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| Kansas Volunteers Heading for the Army |
By Blake A. Watson
University Press of
Reviewed by Abigael C. Rich, MFA
When President Wilson visited Topeka in February 1916 as part of his efforts to promote his administration’s “preparedness program,” the reception from most Kansans was negative. At the time, the state of Kansas was overwhelmingly rural: in 1910 only three cities exceeded 40,000 residents and nearly five sixths of the state’s land was devoted to farming. Opposition to Wilson’s preparedness policy primarily fell under two categories. The first, represented by notable state Republicans, was a concern that any preparation would see the United States pushed into the conflict in Europe, while the second, influenced by adjutant general Charles I. Martin, disagreed with the War Department’s approach.
In early 1916, General Martin announced an interest in finding communities within Kansas which were willing to form a National Guard company, a proposal which was held up by “Stub” Quakenbush of Oskaloosa. As tensions at the Mexican border escalated, prompting Wilson to deploy members of the National Guard, the newly founded Oskaloosa company saw its first action. Overall, the Kansas National Guard provided 2,800 soldiers to fight against Mexican invasion at the southern border. Several months later, these soldiers returned to Kansas and were met with celebrations and admiration. Not only did the conflict with Mexico provide valuable training for soldiers who would go on to fight in Europe, but the involvement of Kansas men in the military efforts at the border helped to ease Kansans into supporting Wilson when the United States finally entered the Great War in early 1917.
The sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 also hit Kansas close to home, as among the 128 dead American passengers was a University of Kansas graduate; his wife, on board with him, narrowly survived. In November 1916, Kansas voted to reelect Wilson, in large part due to his commitment to keep the United States out of war in Europe. However, when the contents of the “Zimmerman Telegram” were made public, the perception of going to war shifted. Both Kansas senators and six of the eight Kansas house representatives in Washington D.C. joined the majority in affirming the declaration of war. This had an immediate impact in Kansas, with the Topeka Daily Capital declaring that “today we [Kansas] stand behind the nation’s chosen leader in his… reluctant decision to meet war by war” (Watson, 42).
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| Camp Funston During the War |
From 1917 to 1924, Fort Riley, Kansas was the location of Camp Funston, named for a Kansan major general who passed away six weeks before the United States entered World War I. Camp Funston received and trained draftees and enlisters to the military, and served as the home of the Eighty-Ninth and Ninety-Second Divisions of the U.S. Army. The Eighty-Ninth Division included the 353rd Infantry, known as the All Kansas Regiment, as well as the 342nd Field Artillery, which included many famous collegiate and professional athletes. The Ninety-Second was one of two segregated infantry divisions, formed by Black draftees and commanded in part by Black leaders. While part of the existing Kansas National Guard was sent to Camp Mills, New York, to form part of the Forty-Second (Rainbow) Division, the rest arrived in Camp Doniphan in Oklahoma, joining the Missouri National Guard to form the Thirty-Fifth Infantry Division.
Among the accounts of events throughout the war which focused on the perspective of people from and associated with Kansas, Watson added another thread of connection by including several mini-biographies for many of the men and women involved. These snippets highlighted other aspects of their lives, from childhood memories, excerpts from wartime letters, their family life, and what those who survived the war went on to do afterwards, and they also served to further connect the events on the warfront directly to the state of Kansas. To give an example, Charles Orr and Clyde Grimsley were among the first Americans, and the first Kansans, to arrive in France. Orr, who was only eighteen when he enlisted, was critically injured in the trenches after he disobeyed orders to retreat and instead stayed to rescue his wounded bunkmate. Both men survived, and Orr became known as the First American Hero. Meanwhile, Grimsley, a farmer from Emporia, was captured by the Germans in the same advance, and he provided valuable insight into the conditions of German prisons.
The 1918 Battle of Cantigny was the first major American offensive of WWI and resulted in the successful recapture of a German-occupied village. Three Kansas men fought in this advance, narrowly escaping death and living to see the end of the war. In Belleau Wood, a general and graduate of Kansas State University (then Kansas State Agricultural College) helped the Americans gain control of the area. Several Kansas men lost their lives in trenches within the Vosges region, and two Kansas men, Ulysses Grant McAlexander and Thomas Reid, earned the nickname of the “Rocks of the Marne” due to their contributions against a German advance along the Marne River. Finally, Camp Funston’s Eighty-Ninth Division were part of the American army fighting at Saint-Mihiel and continued to fight during the Meuse-Argonne offensive.
The war had a great impact on the Kansas Home Front as well, from distrust between its citizens, to ideological objections, to the outbreak of influenza. In 1910, of the foreign-born living in Kansas, a quarter had immigrated from Germany, and a proclamation from President Wilson in 1918 required all Germans to register as “alien enemies” and restricted their movement and activities. Anti-German propaganda extended into Kansas, creating a difficult environment for German Americans living there. Another community in Kansas significantly impacted by the war were members of the Mennonite church. Pacifists on account of their doctrine, many Mennonites faced criticism for anti-war sentiments, while others were forced to contend with their beliefs after being drafted. Kansas also saw itself at the forefront of another crisis—the Spanish flu pandemic—when the illness swept through Camp Funston. Some historians debate whether the flu even originated in Kansas and was brought to Europe when soldiers were sent there.
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| Order HERE |
At the end of the war, Kansans came together to celebrate and grieve the men and women who had served. Loss was felt all across the state: according to records, 589 communities in Kansas experienced the death of a resident during the war. Over a hundred years later, Blake A. Watson continues to remember and commemorate the Kansans who felt the impact of World War I through his extensive biographical and historical research and his care in bringing it all together into this book. Although an attorney by trade, Watson’s great-uncle, a Kansas man whose story is told within his work, inspired him to search for the stories of others who took pieces of Kansas with them while serving in the Great War. Well-researched and thoughtfully arranged, Kansas and Kansans in World War I shows the impact of WWI on the rural state, as well as the impact which those rural men and women had while serving abroad.
Going into reading Kansas and Kansans in World War I, I admit that my study of the Great War was limited to a combined few weeks of lectures during U.S. History and AP European History in high school. However, I spent many of my formative years in Kansas and feel a strong connection to the state and its people; furthermore, I also spent a year living in Amiens, France. Many of the places which feature prominently throughout Blake A. Watson’s book are familiar to me, both at home for the soldiers in Kansas and abroad on the Western Front. I was intrigued to read more about how WWI connected these two places which feel so close to me!
Abigael C. Rich
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