON THE WEST®: The World of Wagons, 100 Years Ago

WHEELS THAT WON THE WEST®: The World of Wagons, 100 Years Ago: Understanding the ins-and-outs of America’s first transportation industry requires a great deal of research.  It’s one of the reasons I spe...

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: Cognitive Disconnect on the left and right. Mark Shea and Moral Delusion. Father Longnecker weighs in.

I posted this item recently asserting that Mark Shea, who publishes as a Catholic commentator, doesn't seem to be on solid ground as a Catholic writer in his burn the boats and vote for Clinton, on moral grounds, argument for swing state voters:

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: Cognitive Disconnect on the left and right. Mark Shea and Moral Delusion.:  

 
 AGH photo, Jefferson Memorial.
I'm going to make my recent analysis on political discourse a bit sharper.  In doing so, I&#39...

Well, now I find that I'm not the only one who found his logic shaky, or at least logic of that type shaky.   Without naming Shea, and perhaps without even being aware of his argument specifically, Catholic writer and Priest Father Dwight Longnecker, in two separate entries, examines both Trump and Clinton, and finds the logic of both Shea, and yours truly, wanting.

The first article addressed Clinton, and asked:
The question is very simple.
Can a faithful Catholic vote for Hillary Clinton?
Father Longnecker runs through the logic and arguments and at the end comes to this conclusion, based on the Democratic platform on terminating the lives of the unborn at the mother's option, and noting in addition that Clinton's support of that is a "litmus test" for her, and her support additionally goes far beyond what even most Americans who support her position to a lesser extreme suport:
Can a faithful Catholic vote Democrat in the coming election?
The answer is no.
There's more to it than that, and his logic is well set out.

He's also, however, addressed Trump, starting off:
After writing an opinion piece about Catholics voting for Hillary Clinton, someone asked me to write a similar article about Donald Trump.
Can a Catholic vote for Donald Trump?
He goes on, after looking at Trump's moral character, to conclude the following:
So the question remains, can a Catholic vote for Donald Trump?
Because of his serious character faults, his lack of experience, his ignorance on the issues and his bullying personality I would answer “No.”
However, it is my own opinion that a Catholic just might, holding his nose and with great reservations, vote for the Republican Party platform and hope for the best.
But I realize others would say (with good reason) they are going to hold their nose and vote Democrat and hope for the best.
The dismal news is that whatever happens (barring some extraordinary intervention) we are in for at least four years of a v. unpopular and dangerous President of the US.
I don't think his second conclusion wipes out his first, but for modern American voters who are members of the Apostolic churches, this election is a grim one, if they take their Faith seriously.  Maybe that's true for a lot of American voters in general this go around.

Doris Stevens, Congressional Union, August 10, 1916.

Doris Stevens of the Congressional Union on her way to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to attend the national conference of the Woman's Party, August 10-12, 1916, published on August 10, 1916, by the Detroit Free Press.  The Congressional Union would merge with the Woman's Party the following year.

The local weather, August 10, 1916

Because its in keeping with the focus of this blog, and because I just realized another way to find it.

Lander, WY 

High of 69.1°F and low of 28.9°F.

Cheyenne, WY
High of 73°F and low of 51.1°F.

Sheridan, WY
High of 75°F and low of 48°F.

Nice temperatures during the day,and in Lander and Sheridan, cool temperatures at night.

The Cheyenne State Leader for August 10, 1916. One battalion to be ordered to the border.


One battalion of the Wyoming National Guard looked to be deployed.  The Guard was nearly one soldier short, however, due to an elopement, one of quite a few that these papers reported on.

And, the World War One homesteading boom was really on.

Mid Week At Work: They also work who dance. August 12, 1916.


Caption from Library of Congress:  Caption on verso of copy print in LOT 7212: Ballet girls arrived to dance with [Anna] Pavlowa, [New York City], Aug. 12, 1916.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Lassen Volcanic National Park established


Park established on this day in 1916.  It had earlier been declared a National Monument by Theodore Roosevelt.

Of interest,the vulcanism was in an active phase at the time it was declared a park.

The Cheyenne State Leader for August 9, 1916. The Inglorious Reappearance of Pvt Dilley?



It seems that Pvt. Dilley's circumstances were not quite as tragic as reported yesterday.

A person has to wonder a bit about his fate, assuming he was tracked down and arrested.  His desertion came at that point in time at which the Army was evolving from the Frontier Army practice, in which 1/3d of the enlisted men went AWOL or deserted annually, and which the offense was not too seriously worried about unless the departing troops took equipment with them, to one which would regard this as a much more serious matter.  And, to add to it, when conscription came for World War One public sentiments were so strong that in some areas a man of military age could not walk for more than a couple of blocks without being accosted by citizens wondering if they were shirking their duty.  Young women, in fact, were particularly zealous in offering offense to men who appeared to be less than enthusiastic about military service.  Pvt. Dilley's actions may have had implications he didn't consider at the time.

Assuming, of course, that he had deserted.  Which perhaps, he had not.  He never reappeared, in spite of having family and friends in the state.  His father was certain that he'd been murdered, which he may very well have been.

If he left service without discharge, he certainly wasn't the only one to attempt it.  Disciplinary problems were a huge factor with the Wyoming Guard, including desertions, which were not all that uncommon.  As we've seen, going AWOL was fairly common as well, at least in the context of briefly leaving to marry.

On other matters, 2ar was in the air, with the Guard being inspected and the paper contemplating what war with Mexico might mean, which apparently meant war with Japan.  Odd to see that speculated on in this context.

Love was also in the air, and yet another Guardsman went AWOL to elope, something that seems to have been a regular occurrence.

Monday, August 8, 2016

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Oh What Can We Do

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Oh What Can We Do: A little different slant on today’s posting. I seldom post anything, on any of my blogs, about political goings on. No, not the presidentia...

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



Guardsman Pvt. Dilley mysteriously disappeared.

A lawyers prayer

Thomas More , counselor of law and statesman of integrity, merry martyr and most human of saints:

Pray that, for the glory of God and in the pursuit of His justice, I may be trustworthy with confidences, keen in study, accurate in analysis, correct in conclusion, able in argument, loyal to clients, honest with all, courteous to adversaries, ever attentive to conscience. Sit with me at my desk and listen with me to my clients’ tales. Read with me in my library and stand always beside me so that today I shall not, to win a point, lose my soul.

Pray that my family may find in me what yours found in you: friendship and courage, cheerfulness and charity, diligence in duties, counsel in adversity, patience in pain—their good servant, and God’s first. Amen.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

One A. M. released.


The Chaplin film One A.M. film was released.

I'm not a huge Chaplin film fan, so I don't really know anything about this film and whether its well regarded.  I learned of it via Reddits 100 Years Ago Today subreddit, where it is posted.

It apparently regards a well to do young man returning home delusional after a night of drinking.


Portugal enters into participation in World War One: August 7, 1916

Portugal entered World War One on the Allied side on this day in 1916.

We don't think much of Portugal's role in the war, but one of them would be take part in the combat in Africa, which we also tend not.  A good thread (I think there are actually several) on this topic is found on the excellent Society of the Military Horse website.

 Portuguese soldiers disembark in France,December 1916.

Twelve Thousand Portuguese soldiers died in World War One, including African soldiers serving Portugal in  Africa.   That's a small number compared to most other combatants, but it was a significant number in the context of their role in the war.  The war, additionally, caused food shortages at home resulting in 82,000 deaths.  The Spanish flu killed an additional 138,000, but that likely would have occurred anyhow.

 Portuguese solders leaving for Angola.

This date is a bit confusing, as technically Portugal had been at war since March 9, when Germany declared war on it due to it having confiscated German ships in Portuguese ports upon request of the British.  Portugal had a long running friendly connection with the United Kingdom dating back to the Napoleonic Wars.  This understandingly provoked a German reaction.  Portugal replied with its own declaration of war and began to organize its forces for Western Front action.  It did not immediately send troops however.  Still, a war aim of its own, the return of Kionga Mozambique from German occupation, occupied since 1894, was incorporated in the Allied war aims by June 9, 1916.

 Portuguese soldiers loading a mortar.  In combat the Portuguese in Europe resembled the British in appearance from whom they had secured some equipment.

On this date the Portuguese accepted a British invitation to actually participate in the war, which may seem odd, but it required the act of the Portuguese parliament.  It's participation in the war in Europe was always limited and in some ways its participation in Africa was more significant.  Perhaps the most famous event associated with Portugal and World War One did not involve combat at all, however, and was the apparitions at Fatima, which commenced with the visitation of an angel in the Spring of 1916, and which continued in May 1917 with the visitation of Mary. The final apparitional phenomenon was  the October 1917 Miracle of the Sun which was witnessed by a large number of people.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Unidentified, Casper Wyoming

Churches of the West: Unidentified, Casper Wyoming:



Surprising effort at converting a house into a church, located in Casper Wyoming. The architecture here also leans on Byzantine elements.

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Lost Rail: Threatening Days Under a Leaden Sky

Lost Rail: Threatening Days Under a Leaden Sky: There are many places in the country that quickly cover the tracks of the past.  The effects of annual rains or growth and regrowth o...

Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages. Previewed on this day.



The film Intolerance was previewed in Riverside California on this day in 1916.  Regarded as a masterpiece of this era, the film is a series of vignettes involving a poor young woman separated by prejudice from her husband and baby and site between stories of intolerance from throughout history.  It was a reaction, in part, to the negative reaction to the racists Birth of a Nation by the same director.  Like a lot of silent movies, it was long, running 3:17.