Volume 15 , Issue 13

Camp Travis - World War I

In 1917, a mobilization cantonment with 1,400 temporary buildings was erected in three months generally on the site of Camp Wilson. More than 100,000 soldiers trained here, including the 90th and 18th Divisions.

Camp Travis was designed to be a nearly self-sufficient city, it contained its own power plant, hospital, fire stations, remount station, bakery, warehouses, laundry, chapel, mess room, post exchange and barracks. Camp Travis was absorbed by Fort Sam Houston in 1922. For more information Click the following link: Camp Travis, Texas.

Camp Travis was situated a few miles from downtown San Antonio adjoining Fort Sam Houston. Originally the name was Camp Wilson, named after the man who "kept us out of war." It was the point from which troops were mobilized in 1916 to quell the Mexican Border Crisis brought upon by the Mexican Revolution. MORE INFO.

We found this information about Camp Travis at the following website, The Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association (TSHA):

"The Ninetieth Division was organized at Camp Travis in September and October of 1917. The ranking officers, including Maj. Gen. Henry T. Allen, the division and camp commander, were regular army officers. The junior officers were primarily Texas and Oklahoma graduates of the officer-training camp at Camp Funston. The enlisted personnel consisted of Texas and Oklahoma draftees. Hispanics and Indians were intermixed with Caucasians in the new draft division, but blacks were assigned to the camp depot brigade. By mid-October 1917 the Ninetieth Division numbered more than 31,000 officers and men."   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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