A Nurse Tells of Her Service in 1919

From the January 16, 2019, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1919, 100 Years Ago.

"At the Sunday evening service at the Hinckley M.E. church the program was given over to those who have lately returned from military camps in the country.

"Miss Dorothy Pritchard, who was training for a nurse at Camp Wadsworth, S.C., gave a most interesting account of her experience there."

--Cooter

Camp Wadsworth, S.C.-- Part 4: Specialized Units and the Slavic Legion

Camp Wadsworth also had several specialty units including military police, construction workers,  cooks and bakers and even a remount (horses) unit.

In addition, anti-aircraft machine gun battalions, signal battalions corps artillery parks and pioneer infantry  regiments.  There were also several military schools there as well, including one for nurses.

It was also the training base for the Slavic Legion intended as a regiment of non-naturalized volunteers from nations in the Balkans.  This group was only partly trained when the war ended and they were demobilized there.

Beginning in February 1919, the War Department began carrying out salvage operations at Camp Wadsworth, sending usable items to other posts that remained open.

Several of the camp's buildings were sold and moved to other places.

Most of the area that used to be Camp Wadsworth is now within the Spartanburg city limits and has been developed as  the Wadsworth Hills residential neighborhood.

--Cooter

Camp Wadsworth-- Part 3: The 369th Infantry Regiment (Blacks) Was There

The camp was used for individual training and bayonet practice.    They also dis unit level  exercises.  In addition, love fire ranges were established 26 miles from the camp where rifle, machine gun and artillery training was carried out.

In addition to the 27th Division, the  96th Division trained there, but the war ended before they were trained and they demobilized there on early 1919.

The 15th New York Infantry Regiment, a unit of black soldiers with white officers, later federalized as the 369th Infantry Regiment.  Tension with local population, who had been promised that no black soldiers would train there caused the Army to  rapidly transport the 369th to France where they completed their organizing and training.

They were assigned to the 93rd Division which was made up of other black units.  The regiments of the 93rd Division served in World War I as part of the French Army.

--Cooter

Camp Wadsworth-- Part 2: Named After a Union General and Built In A Hurry

Continued from October 29, 2018.

It was decided that a division of the New York National Guard would train there.

Camp Wadsworth was named for Union Brigadier General James S. Wadsworth, a prominent man from New York and who had been killed in 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness.  His son, James S. Wadswoth, Jr. was also in the Union Army during that war.  His grandson, James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr, was a U.S. Senator from New York during World War I.

There was a two-month deadline to build the camp.  Starting in mid-July 1917, thousands of civilian workers cleared trees, laid pipes, built roads and temporary structures.

National Guard troops from New York began arriving in August.  Eventually, all units of the New York National Guard's 6th Division were there and were federalized as the U.S. Army's 27th Division.

They departed for France in May 1918.

--Cooter

Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina-- Part 1: Mobilizing for WW I

In my last post, I mentioned the call for 2,395 white men from Chicago to go to Camp Wadsworth in South Carolina to train for war.

From Wikipedia.

A World War I training facility located near Spartanburg, S.C..  It was in operation from July 1917 to  March 1919.

As the United States began to expand its army in preparation for entry into the war through a combination of  mobilizing units of the National Guard and drafting men into the wartime National Army it was determined to open 32 centers to train them.

The centers for draftees would have wooden barracks as it would take longer to prepare them.  National Guard centers would use tents and be located in the warmer Southern states because of that.

Cities and towns lobbied to get one of these because of economic reasons.  Spartanburg was successful in their effort.  Newton B. Baker, Secretary of War, and General Leonard  Wood, commander of the Army's Eastern Department visited the area and approved a location there.

--CootCamp

WW I: October 28, 1918: A Call To Chicago For More Troops

From the October 28, 2018, Chicago Sun-Times  "Chicago Daily News: On This Date."  As reported by the Chicago Daily News, sister paper of the Chicago Sun-Times.

OCTOBER 28, 1918, 100 years ago.

**  A call for 2,395 white men for general military service, to entrain for Camp Wadsworth at Spartensburg,  S.C. (Spartanburg)., the five-day period beginning Nov. 11, was received by Adjt. Gen. Dickenson today.

**  Another call directs the entrainment of 465 colored men, beginning Nov. 13, for Camp Grant at Rockford.

**  These calls exhaust the draft availables in all registration lists previous to that of September 12.

--Cooter