By Maj. William Carraway, Historian, Georgia National Guard
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| Left: Headquarters Detachment, 106th Engineer Regiment. Right: Cover of the historical account of the 106th Engineer Regiment during World War I. Georgia National Guard Archives. |
The Army
Corps of Engineers has a long history in connection with the Georgia National
Guard. The corps itself traces its origin to the Continental Congress’
appointment of the Chief Engineer for the Army on June 16, 1775. Today, the engineer
branch is well represented in the Georgia Army National Guard by the 878th
Engineer Battalion, 177th Brigade Engineer Battalion, Construction Facilities
Management Office and independent engineer units such as the 810th Engineer
Company and 870th Explosives Hazards Coordination Cell. These units have
supported overseas combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq while also serving
at home in response to hurricanes and as part of Georgia’s coordinated response
to the Coronavirus pandemic. With nearly 1,500 Citizen-Soldiers serving in
engineer units in the state of Georgia in 2023, one might ponder, when did it
all begin? What was the first engineer unit in the Georgia National Guard?
Origin of
the Waycross Engineers
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| Brig. Gen. J. Van Holt Nash, Georgia's Adjutant General. Georgia National Guard Archives. |
In the spring of 1917, Brig. Gen. J. Van Holt Nash, Georgia’s Adjutant General, approached Homer Dayton Langworthy about the possibility of mustering a unit of engineers. Langworthy, a civil engineer who served as the superintendent of the Macon Water Works, already had experience in military engineering having directed the construction of Camp Harris near Macon, which served as a mustering camp for the Georgia National Guard before their deployment to the Mexican border in 1916.
On April 22,
Langworthy convened a meeting at the Lanier Hotel in Macon to solicit
enlistments to form an engineer unit.[1]
By the end of the month, the first engineer company had been raised in Waycross.
The company was inspected by Nash on May 11, and mustered into service.[2]
The city of Waycross supported the organization effort by providing funds for
an armory.[3]
On June 21,
1917, The Waycross Pioneer Engineer Company was accepted into federal service
under the command of Capt. Walter Gray.[4]
The company departed for Macon’s Camp Wheeler with 130 Soldiers June 25.[5]
Among its ranks were three brothers from one Waycross family.[6]
Langworthy
continued his recruiting efforts into the summer of 1917. On July 7, Langworthy
issued an appeal to masons and carpenters of Macon to form a company from that
city.[7]
He continued his efforts across the state appealing to the citizens of Albany
to answer the call to service.
While
Langworthy was stumping for recruits, the Waycross engineers, who arrived at
Camp Wheeler without tents, moved into buildings previously occupied by the
Georgia Hussars of the Georgia National Guard’s 2nd Cavalry Squadron. To the
chagrin of some of the camp occupants, the engineers also took up residence on
land that had formerly been occupied by the camp baseball diamond forcing the
cancellation of some anticipated matches.[8]
Proud to be
the home of Georgia’s first engineer unit, the citizens of Waycross continued
to support their hometown Guard unit. The city solicited donations to purchase
colors for the company while its Soldiers were busily employed surveying new
rifle ranges for Camp Wheeler.[9],[10]
Funds were secured, and by October 12, the flag was ready to be presented to
the company.[11]
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| Headquarters, Waycross Engineers, Company A, 106th Engineer Regiment. Georgia National Guard Archives. |
Forming
and Training the 106th Engineer Regiment
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| Sergeant Milton Porter. Georgia National Guard Archives |
On October 1, 1917, the 106th Engineer Regiment was formed with the Waycross Engineers constituting Company A. The Waycross company provided most of the personnel for the regimental staff, including Capt. Gray. The regiment was assigned to the 31st Division along with most of the units of the Georgia National Guard.
The Waycross
Engineers suffered their first loss November 17, 1917 with the death of Sgt.
Milton Porter. The 22-year-old Soldier died of pneumonia at Camp Wheeler. On
December 11, the engineers lost their most strident patron as Langworthy died
at home after a brief illness. Just 30 years old, Langworthy left behind a wife
and two children.[12]
In June
1918, the 106th embarked on a 120-mile hike leaving Camp Wheeler June 11 with
Capt. William Harper commanding Company A. The engineers camped in
Jeffersonville, Dudley, and Dublin where they were received by Red Cross
volunteers. In Dublin, the mayor saw that the engineers had access to
electricity and hot showers at the city fairgrounds. The engineers completed
the 120 mile hike June 18 with a final section of 22 miles.[13]
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| Soldiers of the 106th Engineer Regiment were among those who completed a course of instruction in gas defense at Camp Wheeler in May 1918. Georgia National Guard Archives. |
In addition
to regular physical exercise, the company trained in the engineering tasks they
would employ overseas. Across a ravine dubbed the River Rhine, the 106th
Engineers practiced bridge building.[14]
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| The platoons of the Waycross Engineers, Company A. Top: 1st and 2nd Platoon. Bottom: 3rd and 4th Platoon. Georgia National Guard Archives. |
Mobilization
The 106th
was pronounced fit for overseas service August 31, 1918 and began preparations
to leave Camp Wheeler. The regiment departed Macon September 7 in sections and
reassembled at Camp Mills, New York where it received an issue of equipment.[15]
The 106th
tarried at Camp Mills for less than a week before boarding a train for Hoboken,
N.J. where the Soldiers boarded the H.M.S. Balmoral Castle. The ship
departed for France September 16 and steamed past the Statue of Liberty at
sunset. That evening, the Balmoral Castle joined a convoy of 12
transports, three destroyers and two battlecruisers and began the transit of
the Atlantic the next morning. The voyage was eventful with a dense fog nearly
causing the collision of two ships. A German submarine surfaced and exchanged
shots with the convoy on September 24 before disappearing beneath the waves.[16]
On September
28, the Balmoral Castle landed at Glasgow, Scotland and the 106th
boarded a train bound for the south of England. After two days of rest, the
Soldiers left Southampton and arrived in LeHavre France early the next morning.
They were among the first Soldiers of the 31st Division to arrive in France.
The regiment moved to Brest by rail with the second battalion delayed by an
outbreak of spinal meningitis that forced the battalion to quarantine for ten
days. The regiment was reunited October 20 in Brest by which time the Waycross
Engineers were already employed in the construction of buildings at Camp
Pontanezen, which would become the largest camp established by the U.S. Army
and serve as the debarkation depot for troops returning to the United States.
Upon their arrival, the site of Camp Pontanezen was a veritable sea of mud with
no structures. The engineers pitched their camp in the mud and cooked their
meals over fires at field ranges while they labored to erect the structures
that would house thousands of American Soldiers.[17]
Among the first troops to call Pontanezen home were Soldiers of the 31st
Division, including the Georgia National Guard’s 121st Infantry Regiment.[18]
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| Camp Pontanezen in 1918. Library of Congress. |
The
Builders of Camp Pontanezen
Over the
next six months, the 106th Engineer Regiment and other units transformed the
muddy fields of France into a vast city comprised of nearly 1,000 buildings
with five miles of roads, plank walkways, and a dedicated water system. The
scale of the work accomplished by the 106th is staggering not only in scale but
for the conditions endured by its Soldiers as Brest received rain on 331 days
in 1918. Undeterred, the engineers erected more than 400 barracks buildings and
nearly 70 kitchens and mess halls capable of feeding 100,000 Soldiers.[19]
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| Elevated walkways at Camp Pontanezen constructed by the 106th Engineer Regiment. United States Marine Corps Archives. |
The 106th Engineers returned to the United States in 1919 and were mustered out of federal services, but the efforts of their labor endured for decades. In September, 1944, the 121st Infantry Regiment returned to Pontanezen, this time while advancing to seize the city of Brest from German forces.[20]
[1]
“Engineers to Meet Today,” The Macon Telegraph, April 22, 1917, 4.
[2]
“Nash Will Muster In Waycross Engineers,” The Atlanta Constitution, May
11, 1917, 7.
[3]
“House Waycross Engineers,” The Macon Telegraph, May 16, 1917, 8.
[4]
“Waycross Co. of Engineers Put Into Federal Service,” The Macon Telegraph,
June 21, 1917, 7.
[5]
“Company from Waycross on Way,” The Brunswick News, June 26, 1917, 1.
[6]
“Three Brothers in Company,” The Macon Telegraph, June 24, 1917, 5.
[7]
“To Organize Macon Engineers,” The Atlanta Constitution, July 8, 1917, 7.
[8]
“Lose Old Ball Diamond,” The Macon Telegraph, July 13, 1917, 10.
[9]
“Waycross to Present Pioneer Engineers a Handsome Flag,” The Macon News,
August 2, 1917.
[10]
“Engineers Are Busy,” The Macon News,” September 13, 1917, 10.
[11]
“Flag For Waycross Engineers Arrives,” The Macon News, October 12, 1917,
7.
[12]
“Macon’s Supt. Expired Yesterday,” The Atlanta Constitution, December
12, 1917, 16.
[13]
“Engineers’ Regiment Completes Long Hike,” The Atlanta Constitution, June
18, 1918, 10.
[14]
“Dump No. 1 Serves as Rhine for Engineers,” The Macon Telegraph, July
26, 1918, 10.
[15]
106th Regt. Engrs. Builders of Camp Pontanezen, (Paris, France, 1919), 8.
[16]
106th Regt. Engrs. Builders of Camp Pontanezen, (Paris, France, 1919), 8.
[17]
106th Regt. Engrs. Builders of Camp Pontanezen, (Paris, France, 1919),
9.
[19]
106th Regt. Engrs. Builders of Camp Pontanezen, (Paris, France, 1919),
10.
[20]
121st Infantry Regiment, The Gray Bonnet; Combat History of the 121st
Infantry Regiment. (Baton Rouge, LA: Army & Navy Publishing Company,
1946), 40-42.
