Forging the Sword; The Story of Camp Devens New England's Army Cantonment

Concord, NH: The Rumford Press, 1920. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good. Format is approximately 5.5 inches by 8.25 inches. xi, [1], 172 pages. Some cover wear and page soiling. Ex-library with the usual library markings. Frontis illustration is a fold-out overview of Camp Devens. Illustrations. Foreword by Major General Henry P. McCain, Commander of the Plymouth (12th) Division and later cantonment commander at Camp Devens. The author was the Boston Globe Corespondent at Camp Devens. In 1917 the United States Congress and the Department of the Army established the former Fort Devens in a predominantly rural section of the Worcester and Middlesex counties in Massachusetts. The Fort's sitting was due primarily to its location at a major hub of the rail network in New England. Since its establishment, the former Fort Devens has undergone various transformations to serve the needs of the Army. Camp Devens, Massachusetts, was named in honor of Brigadier General Charles Devens, served as a training camp for 76th Division (National Army), which occupied the cantonment, August 1917 to July 1918. A reception center for selectees following the end of World War I, the camp was designated a demobilization center. Camp Devens processed more than 100,000 selectees into the Army, and as a demobilization center, processed more than 150,000 men out of the Army. From 1922, through the summer of 1931, Camp Devens was utilized as a training camp for National Guard troops, Reserve Units, ROTC cadets and Citizens' Military Training Camp (CMTC) candidates. In 1929, Robert Goddard, pioneer in rocketry, used the post for his rocket tests. The 12th Division was an infantry division of the United States Army, active in 1918-1919. Established at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, training was interrupted by the World War I Armistice and the division was quickly afterwards disestablished. The division was organized on July 12, 1918. The Regular 36th Infantry and 42d Infantry were ordered to Camp Devens in the latter part of July to become part of the 12th Division. (The 42nd Infantry had been assigned to the division on 5 July 1918). A certain number of non-commissioned officers and privates was taken from each company of the two regiments and assigned to the 73rd Infantry and 74th, both war-raised National Army, as a nucleus. The 12th Field Artillery Brigade, which was to become the divisional artillery, was organized and trained at Camp McClellan, Ala. It never actually joined the division at Camp Devens. It consisted of the 34th, 35th, and 36th Field Artillery Regiments and a trench mortar battery. By 1 September 1918 the training of the division for overseas service was well under way. Only after the Armistice of 11 November 1918 did orders arrive for the demobilization of the division. By 31 January 1919, all non-Regular commissioned and enlisted personnel had been discharged. Major-General Henry P. McCain commanded this division from the time of its organization until it was demobilized. McCain remained in command of Camp Devens after the division was disestablished. In World War I the 76th was the first division of the National Army to be drawn from civilian ranks through the draft, hence the insignia and the description, "the first sons of the nation." Known as the "Liberty Bell Division." Insignia is a blue liberty bell superimposed on a khaki square. Organized at Camp Devens, Mass., in Sept., 1917. The division was composed of National Army drafts from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The combined colors of the field, the device, and the chief are the national colors. "Onaway" is the alert cry of the Chippewa Indians, in whose hunting grounds the 76th Division trained. The 26th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army. A major formation of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, it was based in Boston, Massachusetts for most of its history. Formed on 18 July 1917 and activated 22 August 1917 consisting of units from the New England area, the division's commander selected the nickname "Yankee Division" to highlight the division's geographic makeup. Sent to Europe in World War I as part of the American Expeditionary Forces, the division saw extensive combat in France.