THE FEDERALIZED NATIONAL GUARD UNITS AT CAMP CODY – Part 4

By Franklin F. Holbrook and Livia Appel

Almost two months, from August 22 to October 15, 1917, were consumed in assembling the national guard of Minnesota at Camp Cody. In some cases detachments proceeded a little in advance of the units, to prepare the campsites for those who were to follow. The journey, occupying four or five days, was regarded as something of a lark, for much of the country through which they passed was new to many of the boys from Minnesota towns and prairies. In holiday mood they clambered off the train when it made occasional stops and relaxed their bodies after many hours of wearisome riding.

A strange sight met their eyes as they alighted from the trains that had been shunted on to the tracks extending out to Camp Cody. They saw a vast, level, sandy waste, upon which was appearing a mushroom growth – long rows of wooden mess halls facing streets that seemed to stretch away interminably; innumerable rows of tents; huge frame warehouses, some of them still in process of construction and surrounded by loose lumber and other building debris; and gray, dusty patches of mesquite and yucca in spaces ultimately to be cleared for drill grounds. Looking beyond his immediate surroundings in almost any direction, the arriving soldier saw great masses of mountains rising abruptly, without foothills, from the plains, like great barren slagheaps from some primeval furnace. Toward the south, apparently just beyond the village of Deming, rose the Florida Mountains in a jagged range, which – many of the men were soon to discover – were actually about twenty miles distant. Far to the south, overlooking the Mexican border, might be seen the Tres Hermanas, or ” Three Sisters,” blue and low-lying in the distance. To the north was Cook’s Range, a barren looking pile culminating in Cook’s Peak, which seemed to peer right down into Camp Cody. Out over the desert were isolated green patches-perhaps a few trees and growing crops – indicating the presence of irrigated tracts. All this the northern guardsmen saw if the day were fine. If it were stormy, he saw little but a gray blur and heard no sound but the sifting and grating of fine sand and the sustained and mournful shriek of the wind blowing through wires and about mess-hall corners. The dominant color tone was a yellowish gray, shading into purple; the sand was yellow under sunlight and gray under cloudy skies; shadows and mountains showed blue and purple. – Published by the Minnesota Historical Society – Saint Paul, 1928

A Winter Scene At Camp Cody, Deming, New Mexico, 1917-1918

THE FEDERALIZED NATIONAL GUARD UNITS AT CAMP CODY – Part 3

By Franklin F. Holbrook and Livia Appel

The choice of the site was approved by the war department on June 11, 1917; the contract for construction was executed on July 18; and two days later work was begun. The total area of the reservation set aside for training purposes was 13,757 acres, of which 1,837 acres were occupied by the camp itself. Though the men were to be sheltered under canvas, it was necessary to erect a large
number of buildings for mess halls, headquarters buildings, and warehouses. In addition, roads had to be laid; water, lighting, and telephone systems installed; and provision made for all the other facilities required by a population of over twenty-five thousand men. In spite of some delay occasioned by changes made in the form of divisional organization in the summer of 1917, progress was rapid; early in September it was estimated that the camp stood about eighty per cent completed. Some idea of the magnitude of the project may be gained from the fact that during the year ending June 30, 1918, a sum amounting to nearly four million dollars was allotted to the camp for construction purposes alone. The name chosen honored William F. Cody, the famous “Buffalo Bill” of American history, who had died early in 1917. – Published by the Minnesota Historical Society – Saint Paul, 1928

THE FEDERALIZED NATIONAL GUARD UNITS AT CAMP CODY – Part 2

The camp site chosen for the concentration of the national guard of the five states above mentioned was a tract just northwest of Deming, New Mexico, a town of about three thousand population, located approximately thirty miles from the Mexican border. Good railroad facilities, a magnificent water supply, and a climate characterized by an unusual number of days of sunshine and very little rainfall appear to have been the factors leading to its selection. Three railroad lines entered Deming-the Southern Pacific; the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe; and the El Paso and Southwestern. The remarkable water supply is due to an interesting topographical feature of the region. Some miles to the north of Deming the Mimbres River, in whose valley the camp was located, loses itself in the desert and continues its course as an underground stream; the water is filtered by the sand and gravel underlying the surface and is easily reached by wells of moderate depth. In the vicinity of Deming the “valley” of the river is dry, except on the relatively infrequent occasions of heavy rainfall. The high altitude of the campsite, about 4,300 feet, though it makes for rather extreme daily ranges of temperature, insures almost invariably cool nights. Unfortunately these advantages were offset, in considerable measure, by the difficulties to which the sandy character of the soil gave rise. – Published by the Minnesota Historical Society – Saint Paul, 1928

Camp Cody Soldiers With Incinerator, Deming, New Mexico, 1917-1918

THE FEDERALIZED NATIONAL GUARD UNITS AT CAMP CODY – Part 1

By Franklin F. Holbrook and Livia Appel

The announcement that the national guard units of Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota, and Nebraska, selected to form the 34th Division, would be trained at a camp near Deming, New Mexico, occasioned a little surprise and considerable disappointment, for it had been assumed that a site nearer home would be chosen for this purpose. This attitude was rather general throughout the North and found expression in protests made by northern congressmen and senators against sending troops south.

A variety of factors determined the policy of the war department with reference to the organization of the National Guard divisions that were to constitute an important section of the American Expeditionary Forces. Had the original plan been followed, calling for the construction of thirty-two cantonments, each designed to accommodate both national army and national guard troops, it would have been less urgent that the latter be sent south. Because congressional appropriations proved insufficient, however, and in order to avoid unnecessary expenditure of the nation’s resources, it was decided to build only sixteen cantonments, for the training of the national army, and to concentrate the national guard in camps, where the men would be quartered in tents instead of in wooden barracks. Being already partially equipped and trained, the guard troops would undoubtedly be among the first to go abroad and permanent camps were, therefore, less essential. On the other hand, the Iimited shipping facilities at the disposal of the government would not permit of transporting them all overseas before the arrival of winter and the location of temporary camps on northern sites was not to be considered. The sites selected in the South seemed to offer the best prospect that intensive training activities could be continued during the fall and winter months with a minimum of interruption due to unfavorable weather conditions. – Published by the Minnesota Historical Society – Saint Paul, 1928

109th Regiment Engineers, Camp Cody, Deming, New Mexico, 1917-1918

Remarks of the Governor Honorable William Lloyd Harding about Camp Cody – Part 3 of 3

We have a great deal of trouble in our office because of those who want to organize home guards or something of that kind. They think it would be nice to have a body of men training in their town. It would be, but we don’t want men training as home guards when we have a war on our hands. They had better be training in home, gardens and home farms rather than marching around with a broomstick trying to be a trained soldier. And the message that must somehow get to our people in all its seriousness is that each man must now attend to his own business, provided the government has not called him to go into the service. Not five minutes ago I got through talking with a man who is past the age limit who says he wants to serve his country. I said “If you do and you mean it, get on a pair of overalls and go out and pick corn,” but that didn’t appeal to him. Now, we have that type of men, unfortunately, right here in Iowa, and it is up to those who are real patriots to carry this message: That every man should take the place that he can find that is open and get into it and work. That is the spirit of the true soldier, and I want to tell you it is the spirit of the boys down there at Camp Cody. They are not complaining; they are feeling good. There are conditions that could be changed, no doubt, and that ought to be changed, and I have no doubt will be changed; but the boys are not saying anything about it, and you never would find it out if you had to wait for them to tell you. And we have got to have that same spirit right here at home. – Iowa Year Book of Agriculture, Volume 18 – By Iowa Department of Agriculture, Iowa, State Fair, Iowa State Agricultural Society – Date Unknown

A Company Street, Camp Cody, Deming, New Mexico, 1917-1918

Remarks of the Governor Honorable William Lloyd Harding about Camp Cody – Part 2 of 3

I visited the hospitals, and one lad was very sick, but the smile that came over his face when he saw somebody from home was pathetic. Before I left he turned on his pillow, and I know there were tears in his eyes (but nurses were about) as he told me of the good treatment he had received from the Red Cross. The money that we are going to give to this Red Cross is to see that the sick boys are taken care of, and I think if that message can be carried all over the state into every home there will be no question about the success of this campaign. Now, the thought I want to leave with the fair association—and I think it is the thought that ought to be brought home to you people—is that it is not necessary for men to change their occupation in order to help win this war. Too many men and women think, now that we are at war, that they must change their occupation and get into some other line—some branch of the service in order to help their country in this hour of need. What we do need is every man with his shoulder to the wheel in his own business pushing harder than he has ever pushed before. If your business was important in the days of peace as a producer, then it is doubly important in the time of war. These other matters that we take on, such as the Red Cross, the Liberty Bonds, and the Y. M. C. A. are simply additional burdens but it does not mean that a man should let up In his? usual and ordinary avocation. – Iowa Year Book of Agriculture, Volume 18 – By Iowa Department of Agriculture, Iowa, State Fair, Iowa State Agricultural Society – Date Unknown

Camp Cody Soldier On Horseback, Downtown Deming, NM, 1917-1918

Remarks of the Governor Honorable William Lloyd Harding about Camp Cody – Part 1 of 3

Honorable William Lloyd Harding: Gentlemen: It was my privilege, and I felt it also a duty, to visit the troops down at Camp Cody. In fact, I am trying to visit the Iowa troops wherever they may be stationed in this country, once at least before they leave for across the water. (Applause). I saw 25,000 American soldiers on that parade ground on Sunday morning, 8,000 of them from Iowa, and when you look at that body of young men, the suggestion made by Mr. Wallace of what they are doing and how little we may be doing here at home as compared with what those young men are doing, comes home all the more strongly. It seems to me there ought not to be a single, solitary person in all this state that is not a member of the Red Cross. While at Camp Cody I visited the hospitals. The work that the Red Cross is doing there is remarkable. These boys are a long ways from home. They are just as far away from home there as if they were in France, because Nature never picked that place as a training camp. I understand that to be a brave man you must have a lot of “sand”, and after you have been there for twenty-four hours you have plenty of it. – Iowa Year Book of Agriculture, Volume 18 – By Iowa Department of Agriculture, Iowa, State Fair, Iowa State Agricultural Society – Date Unknown

Tents at Camp Cody, Deming, New Mexico, 1917-1918

The Camp Cody Orthopedic Casual Detachment. Part 2 of 2

BY EDWARD A. RICH, M. D., TACOMA, WASHINGTON

Major M. R. C. Supervising Orthopedic Surgeon, U. S. Army.

In a word, the Casual Detachment is a distinctly military organization, that has for its purpose the correction and up building of weak muscular and ligaments structures that have led to static foot defects in soldiers of the new army, while at the same time interfering as groups of fifty, two groups being usually called at one time. The men are given to understand that military life is to continue as usual from the start. The treatment of the foot disorders is additional. The sooner the feet get well the sooner will they get back to the old, simple life in the command. They drill, in addition get shoe alterations and are submitted to exercise drudgery, but, during their few hours of duty they have all the camp freedom that they have been accustomed to. However, with this exception, if a man is suspected of malingering or exaggeration, off come all his privileges; he becomes at once a “very sick man”; and the picket line of the detachment is his limit.

Men under this system of training realize that the goal taught is real cure without punishment, and the spirit of such a camp is more congenial to cure. The Orthopedic Casual Detachment has won a positive place by its many lines of action and by its splendid results. The line staffs will probably never relinquish it. The time may come when all military camp activity of an orthopedic nature may center around it. The hospital convalescent camp is a big, unwieldy, needed institution. It is a very grave question (and one yet perplexing). whether there should he any affiliation whatever between the two institutions; for, while their purposes are identical, the working methods for results in the two are diametrically opposite.

Delivered at the Thirty-second Annual Meeting of the American Orthopedic Association, April 22, 23, 1918, Washington, D. C.

5 Ton Packard Truck at Camp Cody, New Mexico, 1917-1918

The Camp Cody Orthopedic Casual Detachment. Part 1 of 2

BY EDWARD A. RICH, M. D., TACOMA, WASHINGTON

Major M. R. C. Supervising Orthopedic Surgeon, U. S. Army.

The Orthopedic Casual Detachment is an institution that has come to stay in the military training camp. It has justified its existence to such an extent that it is authorized as a vital part of the Development Battalion recently subject of G. 0. No. 45, 1918. The tendency seems to be more and more away from hospital orthopedic care and more toward the line orthopedic dispensary, the therapeutic follow-up, and the systematic drill classes. Any long sojourn in a hospital is usually demoralizing to soldiering in a recruit suffering from nothing more serious than a foot disorder.

True, a few days of active treatment with hot studies to calm an inflammatory condition will not break down morale, but many a soldier who long extends his hospital stay, passes the fatal line of willing military usefulness. In his mind is crystallized the new-fixed idea of the great asset he possesses in his valgus or flat-foot. He has been classed with the sick. He might be sympathetic enough even to pass the good word along to his comrades. Even a series of visits to a hospital orthopedic dispensary produces all too often a wrong psychology. There fore so in efficient treatment for the static foot disorders must be provided outside the hospital wards.

One of the best means of accomplishment is, I believe, the orthopedic casual detachment. In Deming, New Mexico, was inaugurated the first military foot-development class in the southwestern army district. The time was shortly after Thanksgiving last, and the inspiration came from Major Harvey. The name applied was the “Casual Detachment,” and was immediately nicknamed.

Favored by the division surgeon, Lieut. Col. Coffin, and finally worked out by Lieut. Truehart, there sprang up so valuable a therapeutic agent that the same plan in various modified forms has been instituted in nearly all the camps of that army district. The working organizations exist under such names as the “Military Foot Training Camp,” the “Soldiers’ Salvage School,” the “Orthopedic Back-to-Duty Class.”

Delivered at the Thirty-second Annual Meeting of the American Orthopedic Association, April 22, 23, 1918, Washington, D. C.

Some Buildings at Camp Cody, Deming, New Mexico, 1917-1918

Newsie Newlets from Camp Cody’s E Company, Deming, New Mexico

Carl J. Swenson, one of our efficient cooks, was taken suddenly ill last Tuesday evening and after putting in a sleepless and unrestful night was hurried to our regimental hospital. The symptoms seemed to indicate that he had been slightly poisoned, which may have been caused from eating tainted canned goods. He returned early yesterday feeling much better and expects to report for duty tomorrow.

The new tent floors and sidewalls have arrived and most of the squads have theirs together and the tents stretched over them for a roof. With these put in place the boys will be very comfortable here. Some of them have purchased extra blankets and mattresses which makes their cots appear cozy and almost as comportable as the ones back home.

Up and down Machine Gun Street

The Machine Gun Co. has been designated as the fire fighter of the 2nd district. The apparatus is stationed at the place and the company have had several fire drills. It is well for all to remember this so if any emergency should arise the alarm can be given without delay.

Artificer Winkles and Mechanic St Martin were on a little hunting expedition Tuesday evening. They were hunting centipedes, with a blowtorches.

Evertt Bossen and his violin are very popular with the bunch.

All members of the company who wish to be inoculated for centipede and tarantula bites apply to Jack Dunham. Bill Durdahl, take notice. – The Reveille – Vol 1, No 1 – Camp Cody, New Mexico, Oct 14, 1917

Some of the Buildings at Camp Cody, Deming, New Mexico, 1917-1918