United States in The Great War
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This page is part of The Great War 1914-1918 Project.
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| President Woodrow Wilson |
On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went before a joint session of Congress to request a declaration of war against Germany. Wilson cited Germany’s violation of its pledge to suspend unrestricted submarine warfare in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as well as its attempts to entice Mexico into an alliance against the United States, as his reasons for declaring war. On April 4, 1917, the U.S. Senate voted in support of the measure to declare war on Germany. The House concurred two days later. The United States later declared war on German ally Austria-Hungary on December 7, 1917 but never made declarations of war against the other Central Powers Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire.
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| General John J. Pershing |
| RANK AND NAME | INFORMATION | PHOTO |
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| Major General Robert Alexander 1863-1941 | He commanded the U.S. Army's 77th Infantry Division in France during World War I. | 
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| Brigadier General Benjamin Alvord, Jr. 1860-1927 | He was the adjutant general of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his service during the war. | 
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| Brigadier General William Wallace Atterbury 1866-1935 | He was instrumental in reorganizing railroad traffic during the war for more efficient transportation of troops and supplies for the American Expeditionary Forces | 
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| Major General Charles Justin Bailey 1859-1946 | He was the commander of the 81st Division of the National Army, which he commanded in France in 1918-19. In the latter year he was appointed commander of the Middle Atlantic Coast, Artillery District, and in 1921, commander of the Third Corps area. | 
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| Major General Harry Hill Bandholtz 1864-1925 | He was named United States Army Provost Marshal General to General John J. Pershing's American Expeditionary Force in France. He is widely considered to be the "father" of the United States Army's Military Police Corps. | 
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| Major General James Franklin Bell 1856-1919 | He was a major-general in the Regular United States Army, commanding the Department of the East | 
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| Major General William Murray Black 1855-1933 | He was Chief of Engineers responsible for mobilizing and training some 300,000 engineer troops for a wide range of military engineering tasks. For this work he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. | 
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| Brigadier General Albert Hazen Blanding 1876-1970) | He commanded the 53rd Brigade, 27th Division. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal | 
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United States in the Great War State Page Links
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| Poster by James Montgomery Flagg |
The United States was unprepared for its entrance into the First World War. In April 1917, the American Army numbered only 300,000 including all the National Guard units that could be federalized for national service.
After the passage of the Selective Service Act in 1917, the United States drafted 2.8 million men into military service. By the summer of 1918, about a million U.S. soldiers had arrived in France, about half of whom eventually saw front-line service; by the Armistice of November 11 approximately 10,000 fresh soldiers were arriving in France daily
See: U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
America's Losses in the Great War
- Killed in action: 34,145
- Died of Wounds: 14,224
- Died of Disease: 56,013
- Died of other causes: 6358
- Total dead: 110,940
- Taken prisoner: 4774
- Missing in Action: 3937
- Wounded: 204,743
WORLD WAR I TRAINING CAMPS
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To build the camps and cantonments required to train U.S. National Guard and National Army divisions during World War I, the federal government created the construction division of the army in May 1917. Secretary of War Newton D. Baker ordered the building of sixteen wood-frame cantonments and sixteen National Guard camps, where troops would be quartered in hastily erected tents with wood floors, with wooden buildings for kitchens and mess halls.
Each National Army cantonment contained, in addition to the barracks, quarters, and administration buildings, a hospital, warehouses, railroad tracks, target range, and, in many cases, a power station. Each cantonment could accommodate a "Pershing" division, approximately 28,000 men. By 1 September 1917, the thirty-two construction projects were housing troops. Contractors, taking advantage of a special wartime contract system, employed as many as 200,000 civilians to assemble the camps.
National Army cantonments built were Custer (Battle Creek, Michigan), Devens (Ayer, Massachusetts), Dodge (Des Moines, Iowa), Dix (Wrightstown, New Jersey), Funston (Fort Riley, Kansas), Gordon (Atlanta, Georgia), Grant (Rockford, Illinois), Jackson (Columbia, South Carolina), Lee (Petersburg, Virginia), Lewis (American Lake, Washington), Meade (Admiral, Maryland), Pike (Little Rock, Arkansas), Sherman (Chillicothe, Ohio), Taylor (Louisville, Kentucky), Travis (San Antonio, Texas), and Upton (Yaphank, Long Island, New York).
National Guard camps built were Beauregard (Alexandria, Louisiana), Bowie (Fort Worth, Texas), Cody (Deming, New Mexico), Doniphan (Fort Sill, Oklahoma), Frémont (Palo Alto, California), Green (Charlotte, North Carolina), Hancock (Augusta, Georgia), Kearney (Linda Vista, California), Logan (Houston, Texas), MacArthur (Waco, Texas), McClellan (Anniston, Alabama), Sevier (Greenville, South Carolina), Shelby (Hattiesburg, Mississippi), Sheridan (Montgomery, Alabama), Wadsworth (Spartanburg, South Carolina), and Wheeler (Macon, Georgia).
After the war, the government salvaged a vast quantity of material and sold the remaining installations.
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| American troops encountered mustard and phosphene gases which Germany had perfected. |
- Cambrai, 20 November – 4 December 1917
- Somme Defensive, 21 March – 6 April 1918
- Lys, 9–27 April 1918
- Aisne, 27 May – 5 June 1918
- Battle of Cantigny 28 May 1918
- Battle_of_Belleau_Wood 1–26 Jun 1918
- Montdidier-Noyon, 9–13 June 1918
- Champagne-Marne, 15–18 July 1918
- Battle of Chateau-Thierry 18 July 1918
- Aisne-Marne, 18 July – 6 August 1918
- Somme Offensive, 8 August – 11 November 1918
- Oise-Aisne, 18 August – 11 November 1918
- Ypres-Lys, 19 August – 11 November 1918
- St. Mihiel, 12–16 September 1918
- Meuse-Argonne, 26 September – 11 November 1918
- Vittorio Veneto, 24 October – 4 November 1918
- Lists of military units and formations of World War I
- Formations of the United States Army During World War I
- List of American Aero Squadrons
- List of World War I Flying Aces From the United States
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| World War I Poster |
The United States Navy sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland and submarines to help guard convoys. Several regiments of Marines were also dispatched to France. The British and French wanted U.S. units used to reinforce their troops already on the battle lines and not to waste scarce shipping on bringing over supplies. The U.S. rejected the first proposition and accepted the second. General John J. Pershing, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) commander, refused to break up U.S. units to serve as reinforcements for British Empire and French units. As an exception, he did allow African-American combat regiments to fight in French divisions. The Harlem Hellfighters fought as part of the French 16th Division, earning a unit Croix de Guerre for their actions at Château-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Séchault.
On the battlefields of France in spring 1918, the war-weary Allied armies enthusiastically welcomed the fresh American troops. They arrived at the rate of 10,000 a day. The infusion of new U.S. troops greatly strengthened the Allies' strategic position and boosted morale.
The Allies achieved victory over Germany on November 11, 1918.
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