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City Played HostTo Wartime Camp'Many Famed Units of Army Formed at Camp Syracuse, Using Fair ? Grounds Facilities• Syracuse had small opportunity to forget that the country .tvss at war, with a huge armed camp at the fairgrounds lend, ing a military aspect to the city.So accident, but an achievement of ambitious business leaders brought a $200,000 camp here for two summers, despite the necessity for evacuation in the cold winters.The camp spread from the fair*grounds for four miles along the Uak* shore. I is £00 pyramidal tents ' Tilth wooden flooring cost 134.000. its electrical equipment J13.SO0, and .the water main extension from the VcJtr Un6 added 150.000 to the bill. V’ But It brought over’ 17.000 men to '.the city In 1017. and almost as many the next year. Railroad' depots :were kept humming to . transport ' troops and supplies, and over 350.-. 000 men in all passed through the city during the war,’ Three days before the declaration of war. the Chamber of Commerce at Its annual meeting formed a committee to bring a training camp ito the state fair grounds. A Cham*• ber of Commerce Realty Corporation was organized to buy up lands, of ter the camp was developed from ; a receiving station for mules and horses.President Wilson ordered the con reentratlOD camp—In vastly different 'meaning from more recent usage— *3Iay 14. An order for mobilizing #Jx regiments of Infantry «nd one *.of artillery eame tbt same day.and concerts. And In all the city's fund-raising drives troops from the camp were requisitioned for parades through the city streets The city quickly opened Its homes to the soldiers, church ctubrooms and family circles, welcomed them as guests as often as military regulations permitted..and the camp In turn drew clvillnn visltora-as many as 35.000 In a day.. With the approach of autumn,; exodus began. The troops at the camp were reduced from 11 regiments to five In September, nnd to two provisional battalion* In Octo ber. Four regiments left in four days, in a remarkable feat of secret troops movement.uFighting 9th” Nucleus; It was planned to form units 'from old. army regiments a* a I nucleus. At the expansion camp-wero tho old “Flubtlng Ninth. fresh••from the Mexican border dispute, i along with the Twenty-third and ^Thirtieth Infantry «nd the Second ^Battalion of the Fourth Artillery.The new camp was partly ready I by June 10, and soon €00 acre* vrcrc ^occupied by troops. There were FlO.OOO men in camp by then, and the cpeak reached 17,203 4— —Unique CampAs early as October, 1317. city leaders were conducting a fight In u'/nbmgton to havs Camp Syracuse reopened the following summer. But not until July 13 did a welcome order come through. Then It was announced that 11,000 men of the Hmlled service class would be billeted here.This made Camp Syracuse unique In the Nation. The men were thosewithout serious- pby*ical defects, but who had been rejected for military service. They sought earnestly to improve to meet the requirements. and some 10 per cent, managed to do so. The first recruits arrived July 23, nnd by Aug- 3 there were 16,000 In camp.A month and a half later came Aug. 11 When.**.., Infltirnr.x Miirtpmlf.IiiaSy
Newspaper Details
Syracuse Journal
Syracuse, New York, US
Mon, Mar 20, 1939
Page 59
Full Page
Clipped by
Susan M.
USA 11 Oct 2017
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