# data[].attributes.headline
What role did African Americans play in the military in WWI?

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What role did African Americans play in the military in WWI?

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They were used as support troops. More than 350,000 African Americans served in the war.

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What role did women play in the military in WWI?

# data[].attributes.subject
What role did women play in the military in WWI?

# data[].attributes.body
The women did a lot of the radio jobs and other non-combat roles. Over 11,000 women joined the US Navy during these times.

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Propaganda Poster #2--include a picture of a propaganda poster that was designed to build the U.S. a military. Explain the posters message

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Propaganda Poster #2--include a picture of a propaganda poster that was designed to build the U.S. a military. Explain the posters message

# data[].attributes.body
This picture was used to recruit men to volunteer to join the military.

# data[].attributes.headline
Propaganda Poster #1--include a picture of a propaganda poster that was designed to build the U.S. a military. Explain the posters message

# data[].attributes.subject
Propaganda Poster #1--include a picture of a propaganda poster that was designed to build the U.S. a military. Explain the posters message

# data[].attributes.body
This Picture was used to encourage men to join the military,

# data[].attributes.headline
Propaganda Poster #3--include a picture of a propaganda poster that was designed to build the U.S. a military. Explain the posters message

# data[].attributes.subject
Propaganda Poster #3--include a picture of a propaganda poster that was designed to build the U.S. a military. Explain the posters message

# data[].attributes.body
This poster was used to encourage the farmers and people back home to keep doing what they are doing so the troops have stuff.

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How many soldiers volunteered for WWI? Was it enough?

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How many soldiers volunteered for WWI? Was it enough?

# data[].attributes.body
A little more than 2 million men volunteered.

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Military Service in the United States Army During World War I, 1917-1919

Fall 1998, Vol. 30, No. 3 | Genealogy Notes

By Mitchell Yockelson

November 11, 1998, marks the eightieth anniversary of the armistice ending World War I. For Americans it is time to reflect upon the contributions made by their forebears in helping to end the deadliest conflict the world had then known. After remaining neutral for three years, the United States reluctantly entered what was supposed to be "The War to End All Wars." By declaring war on April 17, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson committed the nation to join the other Allied countries in their efforts to defeat the Central Powers.

When the war ended, more than four million "Doughboys"(1) had served in the United States Army with the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). Half of those participated overseas. According to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, "over 25 per cent of the entire male population of the country between the ages of 18 and 31 were in military service."(2) Previously unknown places such as Belleau Wood, Meuse-Argonne, and Saint Mihiel were etched into the minds of Americans through newspaper reports of battles. Although the United States participated in the conflict for less than two years, it was a costly event. More than 100,000 Americans lost their lives during this period. Secretary of War Baker reflected upon this when he stated that "while we rejoice that our losses were no heavier we still bear in mind the thousands of homes throughout the country upon which the heavy burden of war has fallen. To these homes the Nation owes a debt of fullest gratitude. From them has sprung unbounded courage to face hardships, heroic strength in battle, the Nation's power to right the wrongs of selfish despotism."(3)

The United States was almost completely unprepared to participate in the war. The manpower and supplies needed to field an expeditionary force were at their lowest numbers since the Civil War. Fresh from chasing Pancho Villa during the Punitive Expedition in Mexico (See Prologue, Fall and Winter 1997), the strength of the United States Army in April 1917 was about 200,000, 80,000 of whom served in National Guard units. Even though the National Defense Act of 1916 provided for the gradual expansion of the regular army and reserves, the United States was forced to build an army based on volunteer enlistments and the draft. More than 24 million men registered for the draft, and almost 2.7 million men were furnished to the U.S. Army by conscription. The number of volunteer enlistments was slightly over 300,000.(4)

Two previous "Genealogy Notes," Michael Knapp's "World War I Service Records" (Fall 1990) and, with Constance Potter, "Here Rests in Honored Glory: World War I Graves Registration" (Summer 1991), described the complications of searching for personnel files in the custody of the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) because of the devastating fire there in 1973. They presented ideas on how to utilize a few of the valuable sources in the National Archives, such as the burial files and the troop ship manifests, as alternatives to the lost service records.

The 1973 fire destroyed U.S. Army personnel records created from 1912 to 1963, but it did not damage U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps personnel files. While the fire left a tremendous gap in locating personnel information, the gap may be partially filled in through other extant records. This issue of "Genealogy Notes" goes beyond the scope of the previous articles by exploring a selection of the vast number of additional World War I records in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). These records often provide clues to personnel serving in a variety of capacities in the U.S. Army during World War I. Conducting research in the records described in this article is sometimes a very labor-intensive and time-consuming procedure but, in the opinion of this author, is a task that has the potential for rewarding results.

A basic knowledge of the person's service is essential for a search of the records. For example, if the individual you are researching served in a field-level unit (e.g., cavalry, infantry, field artillery, machine gun battalion), it would be helpful to know the company, troop, or battery to which he was assigned. Often this information can be located from family records like discharge papers or, if the person is deceased, an obituary. Some state agencies such as archives, libraries, or adjutant general's offices maintain records of enlistment for individuals serving from their particular state.

National Guard unit records are not federal records but are in the custody of state repositories. The Genealogist's Address Book, by Elizabeth Petty Bently (Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1995) lists many of these repositories. Researchers should also contact a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) office in their vicinity to determine if a World War I veteran received a pension or other government benefits.

Without the most basic of information (soldier's full name and the organization in which he served), a search among the unit records will be cumbersome and probably unsuccessful. An indispensable guide to understanding the organization of the War Department during World War I is the Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War, 1917-19 (Washington, DC, 1949). This four-volume work includes a list of all units that were organized during World War I; a list of all camps, posts, and stations along with the units assigned to these reservations; and a records of events for each corps, army, and division serving overseas. It may be available at a federal depository library.

The following descriptions are designed to provide researchers with information on a selection of documents that may contain information on World War I personnel. By no means is this a complete listing of all World War I records in NARA's custody. The majority of the documents are found in the Records of the American Expeditionary Forces (World War I) (Record Group 120) and the Records of U.S. Army Mobile Units, 1821-1942 (Record Group 391). Other record groups that may contain useful documentation are also cited.
Officers
According to Secretary of War Baker, "one of the most serious problems confronting the War Department in April 1917, was the procurement of sufficient officers to fill the requirements of the divisions that were to be formed for overseas duty."(5) To alleviate the problem, the War Department established a number of training camps for qualified candidates at various military posts, colleges, and universities. To accommodate the large number of African Americans qualified for officers' commissions, a special school for black officers was established at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, that graduated 639 students.(6) Documentation on all of the officers' training schools and some of the personnel in attendance is found among entries 407-415 in the Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs (Record Group 165).

If an officer was commissioned in the regular army prior to World War I, a service record should exist in the National Personnel Records Center. The National Archives also holds a number of records and published sources that provide information on regular army officers. The most likely source for personnel information is the general correspondence (document files), entry 25, in the Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780's-1917 (Record Group 94). For a brief summary of service of a regular army officer, the Registers of the United States Army are an excellent source. For information on both regular and National Army(7) officers, the series "Commission of Officers" in the regular army, National Guard, and Officer Reserve Corps, 1917-1940, in the Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1917- (Record Group 407) is a good source. Strength returns for World War I, arranged by unit, in Record Group 407 include a roster of officers.
Enlisted Men
Documentation on enlisted personnel is more difficult to locate among the records than that for officers. The best places to look are the correspondence and special orders in the Records of U.S. Army Mobile Units, 1821-1942 (Record Group 391). The organizational records are arranged by unit designation: cavalry (entry 2122), infantry (entry 2133), field artillery (entry 2118), engineer (entry 2124), and coast artillery (entries 2100 and 2101). The documents first contain documents created at the unit level, then include documents created by the smaller component (company, battery, troop, etc.). Normally in front of each series of correspondence are register books that are organized alphabetically by name or subject. A document number refers to a specific piece of correspondence.

Usually in the last boxes of records in a series are special orders that authorize a soldier to wear a Wound Chevron. The Wound Chevron special orders are usually organized by company, troop, battery, etc., and include a soldier's name, type of wound, and date of wound.

African Americans made a significant contribution to the United States Army during World War I, and they are well documented among several different series in Record Groups 120 and 391. Although the military was segregated at this time, two all-black divisions, the Ninety-second and Ninety-third, played prominent roles in the defeat of the Central Powers. More than 200,000 African Americans served with the AEF.(8) The majority served in quartermaster labor units, entries 1262-1294 in Record Group 120 and entries 2141 and 2160 in Record Group 391. Pioneer Infantry Regiments (troops employed in building roads, digging trenches, and other construction projects) consisted almost entirely of African Americans and are documented in entry 1255 of Record Group 120.

To identify record series for units not mentioned in this article, researchers should consult the preliminary inventories to Record Groups 120 and 391 in the National Archives Central Research Room or in the consulting office of the Old Army and Civil Records Branch (NWCTB).
Air Service
The United States Army did not begin operating an independent air service until April 1918. At that time the air service consisted of only three squadrons for use in the front lines. By the time of the November 11, 1918, armistice, forty-five American squadrons, consisting of 740 planes, were operating. A total of 7,726 officers and 70,769 men served in the air service. Documentation on personnel serving in the air service is normally found among the rosters included in Gorrell's History of the American Expeditionary Forces Air Service, 1917-1919, entry 644, Record Group 120. This history has been microfilmed by NARA on fifty-eight rolls as publication M990 and is available for examination in the Microfilm Research Room at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., or for purchase from the National Archives Trust Fund.(9) Also, among the Records of the Army Air Forces (Record Group 18), entries 767A-767II contain correspondence on various units of the air service during World War I. It is possible to locate a roster, letter, or special order pertaining to an individual among this series. The documents are arranged in numerical order by aero squadron or other organizational unit of the air service. Casualty lists for air service personnel are found in entry 569, Record Group 120.

Marine Corps

On May 17, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson directed the secretary of the navy to "issue the necessary orders for service with the Army a force of Marines."(10) The force eventually consisted of the Fifth and Sixth U.S. Marines, who were attached to the Second Division. More than nine thousand officers and men served overseas in France.(11) Muster rolls (entry 101), enlistment cards (entry 75), and casualty cards (entries 74, 97, and 107) are in the Records of the United States Marine Corps (Record Group 127). Compiled casualty lists are in the Second Division historical files, entry 1241, Record Group 120. There is not a series of unit records, similar to those in Record Group 391, that provides correspondence or special orders relating to individuals. The Marine Corps personnel records are among the holdings of the National Personnel Records Center and were not affected by the 1973 fire.
Conclusion
Although researchers are given no assurances of locating information on a World War I veteran when exploring the records cited in this article, they are at least guaranteed to come away with a better understanding of the conflict in which their ancestors served. Unfortunately, the Great War was only a precursor to an even costlier conflict little more than twenty years later. Researchers wishing to learn additional information on the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration should consult the Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States (1995). Further information on World War I records may be obtained by writing to the Old Army and Civil Records Branch (NWCTB), 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20408-0001. To request a search of personnel records in the National Personnel Records Center, you will need a Standard Form 180, "Request Pertaining to Military Records." Copies of the form are available from the center at 8600 Page Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63132, or from the Web site www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/standard-form-180.html.

Notes

1. The definition of the term "Doughboy" has a number of variations. One definition states that the term goes back to the Civil War, "when the cavalry derided foot soldiers as doughboys, perhaps because their globular buttons resembled flour dumplings or because soldiers used flour to polish their white belts" Smithsonian (April 1998): 22. Laurence Stallings, in his book, The Doughboys (New York, 1963, p. 15), claims that "there can be little dispute as to the derivation of the name. In Texas, U.S. Infantry along the Rio Grande were powdered white with the dust of adobe soil, and hence were called 'adobes' by mounted troops. It was a short step to 'dobies' and then, by metathesis, the word was Doughboys."

2. War Department, Annual Report of the Secretary of War for the Fiscal Year, 1918, Vol. 1 (1918) p. 11.

3. Ibid.

4. John Whiteclay Chambers II, To Raise an Army: The Draft Comes to Modern America(1987), p. 186.

5. War Department, Annual Report of the Secretary of War for the Fiscal Year, 1918, Vol. 1 (1918), p. 17.

6. Edward M. Coffman, The War To End All Wars (1968), p. 231.

7. The "National Army" is defined by John J. Pershing in his book My Experiences in the World War (1931), Vol. 1, p. 130: "In the organization of our armies for the World War it was evident that if any considerable numbers were to be sent abroad, an additional force would be needed over and above the Regular Army and National Guard. The War Department therefore established what was called the National Army, to be composed principally of men who were to come into the service through the draft."

8. Coffman, The War To End All Wars, p. 231.

9. Microfilm may be purchased:

A free descriptive pamphlet for M990 may be requested from the Product Development and Distribution Staff (NWCP), Room G7, National Archives and Records Administration, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20408-0001.

10. President Woodrow Wilson to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, May 27, 1917, #28790-3, entry 19b, General Correspondence of the Secretary of the Navy, Record Group 80, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.

11. Coffman, The War To End All Wars, p. 152

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Military Service in the United States Army During World War I, 1917-1919 Fall 1998, Vol. 30, No. 3 | Genealogy Notes By Mitchell Yockelson Officers Enlisted Men Air Service Marine Corps Conclusion November 11, 1998, marks the eightieth anniversary of the armistice ending World War I.

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How did the Spanish Influenza impact America’s ability to build a military?

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How did the Spanish Influenza impact America’s ability to build a military?

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It traveled from camp to camp so it affected a lot of soldiers. A lot got sick and many more died.

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Your access to the NCBI website at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov has been temporarily blocked due to a possible misuse/abuse situation involving your site. This is not an indication of a security issue such as a virus or attack. It could be something as simple as a run away script or learning how to better use E-utilities, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25497/, for more efficient work such that your work does not impact the ability of other researchers to also use our site. To restore access and understand how to better interact with our site to avoid this in the future, please have your system administrator contact info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

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Your access to the NCBI website at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov has been temporarily blocked due to a possible misuse/abuse situation involving your site. This is not an indication of a security issue such as a virus or attack.

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The AEF is the American Expeditionary Forces.

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[General John Joseph Pershing, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front, in uniform]. Photograph. c1919. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. LC-USZ62-113824.

World War I was the first time in American history that the United States sent soldiers abroad to defend foreign soil. On April 6, 1917, when the United States declared war against Germany, the nation had a standing army of 127,500 officers and soldiers. By the end of the war, four million men had served in the United States Army, with an additional 800,000 in other military service branches.

Once war was declared, the army attempted to mobilize the troops very quickly. The fatigued British and French troops, who had been fighting since August 1914, sorely needed the relief offered by the American forces. In May 1917, General John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing was designated the supreme commander of the American army in France, and the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) were created. Pershing and his staff soon realized how ill-prepared the United States was to transport large numbers of soldiers and necessary equipment to the front, where supplies, rations, equipment, and trained soldiers were all in short supply. Since even the transport ships needed to bring American troops to Europe were scarce, the army pressed into service cruise ships, seized German ships, and borrowed Allied ships to transport American soldiers from New York, New Jersey, and Virginia. The mobilization effort taxed the limits of the American military and required new organizational strategies and command structures to transport great numbers of troops and supplies quickly and efficiently.

Although the first American troops arrived in Europe in June 1917, the AEF did not fully participate at the front until October, when the First Division, one of the best-trained divisions of the AEF, entered the trenches at Nancy, France. Pershing wanted an American force that could operate independently of the other Allies, but his vision could not be realized until adequately trained troops with sufficient supplies reached Europe. Training schools in America sent their best men to the front, and Pershing also established facilities in France to train new arrivals for combat.

Throughout 1917 and into 1918, American divisions were usually employed to augment French and British units in defending their lines and in staging attacks on German positions. Beginning in May 1918, with the first United States victory at Cantigny, AEF commanders increasingly assumed sole control of American forces in combat. By July 1918, French forces often were assigned to support AEF operations. During the Battle of St. Mihiel, beginning September 12, 1918, Pershing commanded the American First Army, comprising seven divisions and more than 500,000 men, in the largest offensive operation ever undertaken by United States armed forces. This successful offensive was followed by the Battle of Argonne, lasting from September 27 to October 6, 1918, during which Pershing commanded more than one million American and French soldiers. In these two military operations, Allied forces recovered more than two hundred square miles of French territory from the German army.

By the time Germany signed the Armistice on November 11, 1918, the American Expeditionary Forces had evolved into a modern, combat-tested army recognized as one of the best in the world. The United States had sustained more than 320,000 casualties in the First World War, including over 53,000 killed in action, over 63,000 non-combat related deaths, mainly due to the influenza pandemic of 1918, and 204,000 wounded. In less than two years the United States had established new motorized and combat forces, equipped them with all types of ordnance including machine guns and tanks, and created an entirely new support organization capable of moving supplies thousands of miles in a timely manner. World War I provided the United States with valuable strategic lessons and an officer corps that would become the nucleus for mobilizing and commanding sixteen million American military personnel in World War II.

Notes

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The American Expeditionary Forces | A World at War | Articles and Essays | Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919 | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

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General John Joseph Pershing, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front, in uniform]. Photograph. c1919. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. LC-USZ62-113824. World War I was the first time in American history that the United States sent soldiers abroad to defend foreign soil.

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Why were American troops nicknamed “doughboys?”

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Why were American troops nicknamed “doughboys?”

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The troops would put clay on the piping of their uniforms to keep them white so when it rained the clay would make doughy blobs.

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It's unknown exactly how U.S. service members in World War I (1914-18) came to be dubbed doughboys-the term most typically was used to refer to troops deployed to Europe as part of the American Expeditionary Forces-but there are a variety of theories about the origins of the nickname.

According to one explanation, the term dates back to the Mexican War of 1846-48, when American infantrymen made long treks over dusty terrain, giving them the appearance of being covered in flour, or dough. As a variation of this account goes, the men were coated in the dust of adobe soil and as a result were called "adobes," which morphed into "dobies" and, eventually, "doughboys."

Among other theories, according to "War Slang" by Paul Dickson the American journalist and lexicographer H.L. Mencken claimed the nickname could be traced to Continental Army soldiers who kept the piping on their uniforms white through the application of clay. When the troops got rained on the clay on their uniforms turned into "doughy blobs," supposedly leading to the doughboy moniker.

However doughboy came into being, it was just one of the nicknames given to those who fought in the Great War. For example, "poilu" ("hairy one") was a term for a French soldier, as a number of them had beards or mustaches, while a popular slang term for a British soldier was "Tommy," an abbreviation of Tommy Atkins, a generic name (along the lines of John Doe) used on government forms.

America's last World War I doughboy, Frank Buckles, died in 2011 in West Virginia at age 110. Buckles enlisted in the Army at age 16 in August 1917, four months after the U.S. entered the conflict, and drove military vehicles in France. One of 4.7 million Americans who served in the war, Buckles was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Today imagery of the doughboy persists in more than 100 World War I commemorative statues across the United States. Most of the statues were erected in the 1920s and often through the fundraising efforts of grassroots veteran's and women's groups. Even small communities were able to pay for the statues since versions of the doughboy statue were mass produced and, therefore, more affordable.

Carptrash/CC BY-SA 3.0

Jennifer Wingate, associate professor of American Studies at St. Francis College and author of Sculpting Doughboys: Memory, Gender, and Taste in America's World War I Memorials, points out that communities were eager to hold up the doughboy as a heroic figure as the nation was anxious during this period over new outbreaks of Spanish influenza and over the rehabilitation of returning veterans. The early 1920s also marked the first Red Scare when, in the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1917, Americans were on high alert over Communist revolutionaries.

"These images of very fit, fighting doughboys shored up America's confidence during a vulnerable time," says Wingate. "To show evidence of these strong, healthy, strapping men in a vigilant pose or going over the top worked to dispel fears about the economic and physical health of soldiers returning from war."

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Why Were American Soldiers in WWI Called Doughboys?

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It's unknown exactly how U.S. service members in World War I (1914-18) came to be dubbed doughboys-the term most typically was used to refer to troops deployed to Europe as part of the American Expeditionary Forces-but there are a variety of theories about the origins of the nickname.

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A couple weeks after the U.S. officially joined the first World War, President Wilson made this act to give him and future presidents the power to draft soldiers for war.

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Some six weeks after the United States formally entered the First World War, the U.S Congress passes the Selective Service Act on May 18, 1917, giving the U.S. president the power to draft soldiers.

When he went before Congress on April 2, 1917, to deliver his war message, President Woodrow Wilson had pledged all of his nation's considerable material resources to help the Allies-France, Britain, Russia and Italy-defeat the Central Powers. What the Allies desperately needed, however, were fresh troops to relieve their exhausted men on the battlefields of the Western Front, and these the U.S. was not immediately able to provide. Despite Wilson's effort to improve military preparedness over the course of 1916, at the time of Congress's war declaration the U.S. had only a small army of volunteers-some 100,000 men-that was in no way trained or equipped for the kind of fighting that was going on in Europe.

To remedy this situation, Wilson pushed the government to adopt military conscription, which he argued was the most democratic form of enlistment. To that end, Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which Wilson signed into law on May 18, 1917. The act required all men in the U.S. between the ages of 21 and 30 to register for military service. Within a few months, some 10 million men across the country had registered in response to the military draft.

The first troops of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), under commander in chief General John J. Pershing, began arriving on the European continent in June 1917. The majority of the new conscripts still needed to be mobilized, transported and trained however, and the AEF did not begin to play a substantial role in the fighting in France until nearly a year later, during the late spring and summer of 1918. By that time, Russia had withdrawn from the conflict due to internal revolution, and the Germans had launched an aggressive new offensive on the Western Front. In the interim, the U.S. gave its allies much-needed help in the form of economic assistance: extending vast amounts of credit to Britain, France and Italy; raising income taxes to generate more revenue for the war effort; and selling so-called liberty bonds to its citizens to finance purchases of products and raw materials by Allied governments in the United States.

By the end of World War I in November 1918, some 24 million men had registered under the Selective Service Act. Of the almost 4.8 million Americans who eventually served in the war, some 2.8 million had been drafted.
READ MORE: Life in the Trenches of World War I

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U.S. Congress passes Selective Service Act

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Some six weeks after the United States formally entered the First World War, the U.S Congress passes the Selective Service Act on May 18, 1917, giving the U.S. president the power to draft soldiers.