Binder Chapter 7 Outline
Chapter 7:
America Goes to War
Building a National Army-Meirion and Susie Harries * Early fall of 1917 watchers near rail tracks would have seen young Americans riding to their appointed camps and cantonments * Very diverse people riding: Chocktaws and Cochin Chinese, Hebrews, Greeks, Italians, English, Irish, Scots, Slavs, Swedes, Germans, Austrians, Albanians, Poles, Armenians, Syrians, Finns, Hispanics, and Japanese. Blacks went on separate trains * Attracted men with all shapes and sizes * Lanky recruits of Scots blood from the mountains of N. Carolina * Short stocky Mediterraneans from NE * Recent immigration was heaviest * Smallest size was 5”1 128 lbs * Largest size was 6”6 * Weight limits varied on your specialty * 190lbs for infantry, engineers, and artillery * 165lbs for cavalry * Average recruit 5”7.5 141.5 pounds * Divisions with large amount of Eastern European immigrants received smaller average ration and smaller uniforms than Midwestern divisions with Scandinavians and Germans * Many divisions were extremely diverse: New Yorks’s 77th division with 42 different languages or dialects spoken * 400,000 first generation immigrants drafted * Including alien enemies and ineligible * Major General George Bell of 33rd division ( contingent was about 15,000 National Guard Vounteers) * Complained to Adjutant General that “the local boards in Illinois had very evidently spared men of the draft age of American birth or stock at the expense of those of foreign birth or patronage” * Many of the immigrants couldn’t speak English or understand commands * Forced to eat odd food like boiled potatoes and stewed apricots, created serious morale problems in their units * German or Austrian immigrants had even more anziety “ifi ti were known in their home countries that they were in the American army, their families would
America Goes to War
Building a National Army-Meirion and Susie Harries * Early fall of 1917 watchers near rail tracks would have seen young Americans riding to their appointed camps and cantonments * Very diverse people riding: Chocktaws and Cochin Chinese, Hebrews, Greeks, Italians, English, Irish, Scots, Slavs, Swedes, Germans, Austrians, Albanians, Poles, Armenians, Syrians, Finns, Hispanics, and Japanese. Blacks went on separate trains * Attracted men with all shapes and sizes * Lanky recruits of Scots blood from the mountains of N. Carolina * Short stocky Mediterraneans from NE * Recent immigration was heaviest * Smallest size was 5”1 128 lbs * Largest size was 6”6 * Weight limits varied on your specialty * 190lbs for infantry, engineers, and artillery * 165lbs for cavalry * Average recruit 5”7.5 141.5 pounds * Divisions with large amount of Eastern European immigrants received smaller average ration and smaller uniforms than Midwestern divisions with Scandinavians and Germans * Many divisions were extremely diverse: New Yorks’s 77th division with 42 different languages or dialects spoken * 400,000 first generation immigrants drafted * Including alien enemies and ineligible * Major General George Bell of 33rd division ( contingent was about 15,000 National Guard Vounteers) * Complained to Adjutant General that “the local boards in Illinois had very evidently spared men of the draft age of American birth or stock at the expense of those of foreign birth or patronage” * Many of the immigrants couldn’t speak English or understand commands * Forced to eat odd food like boiled potatoes and stewed apricots, created serious morale problems in their units * German or Austrian immigrants had even more anziety “ifi ti were known in their home countries that they were in the American army, their families would