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While Ralph Jones was studying biology and physics at Purdue, World War I, “the Great War” as it was called, was engulfing Europe. The war began with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in June 1914. Thereafter Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy carved up much of Europe and extended their reach as far as Russia and the Middle East. America, however, remained neutral for almost three years. Only after Germany’s use of unrestricted submarine warfare turned American public opinion did President Wilson and the U.S. Congress—on April 6, 1917—declare war on Germany.

During high school and college Ralph Jones assuredly scanned newspaper articles with great interest and anxiety, wondering if he would participate in the great conflict. After the declaration of war, the issue became clear. On May 15, 1917, Ralph enlisted in the U.S. Army and was selected as a candidate in the first (of three) officer training camps at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana.[1]

Shortly after construction on Fort Harrison began in 1906, it was named one of seven training grounds for joint maneuvers of the Regular Army and the National Guard. Located northeast of Indianapolis, adjacent to the town of Lawrence, Fort Harrison held within its confines a station for an interurban railroad, stables for 102 animals, a 1000-ton hay shed, a building for a regimental band of 100 men, a bakery and parade grounds for marching, marching, marching. Construction of the main post buildings was complete in 1908. Thereafter the fort was used to train National Guard troops from Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. Activity at the fort had slowed to a trickle in the years preceding the war, but in the late spring of 1917 the fort “awakened from its … slumber and entertained thousands of troops in three Officer Training Camps, a Medical Officer’s Training Camp, and finally an Engineer Training Camp”.[2]

Officer training camps like those at Fort Harrison numbered sixteen and were located at thirteen posts throughout the country. Each camp was organized as a provisional training regiment, consisting of nine infantry companies, two cavalry troops, three field artillery batteries and one engineer company.[3] To qualify for an officer training camp, a man had to be a Reserve officer or selected applicant for commission. He also was required to be at least 20 years and 9 months old. This latter requirement presented a problem for Ralph Jones. When he enlisted in May 1917, Ralph was only 20 years and 3 months old. So he did what thousands of others have done: he lied about his age. His draft registration card, completed in June 1917, gives his birth year as 1896 (his birth year was actually 1897), which made him old enough to qualify.[4]

The First Officer Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison began in May 1917 with 5,200 officer candidates from Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. It was a high profile endeavor. Dignitaries—including Indiana Governor James P. Goodrich and William Jennings Bryan—addressed the new candidates, and the young men must have felt the surge of excitement that attends a great cause. For the next three months, the new officer candidates spent every daylight hour learning military etiquette, parade formations and principles of trench warfare. They drilled on the use of gas masks and rifles, bayonets and hand grenades. Their evenings were devoted to study and examinations.[5]  

In July 1917, during Ralph’s officer training, the War Department pulled together National Guard troops from Indiana and Kentucky to form the 38^th Division, which was later augmented with troops of the West Virginia National Guard.[6] Before the First Officers’ Training Camp was complete, the War Department began concentrating and organizing Ralph’s division at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. Thus, after receiving his Second Lieutenant’s commission on August 15, Ralph rode the railroads south to join his newly-formed division.[7]

Camp Shelby, Mississippi

From September 1 to November 15, 1917, over 20,000 National Guard troops of the 38^th Division descended on Camp Shelby. The camp itself was located near Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and occupied 12,960 acres, with the camp site proper covering 3,200 acres. Although large, the camp was not particularly remote: for only 20 cents a soldier could ride the Mississippi Central from camp to Hattiesburg, ten miles away.Far from home and relatively isolated on an army base in southern Mississippi, Ralph must have felt lonely. Fortunately his loneliness was broken at least once when his girlfriend, Dorothy Dorner, rode the train south from frigid Indiana to Mississippi during Christmas break, 1917:

“For Christmas that year the family all gave me money and I had a train trip down to visit Ralph. I had a cousin (Cora Lane Blakeslee) in New Orleans and the plan was for me to go to New Orleans (which is not far from Hattiesburg) and Ralph was to come down there. The train stopped at Hattiesburg and Ralph got on to tell me that he couldn’t get his leave. So-o I got off and Ralph arranged for me to stay with Capt. Midkiff and his wife right at the camp, and we got together whenever he had time. We called Cora—and went down there for one weekend (to New Orleans).”[9]

At Camp Shelby, Ralph Jones was retained as an instructor for a full year.[10] During that year, the European war must have figured daily in his thoughts, especially as battle-worn officers began arriving at camp, men with combat experience in the trenches of France. That he would one day travel to Europe must have become increasingly clear to Ralph as Germany pressed its offensives in the spring of 1918.

Overseas duty

Germany’s advances in early 1918 led the War Department to increase the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe to at least 80 divisions (about 3.3 million men). By the time of the armistice on November 11, 1918, over 2 million of these men had been transported overseas.[11] As one historian notes: “The success of the German offensive which began March 21 was so great that the War Department was led to attempt what five weeks earlier had been considered impossible. Ships were procured, men and supplies were provided and the greatest troop movement in history began.”[12]

From April to November 1918 the railroads carried a staggering 1,653,470 men from training camps to ports of embarkation. This was over 75 percent of the total number transported during the whole of America’s involvement in the war.[13] The movement of troops via railroad to the points of embarkation followed a specific order:

“The first units to depart for the seaboard were generally the engineer regiment and field train, field signal battalion, and sanitary squadrons; then came the division headquarters, followed at a little interval by the headquarters train and military police, the remaining divisional trains, half the medical complement of field hospitals and ambulance companies, the bakery and butchery company and base hospital. These were followed by the two infantry brigades, the machine-gun battalion and artillery brigade…”[14]

Dorothy Jones recalled Ralph’s transport from Camp Shelby to his port of embarkation as follows: “Ralph was sent east previous to going overseas; and I went with his father and mother to Hempstead, N.Y. Ralph told us that he couldn’t tell us when they would be shipped out—but when he told us to go home we would know. We ‘followed instructions.’ So-o the next thing we heard was a card saying the ship he was on had arrived safely overseas.” [15] Clearly, Dorothy was unaware of Ralph’s exact movements—by design. As one historian notes: “The utmost secrecy was maintained in the dispatch of troop-trains to ports of embarkation and all telegraphic reports regarding their movements were transmitted in cipher.”[16]

On September 13, 1918, Ralph was transported via troop train to Camp Mills, on Long Island in New York City. From there he was moved to a port of embarkation in New York Harbor and sailed via troop transport to England.[17] One sergeant remembers the experience as follows: 

“We were shown to our compartments, fed and told to stay down below and make no noise, but [several men]… including myself, got to the very top deck where we stayed until we had pulled all the way out of the harbor. About 9:00 p.m. we pulled away from the pier at Hoboken and it seemed like we slid down the Hudson, with no lights, no noise or no adieu, past the Statue of Liberty, out into the open sea. The trip across was most miserable. Sanitary conditions were very, very bad and the boat was crowded so that one could hardly turn around. All this in addition to all of the conflicting orders we were required to carry out took all the spirit out of the men. They were always keeping us in the hold of the boat…”[18]

Ralph’s 75^th Infantry Brigade set sail on October 5 from New York and about seven days later landed in England, where the troops stayed a short time in rest camps. The division then proceeded to France via Cherbourg and Le Havre.[19] On October 17, shortly after its arrival in Europe, Ralph’s division received orders that it was to be skeletonized: personnel from the 38^th Division were to be used as replacement troops for the depleted troops of the 29^th Division, which had lost thousands in the Meuse-Argonne campaign.[20] On October 30, the 29^th Division was pulled back from the front and held in reserve, and three days later, 11,000 officers and men of the 38th Division were moved to LeMans to be reassigned to the 29^th Division. Thus Ralph became an officer in this reserve division, and as part of his new duties he delivered troops to the front—for about a week—until the armistice was signed on November 11.[21]

For the next seven months Ralph remained in Europe. About his activities during this time (November 1918 to May 1919), we know little. Ralph seldom discussed his army days with family. Letters and journals either do not exist or have not been found and his military service records were probably destroyed in a 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

Nevertheless, a few anecdotes survive. For example, Ralph was taught a little French, but apparently not enough to readily converse. One day some Frenchmen asked Ralph and his comrades (who were peeling potatoes) “What time is it?” They  responded “Yeah, great potatoes!”[22] We know also that Ralph was stationed in Dijon, France, and was on leave in Belgium when he learned that his father had died (April 1919).[23]  When Ralph was waiting in line for train tickets, hoping to catch transportation to the embarkation point from France, he was broke. Luckily a private stood in front of him. Ralph pulled rank, tapped the private on the shoulder and told him that he needed money to get on the train. The private dutifully coughed up the funds, and Ralph was able to buy a train ticket and eventually return to America.[24]

By May 26, 1919, the last elements of Ralph’s division had returned to New York and his infantry brigade began demobilizing at Camp Meade, Maryland.[25] A month later (on July 1, 1919), Ralph was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army.[26]

[26] Death certificate (back), Ralph Boswell Jones, Ohio Dept of Health, Division of Vital Statistics, registar’s no. 1674, Cuyahoga County, OH, 4 Mar 1976.

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