Sunday, May 11, 2025

The Waycross Engineers: First Engineer Unit in the Georgia National Guard

 By Maj. William Carraway, Historian, Georgia National Guard

 

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

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]

 

Headquarters, Waycross Engineers, Company A, 106th Engineer Regiment. Georgia National Guard Archives.

Forming and Training the 106th Engineer Regiment

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] 

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]

 

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]

 

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]

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.

Friday, May 2, 2025

On the Border in 1916 and 2025: The 277th Support Maintenance Company

By Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

 

Soldiers of the 277th Support Maintenance Company mobilized to the Mexican Border in 1916 and 2024. Right photo courtesy of the Wisconsin National Guard.

In October 2024, the Georgia National Guard’s 277th Support Maintenance Company mobilized to the southern border nearly 108 years to the day after its predecessor unit mobilized to El Paso, Texas with the Georgia Brigade. In addition to its two mobilizations to the border, the company mobilized Soldiers for the Spanish American War, both world wars, and supported overseas combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Captain James Hollis.
Organization and Early Years


The 277th Support Maintenance Company perpetuates the lineage of the Atlanta Zouaves, which was organized July 14, 1887, under the command of Capt. J. B. Hollis.[1] With an initial strength of 34 Soldiers, the company assembled for drill at their armory at 24 ½ North Broads Street. Within a year of their organization, the Zouaves had established themselves as a quality unit winning first prize in competitions in Opelika, Ala. In August 1888 and Selma, Ala. In December 1888.[2]

 

On Memorial Day, 1889, the Atlanta Zouaves made their first public appearance in their new uniform. The Zouaves wore dark blue jackets trimmed with gold silk braid with red trousers with gold silk ornaments. Buff sashes, white leggings, and a light buff vest with blue silk braid accented the uniforms which were completed by red silk plush fezzes.[3]

 

The Zouaves were designated Company A of the 4th Battalion of Infantry, Georgia Volunteers. April 16, 1890. On November 8, 1893, the company was redesignated Company A of the Atlanta-based 5th Infantry Regiment.

 

Captain Asa Baker
The Spanish American Border

During the Spanish American War, the Atlanta Zouaves and other units of the 5th
Infantry Regiment volunteered for federal service. Captain Amos Baker, commander of the Zouaves, was appointed to command Company E, 3rd Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment which was the only regiment of Georgia National Guard troops to see overseas service during the war. Baker was accompanied by several Soldiers of the Atlanta Zouaves; however, the Zouaves did not mobilize overseas as a unit.

 

The Mexican Border

In July 1916, units of the Georgia National Guard were activated for federal service and mobilized to the Mexican Border in October. The Atlanta Zouaves, under the command of Capt. John Glover Crane Bloodworth Jr., was stationed at Camp Cotton near El Paso Texas where they manned outposts and conducted patrols along the border.

 

Markings on a haversack carried by a Soldier of the Atlanta Zouaves to the Mexican Border in 1916. Private collection.

World War I

Captain John Bloodworth Jr. in 1939.
Georgia National Guard Archives.

Returning to Georgia in March 1917, the Zouaves remained on active duty due to the U.S. declaration of war on Germany. In October, the 5th Infantry Regiment was redesignated the 122nd Infantry Regiment, with the Zouaves continuing to serve as Company A. The 122nd trained at Camp Wheeler near Macon, Ga. with other units of the 31st Division until mobilized to France in October 1918. The 245 Soldiers of Company A, under Capt. Bloodworth, departed for France from Hoboken, N. J. October 7, 1918, aboard the SS Kroonland. The Soldiers of the 31st Division arrived too late to take an active part in combat operations. Returning to Georgia in 1919, the Zouaves and 122nd Infantry Regiment were mustered out of federal service.

 

Interwar and World War II

Nearly five years would pass before the post reorganization of the Georgia National Guard was complete. The Atlanta Zouaves was organized and federally recognized in Atlanta March 5, 1924, in the Georgia National Guard as Companies A and B, 200th Infantry.[4] The companies were redesignated June 9, 1924 as Companies A and B of the Atlanta-based 122nd Infantry Regiment.[5] On July 1, 1939, the companies were converted and redesignated as Batteries A and B of the 179th Field Artillery Regiment.[6]

 

A Howitzer assigned to Battery A, 179th Field Artillery Regiment. Photo by Pfc. Matthew Starnes.

The 179th FA was inducted into federal service February 24, 1941, in Atlanta and mobilized to Camp Blanding Florida for initial training.[7] The 179th conducted training during maneuvers in North Carolina and Mississippi before reaching Fort Sill in March 1943 where the 179th was reorganized with Company A and B continuing in service with the 179th Field Artillery Battalion. The 179th mobilized to the European Theater of the war, landing at Utah Beach August 12, 1944. The 179th FA provided fire support from the Normandy campaign to Germany. Returning home following World War II, the 179th was inactivated December 9, 1945, at Camp Patrick Henry, Va.[8]

 

Post-WWII Reorganization and Service

On July 5, 1946, the 179th was reorganized and assigned to the division artillery of the 48th Infantry Division.[9] The unit was federally recognized in Atlanta May 2, 1947.

FORT STEWART, Ga.  1959 - Two M55 self-propelled howitzers of the 1st Rocket/Howitzer Battalion, 179th Field Artillery during annual training
of the 48th Armored Division at Fort Stewart, Ga.  .National Guard Educational Foundation, Washington D.C.


In 1955, the 48th Infantry Division was reorganized as an armor division, though the organization of the 179th was unchanged.[10] On July 1, 1959, the 179th was reorganized and redesignated the 1st Rocket Howitzer Battalion.[11] The 179th FA served until January 1, 1968, when it was converted to form the 177th Engineer Company.[12] The unit was reorganized and redesignated July 1, 1971 as Company B, 878th Engineer Battalion,[13] and on December 1, 1971, received its current designation as the 277th Support Maintenance Company.[14]

 

Mobilizations and Missions of the 277th SMC

On September 1, 1997, the 277th moved to its present location in Kennesaw.[15]


The 277th was ordered into active federal service February 10, 2003, at Kennesaw for service during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The unit returned to state control June 19, 2004.

 

May 2, 2010: Soldiers of the 277th Support Maintenance Company stand in formation during a departure ceremony before deploying to Afghanistan in support of
Operation Enduring Freedom. Georgia National Guard Archives.

The 277th was again ordered into active federal service April 29, 2010, for Operation Enduring Freedom and was released from active federal service June 2, 2011. For its efforts in Afghanistan, the 277th was awarded the Meritorious Unit Citation.

 

In addition to overseas service, the 277th SMC has supported numerous emergency response operations including multiple hurricane response missions and the state’s COVID-19 response effort. The capabilities of the 277th have also been called upon to support Army mobilizations and training. In April 2019, the 277th sent a platoon to the Joint Readiness Center at Fort Polk, La. From February 10 to March 14, 2022, the 277th mobilized 30 personnel to Camp Shelby, Miss. in support of the premobilization training of an Army Reserve unit. The unit conducted annual training at Camp Dodge, Iowa in August 2023.

 

In October 2024, the 277th SMC mobilized to the U.S. border with Mexico, nearly 108 years after its predecessor unit, the Atlanta Zouaves, boarded a train in Macon bound for border security duty. Under the direction of U.S. Northern Command and Joint Task Force North, the 277th SMC supported U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations through fiscal year 2025.



[1] “Officers Commissioned,” Columbus Enquirer Sun, July 19, 1887, 1.

 

[2] “They Got There,” Atlanta Constitution, December 28, 1888, 88.

 

[3] “The Atlanta Zouaves,” Atlanta Constitution, March 25, 1889, 4.

 

[4] U.S. Army Center of Military History, MB 325.4-Georgia-Feb. 27, 1924, Washington DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, NP.

 

[5] U.S. Army Center of Military History, MB 325.4-Georgia-June 2, 1924, Washington DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, NP.

 

[6] U.S. Army Center of Military History, Lineage and Honors, 122nd Infantry Regiment, Washington DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, August 1955.

 

[7] U.S. Army Center of Military History, Lineage and Honors, 277th Maintenance Company, Washington DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, ND.

 

[8] William Carraway. Historic Georgia Guard Units Join the Fight in France: The 179th and 945th FA Battalions Enter the ETO August 12, 1944. http://www.georgiaguardhistory.com/2019/08/historic-georgia-guard-units-join-fight.html

 

[9] Military Department, State of Georgia, General Orders No. 17, Atlanta, December 31, 1946.

 

[13] National Guard Bureau, Reorganizational Authority 135-71, Washington DC, July 1, 1971.

 

[14] National Guard Bureau, Reorganizational Authority 190-71, Washington DC, December 1, 1971.

 

[15] National Guard Bureau, Organizational Authority 199-97, Washington DC, August 22, 1997.

 

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