Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images. If you want to play along, sign up to the link, try to visit as many of the other participants as possible, and have fun.

Next in a series on how epidemics, pandemics, and other public health crises have affected my families.

You can catch up on the series here:
Woodye Webber
Lydia Elizabeth Strange
Jesse J. Bryan, part 1
Ice Cream for what ails you
Jesse J. Bryan at Camp Gordon

I’m continuing to piece together, as best I can, the life of Jesse (Joe) Bryan who was a first cousin to my grandfather Thomas Hoskins. As noted previously, Jesse registered for the draft on 5 June 1917 and enlisted on 23 July 1918. His military training was at Camp Gordon, GA, where he was called to the September Automatic Replacement Draft.

I assumed that training at Camp Gordon would last at least six weeks, but this excerpt from Learning the Lessons of Lethality: The Army’s Cycle of Basic Combat Training, 1918-2019 states that his training at Camp Gordon may have only been twelve days.

“The Army began its initial foray into individual replacement training following the overseas deployment of its combat divisions in late spring 1918. Heavy combat losses required an individual replacement system to maintain the integrity of front line units. Depot staffs provided immunizations, medical examinations, job classification interviews, proficiency testing, and initial uniform issue to new recruits. The overworked and understaffed cadre had little time to conduct Soldier training other than rudimentary manual of arms drill and marching. The Army established fourteen Replacement Training Centers (RTCs) at camps vacated by deployed divisions in spring 1918. The hastily formed centers and training cadre required time to incorporate the systems and processes required for individual Soldier training. The centers were operating at full capacity by August 1918. The cadre created a 12-day training program for individual Soldier training and received augmentation from veteran officers and non-commissioned officers returning from France. New troops were assigned to a replacement battalion for additional training upon arrival in France. Replacement battalions emulated the French and British models and conducted training designed to reinforce basic Soldier skills and accustom green men to the operating environment.” 

The next clue is the document below. Jesse is third on this passenger list, #54.

This page doesn’t offer much information – no ship named, no date of sailing, no date, no mention of the embarkation camp. I had made a note of a departure date of September 9th. Where did I get it? I went back to ancestry.com, where I obtained the record. The soldiers in his company are listed in alphabetical order, so I backed up to the beginning of the list for Company 8 and saw that a stamp at the top of the page gave the September 9 date.

Camp Merrit
Overseas Casual
Detachment
Sep 9 1918

And it looks like the word outside the box is “checked.”

It never fails to astound me how much information can be right in front of my face and I simply don’t see it. All I had seen was the date. Mystery solved. When Jesse left Camp Gordon, he want to Camp Merrit, NJ. He was checked in on September 9th.

I have requested Jesse’s military records, but with shutdowns due to our current pandemic, only emergency requests are being handled at this time. I don’t expect to receive anything anyway. Older records kept at the National Archives in St. Louis were destroyed by a fire sometime in the 1970s. I tried to get military records for Jesse’s brother a few years ago to no avail. So … I’m left to guess.

Here is what I think I know:
* Jesse was checked in at Camp Merritt, on September 9, 1918. If he was in a 12-day training program at Camp Gordon, it seems like he would have been transferred to Camp Merritt or another embarkation camp by mid-August.
* Jesse’s youngest sister told her daughter that she saw Jesse when he came home on furlough before being shipped out. A twelve-day training would have accommodated a furlough from Camp Gordon before going to New Jersey, but I wonder if he just went home before his enlistment in Georgia in July. Knowing if he was in uniform when he went home would answer that question.
* Jesse had a professional photograph made during his time at Camp Merritt.

Jesse’s cap looked unfamiliar to me, with that dip in the middle creating almost flaps on either side, so I went looking for information.

The cap he is wearing is an overseas cap and was not given to soldiers until they were at an embarkation camp. Maybe Jesse is expressing his personal style in the way he is wearing his cap, or maybe this version is meant to be worn this way.

“The various modes in which the overseas caps were worn after they had been issued to the men of the 36^th Infantry Division at Camp Mills in August of 1918, was mentioned in a history of that organization:

Rivaling the Sam Browne belt in its importance was the new overseas cap which was to take the place of the campaign hat. Officers and men shared in the task of adjusting this new contrivance to their persons. A remarkable variety of ideas were developed as to just how the cap should be placed on the head, many attempting to wear it after the fashion of a “stocking cap” while others gave an excellent impression of Napoleon. These new articles of apparel however, were not allowed to be worn in New York, where the men and officers went as often as time and money allowed. The privilege of seeing New York was not given to all however. Some of the units arriving at the camp August 14, were equipped and sent aboard the transports at Hoboken the same day, not being allowed to spend a night in the camp, so great was the necessity for loading the ships preparatory to departure … Not all the troops were equipped with the new overseas cap, some of them being compelled to await their arrival at the training area in France before they received this part of their equipment.
The Story of the 36^th, Captain Benjamin H. Chastaine, 1920, page 31″

This suggests that Jesse had to keep his hat in his pocket while in NYC when he was out and about in the city. If you are interested in more photos and information about overseas caps, check here.

The back of Jesse’s photo gives the name of the photography studio: Walter Studio, 28 East 14th Street, New York City. I found a recent photo of the building at 28 East 14th St. on a blog urging landmark status. The article names previous occupants, but not the photography studio.

I obtained the photograph of Jesse from the Iowa State Historical Society. The Iowa State Department of History and Archives actively requested photographs of World War I casualties from families of the deceased during, and for a few years after, the war.

So – Jesse had to be at Camp Merritt long enough for at least a day trip to the city.

Backing up even further in the lengthy passenger list, I finally found another piece to the puzzle. The file folder that held the passenger list where Jesse is listed.

A few pages in, and I have the dates that the soldiers were loaded onto the ship.

EMBARKED (DATE): September 18 and 19, 1918

That puts Jesse at Camp Merritt about ten days: Monday, September 9-Wednesday, September 18. Now that I have a possible timeline, I’ll take a closer look at Camp Merritt next time.

… and to tie in to Sepia Saturday, I’ll speculate that Jesse got a glimpse of a lighthouse while in NYC.

See what other Sepians are shining a light on today: Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images. If you want to play along, sign up to the link, try to visit as many of the other participants as possible, and have fun.

Exercising On The Beach (1935) The National Media Museum : Sepia Saturday 542, 17 October 2020

I’m continuing a series on how epidemics, pandemics, and other public health crises have affected my families. Today is a look at what life at Camp Gordon, GA might have been like for Jesse James Bryan. His daily life in the Army included a lot of physical exercise, although not on a beach.

You can catch up on the series here:
Woodrow Wilson (Woodye) Webber
Lizzie Strange
Jesse James Bryan, part 1
Ice Cream for what ails you

Jesse (Joe) Bryan was first cousin to my grandfather Thomas Hoskins.

The index card that verifies Jesse Bryan’s death also provides his date of enlistment – 23 July 1918. My assumption was that this was the day he arrived at Camp Gordon, Georgia. I have read that, in order to ensure better behavior among the men catching trains to report for duty, the Army decided to provide the men arm bands and papers so that they were under the authority of the military before they got on the trains. So it is possible this date is not the day he arrived, but the day he came under the authority of the Army. His train trip probably took a couple of days. In either case, it was late July when Jesse entered military service. He had just celebrated his thirty-first birthday on July 4.

This newspaper clipping from the Atlanta Constitution confirms that a large number of new recruits from Iowa arrived that week. Did Jesse know anyone on the train with him? Did he meet some fellow recruits on the train? Did they stick together once they arrived?

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA), 25 Jul 1918

July 23rd was a Tuesday and the clipping above states that approximately 8,000 men had arrived by Wednesday. At its peak, Camp Gordon, located where the DeKalb-Peachtree Airport is now, held 46,000 troops. The photo below shows officers meeting new recruits at Camp Gordon in front of the YMCA building, where they were processed. The photo is not dated, but the day Jesse Bryan arrived at Camp Gordon may have looked something like this.

Camp Gordon, GA 1918

Searching newspaper clippings, it has been interesting to note that nearly every article includes a reference to “white” soldiers – or to “Negro” or “colored” soldiers. There were both at Camp Gordon, but the rules of Jim Crow applied and these fellow soldiers occupied opposite sides of the large camp. Camp Gordon reflected a wide variety of cultures, ethnicities, religions, and languages. Many of the recruits were immigrants who did not speak English, so language classes were also part of training. For a farm boy from Iowa, who had likely only traveled into neighboring states, this must have been a new experience on several fronts.

Jesse was recruited as part of The Personnel Replacement System – he in the September Automatic Replacement Draft. I haven’t been able to determine what number (First, Second, etc.) the September ARD was, which might have given me the opportunity to be more specific about Jesse’s time at Camp Gordon. Rather than being assigned to units that would be shipped off together and serve together in the war, the draft replacement recruits were given general training and were assigned where ever they were needed once they arrived in France.

“The Army began its initial foray into individual replacement training following the overseas deployment of its combat divisions in late spring 1918. Heavy combat losses required an individual replacement system to maintain the integrity of front line units. Depot staffs provided immunizations, medical examinations, job classification interviews, proficiency testing, and initial uniform issue to new recruits. The overworked and understaffed cadre had little time to conduct Soldier training other than rudimentary manual of arms drill and marching. The Army established fourteen Replacement Training Centers (RTCs) at camps vacated by deployed divisions in spring 1918. The hastily formed centers and training cadre required time to incorporate the systems and processes required for individual Soldier training. The centers were operating at full capacity by August 1918. The cadre created a 12-day training program for individual Soldier training and received augmentation from veteran officers and non-commissioned officers returning from France. New troops were assigned to a replacement battalion for additional training upon arrival in France. Replacement battalions emulated the French and British models and conducted training designed to reinforce basic Soldier skills and accustom green men to the operating environment.” Excerpt from:
Learning the Lessons

Once he was processed, Jesse would have been assigned to his barracks and I would guess that training began immediately. I wonder if everyone called him by his given name, Jesse, or by the name his friends and family called him – Joe.

The photo below is titled “At Mess, Camp Gordon.” So much going on in this photo! I downloaded the high res image, so it takes a minute to load if you click to enlarge, but it’s worth it. You can also zoom in once it is enlarged to take an even closer look.

At Mess, Camp Gordon. Image National Archives Catalog

I imagine the soldiers were happy to take off those wool jackets for exercise.

Physical exercise, Camp Gordon, National Archives Catalog

Groups rotated in and out of the Norcross Rifle Range, located seven miles north of Camp Gordon. Each group stayed there for about a week.

Norcross Rifle Range, Feb. 1918. National Archives Catalog

Jesse’s farm experience must have come in handy while training at Norcross.

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA) 20 Aug 1918

Since the soldiers were training to fight a war in Europe, foreign instructors provided training useful for the French landscape (like rifle training in trenches pictured above) and in the use of bayonets.

Foreign Mission, Camp Gordon 1918. Nation Archives Catalog

“In a tilt to show American fighters the fine points of bayonet fighting a British sergeant and a captain, instructor at Camp Gordon, Atlanta, Ga. went through the various ways of scientific parrying.”

I would guess that this excerpt from Learning the Lessons about recruits at Camp Greene in January 1918 would have also applied to the new recruits at Camp Gordon:
“Instilling the killer instinct also proved difficult. The division Chief of Staff, COL Christian A. Bach, summed up the problem: Many of the men drafted had never struck a blow in anger in their lives. The bayonet instilled a fighting spirit and gave them individual aggressiveness, but it was never really popular. The rifle was the national arm of the American people, and they do not take kindly to the use of cutting or thrusting weapons. But, although the men of the 4th Division had few occasions to use their bayonets in hand-tohand fighting, the training received was of real value and had a distinct psychological effect.”

Soldiers were trained to go “over the top,”

the use of automatic rifles,

small arms, hand grenades, marching, bombing, machine guns, drills …

This photo, titled “Camp Gordon Sanitary Museum” leaves me with more questions than answers. Take a closer look.

Sanitary Museum Camp Gordon 1918. National Archives Catalog

The camp also provided resources for relaxation and edification – a library, YMCA, religious services, and entertainment. Did Jesse take some solace in conversation with other soldiers and the YWCA volunteers?

The Saturday after Jesse arrived at Camp Gordon, there was a big baseball game between the Gordon team and the team from Camp Jessup. It was reported that 10,000 from Camp Gordon would view the game. Was Jesse one of them? Did he get a pass to go into Atlanta during his first weekend?

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA) 23 Jul 1918

In mid-August, a politician from Iowa who had a brother at Camp Gordon addressed the troops. Did Jesse listen to his fellow Iowan?

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA) 15 Aug 1918

The exercise training program at Camp Gordon received high praise in a review conducted in late July/early August.

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA) 3 Aug 1918

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA) 3 Aug 1918

If you would like to see soldiers and their trainers in action, here you go! Around 8:00, the men are playing fitness games and may be having as much fun as those folks on the beach in the prompt photo.

There seems to be an emphasis on boxing as part of the physical training and I found lots of newspaper articles about boxing matches at camp as entertainment.

Jesse’s time at Camp Gordon was filled with a great amount of time engaged in physical training. Hopefully there were also a few laughs and a sense of camaraderie.

Work out a bit of stress and run over to visit others who have interpreted the prompt for Sepia Saturday.