Camp Meade, Maryland, 1917
National Guard included some black units, and the War Department directed the organization of additional regiments if sufficient numbers of black draftees reported to National Army camps. In October 1917 Secretary Baker ordered the units at Camps Funston, Grant, Dodge, Sherman, Dix, Upton, and Meade to form the 92d Division. Brig. Gen. Charles C. Ballou organized a division headquarters at Camp Funston later that month, but the division did not assemble or train in the United States. The following June the 92d moved to France and first saw combat in the Lorraine area.[1]
After the organization of the 92d there remained the equivalent of four black infantry regiments in the United States, and the staff anticipated that their personnel would serve as replacements for the 92d or lines of communication troops in France. For administrative purposes, these black troops were organized in December 1917 as the 185th and 186th Infantry Brigades. Shortly thereafter the Headquarters, 93d Division (Provisional), a small administrative unit, was organized. Never intended to be a tactical unit, it simply exercised administrative control over the two brigades while they underwent training.[2]
Puerto Ricans comprised another segregated group in the Army, and the General Staff gave special consideration to them when organizing divisions. Initially it planned a provisional Puerto Rican division using the prewar tables that called for three infantry brigades, but that idea was soon dropped. Instead, the War Plans
- ↑ Memo, WCD for TAG, 1 Aug 17, sub: Utilization of colored men drafted for the National Army, WCD file 8142–13, Memo, WCD for CofS, 21 Aug 17, same subject, Memo, OCS for TAG, 24 Oct 17, sub: Organization of the Division, Colored, WCD file 8142–24, RG 165, NARA; Divisions, pp. 431–35.
- ↑ Memo, WCD for C/S, 13 Nov 17, sub: Utilization of Colored Units of the National Guard and Colored Draft, and Ltr., TAG to Brig Gen Ray Hoffman, 5 Jan 18, sub: 93d Division (Provisional), WCD file 8142, RG 165, NARA; GO 1, Provisional Division (Colored), 24 Dec 1917, 93d Inf Div file, DAMH-HSO; Divisions, p. 437.
