Monday, April 17, 2017
Contents
Prepared
by the Information Office, United States Army Training Center, Fort Dix, New
Jersey 08640
CONTENTS
PREFACE
v.
Chapter
I – THE UNITED STATES ETNERS WORLD WAR II
Chapter
II – SELECTION OF SITES FOR MOBILIZATION CAMPS 5
Chapter
III – MAJOR GENERAL JOHN ADAMS DIX, U.S.V. 9
Chapter
IV – THE CONSTRUCTION OF CAMP DIX 13
Chapter
V – CAMP DIX ACTIVITIES IN WORLD WAR I 19
Chapter VI – CAMP DIX AND DEMOBILIZATION 29
Chapter
VII – CAMP DIX BETWEEN THE WORLD WARS 33
CHAPTER
VIII – FORT DIX DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR 47
CHAPTER
IX – POST – WORLD WAR II 71
CHAPTER
X – IN THE SIXTIES 99
CHAPTER XI – FORT DIX TODAY 123
Appendix 1 – FORT DIX COMMANDERS 129
Appendix 2 – ROSTER (31 December 1966) 131
BIBLIOGRAPHY
133
Preface
PREFACE
The
history of Fort Dix, New Jersey, is a striking example of the changing attitude
of the American people and their elected representatives toward the United
States Army in the 20th Century. The United States has traditionally maintained
a small standing army in times of peace and relied heavily on citizen militia
and conscription in times of national emergency.
This
was the case at the outbreak of World War I. The United States Army at the time
of the declaration of war could not claim a single organized division. Its
total strength numbered only 200,000, most of whom were recent enlistments in
early stages of training. A crash program to build an Army of 1,000,000
authorized by Congress demanded new training facilities. Sixteen camp sites
were selected throughout the United States, and Camp Dix in central New Jersey
was designed as the focal installation for the heavily populated northeastern
United States.
The
camp site, although well selected, was constructed in haste in an atmosphere of
impermanency within a few months after the United States entered the war.
Throughout the war, the camp and its personnel did a prodigious job of training
and processing troops for the American Expeditionary Forces as well as for
other training camps in the United States. The camp reached a peak population
of 55,000 men in August 1918. With the armistice, Camp Dix became the principal
separation center of the entire United States.
Following
demobilization, there was no longer a national emergency – the world was
already made “safe for democracy.” In the 1920s and early 1930s, Camp Dix was
left to fall into almost utter decay. Were it not for the need for barracks to
house members of the Civilian Conservation Corps and other programs developed
during the “Great Depression,” the camp site might not have survived. There was
constant pressure to return the rich farmland to meet growing agricultural
needs of the area.
With
the threat of another war in Europe becoming more acute each passing year in
the late 1930s, the American people and the Congress began to sense the need
for greater preparedness than exited prior to World War I. Caught up in this
changing reaction, Camp Dix became Fort Dix, and a spirit of permanency became
apparent almost immediately. Careful plans were made for the rebuilding and
expansion of facilities, but Hitler and his blitzkrieg forced drastic
acceleration of many projects.
However,
when the United States entered World War II, Fort Dix was ready to fulfill its
mission. In mid-January 1942, less than five weeks after the United States had
declared war on the Axis Powers, elements of the 34th Infantry
Division had received final processing at Fort Dix and were already on the high
seas bound for Ireland.
During
World War II, Fort Dix trained and processed personnel, including 10 full
divisions, for operations in every theater throughout the world. Peak loads in
all respects exceeded those of World War I. The Columbia Encyclopedia credits
Fort Dix as “the largest army training center in the country” during the Second
World War. With surrender of the Axis powers, the fort again became the largest
separation center in the country – more than a million soldiers were processed
for return to civilian life.
Post
World War II showed slight resemblance to the complacent attitude that had
prevailed 25 years previously. One national crisis after another convinced the
American people of the need for constant vigilance.
The
Berlin Airlift, invasion of South Korea, Hungarian Revolt, Lebanon Affair,
Berlin Crisis, Cuban Missile Confrontation, United States participation in the
Dominican Republic, escalation of assistance to the South Vietnamese – these
and more have proven beyond any doubt the continuing role that the ground
soldier must play in the conduct of our nation’s foreign policies.
Fort
Dix today is known as “The Home of the Ultimate Weapon.” There are many who see
this as incongruous in relation to the atomic and hydrogen bombs,
intercontinental ballistic missiles, advances in chemical and biological
warfare, and developments in the use of outer space.
To
the infantryman, each new war or military conflict introduced weapons which at
the time convinced many that the ultimate had been achieved – witness the spear
to the club, the longbow to the bow and arrow, shrapnel to cannon, machine gun
to the rifle, tank to the horse, atom bomb to the blockbuster. Each had its
time and place and yet the mission of the infantryman to take and hold the
objective has remained unchanged.
The
poisonous gases have remained in storage since their use in World War I. The
atomic bomb has not dropped on an enemy for more than 20 years. But the
infantryman turned the tide in Korea and remains in his age-old role in South
Vietnam. Who knows how many times in the future his singular mission will have
to be carried out.
Despite
all the man-hours and dollars that go into research, science has yet to find a
substitute for the Ultimate Weapon – the Human Soldier. It is he who ultimately
must protect that for which we are fighting. It is he who must close with and
destroy those who seek to destroy us.
Who
is this man, the Ultimate Weapon, this highly trained and skilled practitioner
of the art of War? You know him….and know him well. He is the boy next door,
the lad down the street, a son, a husband, a father. He is a career soldier, a
member of the National Guard or the Army Reserves, the mayor, the drug store
clerk, the bank teller. HE is THE ULTIMATE WEAPON.
The
need for him has never abated. Our country needed him at Concord Bridge and
Remagen Bridge, at the banks of the Delaware and the banks of the Mekong, from
Trenton to Seoul. He held the line at Gettysburg and stormed the ramparts at
Vicksburg, took Guadalcanal and planted Old Glory atop Mt. Suribachi. He
marches in parades in Philadelphia, Chicago and Seattle, and patrols the
Demilitarized Zone at Panmunjom and Taesong Dong. He recently crouched in an
alley in Santo Domingo and today is successfully meeting the challenge to end
communist aggression in Vietnam.
He
is every alert, every ready for the fight he prays will never come. But he is
there, poised, because he knows he must be there, ready to make whatever
sacrifice is needed to preserve that which gave him his life’s first ever-free
breath. Although he is trained for his job, the learning process for this man’s
task at hand never ceases. But it does have a beginning. This beginning usually
comes by visiting the local recruiting sergeant or by receiving an official
envelope from the local board of the Selective Service System. From that
beginning it is but a short trip to the haircut, combat boots, chow line and
long hours of drill and marksmanship.
For
thousands of young men each year, the first taste of military life and training
comes at the “Home of the Ultimate Weapon.” Fort Dix…just a memory to some,
nostalgia to others.
This
is the story of Fort Dix and how it has provided, from 1917 to today, men for a
man’s job.
This
is the story of one camp, which continues to play a large role in perfecting
THE ULTIMATE WEAPON.
Chapter I - US Enters WW I
Chapter 1
THE UNITED STATES ENTERS WORLD WAR I
When the Imperial German Armies invaded Belgium and
France in August 1914, the military reservation now known as Fort Dix, New
Jersey, did not exist. In fact, even at the time the United States declared war
on Germany on 6 April 1917, no definitive action had been taken by the War
Department to locate any of the 32 new training camps that would provide the
bulk of the troops for the American expeditionary Forces in Europe.
Yet, in the short period of five months, training
camps capable of handling more than a million soldiers sprouted throughout the
United States. To understand this phenomenal development, it is necessary to
review the events leading to United States participation in the “war to end all
wars.”
The war in Europe in the summer of 11914 came as a
complete shock to the American people. Almost every shade of American opinion
had assumed that a general European war was unthinkable. Numerous seemingly
successful international conferences had lulled the American public into
believing that small wars between petty princes might continue but the “big”
war was a thing of the past.
The initial reaction was horror, disgust, and
determination to keep out of it. President Wilson proclaimed American
neutrality on 4 August 1914, and in a message to the Senate on the 19th
declared, “The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name…” 1.
(1. Samuel Eliot Morision, The Oxford History of the American People, p. 848)
Throughout the early years of the war, President
Wilson and a majority of the American people held firmly to the principles of
neutrality. In the Presidential election of 1916, Wilson won reelection by a
narrow margin, largely on the campaign slogan, “He Kept Us Out of War.”
Although Wilson made no promises to keep the United
States out of the war, he was convinced that by determined efforts to serve as
arbiter, he could bring the warring nations to the conference table. In
carrying out his idealistic program to achieve “Peace without Victory,” Wilson
even discouraged Untied States military preparedness “fearing least too much
build-up would suggest to Germany that we really were preparing for war.” 2.
(Ibid. pp. 857-858)
It was not until the German Government openly
announced in early February 1917 that it would pursue a policy of attack on all
shipping, whether combatant or neutral, in a zone around the British Island and
the Mediterranean that even Wilson began to realize “neutrality is no longer
feasible or desirable.” 3. (3. Ibid. p. 859)
With the sinking of a number of unarmed United States
merchant ships in March 1917, the interception and publicity of a plot by the
German Government to form an alliance with Mexico against the United States,
and the discovery of large-scale propaganda and espionage activities within the
United States, the American people demanded retaliation.
To a special session of Congress assembled on 2 April
1917 for the purpose of formalizing a state of war with the Imperial German
Government, President Wilson set the stage for the establishment of a wartime
army. In his message, Wilson outlined the measures which would have to be taken
to mobilize for war. He stated in part, “It will involve the immediate addition
to the armed forces of the United States already provided for by law in case of
war at least 500,000 men, who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the
principle of universal liability to service, and also the authorization of
subsequent additional increments of equal force so soon as they may be needed
and can be handled in training.” 4.
A joint resolution was passed by the Congress and on 6
April 1917, the President signed the document declaring that a state of war
existed with the Imperial German Government.
In his message to Congress, Wilson had referred to
“the immediate addition to the armed forces of the United States already
provided by law.” 5.
This law was the National Defense Act of 3 June 1916
which erected the framework for the expansion of the military establishment in
the event a conflict were to come. Insofar as it pertained to the United States
Army, the act recognized four elements in the land forces: the Regular Army,
the National Guard, the Reserve Corps, and in wartime, the Volunteer Army. When
the act was passed in June 1916, the possibility of the United States entering
the war in Europe was still remote. The Congress in considering the law had
assumed that in the event of hostilities, the bulk of the men needed to pursue
a war would come as volunteers as they had throughout the history of the United
States.
On the day that war was declared, the strength of the
United States Army was slightly more than 200,000, of which 67,000 were
national guardsmen. The latter were still on active duty after being called
into service for protection of the Mexican border against Pancho Villa’s raids.
The training camps in existence in April 1917 had a capacity for only 125,000
men. It was from this base that the United States would have to recruit the
manpower and construct the facilities to develop an army of a million and a
half, which the General Staff estimated would be needed for participation in
the war in Europe.
During the months immediately preceding the United
States’ entry into the war, President Wilson and the War Department came to
recognize that only a conscript army could provide the quantities of men needed
to wage trench warfare as it had been carried out in Europe for almost three
years. As early as February 1917, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker made the
statement to the Army War College, “We are going to raise our Army by draft.”
6.
This was a new concept for a nation that had always
relied on volunteers in times of national crisis. Conscription had been tried
only once before by the Federal Conscription Act of March 1963. The draft riots
of New York City in July 1863 demonstrated the utter failure of the system.
However, President Wilson was convinced that this method was the only fair one
for all the American people; hence, his reference in the 2 April message: “men,
who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principle of universal liability
to service.” 7.
A universal conscription law, whatever its merits,
required the approval of Congress. Following the declaration of war, a bill to
this effect was introduced. The debate over the new concept was long and often
bitter. It was not until 13 May 1917 that the bill “An Act to authorize the
President to increase temporarily the Military Establishment of the United
States” was approved.
In the meantime, the War Department and the US Army
General Staff could not make final plans for the organization and training of
the increased army until it had assurance that the manpower was to be made
available. Consequently, it was not until mid-May 1917, almost a month and a
half after United States entry into the war, that orders were sent out to
select sites for the training camps and negotiate for construction of
cantonments for the new army.
The draft law that gave the go-ahead to the War
Department was signed by the President on 18 May 1917. It provided for the
drafting of an army of 500,000 men, between the ages of 21 and 30, both
inclusive. It also provided for raising the Regular Army and National Guard of
the United States to their full legal strength, for the incorporation into
national service of the National Guard of several states, and for a day of
general registration. By proclamation, the President assigned 5 June 1917, as
the day of registration. Despite the views of many that a draft would not work,
9,660,000 men were registered in an atmosphere of patriot calm on 5 June 1917.
On the morning of 20 July, Secretary Baker presided at
the drawing of the “national lottery.” Baker drew number “258,” which
designated the first man in each precinct throughout the United States to
report to his local draft board. Sufficient numbers were drawn to provide
687,000 men -- the total estimated to fill vacancies in the National Guard. The
first contingent of the draft received subsequent orders to report to their
training camps on 1 September 1917. The
term “Volunteer Army” as defined in the National Defense Act of 1916 was
scrapped, and the draftees became the “National Army” to distinguish them from
other elements of the land forces.
The date for the reporting draftees set the deadline
for the War Department. On 1 September, the National Army camps would have to
be ready to receive and train the hundreds of thousands of men. One of these
camps was to be named Camp Dix, New Jersey.
Chapter II - Selection of Sites for Mobilization Camps
Chapter II
SELECTION OF SITES FOR
MOBILIZATION CAMPS
In the spring of 1917,
the US Army had barracks space sufficient to house only troops of the Regular
Army. The problem facing the War Department was to provide facilities for the
new increments to the Regular Army, then for the 16 divisions of the expanded
National Guard when they were called to active service, and finally the
additional 16 divisions planned for the National Army of draftees. The camps
for the National Army had to be completed by the 1 September date established
by the secretary of war as the initial reporting date for the drafted men.
The US Army General
Staff had early developed plans to expand the existing facilities for the
National Guard and National Army would have to be situated at new sites on
newly acquired lands with complete new construction. In order to take best
advantage of climatic conditions for training purposes and to utilize tentage
already available to the US Army, the southern states were selected as the
location for National Guard divisions. Political considerations, population
distribution and other factors indicated that the camps for the National Army
should be located in areas from which the draftees came.
“The decision as to
the camp sites rested with the Secrtary of War. His was the power to say where
all the millions of money for construction and camp supplies should be spent;
his the power to gratify local pride and civic patriotism, to give government
approval to the realtors’ exploiting of suburban subdivisions.” 1 (Frederick
Palmer, Newton D. Baker – America at War, vol. I, p. 239)
Secretary Baker early
decided that an arbitrary selection of sites would be unwise. He delegated his
authority to the US Army Department commanders who were advised to appoint
boards of officers to survey locations “known to them or suggested to them and
to select for recommendation to the (War) Department the best sites.” 2. (Ibid.
p. 240)
Even though no secrecy
was attached to the adoption of this procedure, the secretary of war, the War
Department and even the President were deluged with delegations, applications
and letters from committees and individuals seeking the location of camps near
their cities or in their states. In late May 1917, President Wilson received a
letter from an old friend in New Jersey suggesting the location of a camp in
that state. In his reply, the President advised his friend that “he knew
nothing about the War Department’s plans for mobilization camps, but observed
that he would like to serve New Jersey in any way practicable.” 3. (Ibid., p.
239)
The letter was
referred to Secretary Baker who in a subsequent memorandum to the President
advised that he had delegated the authority to the department commanders. He
added, however, “Whether New Jersey sites will be recommended I do not know,
but I shall be glad to ask General Bell (department commander for the area
including New Jersey) to have his board consider carefully any such sites as
may be suggested.” 4. (Ibid., p. 240)
It was not until 7 May
1917, when the draft law was well along to receiving congressional approval,
that the War Department directed the commanding generals of the seven military
departments to select sites for the construction of cantonments for the
National Guard and the National Army. Major General J. Franklin Bell, commander
of the Department of the East, on receipt of the order, appointed a board of
officers under the chairmanship of Colonel W. C. Brown to survey possible sites
in his department.
After careful
consideration, the board selected several sites, one of which was located in
Burlington County, New Jersey, near the village of Wrightstown. This site was
recommended to the War Department, and late in May 1917, it was approved as the
location of the 78th National Army Division’s mobilization
camp. It is not known if political influence played a part in the selection of
the site in Burlington County, but the passage of time has revealed the vision
and foresight of the men who recommended this location for a military camp.
The area near
Wrightstown was only 30 miles from Philadelphia and fewer than 100 miles from
New York City with their vast port and rail facilities. Additionally, a spur of
the Pennsylvania Railroad connecting both cities ran adjacent to the planned
campsite and the city of Trenton, New Jersey, only 18 miles distance by road.
Located in the heartland of the “Garden State” (New Jersey) and the extensive
agricultural regions of Pennsylvania, the area provided a ready access to
markets to feed the anticipated thousands of soldiers. With a good supply of
surface water only three miles from the proposed cantonment site and an
underground water table at reasonable depths, water posed no major
problem.
Other physical
characteristics of the area were equally favorable, Extensive cleared land as
well as an expanse of Jersey pines lay within short hikes. Terrain of the type
needed for training in trench warfare as fought in Europe was easily
accessible. The soil of this region – a mixture of clay, sand and gravel
extending to depths of hundreds of feet – was ideal for drainage, and the
sloping terrain was suitable for the use of a gravity sewage system. With
respect to the climate, the survey group concluded that the area was not
“cursed with an overabundance of humidity in summertime,” was relatively free
of mosquitos, and in general provided “a very healthful location.” 5 (Camp Dix
News, vol. i, no. v 1917, 2. )
Historically, the land
comprising the modern Fort Dix had been settled by a group of English Friends,
or Quakers, from Yorkshire and London, England, in the year 1677. The region
was first part of the Province of West Jersey. The nearby city of Burlington
frequently served as a meeting place for the provincial assembly until 1702
when the boundaries of New Jersey were established along the lines as they
exist today. To hear the sounds of marching feet would not be something new to
Burlington County. In August 1757, a draft of Burlington County militia was
mustered and reviewed at Mount Holly prior to its service in the French and
Indian War. This was the first recorded military information within the county,
although a number of men from the area had served within the New Jersey militia
in King George’s War against France, 1744-1748.
During the long
struggle for independence from Great Britain, Burlington County witnessed the
movement of elements of both the British and Continental armies across its
soil. Communities, particularly Burlington City and Bordentown, were frequently
occupied by British regulars and their Hessian mercenaries. Mount Holly, nearby
to present Fort Dix, was occupied on Christmas Eve, 1776, as continental
Militia drew Hessian troops away from Bordentown. This action was in
preparation for General Washington’s historic crossing of the Delaware River
and the defeat of the Hessian troops in Trenton on 26 December 1776. Mount
Holly was again occupied for several days in June 1778 by 15,000 British troops
with 1500 wagons under the command of General William Clinton. This force
destroyed the town’s iron works which had been supplying the Continental Army
with weapons.
After the defeat of
Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, it was a Burlington man, Elias Boudinot, who as
“President of the Congress” signed preliminary articles of peace with Great
Britain on 30 November 1782.
Since the Revolution,
thousands of Burlington County men and women have served the nation with
distinction. Captain James Lawrence, commander of the
American frigate in the War of 1812 and famed for his dying order, “Don’t give
up the ship!,” was born in Burlington City. His home still stands, as does that
of James Fenimore Cooper, author of the famous Leatherstocking Tales and The
Last of the Mohicians, who was born in the house next door.
In 1917, today’s Fort
Dix joined this proud heritage to make its contribution to the history of
Burlington County.
Chapter III - Maj. Gen. John Adams Dix
History of Fort Dix 3 - Maj. Gen. John
Adams Dix
Fort Dix History
Chapter III
MAJOR GENERAL JOHN ADAMS DIX, U.S.
V. 1. (United States Volunteer)
“In the early morning of June 1,
1917, Captain George W. Mulhern 2. (Offical post return lists Captain George W.
Mulheron, Commander of Company C, 1st Battalion Engineers New Jersey,
arriving on 25 June 1917) and a small band of 19 officers and privates from
Company C of the 26th New Jersey Engineers arrived at the quaint, sleepy,
straggling village of Wrightstown.” 3 (Quoted by Camp Dix Pictorial Review,
January 1918, p. 1, from William Maxwell, Historical Record of Camp Dix
1917).
This advance detachment was the
first unit to look over the area which would one day become the largest
military installation in the north-eastern United States. When these personnel
arrived at what was to be the cantonment site, no name had yet been given to
the Army reservation. During the ensuing weeks, they and the construction
workers who soon followed their arrival referred to the site by various names
such as “Camp Wrightstown” and “Wrightstown Cantonment.” It was not until 18
July 1917 when construction already had been under way for some weeks that a
War Department general order designated the area to be known as Camp Dix in
honor of Major General John Adams Dix, soldier, politician, statesman, foreign
diplomat and railroad pioneer who had ably served his country for a period of
more than 60 years.
Dix was born in the village of
Boscawen, New Hampshire, on 24 July 1798. His father, a prosperous storekeeper,
was instrumental in the formation of a local militia. Young Dix at a very early
age became intrigued by the activities of these hometown “heroes.” In his
memoirs, he described how they fired his imagination to the point where he
“caught the contagion, and made to myself a sacred vow that, if ever I grew
into manhood, I would become a soldier or perish in the attempt.” 4 (Morgan
Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, vol. i. p. 21)
Following the death of his mother in
childbirth, Dix was sent away to a series of boarding schools including
Phillips Exeter Academy and the College of Montreal. His dream of becoming a
soldier did not diminish. With the approach of the War of 1812, Dix’ father
received an appointment as a major in the infantry and became commander of a
battalion in Baltimore. Although his father wanted young Dix to continue his
education, the latter succeeded in becoming a cadet in the US Army in 1812 and
managed to join his father’s unit in Baltimore.
In 1813, four months shy of 15 years
of age, Dix received a commission as an ensign in the infantry. In April of
that year, father and son were in Sackett’s Harbor, northern New York,
performing duty at what was later to become Madison Barracks. In autumn, their
unit joined with a force from Plattsburg for a march up the St. Lawrence River
to meet the British at Montreal. The combined force failed to reach its
destination, but on the march, they fought several skirmishes with British
troops which gave young Dix his first view of battle and death in combat. During
the return march to Lake Ontario, the older Dix fell ill with pneumonia and
died en route to Sackett’s Harbor.
A succession of military posts and
duties followed for Dix including, at the age of 16, an assignment as
aide-de-camp to Major General Jacob Brown, commander of the Northern Department
of the US Army. In this capacity, Dix came into contact with many important
personages of the times. Jefferson, Madison, Calhoun, Van Rensselaer were only
a few of the many described by Dix in his memoirs. In 1919, Dix began to read
law with an eye to resigning his commission and setting up practice in New York
State.
On 29 May 1826, Dix married
Catherine Morgan, the daughter of a distinguished citizen of New York, John
Jordan Morgan. After a European honeymoon, Captain Dix and his wife were
stationed at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, and then West Point, New York. At the
latter post, he became increasingly disenchanted with peacetime military life
and resigned in 1828.
Dix and his wife settled in
Cooperstown, New York, where he pursued the life of a country squire managing
his father-in-law’s lands and practicing law. He was appointed adjutant general
of New York State in 1830, and in 1833 Dix took on the additional duties of
secretary of state and served in these capacities until 1839. During this
period, he became a leading member of the so-called “Albany Regency” – the
controlling group in the state Democratic Party.
With the victory of the Whig Party
in 1838, Dix became politically inactive until 1845, when he was appointed to
fill out the term of Senator Silas Wright. In a complicated political maneuver,
Wright had been elected in 1844 to governorship of New York State and as
governor appointed Dix to fill out his term in the Senate. As US Senator, Dix
aligned himself with antislavery Democrats, and the resulting antagonism of the
southern wing of the party led to his temporary retirement from politics when
his term was completed in 1849.
During the next decade he was active
in railroad promotion and law practice in New York City. He continued his
contacts with the Democratic Party, and in January 1961, he was appointed
secretary of the treasury by President James Buchanan and served until March of
that year. In this short period of time, Dix rallied reluctant northern financers
to support what they thought was a failing government. While in this post he
coined the memorable phrase, “If anyone attempts to haul down the American
flag, shoot him on the spot.” 5 (Ibid,., p. 371)
The words were part of a message
sent to treasury agents in New Orleans, ordering the arrest of the captain of a
revenue cutter for his refusal to sail his ship to New York.
At the outbreak of the Civil War,
Dix, as head of the Union Defense Committee, organized 17 regiments and was
commissioned a major general of volunteers. Although he saw no fighting, he
helped to save Maryland for the Union cause by his active defense measures.
Historians have termed the refusal of Maryland to secede crucial to the North’s
eventual victory. In May 1663, Dix was sent to Fortress Monroe in Virginia as
commander of the VII US Army Corps. The highlight of his tour come when he
marched several thousand troops up the peninsula toward Richmond in an
unsuccessful move to cut off Lee from his headquarters. General Lee then was
preparing for the attack at Gettysburg.
After the New York draft riots in
July 1863, Dix was appointed commander of the US Army Department of the East in
New York City. He served in this capacity until his retirement on 15 July 1865.
Despite his advancing years, Dix continued serving as the first president of
the Union Pacific Railroad, United States minister to France (1866-69), and,
though a staunch Democrat, was elected governor of New York on the Republican
ticket in 1872. Defeated for reelection in 1874, Dix finally retired from the
public scene until his death 21 April 1879.
The memory of John Adams Dix and his
many accomplishments are largely forgotten. The perpetuation of his
contribution to the American heritage rests principally with the Army
reservation that now bears his name, as it has for the past 50 years. Fort Dix
today continues to train young men for the task of protecting that to which
John Adams Dix devoted his entire life – the United States of America.
Chapter IV - Construction of Camp Dix
History of Fort Dix
Chapter IV
THE CONSTRUCITON OF CAMP DIX
Although the area southeast of
Wrightstown, New Jersey, seemed ideally suited for a mobilization camp, the
task of completing sufficient facilities at the site to receive the first
draftees by 1 September 1917 seemed impossible. The few Army personnel who
began to arrive at Wrightstown in early June expected to see construction
underway or at least in an advanced stage of preparation. When these soldiers
saw only vast expanses of carefully cultivated fields devoid of any activity,
it is easy to understand their disappointment. The weeks of June and early July
1917 passed as they had for more than two centuries with only the crops in the
fields showing any signs of growth.
Major Harry C. Williams, who
reported as the first camp commander on 12 June 1917, later described the early
weeks as ones of inactivity in which “make-work” projects had to be created to
prevent boredom among the troops. Williams summed up the frustration of all in
an article which later appeared in the Camp Dix News when he stated, “the
visions of mushroom growth were painfully dissipated.”
The discouragement of Major Williams
and his men was understandable, but the slow start in construction was not
without good reasons. The War Department faced the almost unbelievable task of
constructing within a period of three months not only Camp Dix and 31 similar
camps but more than 500 other military posts of varying sizes. The problems of
procurement of building materials, labor, transportation, and other equipment
were of a magnitude beyond any previous experience of the American people. Yet,
even though it was not apparent in Wrightstown, progress had been made in
laying the groundwork for the building of Camp Dix.
The quartermaster general of the
State of New Jersey was negotiating with owners of farms and forests to use
their land for the military reservation, and on 17 June 1917, a one-year lease
on 6,500 acres was arranged and signed by the parties concerned. Additional
land was procured later by other leases and outright purchase. Of the $700,000
allocated for land acquisition, only $550,000 was ever spent. Some landowners,
especially those whose families had occupied their land for generations, were
understandably hesitant to leave their homes. Most, however, displayed a high
degree of cooperation with the war effort. One prosperous farmer, when asked by
a newspaper reporter what his reaction was to vacating his premises gave a
reply that revealed the feeling of patriotism which most Americans had during
those days of World War I. He answered simply, “If I had a boy in the new Army,
I’d want him to live in a decent place; wouldn’t you?” 1. (Camp Dix News, vol.
i, no. I 1917 7.)
Concurrent with negotiations for
land were those for construction of buildings and camp facilities. A contract
was signed with the firm of Irwin and Leighton of Philadelphia on 4 June 1917.
It was the same type of contract made with all construction firms for the 16
National Army camps. It called for construction of buildings and facilities
required to provide for an infantry division of three regiments, known as a
triangular division, on a “cost-plus basis with a graded scale of percentages
decreasing from 10% to 6% on the cost of the work as the total cost increased.”
2. (Erna Risch, Quartermaster Support of the Army. A History of the Corps
1775-1939, p. 607)
These terms were favorable to the
contractors and were undoubtedly an important factor in the rapid deterioration
of the National Army camps once the contracts were completed.
Irwin and Leighton had only two and
one-half months in which to complete sufficient buildings and facilities to
provide for the first draftees. The size of the task in this short time was
gigantic in proportion. More than 7,000 carpenters, electricians, plumbers and
laborers had to be assembled, housed, fed and cared for at the campsite.
Millions of board feet of lumber, miles of piping and wire, plumbing fixtures
in the thousands, plus a myriad of other supplies, tools and equipment had to
be purchased, transported and assembled at Wrightstown. This was accomplished
at a time when skilled workers were in demand throughout the country, building
materials were in short supply, and transportation already was overtaxed.
To further complicate the
construction problem, the War Department on the recommendation of General
Pershing and his staff revised the organization of the infantry division in
late July 1917. The new division, commonly referred to as the “square”
division, called for an addition of a fourth regiment and half again as many
troops. As one writer commented, “The effect upon the cantonment arrangements
was much the same as building a tall building, then adding ten stories, putting
the elevators in a new place, and lowering the ceilings on each floor by a foot.”
3 (Frederick Palmer, Newton D. Baker-America at War, vol. i., p. 255)
The changes in the number of
buildings to be constructed resulted in the contract continuing long after Camp
Dix was to have been completed.
By mid-July 1917, the campsite began
to see “visions of mushroom growth,” of which Major Williams dreamed. Workers
began to arrive by the hundreds each day. More than 30 million board feet of
lumber and 28 miles of various sized piping for the water system arrived in the
railway siding in a few days time. Buildings began to appear in the cornfields
at a fantastic rate of speed. On 5 September, sufficient buildings had been
erected to receive the first draftees to Camp Dix. During the month of
September, 17,000 draftees arrived and were processed at the camp. However,
even after their arrival, construction went on throughout the fall and into the
winter of 1917. Oftentimes, the new soldiers moving into their bleak barracks
had to clean up debris from the carpentering before they could set up cots.
Construction of the largest single
facility at the camp was not begun until late in August. The Camp Dix Base
Hospital during the early days was housed in buildings intended for use as
troop barracks. By giving top priority to construction of the medial installation,
a 61-building, 1,000 bed hospital was completed in record time and received its
first patients on 29 October 1917. During construction of the hospital, a
system of teams of workers was best demonstrated.
Contractors were constantly plagued
by a shortage of skilled workers. To overcome this problem, unskilled workers
were organized into teams similar to those working on manufacturing assembly
lines. On 24 September 1917, 200 men operating in teams of carpenters
established an unofficial record when they erected seven barracks buildings,
24’ x 157’, in a seven-hour period. The buildings were complete in every detail
– floors laid, stairs placed, doors hung, windows fitted, and even screens
emplaced. In addition, all scaffolding was removed, and the workmen had gone to
new sites.
The influx of thousands of
construction workers with plenty of money in their pockets quickly created
pressures in the villages and towns of the area surrounding Camp Dix. The horde
of hard-working builders looking forward each evening to the gaiety of night
life in the few populated areas that prior to the war had been nonexistent. It
was only natural that Wrightstown, the nearest village, developed quickly into
a boomtown. The village, which claimed a population of less than 200 before the
war, within a few weeks in July 1917 grew into the thousands. Gamblers quickly
arrived on the scene to help workers spend their “excess” money with such
devices as poker, dice, faro and three-card monte games. As all boom times, the
philosophy of “wine, women and song” quickly became the standard of
Wrightstown.
This situation developed in the
vicinity of nearly all developing National Army camps, and the federal
government recognized that something had to be done before the young men of the
new Army entered the service. The result was a federal order prohibiting the
sale of liquor either in camps or within a radius of five miles of the
campsites. In the Camp Dix area, aid for enforcing the newly passed bans came
from the Philadelphia office of what is now the Federal Bureau of
Investigation. Two special agents were sent to Camp Dix to work with the
military police in determining the source of apparently illegal whiskey which
somehow seemed to find its way to soldiers’ hands. The agent in charge of the
operation at Camp Dix was Richard Hughes, father of the present governor of New
Jersey, Richard J. Hughes.
Vice and corruption were not the
only problems that faced the area municipalities. Housing workers and the many
families accompanying them became a matter of deep concern. Within a few days,
there was no available lodging within miles of the encampment, and the few
stores in the formerly quiet country village were literally swamped with
customers.
Camp Dix itself rapidly became a
fair sized, self-sufficient city capable of handling its own problems and many
relating to neighboring communities. Adjoining townships delegated by ordinance
to the Army the right to police, regulate and restrict traffic within
reasonable regulations on the Wrightstown-New Lisbon and Pointville-Pemberton
Roads.
The Camp Dix Fire Department was
organized in October 1917 and operated six stations and a fire truck and hose
company.
A huge bakery with a daily capacity
of 36,000 pounds of bread per day was built. A complete water system was
installed, including a pumping station on the Rancocas Creek which supplied the
cantonment area with 3,000 gallons of water per minute. A series of water
storage tanks also were constructed to facilitate the system. One, a
200,000-gallon steel tank, built on the Wrightstown-Pemberton Road, is still in
service today, 50 years later.
A sewage disposal plant and a sewage
system also were constructed. Stables and horse shops were built to house and
care for the 7,000 horses and mules assigned to the camp. Approximately eight
and one-half miles of standard gauge track were laid into the camp by the
Pennsylvania Railroad.
By 15 December 1917, the contractors
reported that in the period since 14 June, the company had employed a maximum
of 11,000 workers operating in 400 teams and utilizing 40 trucks. They had
constructed a total of 1,660 buildings of 143 types and sizes. At the time,
Camp Dix consisted of 7,474 acres, of which 3,500 acres were used for artillery
and rifle ranges. In the winter of 1917-18, the strength of Camp Dix averaged
about 25,000 men per month.
New construction at Camp Dix
continued well into the year 1918. Events in Europe such as the loss of Russia
as an ally, the defeat of the Italian army at Caporetto, and the terrific losses
of French and British forces in the spring of 1918 forced the War Department to
revise its estimates of US forces to be committed in Europe from one-half
million to a million and then a million and a half.
Camp Dix was destined to do its
share in providing for this increase. The strength of the camp gradually rose
until it reached a peak of almost 55,000 men in August 1918.
Insofar as the cost of construction
is concerned, War Department records indicate that $13 million had been
expended on construction of Camp Dix by 30 June 1919.
Almost 50 years later some of it
still would be in use….for escalation of the War in Vietnam. In 1967 Congress
appropriated more for a single brigade complex than the entire original
construction cost of Camp Dix.
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