Welcome to the Georgia WWI Commission

The Great War Over Here: Stories from the Home Front

Georgia remembers those who served in World War I

Reproduced here with appreciation to and permission of the Saporta Report

In this column, members of Georgia Humanities and their colleagues take turns discussing Georgia’s history and culture, and other topics that matter. Through different voices, we hear different stories.

This week guest contributor TOM JACKSON, of the Georgia World War I Centennial Commission, looks at the many memorials to WWI soldiers in our state.

By Tom Jackson

Tom Jackson

The mission of the Georgia World War I Centennial Commission (GWWICC) in remembering the Great War is not only to educate today’s citizens about this often-overlooked war but also to honor those who served and commemorate those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

With its 1921 Georgia State Memorial Book, Georgia became the first state to publish an official memorial book to those who died in World War I. But under the racial practices of the time, the book contained only the names of white personnel. Through the diligent research of retired state librarian Dr. Lamar Veatch, who works as an associate with the GWWICC, the names of hundreds of soldiers of African American, Native American, and other descent have been identified and added to the expanded version housed on the GWWICC website. As a result of this significant effort, today the names of some 1,300 Georgians are on the rolls as part of the national centennial program to find and record all such tributes to Americans who fought and died in World War I.

That same website also includes an online inventory, with photographs, of the war memorials and plaques located throughout the state — there is one in virtually every county seat. Some are elaborate; others are simple. Some have separate listings for “white” and “colored,” while others omit African Americans altogether. The GWWICC website will become a lasting legacy of these efforts as a part of the National Archives collection on the WWI Centennial.

Notable among the Georgia monuments are the many striking “Spirit of the American Doughboy” statues standing prominently across the state, among hundreds that were erected nationwide. Georgia has the original. All others are copies of the first by sculptor E. M. Viquesney that stands outside the courthouse in Nashville (in Berrien County). It honors the 60 Berrien residents who died in the war, including 28 who perished in the disastrous sinking of the troop ship Otranto off the coast of Scotland in 1918. The original bronze statue was ordered in August 1920, and when completed was displayed in Americus before touring on a national exhibition and finally being delivered to the Berrien County courthouse square in summer 1921. There it stood under a veil until late 1923 as local citizens worked to raise the remainder of the funds owed on it —a dedication ceremony was held once the debt was paid. A 1939 widening of the highway required moving the statue from the middle of the street to the courthouse grounds, where it stands today.

A copper copy of the original doughboy statue stands in Rees Park, in Americus, relocated from downtown Americus in 1947. An unusual but striking copy done in stone — the only known stone version — stands in front of the Morgan County Courthouse in downtown Madison. There are other versions across Georgia, generally in bronze or copper, in places like Trion (Chattooga County), Griffin (Spalding County), and Waycross (Ware County) — and more than 150 copies nationwide, mass-produced from the original statue in the 1920s and 1930s.

Georgia also is home to the grave of America’s “Known Soldier” of World War I. After the close of the war, Congress and President Warren G. Harding determined in 1922 to designate a known soldier killed in action as a representative of all who were lost in the war and to lie in Arlington Cemetery beside the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. At random, the name of Private Charles Graves was chosen — an 18-year-old private from Rome, Georgia, killed in the Hindenburg Line and originally buried in France. It was to be a tremendous honor for young Graves, except his mother wanted him buried at home in the family plot at Antioch Cemetery outside Rome. The government acceded to Mrs. Graves’s wishes. Graves got his ceremony and a glorious homecoming parade through New York City, honoring him and all the soldiers, returning and fallen. But then instead of going to Arlington, his body was put on a train to Rome, where he was buried in accordance with his mother’s wishes, still designated as representative of all who died in the Great War.

Local citizens soon thought it not fitting for America’s “Known Soldier” to lie in a little church cemetery. After the death of his mother, they obtained the permission of Graves’s brother to move him to a more stately setting in Rome’s historic Myrtle Hill Cemetery. Others, thinking the mother’s wishes should be honored, sought a court injunction to stop the move. But the night before an injunction was to be issued, a group of men exhumed Graves’s body and moved him to Myrtle Hill in the Memorial Plaza, where he lies today. A dramatic renovation of the site in 2000 created a memorial plaza to all 34 young men from Floyd County who died in World War I, with the “Known Soldier,” Charles Graves, at its center.

Keep reading “Jamil’s Georgia” for more in this continuing series about World War I.

Tom Jackson serves as executive director of the Georgia World War I Centennial Commission in his position as Heritage Communications Executive for the University System of Georgia.

Kelly Caudle and Allison Hutton of Georgia Humanities provide editorial assistance for the “Jamil’s Georgia” columns.

Gwinnett Braves Memorial Day Observance

The Gwinnett Braves joined other members of baseball’s International League in commemorating the World War I Centennial in observances on Memorial Day 2017.

 

 

UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU! WORLD WAR I AND THE AMERICAN POSTER

TEMPORARY EXHIBITION

Open May 20 - December 3, 2017

One hundred years ago, Americans were reluctant to get involved in what they viewed as Europe's war When the United States finally entered the war in April 1917, public opinion had to be turned around. The U.S. government mobilized an incredible cadre of artists to create "pictorial publicity" for all aspects of the war effort -- from recruiting to war relief to food and fuel conservation. Artists of the caliber of James Montgomery Flagg, Howard Chandler Christy, Charles Dana Gibson, J. C. Leyendecker, and N.C. Wyeth produced an impressive body of art. Unfortunately, all but a handful of these posters have long since been forgotten.

This exhibition combines artifact holdings from the Atlanta History Center with the magnificent poster collection of Atlanta historian Walton Rawls, whose landmark book Wake Up, America! World War I and the American Poster was published in 2001. The result is a fascinating look at American posters of World War I, both as graphic masterworks and as illustrations of a tragic historical episode.

Uncle Sam Wants You! WWI and the American Poster is part of a series of exhibitions at Atlanta History Center in 2017-2018 commemorating the centennial of World War I.

When Emory Doctors went to War

Reproduced here with appreciation to and permission of the Saporta Report

In this column, members of Georgia Humanities and their colleagues take turns discussing Georgia’s history and culture, and other topics that matter. Through different voices, we hear different stories.

This week, REN DAVIS, an Atlanta writer and photographer, shares a story of Georgia patriots — the physicians, nurses, and medical staff who answered the call of World War I.

By Ren Davis

Only a small fraction of Americans now choose to serve in the military, many coming from the lower rungs of the nation’s economic ladder, and a declining number ofpolitical and business leaders are veterans. Circumstances were very different a century ago, when nearly all Americans, from laborers to professionals, put their lives and careers on hold and answered the call to serve in World War I. Atlanta and Georgia provided an excellent illustration of this patriotism and dedication.

In April 1917, shortly after America’s entry into the Great War, a call went out from the U.S. Army and the Red Cross to medical schools across the country. Doctors and nurses would be urgently needed to staff hospitals in support of the hundreds of thousands of newly enlisted “doughboys” who would soon head overseas to join British and French allies fighting Germans in the trenches snaking across Europe.

Emory School of Medicine answered the call. When dean William S. Elkin, M.D., received the request, he turned immediately to Edward Campbell Davis, M.D., to organize the school’s medical unit. Davis, a professor at the school and co-founder of Atlanta’s Davis-Fischer Sanatorium (later Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital and now Emory University Hospital Midtown), had served as an Army surgeon in the Spanish-American War and retained his military rank. Without hesitation, Davis accepted and immediately began assembling a team of Atlanta’s and Georgia’s most prominent physicians, skilled nurses, and other staff for this critical assignment. To enlist support for Davis’s efforts, noted Atlanta writer and journalist Corra Harris urged readers to volunteer, writing, “Every doctor and every nurse that can be spared must be sent to France, and they must go at once.”

The initial call was to organize a 500-bed hospital to be funded through popular subscription. Recognizing the scale of this endeavor, however, the federal government in August 1917 appropriated $40,000 to equip the Emory Unit, soon to be officially designated Base Hospital 43.

Base hospitals were the fourth tier of a complex military healthcare system. The first tier were aid stations near the front lines, where casualties were brought by stretcher for assessment. A few miles to the rear and accessible by ambulance were field hospitals, where patients were triaged by severity of injury or illness; those with minor wounds could be treated and returned to the front lines, while others would be transported to evacuation hospitals. These facilities, predecessors to the M.A.S.H. units from World War II and the Korean War, were the destination for urgent surgical or medical care. Once stabilized, patients would be taken by train to the large, permanent base hospitals for extensive surgical or medical treatment and convalescence.

Throughout the fall and winter, before leaving for Europe, Emory Unit physicians and nurses attended courses in military and combat medical care while awaiting word of the unit’s activation and training. A local fundraising campaign by the Atlanta newspapers netted $7,000. At a Piedmont Driving Club celebration, Davis was presented with the check (used to purchase a fully outfitted ambulance), while staff were given sweaters and Red Cross comfort kits.

Still, months went by — the usual military “hurry up and wait” — with no orders. Finally, in April 1918, unit officers received instructions to report to the recently constructed Camp John B. Gordon (present site of DeKalb Peachtree Airport) for basic training. At the same time, they learned that the unit’s hospital would be increased in size to 1,000 beds.

Finally, in June 1918 unit members traveled by train to Hoboken, New Jersey, and boarded the SS Olympic (sister ship of the ill-fated Titanic) for the voyage to Southampton, England. Due to logistical delays, unit nurses were held behind and did not join their colleagues for nearly a month. After a short channel crossing, the unit arrived in Le Havre, France, on June 23, 1918. A few days later, they were in the city of Blois. Emory Unit Base Hospital 43 of the Allied Expeditionary Force was now operational.

Utilizing existing hospitals and converted school buildings, Base Hospital 43 was soon expanded to 939 medical-surgical beds and 1,229 emergency beds. By mid-July, casualties began arriving by train from evacuation hospitals near Coulommiers, close to the battle lines at Chateau-Thierry and along the Marne River. Soon, the hospital’s census exceeded 700, most injured by gunshot and shrapnel wounds, with dozens of others suffering from poison gas attacks. To meet the growing number of casualties, two principal surgical teams were organized, one of which was then deployed to staff Mobile Hospital 1, providing frontline care for American soldiers fighting in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, the climactic battle to end the war.

Twice during these final months, Base Hospital 43’s capacity was increased to meet the desperate needs, the last time in mid-October, to 2,025 medical-surgical beds and 2,300 emergency beds. On November 10, 1918, the day before the Armistice would be signed, ending the war, the hospital’s census peaked at 2,237 patients. In the weeks and months after hostilities ceased, the hospital continued to care and treat hundreds of patients suffering from both combat-related injuries as well as the epidemic of influenza that was sweeping across Europe and the world.

On Christmas Day, Base Hospital 43 commander Lieutenant Colonel S. U. Marietta, received a telegram of season’s greetings and congratulations from Major General John J. Pershing, Commander in Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces. Pershing wrote, “Please accept for yourself, the officers, nurses, and men under your command, and patients under your care, my. . .admiration for. . .the spirit of loyalty and enthusiasm with which the personnel of your hospital have met their obligations.”

The unit remained in France, caring for ill and wounded soldiers until relieved from duty on January 21, 1919. Following a month of demobilization and packing, the unit’s veteran doctors, nurses, and enlisted personnel returned home to a rousing welcome at Camp Gordon on March 29, 1919. While the Emory Unit received citations for meritorious service from General Pershing, French field marshal Ferdinand Foch, and others, the greatest compliment may have come from a patient, a young Army lieutenant, E. H. Jefferies, from New York:

“Atlanta, you can be proud of Emory Unit and if you think you have any more like it, send them along, but you have to go some to keep up with Emory. God bless the people of the South. From a Northern Yank. . . .”

On September 2, 1942, the Emory Unit would be reactivated for service in World War II as General Hospital 43, serving in North Africa and France.

To learn more about the Emory Unit, check out History of the Emory Unit, Base Hospital 43, U.S. Army, American Expeditionary Forces (1919) and The History of Surgery at Emory University School of Medicine (Ovid Bell Press, 1979) by John D. Martin, M.D.

Georgia Humanities is a partner of the Georgia World War I Centennial Commission. To learn more about Georgia and World War I, read this overview, and our columns about fighter pilot Eugene Dobbs, the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919, and the impact of wartime propaganda.

Ren Davis, a graduate of Emory University, is a writer and photographer whose work has appeared in such places as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Magazine, and Atlanta Magazine. Davis and his wife, Helen, are the authors of several popular guidebooks and the award-winning Landscapes for the People: George Alexander Grant, First Chief Photographer of the National Park Service (UGA Press, 2015).

Kelly Caudle and Allison Hutton of Georgia Humanities provide editorial assistance for the “Jamil’s Georgia” columns.

Georgia WWI Centennial Commission meets at the National Infantry Museum

May 2, 2017 –  The Commission held its regular monthly meeting at the impressive National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning, followed by a reception for the community and a lecture by Dr. Monique Seefried, member of the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission.

World War I Changed Georgia

Reproduced here with appreciation to and permission of the Saporta Report

In this column, members of Georgia Humanities and their colleagues take turns discussing Georgia’s history and culture, and other topics that matter. Through different voices, we hear different stories.

This week, TOM JACKSON, Georgia World War I Centennial Commission, and LAURA MCCARTY, of Georgia Humanities, examine the changes World War I brought to Georgia and efforts across the state to commemorate the war.

By Tom Jackson and Laura McCarty

Those of a certain age – early Baby Boomers – grew up through the centennial of the War Between the States and were regaled with stories of Georgia’s role in it. Our parents were of “the Greatest Generation” who fought World War II, so we were well familiar with those stories as well. But when we note that April 6 this year marks the centennial of the United States’ entry into the “Great War,” some actually have to pause to think what war that might be.

World War I, as it came to be known, had been thought “the war to end all wars,” until it didn’t. There were 70 million military personnel mobilized, nine million combatants and seven million civilians who died as a result of the war. We know of the trench warfare, the use of mustard gas and barbed wire, but the stories of Georgia’s role in the war and of the doughboys it sent to the front are less well known.

One hundred years ago this week, on April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and entered World War I. Though President Woodrow Wilson recently had been reelected with a narrow victory under the slogan “He Kept Us Out of War,” increased German submarine attacks on trading and passenger vessels and the Zimmerman Telegram (a secret communication from Germany to Mexico that offered the latter the opportunity to reclaim land in the American Southwest if they allied with Germany) led him to seek the declaration. Congress also passed the Selective Draft Act requiring men from ages 21 to 30 to register.

With the war already almost three years old and at a dangerous stalemate, Georgia newspapers and elected officials had been opposed to American intervention, fearing it would hurt the cotton and timber trade. After the sinking of the Lusitania, Senator Hoke Smith said war was not needed to avenge the deaths of a few “rich Americans.” Senator Thomas E. Watson unsuccessfully challenged the draft act in federal court. Some farmers and landowners feared the loss of laborers and attempted to control who would be drafted. Ten percent of Georgia’s African Americans left as part of what became the Great Migration, seeking to escape Georgia’s Jim Crow conditions through jobs in northern industries or service abroad. (Georgia’s Eugene Bullard, a boxer, had left American shores for Europe prior to the war, but when war broke out, he joined the French military, fighting first with the infantry and eventually as a fighter pilot.)

Georgia’s anti-war attitudes changed quickly, thanks to newspaper accounts that were anti-German and strongly patriotic. (Annette Laing’s column of March 13 provides some examples of how these newspaper articles worked). By the end of the war, more than 100,000 Georgians had served in the war effort, and the state had been home to more military training camps than any other state. Georgia’s major camps crisscrossed the state — from Fort Oglethorpe to Fort Screven on Tybee Island; from Fort Benning in Columbus, to Camp Wheeler in Macon, to Camp Hancock and the Arsenal in Augusta. Souther Field, outside of Americus, was home to a flight school that trained more than 2,000 pilots. Fort McPherson was in south Atlanta, and Camp Gordon was located on the current site of Peachtree DeKalb Airport.

Progressive era women’s clubs provided hospitality to the troops in training. Georgians bought war bonds and planted “liberty gardens.” The state school superintendent encouraged teachers and students to take loyalty oaths. Teachers stopped covering German language, art, and history to emphasize their patriotism.

In 1915 teacher and University of Georgia administrator Moina Michael began the practice of making and selling poppies to raise funds to care for wounded soldiers. The Veterans of Foreign Wars organization continues this practice through their “Buddy Poppy” effort, which occurs in April.

Less than seven weeks before the armistice, the tragic wreck of the troop ship Otranto occurred off the Scottish coast. Of 690 doughboys on board, 370 died, including 130 Georgians. Nashville, the county seat of Berrien County, which had lost 28 men in the Otranto disaster alone, dedicated one of the first doughboy statues in 1921. Across the state many communities erected monuments to those they lost and to honor those who served in the Great War. Charles Graves, a Rome native killed in action, was selected to be the “known” soldier buried at Arlington Cemetery. Later, in accordance with his mother’s wishes, he was reburied in Myrtle Cemetery. Shortly before the war’s end and for several months after, Georgia’s soldiers and civilians were effected by the Spanish flu pandemic.

The Georgia World War I Centennial Commission (GWWICC), in partnership with Georgia Humanities and other key organizations, is working to honor the memory, educate about, and commemorate the roles that Georgians played in the war through exhibitions, K-12 curriculum development, and other programs. Among many of note:

• Uncle Sam Wants You! World War I and the American Poster, Atlanta History Center
• Anne Morgan’s War: American Women Rebuilding France, 1917-1924, Atlanta History Center
• From Flying Aces to Army Boots: World War I and the Chattahoochee Valley, Columbus Museum
• The World’s War is Georgia’s War: 1917-1919, Georgia Southern University Museum, Statesboro

With the Georgia Department of Education, the GWWICC is developing teacher resources for use by teachers in the 5th, 6th, and 8th grades and in high school U.S. and world history courses that include World War I. Through National History Day in Georgia (a program of Georgia Humanities and LaGrange College in partnership with Mercer University), the commission will present awards to students for their research on World War I topics.

The GWWICC website is rich with a directory and photographs of World War I markers and monuments across the state and an expanding database of Georgians who died in service during World War I, including many African Americans not previously recognized.

Tune in to GPB on Monday, April 10; Tuesday, April 11; and Wednesday, April 12; from 9:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. for American Experience’s “The Great War” series.

Keep reading “Jamil’s Georgia” for more in this continuing series about World War I.

Tom Jackson serves as executive director of the Georgia World War I Centennial Commission in his position as Heritage Communications Executive for the University System of Georgia. Laura McCarty is executive vice president of Georgia Humanities.

Kelly Caudle and Allison Hutton of Georgia Humanities provide editorial assistance for the “Jamil’s Georgia” columns.

“Ready to Serve” – A story from WWI Base Hospital 18 in France

Storyteller Ellouise Schoettler re-enacts an engaging, first-person account of Army nurses at the front in World War I, leaving members of the audience feeling as if they had been there. Her presentation on Monday, March 27 told the story of nurses from Johns Hopkins Hospital, who are shown in the slide as they boarded the U.S.S. Finland to cross the Atlantic.  The event, sponsored by the Oconee County Library, was part of the observance of the centennial of World War I.  Thursday, April 6, 2017 is the 100^th anniversary of the U.S. declaration of war.