for overseas service. Pershing nominated the 6th Field Artillery and the 16th, 18th, 26th, and 28th Infantry. Following a preplanned protocol, the French requested the deployment of a division to lift Allied morale, and President Woodrow Wilson agreed.[1]
Shortly thereafter an expeditionary force was organized. The regiments picked by Pershing, filled to war strength with recruits, moved to Hoboken, New Jersey. On 8 June Brig. Gen. William L. Sibert assumed command and began organizing the 1st Expeditionary Division. Four days later its initial elements sailed for France without most of their equipment, as the French had agreed to arm them. Upon arrival in France, one divisional unit—the 2d Battalion, 16th Infantry—paraded on 4 July in Paris, where the French people enthusiastically welcomed the Americans. Following the reception, the division's unschooled recruits, except the artillerymen, underwent six months of arduous training at Gondrecourt, a training area southeast of Verdun, while the division artillery trained at a French range near Le Valdahon.[2]
The Baker Board and Pershing's Staff Organizational Study
Upon completion of the Army's first World War I divisional study the 1st Expeditionary Division was deployed. Even before that investigation was finished, however, two new groups initiated additional studies. Pershing, who had been appointed commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on 26 May, headed one group; Col. Chauncey Baker, an expert in military transportation and a West Point classmate of Pershing, headed the other. Previously Majors Palmer, Moore, and Wells had consulted Pershing as they developed their ideas about the infantry division, and he found no fault with them. Nevertheless, Pershing's staff began exploring the organization of the expeditionary forces en route to France. Lt. Col. Fox Conner, who had served as the War College Division interpreter for the French mission while in Washington; the newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Palmer; and Majs. Alvin Barker and Hugh A. Drum assisted Pershing in this work.[3]
Independently, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker directed Colonel Baker and twelve other officers to study the British, French, and Belgian armies. After six weeks the secretary expected Baker to make recommendations that would help in organizing American forces. Colonel Baker himself met Pershing in England, and both agreed to work together after Baker conducted separate investigations in England, France, and Belgium. A single report, known as the General Organization Project, resulted from these efforts. Reflecting a consensus of the Baker and Pershing planners, it covered all aspects of the organization of the AEF except for the service of rear troops.[4]
The General Organization Project described an infantry division of about 25,000 men consisting of two infantry brigades (each with two infantry regiments and one three-company machine gun battalion), a field artillery brigade (com-
- ↑ John J. Pershing, My Experiences in the World War, 2 vols. (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1921) 1:2–3; Ltr, The Adjutant General of the Army (hereafter cited as TAG) to CG, Southern Department, 23 May 17, sub: Organizations designated for foreign service, and Lit, TAG to CG, Southern Department, 26 May 17, same subject, 1st Inf Div file, DAMH-HSO; Society of the First Division, History of the First Division During World War 1917–1919 (Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co., 1922), p. 2.
- ↑ Society of the First Division, History of the First Division, pp. 6–18; GO 1, 1st Expeditionary Division, 8 Jun 1917, 1st Inf Div file, DAMH-HSO; Forrest C. Pogue, George C. Marshall: Education of a General (New York: Viking Press, 1963), pp. 146-47; John Whiteclay Chambers, II, To Raise an Army: The Draft Comes to Modern America (New York: The Free Press, 1987), p. 147.
- ↑ Pershing, My Experiences, 1:38–40, 43–44, 100–101; Ltr, TAG to Col. Chauncey B. Baker, 28 May 17, printed in United States Army in the World War 1917–1919: Organization of the American Expeditionary Forces (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1948), p. 55 (hereafter cited as Organization, AEF); Memo, CofS for Maj Gen Pershing, 21 May 17, sub: Organizations higher than Divisions, WCD file 10050, RG 165, NARA; Memo, John McA. Palmer for Gen Pershing, 19 Oct 21, no subject, John McA. Palmer Papers, LC.
- ↑ Organization, AEF, pp. 55–56, 91, 108; Lit, Baker to Pershing, 7 Jun 17, no subject, Pershing Papers, LC. The officers who accompanied Baker were Colonels William A. Graves, Dwight E. Aultman, Mark L. Hersey, and Charles P. Summerall; Lieutenant Colonels Hanson E. Ely, Edward D. Anderson, Kirby Walker, and Sherwood A. Cheney; Majors George S. Simonds. Morns E. Lock, and Frederick A. Ellison, and Captain John J. Quakemeyer.
