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World War I Chronicles

The Men
The Camps and Trenches
The Home Front
Monuments and Relics

Here are the stories and photos of Texans or Americans who trained in Texas and their involvement in The Great War as it was called. It has become one of the United States neglected wars, even though the casualties exceeded 80,000 killed.

There is hardly a Texas Cemetery without the graves of several Doughboys. The monuments to them are all but invisible. The stance of their statues is more belligerent and active than those erected to the dead of other wars. It's ironic considering the time they spent immobile and dying from disease.

They brought back war trophies from "The War to End All Wars" only to have had them melted down in scrap drives to fuel another World War. In many cases - especially in Texas - there were men fighting their cousins. German immigrants had barely gotten settled here when they were sent to fight their uncle's sons.

WWI - The Men

The 19th Infantry Regiment & Private Dennis Buchicchio
They fought the British, Rebels, Indians, Spanish, Mexicans, Philippine Insurgents, Hurricanes, Blizzards, Malaria (and maybe Elliot Ness).

The War to End All Wars by Murray Montgomery 4-7-12
A Gonzales County boy, Courtney C. Buchanan, served with the 36th Infantry Division in World War I and some of the letters that he wrote home to his family and friends were published in The Gonzales Inquirer.

Sleeper's Song by Mike Cox
As a long-time Texas lawyer, Ben Sleeper wrote many a legalese-laden petition alledging this or that in behalf of his clients, but few if any of them ever knew of – much less heard – the patriotic song he composed as a young Army officer in training back during World War I.

Texas War Casualties by John Troesser
Stone markers and chapels quietly reveal where America gets its soldiers.

Private and Corporal York: Lee County Cousins killed in the Great War. Giddings City Cemetery by John Troesser

The Gonzales Krupp Cannon by Norman Conquest

A Very Brief History of Texas A & M University by Frederick Freshmann

Samuel Arthur Robertson by Mike Cox

WWI - The Camps and Trenches

Camp Travis by John Troesser

Kaiser Cows - Bovine Saboteurs of WWI by Mike Cox

LOST PHOTOS OF STARR COUNTY
The Sgt Roy Chamberlain Collection: Fort Ringgold & Environs c. 1918
Military Buildings (4 Images)
Sgt Roy Chamberlain (5 images)

Hughes Who in Oil Field by Wanda Orton 12-2-12
During World War I, Howard Robard Hughes Sr. created a tunneling machine to drill from Allied trenches to German territory

Leon Springs' WWI First Officers Training Camp (Camp Funstun) - Historical Marker

Everman, Texas (Tarrant County) -
During WWI, Everman was one of three selected towns to become a training school for pilot training. Both the Canadian Royal Flying Corps and the United States Signal Corps, Aviation Section shared the tiny airfield.

WWI - Practicing Trench Fighting in Texas

Practicing Trench Fighting in Texas
Postcard courtesy www.rootsweb.com/ %7Etxpstcrd/

WWI - The Home Front

Standardized wheel widths kept you in a rut by Delbert Trew
An article published in the October 2005 Farm Collector Magazine... tells of an early U.S. government directive to all wagon manufacturers. Dated Jan. 1, 1919, the directive stated that, "all wagons must be made to conform to the auto track wheel width of 56 inches."..

The War Protest by Bob Bowman
At the peak of another war ninety years ago, a small East Texas sawmill town made a statement about American soldiers being killed in a distant land.

WWI Monuments and Relics

Texarkana - The Otis Henry Memorial
Rose Hill Cemetery
Photos courtesy Barclay Gibson

Texarkana - World War I Memorial
Photos courtesy Barclay Gibson

Corinth Baptist Church Cemetery - WWI Veterans by John Troesser
Black church and cemetery
For a tiny cemetery - a disporportionate number of veterans graves.

Battleship Texas by Archie P. McDonald (From "All Things Historical")

Temple to the Brave, c.1932, Beaumont, Texas by John Troesser

Cooke County Courthouse Clock

Images:

Brownsville, Texas WWI Troops Parade

Canyon, Texas WWI Monument

Celina, Texas War Memorial

Crowell, Texas WWI statues

Jacksonville, Texas WWI monument

Lufkin, Texas Doughboy Statue

Paris, Texas WWI Memorial

Sinton, Texas Doughboy Statue

Tombstones:

Roger's Cemetery, Austin

General:

Memorial Day by Archie P. McDonald
When Americans pause at the ceremonial beginning of summer to honor those who gave their lives in military service they are participating in our national version of ancient rites...

WWI Troops Parade in Brownsville
Postcard courtesy www.rootsweb.com/ %7Etxpstcrd/

Texas Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share history, stories, and vintage/historic/contemporary photos, please contact us.

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