The National Army: From Draftee Army, to Component, to Organized Reserve

Creation of the National Army John McAuley Palmer Woodrow Wilson Registering for the Draft 5 June 1917 “Hereafter we must always have a sufficiently large reserve of trained citizen soldiers to insure our safety. If we had possessed such an army the course of this war would have been different.” New York Times 4 August 1917 Newton D. Baker George V. H. Mosely

“Drafted Man as Good as a Volunteer” Draftees Leaving for Camp Upton, NY

The National Army: a Progressive Era Social Experiment UPLIFTERS: Commission of Training Camp Activities Raymond Fosdick War Camp Community Service Joseph Lee Red Cross Systematized Recreation <<<<<-- Films & Entertainment Y.M.C.A Knights of Columbus Jewish Welfare Board Christian Scientist Other

The National Army as an Emerging Component “Our little Regular Army, our National Guard, is speeding overseas. In that vast battle line of Europe, they will be swallowed up. But they will hold the line until the National Army comes, until we come.” Cpt. Edward Lyle Fox (Captain ‘X’) “The Reserve officers . . . want their units to overtake the National Guard and stand abreast of the Regular Army as quickly as possible,” Army Chaplain Rev. Joseph Odell (Ret)

Private Danny’s War Book Some of us fellows have heard that the Regulars and some of the National Guard think they got it on us four ways from the Jack and that they’re going to show us up if we ever fight alongside of them. Well listen . . . We didn’t have to disremember a lot of stuff like both the regulars and the guards did, and we didn’t elect our officers because they were good spenders . . . We started out in life – our National Army of Freedom – all clean and square without owing anybody a cent and having a fresh page. Us draft soldiers don’t know much, only this . . . [we] are going to be the real American army. We’ll be the great army in the years to come . . . Frazier Hunt

7 August 1918, General Order # 73: “This country has but one army – The United States Army.” “Unification will undoubtedly remove the cause of, or rather the opportunity for, much dissatisfaction among the three different branches [components]. Each has been likely to think that it was discriminated against with reference to the other two, whether the question concerned an officer’s promotion or retirement, or sending regiments belonging to one of the other branches to France.”

------Northern Russia “The 77th was to be the first National Army Division to take over a part of the front line. It was the first real test of a great experiment. It was to determine whether an army recruited from the motley ranks of civilian life could, within a few brief months, be trained into an effective fighting force. It was to forecast whether the natural assets of initiative, alertness, courage and determination could be matched against the iron discipline of a great war machine.” (History of the 77th DIV) 339th IN Regt, 85th DIV Italy ------ Left to Right: Mechanic 79th DIV, First Sgt. 88th DIV, Cpt. Artillery, 83rd DIV 332nd IN Regt, 83rd DIV 92nd IN DIV

The Creation of an Organized Reserve 1920: from Individual to Unit “We have a very great asset in our trained units that have had experience in the war. I am referring to the units of the National Guard and so-called National Army. They have returned with traditions, with a history, with pride of service, all of which makes a very valuable asset in any organization that is to be used as a basis for training. I think those divisions should be continued in existence with the officers that served with them, retaining them in the rank they had as far as their efficiency proved that they were capable of performing the duties of their respective ranks; and I would hold those divisions and designate them as reserve divisions into which could be put the young men as they left the training camps. I would try to get together the officers and men who formerly composed these divisions; by so doing the traditions and the esprit of those organizations would be kept alive for the rest of time.” Gen John J. Pershing