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At Its annual mcctlnx formed a committee to bring * training camp ;to the stale fair grounds. A Cham-• ber of Commerce Realty Corpora* tion was organized to buy up lands. After the camp was developed from I-A receiving station for mules and horses.Pres Wert t WIJson ordered the con-rcentratlon camp—In vastly different 'meaning from more recent usage— 'May U. An order for mobilizing elx regiments of Infantry «nd one :of artillery caroe the same day.Fighting 9th” NucleusIt was planned to form units ‘from old. army regiments ** a• nucleus- At the expansion camp-wero the old “Flubting Ninth. fresh •'from the Mexican border dispute. i.jUong with the Twenty-third and ^Thirtieth Infantry and the Second* Battalion of the Fourth Artillery.K. The new camp was partly ready by Juae 10, and soon «W acres were ✓ occupied by troops. There were /■10.090 men In camp by then, and the ?peak reached 17,205 Aug. 11 when ; the Fourth Artillery left for target j. practice nt Pine Plains. f On June 16. the Forty-seventh and ;Jorty-eighth Infantry were formed ffrora the Fighting Ninth and as ■c recruits from Syracuse. Fort Slo-Jcum and other points filled the Iranks these became the first to .Creaoh full war strength of 1.965. : Soon after the Fourth and Fifteenth I-Artillery were ready, the latter wln--•Dlng honor abroad at Verdun. Cba-£teau-Thierry. 'Solasooa, .St Mfbleli'mnd Champagne. /From tho Twenty-third Infantry ,\can» the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth.“; But“ of ^ all . the organizations brought to full strength hera none ^brought the. city more pride than £the Thirty-eighth Regiment, which ?as part of the Third Division fought -lo the Battle of the hfarne in 3Xay. 19is. and was the only*, regiment “mentioned by name..and number In ^General Pershing'* American Expe--dltlonary Force report This was foroer. rour icssmrms ivil m lourdays. In a remarkable feat of secret troops movementUnique CampAs early as October, 1917. city leaders were conducting a fight Ip \\*n ibington to ha vs Camp Syracuse reopened the following summer. But not until July 12 did a welcome order come through. Then it was announced that 11,000 men of the limited service- class would be billeted here.This made Camp Syracuse unique In the Nation. The men were thosexvlthout serious- pbyflcal defects, but who hnd been rejected for military sen-lee. They sought earnestly to improve to meet the requirements, and some 10 per cent, managed to do so. The first recruits arrived July 23, and by Aug. 9 there were 16,000 in camp.A month and a half later catnc the Influenza epidemic.Four thousand soldiers—and twice that many civilians in* the city—were treated in thi hospital before the epidemic ran Its course. Right hundred women trained in first aid and nurrlng work by the Red -Cross served as -volunteer nurses, and still there -were not enough. Two hundred and elx soldiers died, a mortality percentage of *.5 that was one of the lowest In any troop camps In the country. . This had no sooner cleared up before an outbreak of- measles struck the camp. On the day of the‘armistice. 200 men of the camp were In the base hospital at Oi-wm with this disease..One week after- the end -of the war. CoL B. O. Ruttenc utter—then In command—put Into effect the order that closed Camp Syracuse forever.IJi;S:fo;dcprdoUiofVCofClt;3ealuiFrEcFiP?cudeC«CO
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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