Notes
1 Hugh L. Scott, Some Memories of a Soldier (New York: Century Co., 1928), p. 552.
2 Scott, Memories, pp. 550–56; Frederick Palmer, Bliss, The Peacemaker: The Life and Letters of General Tasker Howard Bliss (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1934), pp. 146–56.
3 Memo, WCD for CofS, 10 May 17, sub: Plans for a Possible Expeditionary Force to France, WCD file 10050, RG 165, NARA. The WCD 10050 file is replete with background material on the development of the new division.
4 Memo, WCD, 10 May 1917, sub: Plans for a Possible Expeditionary Force to France; Draft of Memo prepared in May 1917, WCD for CofS, 7 Jul 1917, sub: The Organization of an American Army, WCD file 10050, RG 165, NARA. The French used two types of divisions in 1917, one fielding about 17,000 men based on two brigades of two infantry regiments each and the other of 14,000 organized around three infantry regiments.
5 Ibid.; Draft of Memo prepared in May 1917, WCD for CofS, 7 Jul 17, sub: The Organization of an American Army, WCD file 10050, RG 165, NARA.
6 L. Van Loan Naisawald, The US Infantry Division: Changing Concepts in Organization 1900–39, Project Shop, 1–ORO S–239 (Chevy Chase, Md.: Johns Hopkins University, 1952), pp. 12 and fig. 4; Memo, WCD for CofS, 21 May 17, sub: Plans for a possible expeditionary force to France, WCD file 10050, RG 165, NARA.
7 General Scott had been sent to Russia with a presidential commission to establish contact with the revolutionary government that had overthrown the czar. Scott, Memories, p. 570.
8 Memo, WCD for CofS, 21 May 17, sub: Plans for a possible expeditionary force to France, and Memo, CofB for WCD, 24 May 17, no subject, WCD file 10050, RG 165, NARA.
9 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.
10 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.
11 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.
12 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.
13 Organization, AEF, pp. 97–98.
14 The automatic rifle and the machine gun were viewed as similar rapid-fire infantry weapons, and the Baker Board recommended the adoption of concise descriptions for them. It proposed that the automatic rifle be defined as a weapon where recoil was sustained by the body of the firer, while recoil from the machine gun would be sustained by some sort of solid mount clamped to the weapon. (See Organization, AEF, p. 75).
15 Organization, AEF, pp. 56–89 and pp. 93–114 passim.
