To the War and Back

Nearly every week, a mystery is solved or some interesting twig (or nut) appears somewhere on the family tree. Here is a little news of recent findings.

We knew that Thomas Leland Estes served in World War I and we knew that he arrived in France just in time for the end of the war. But that is about all we knew. On 12 Jul 1973, there was a fire at the National Personnel Records Center and about 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files were lost. So, information on the service of an individual soldier in World War I is limited.

But, today I found Tom’s military transport records. To a normal person, that might not be that exciting, but to a family historian, it is really interesting. Those records help us understand more clearly when he served and where he was located. They also tell us that he came home as a Private in Company G of the 317th Infantry. We don’t think that Tom saw much action, but that group was part of the Somme Offensive / Meuse-Argonne Offensive when it was fought from 26 Sep 1918 to the Armistice on 11 Nov 1918.  Also known as the Battle of the Argonne Forest, it was a major part of the final Allied offensive in the war.

Over There

Tom left the USA on 1 Sep 1918 aboard the SS Belgic. He was part of Company #26 which was a group of replacements being sent to the war from Camp Gordon. Camp Gordon was located in DeKalb County, north of Atlanta, Georgia. The camp housed more than 46,000 troops at its peak. So, we know that Tom, a boy from Iowa, was sent to Georgia for military training and then moved to Hoboken, New Jersey so that he could board a boat.

The SS Belgic was built in 1914 and originally served as a freighter and troopship. She was initially used to carry cargo, but later modified to carry up to 3,000 troops. She was later sailed under the name The Belgenland.

France

France

We still don’t know when exactly Tom arrived in France, but we can assume that it took two or three weeks to get across the ocean. That would mean that he arrived mid-to-late Sep 1918. He was there less than two months when an armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany and fighting in World War I came to an end. The ceasefire went into effect at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

Though the actual fighting stopped, it took another six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference until the final peace treaty, called the Treaty of Versailles, was signed on 28 Jun 1919.

Home Coming

Getting the boys home from Europe after the war was somewhat of a logistical nightmare. They had millions of soldiers to return to the US. The following table, from A history of the transport service, shows the number of troops making the trip home in 1919.

Tom spent about nine months in France and then finally spent 13 days traveling back to the United States on the steamship the U.S.S. Nansemond. He sailed from Brest, France on 20 May 1919 and arrived in Newport News, Virginia on 2 Jun 1919.

The Nansemond was built in 1896 as a passenger ship. It was originally called the Pennsylvania and was built for the Hamburg-American Line flying under the German flag. But, during the first part of World War I, she was seized by the United States and renamed as the Nansemond. She was used by the Army Cargo and Transport Service until shortly after the fighting ended. She was then transferred to the Navy and renamed to the USS Nansemond. She made several trips to and from Europe to carry cargo and to transport troops. She was decommissioned in Sep 1919 and scrapped in 1924.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on the arrival of the Nansemond in Newport News, Virginia. The article reported, “Two days ago an epidemic of influenza broke out and the ship made full speed to port, arriving several hours ahead of schedule. There were 91 cases on board, and these men were transferred to the base hospital here for further treatment.”

We are glad that Tom made it home safely so that he could return to Iowa, marry Lona Iona Fawcett and launch our branch of the Estes family.

Sources:

“16,200 Troops Land At Newport News,” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York), 03 Jun 1919, page 20, Web, 5 Jul 2017 https://www.newspapers.com/image/60016410/.

“317th Regiment,” Web, 5 Jul 2017, http://www.history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/lineages/branches/regt/0317rgt.htm.

“Camp Gordon,” New Georgia Encyclopedia, Web, 5 Jul 2017, http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/world-war-i-military-camps#Camp-Gordon.

“Meuse-Argonne Offensive,” Wikipedia, Web, 5 Jul 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meuse-Argonne_Offensive.

“SS Belgenland (1914),” Wikipedia, Web, 5 Jul 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Belgenland_(1914).

“The 1973 Fire, National Personnel Records Center,” National Archives at St. Louis, Web, 5 Jul 2017, https://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/fire-1973.html.

“USS Nansemond,” RootsWeb, Web, 5 Jul 2017, http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacunithistories/USS_Nansemond.html.

Albert Gleaves, A history of the transport service; adventures and experiences of United States transports and cruisers in the world war (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1921), 245; digital images, Archive Org (https://archive.org/details/historyoftranspo00glea: accessed 5 Jul 2017)

Ancestry.com, U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939 (Lehi, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016), Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com, The National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland; Lists of Outgoing Passengers, compiled 1917-1938; NAI Number: 6234477; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985; Record Group Number: 92; Roll or Box Number: 383. Record for Thomas L Estes.

Ancestry.com, U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939 (Lehi, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016), Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com, The National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland; Lists of Incoming Passengers, compiled 1917-1938; NAI Number: 6234465; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985; Record Group Number: 92; Roll or Box Number: 219. Record for Thomas L. Estes.