Trainees learned to dig many types of trenches representing different sections found on the battle line: front line, support, and reserve trenches all connected by communication trenches and tunnels. When the 80th Division’s field fortification instructor Captain John Stringfellow returned from Arms School at Fort Sill, he selected a site near the 320th Infantry’s parade to practice trench construction. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 77 New recruits learn the proper technique to reinforce a trench wall ” The Department further issued a directive of notes compiled by the British General Staff which contained detailed information about the construction and use of trenches. It will be one of the first duties of a division commander. The booklet directed commanders to construct trench systems within each cantonment area, reiterating that “Instruction in trench warfare cannot be properly developed without a trench system. The lack of proficiency, a severe shortage of weapons and uniforms, and an exceptionally bitter winter caused confusion and disruption to the training process, which was rudimentary at best.ĭue to these less than ideal circumstances, the War Department created guidance which outlined a 16-week course on the scope of training necessary to provide new divisions with instruction on trench warfare. Because experienced officers were scarce, the Army was forced to train new leaders while absorbing thousands of new recruits. The 159th Brigade was comprised of the 317th and 318th regiments, while the 319th and 320th regiments formed the 160th Brigade.
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Camp Lee would ultimately cover 5,542 acres, contain 1,532 buildings, and mobilize over 138,000 troops – more than any other Army installation during the war.Īs draftees from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia arrived at Camp Lee during the fall of 1917, they were organized as the 80th, or Blue Ridge, Division, which contained two infantry brigades, the 159th and 160th, a field artillery brigade, an engineer regiment, plus numerous supporting sections. They contained few luxuries, but the coming war brought new railroads, electricity, and piped water. The cantonments were all designed using standardized building plans from the War Department, though the final layout was dictated by topography. For two months, 14,500 workers rapidly cleared trees, drained wetlands, built roads, installed water and sewer systems, and constructed buildings to accommodate over 60,000 soldiers. Lee, was established near the battlefields of Petersburg where evidence of the siege still marred the earth. In June, Camp Lee, named in honor of Robert E. Across the nation, quiet, agricultural landscapes were transformed into bustling towns of construction crews and soldiers preparing for combat in Europe. Quick mobilization of resources was necessary to provide decisive, overwhelming manpower and industrial strength to the Allied cause.
Shortly after the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, construction hastily began on thirty-two cantonments, or training facilities, for hundreds of thousands of new troops. By the time the United States entered World War I, European powers had advanced the craft of trench warfare, developing a new subterranean level of entrenchment.Ĭamp Lee, near Petersburg, Virginia, is where the 80th Division mobilized before deploying to the Meuse-Argonne during World War I. In more than two years, the lines of battle moved less than ten miles. With troops embroiled in defensive trench systems that extended from the English Channel to Switzerland, attempts to achieve a breakthrough resulted in tremendous casualties with few appreciable gains. When the Great War began, fighting between Central and Allied powers quickly turned into a stalemate along the Western Front. The brutality of trench warfare in the Civil War was but a tiny preview of the horrors to come in World War I, just fifty years later. What resulted was an entrenched front that stretched for nearly 40 miles and 70,000 casualties over the course of ten months. Grant that if Petersburg was cut off, Richmond would fall and the war would be over. As a key supply center for the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia it was apparent to both Confederate General Robert E. The Siege of Petersburg, June 1864 – April 1865, provides a snapshot of the birth of modern trench warfare, revealing significant developments in engineering and evolving military tactics and strategy due to advancements in technology, like rifled artillery. During the American Civil War, Union and Confederate troops perfected the most sophisticated system of earthworks ever seen in battle.
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