WorldCat Linked Data Explorer

Turtle N-Triple JSON-LD RDF/XML HTML Contact Us Home

http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/398865593

Oral history interview with Mark H. Ingraham

Open All Close All

type

about

contributor

creator

description

http://schema.org/description

  • "Ingraham, born in Brooklyn, New York, speaks about his military service experiences during World War I as a 1st Lieutenant of the 309th Infantry Regimental Supply Company. He explains that he attended Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) ROTC and Plattsburgh training camp in 1916, commanded by General Wood. Part of the training included shooting a Springfield .30 caliber rifle. Returning to Cornell for his senior year, Ingraham was allowed to graduate early when the war broke out, at which time he volunteered for officer training camp. Ingraham reveals that after training at Governor's Island (New York) for a few days with wooden rifles he was sent to Madison Barracks (Sackets Harbor, New York). He states the companies there included about one hundred men, mostly from eastern colleges. Ingraham says his training included close-order drills, marksmanship, the study of Army regulations, maneuvers, bayonet drills, close in fighting, marching, physical exercise, and the study of maps and topography. He jokes about the poor food that was provided and the relief Sundays brought when they could leave base and get some good food. Ingraham then moved to Camp Dix (New Jersey) where he was commissioned as 1st Lieutenant. He relates that he taught map and trigonometry concepts to his squad and platoon, then map making to his company, with help from an engineer and an architect. Ingraham considers himself lucky to have been in a supply regiment because they got to engage in many different duties, "you had a whole series of different kinds of duties that were not a monotonous routine, and which you could make a decision how the thing would be done. This is partly the nature of a Supply Company; it's partly the nature of our Colonel that said that his idea was tell a man what he wanted done but never how. If he didn't do it right, fire him." Ingraham describes how the Army started becoming more efficient and used statistics by explaining a system he was allowed to develop to outfit and supply soldiers. He characterizes draftees as including immigrants, college men, and high school graduates. He explains that the company had people who specialized in a variety of different things such as mule and horse driving, groceries, hardware, cloth and uniforms, and blacksmithing. As a supply company, they were not expected to practice marksmanship as much and Ingraham recounts a funny story about a colonel discovering a man who was exceptional with his weapon. Ingraham also relates an amusing story about inadvertently being responsible for moving troops onto a train in Philadelphia and onto a Red Star Liner. He recalls his trip from Philadelphia to London, including a submarine scare, being taken to Folkestone (England) and then to Calais (France). Ingraham reports that he greatly enjoyed hearing the song of the Skylark. He explains being billeted by the French and just taking over empty homes in towns where everyone had fled. Ingraham characterizes the troops as being irritated with things such as afternoon teas and arguments over food rations while attached to the British for training. He discusses attending a gas mask lecture, gas mask alarms, supply duties, difficulty traveling in the rainy weather in the Argonne and Saint Mihiel, and eating food mixed with mud. Ingraham reports the supply company usually was anywhere from 200 yards to twenty miles back from the front lines and discusses the last big push on November 2nd, which is around the time he made captain."

genre

http://schema.org/genre

  • "Personal narratives"

name

http://schema.org/name

  • "Oral history interview with Mark H. Ingraham"

workExample