After years of smouldering resentment against Spain for its treatment of the Cubans, American sentiment flamed into war spirit when the battleship Maine was blown up on the night of February 15, 1898, as she rode at anchor in Havanna harbor. Thus Michigan sustained some of the first casualties of the war even before a formal declaration had been made, for several members of the crew of the illfated war vessel hailed from Michigan.

On April 23, President McKinley called for 125,000 volunteers to enforce the ultimatum sent to Spain and two days later war was declared. Michigan was asked to furnish four regiments of infantry representing a combined strength of 4,104 officers and men, and the following day the Michigan National Guard was ordered to mobilize at the summer camp at Island Lake. With the new recruits, the guard was again reorganized, and since the state had raised thirty regiments during the Civil war, the first regiment for the Spanish-American war was designated as the Thirty-first Michigan Volunteer Infantry.

Companies I, K, and L of the Thirty-first were raised in Detroit, and the commissioned officers from Detroit serving with the regiment were as follows: Colonel Cornelius Gardner; Major Charles W. Harrah; Surgeon Andrew P. Biddle; Lieutenant Frederick L. Abel, adjutant; Captain Duncan Henderson, First Lieutenant Walter G. Rogers, and Second Lieutenant William A. Campbell, Company I; Captain William A. Sink, First Lieutenant Cassius C. Fisk, and Second Lieutenant Addis C. Doyle, Company K; Captain Charles S. Baxter, First Lieutenant John S. Bersey, and Second Lieutenant Valentine R. Evans. After being mustered into the service in May, the regiment remained in southern camps until January 25, 1899, when it started for Cuba, arriving there a month later. It was then ordered back to the United States and was mustered out at Savannah, Georgia, in May.

The Thirty-second Infantry was mustered into service six days before the Thirty-first. Companies I, K, L, and M were raised in Wayne county, and the commissioned officers from this county that served with the regiment were Major Thomas H. Reynolds; Surgeon Odillion B. Weed; Captain Louis F. Hart, First Lieutenant Alden G. Catton, and Second Lieutenant Leonard G. Eber, Company I; Captain J. Edward Dupont, First Lieutenant Harry S. Starkey, and Second Lieutenant George L. Winkler, Company K; Captain Henry B. Lothrop, First Lieutenant Winslow W. Wilcox, and Second Lieutenant John McBride, Jr., Company L; and Captain John Considine, Jr., First Lieutenant Richard W. Cotter, and Second Lieutenant Frank J. Cook, Company M. The regiment went to Tampa, Florida, in May but was never ordered to Cuba, it being discharged by detachments between October 25 and November 9, 1898.

The Thirty-third Infantry was mustered in May 20, 1898, went to Camp Alger, Virginia, eight days later, and on June 6 embarked for Cuba to join the forces under General Shafter who was then preparing to move against Santiago. The regiment lost two men

in the battle of Aguadores on July 2, 1898. The regiment was ordered home on September 2, and was mustered out on January 6, 1899, after being in quarantine for some time at Montauk Point, New York. Second Lieutenant Charles O'Reilly Atkinson and ten privates of Company L were the only Detroit men in that regi

ment.

Major William G. Latimer was the only Detroit man with the Thirty-fourth Infantry, which was mustered in at Island Lake on May 25, 1898, and went to Camp Alger, Virginia, and then to Cuba, about the same time as the Thirty-third. The last detachment was mustered out of the government service on January 2, 1899.

The Thirty-fifth Infantry was mustered in at Island Lake on July 25, 1898. On September 14, 1898, the regiment went to Camp Meade, Pennsylvania, and was then ordered south, being mustered out, March 31, 1899, at Augusta, Georgia. Company F, of this regiment was raised in the eastern counties of the Lower Peninsula, and in addition to First Lieutenant Horace F. Sykes and Second Lieutenant Bertram J. Bishop, both of Wyandotte, several noncommissioned officers and fifty-five privates of the company were from Wayne county. Alphonse Balck, second lieutenant of Company A, a few men in Company H, and eleven privates in Company K came from Detroit and Wayne county.

Several men from Wayne county were included in the 270 Naval Reserves on the Auxiliary cruiser "Yosemite" at Santiago Bay, Havana, San Juan, Porto Rico, and Guantanamo. Henry B. Joy, Truman Newberry and Edwin Denby were among the contingent from this county.

World War. At the evening session of April 4, 1917, Congress in joint session adopted a resolution declaring war to exist between Germany and the United States. On April 6, President Woodrow Wilson approved the resolution and the United States from that date was embarked in the World war which had been raging in Europe since late in 1914. The declaration of war was attended by a rush for enlistment never before equalled in the history of the country. Within a month, Detroit had furnished nearly 3,000 men for the different branches of the armed forces of the United States. The national guard authorities of the state ordered mobilization and recruiting to full war strength of the various units of the state militia and also authorized the organization of such military units as would be necessary to round out the military organization of the state. But the United States had profited by the troubles of England and the other countries already engaged in the war, and to avoid the troubles experienced by the other countries in keeping the ranks of the army filled, the draft bill was passed by Congress, requiring all males between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one to register on June 5.

Of those who registered at that time, 11,829 from Detroit were subsequently chosen for military service in the National Army. The first contingent to leave the city under the terms of the selective service act entrained for Camp Custer on September 5, and their

numbers were 187. But while drafted men were kept in units as they came from their home states as far as possible, they frequently lost their identity, and the National Guard of the state remains as the distinctive mark of Michigan's answer to the call to arms. The 339th Infantry, the 329th and 330th Artillery regiments were composed almost entirely of Detroit men.

With the National Guard units recruited to full war strength, they were sent to Camp MacArthur, Waco, Texas, where under order of the War Department dated July 18, 1917, the Michigan units were consolidated with the National Guard units of Wisconsin to form the Thirty-second Division, whose insignia was the Red Arrow, the Michigan men comprising roughly one-third of the division. As the ranks were thinned by action in France, they were filled by replacements who hailed from half the states of the Union. Their training completed at Camp MacArthur, the Thirty-second Division was ordered to France early in 1918, where its headquarters were established at Prauthoy, Haute Marne, on February 24, 1918. Although the Thirty-second Division was originally named as a replacement division, the officers of the organization were so vigorous in their protests that the order was rescinded and the division given the status of a combat unit. Before the order came through, however, virtually one entire regiment of infantry had been sent to the First Division to replace the men who had been killed with that unit in battle. When the Thirty-second had spent four weeks at Prauthoy, it was ordered to the Haute Alsace sector to complete its training in what was known as a quiet sector. On May 18, the Thirty-second took over a section of the front held by the French and continued to do so until July 21. At that time the division was moved to the vicinity of Verberie to act as reserve to the French army near Soissons. From there the division went to a point near Chateau Thierry where it was placed with the Thirtyeighth French Corps, Sixth Army, but it was soon consolidated with the Fifth American Corps, for the concentration of American troops in France had begun by that time.

By the time the division was fully absorbed into the American organization, the Aisne-Marne offensive was well under way, and on July 29 and 30, the division relieved the Third division near Roncheres not far from Chateau Thierry. The attack of the division was launched the following day, and by the time it was relieved on August 7, the Red Arrow had pushed past the town of Fismes. Its next action was near Juvigny where its operations were as brilliant as those before Fismes.

The division was next ordered to the Meuse-Argonne offensive, relieving the 87th Division on the night of September 29 and continuing the attack the next morning. The attack that was begun that day was carried successfully forward until on October 9 the division was facing the famous Kriemhilde-Stellung, German defenses in the back areas that were considered by the enemy to be impregnable. On the fourteenth of October, the attack was launched against this famous line which broke under the impetuous

charges of the American troops. Cote Dame Marie and Romagne were captured; Bois de Chauvignon was passed; and while the division was fighting its way through the Bois de Bantheville, it was relieved on the night of October 29-30 by the 89th Division and went into reserve. The 128th Infantry of the Thirty-second Division re-entered the lines on the night of November 6 as a part of the Fifth Division in the vicinity of Dun-sur-Meuse and participated in the crossing of the Meuse which has been characterized one of the most brilliant operations in the war.

A brief rest after the armistice and the Red Arrow division began its march to Germany, crossing the Sauer river on December 1 and entered Germany. The division took up a position of thirty kilometers front at the Coblentz bridgehead where it remained until it was ordered home. The Detroit members of "Les Terribles," as they were known to the French, returned to this city on May 19, 1919, where they were welcomed by an overjoyed populace, concluding a service that was as arduous as it was brilliant in the military operations that it carried through so successfully.

Following the passage of the Conscription law in 1917, the first registration brought in a list of 152,305, from which 11,829 men were selected in the first draft, mobilized soon after, and sent to Battle Creek to begin training. As soon as war had been declared, the Michigan National Guard was mobilized, the 31st and 33rd Regiments of Infantry, the 16th Battalion of Engineers, Harper Base Hospital Unit No. 17, Detroit College of Medicine Base Hospital Unit No. 36, the First Michigan Cavalry, the First Michigan Field Artillery, and Ambulance Companies No. 8 and No. 28 being mobilized at Detroit.

The men at the front were well backed by the people at home. Red Cross auxiliaries made sweaters, socks, and surgical supplies; Detroit factories made munitions and airplane and truck parts; Detroit shipyards were placed at the disposal of the shipping board for the manufacture of fabricated ships; and in countless other ways, war work was carried on. Subscriptions in Detroit to the Liberty loans gave concrete evidence of the spirit and patriotism of the people. The first loan brought in subscriptions totaling $42,290,000; the second, $54,190,000; the third, $50,000,000; the fourth, $80,000,000; and the fifth, or Victory loan, $86,350,000, the last an oversubscription of $30,855,587. Various other funds were raised in Detroit, including $2,800,000 that was Detroit's quota of the Red Cross fund raised in 1917.

UP

CHAPTER VII

COUNTY ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT

PON the strength of the victories of Colonel George Rogers Clark, the state of Virginia claimed all the territory later included within the limits of the Northwest Territory to further substantiate their claims to the vast country, the legislature of that state in October, 1778, passed an act erecting all the subsequent Northwest Territory into Illinois county of Virginia, marking the first attempt to establish a county west of the Allegheny Mountains. Though the territory was nominally a duly organized county, it remained such a governmental unit in name only.

But with the Western forts on the Great Lakes still in the possession of the British after the cessation of hostilities, the county organization carried no weight, and in 1792, John Graves Simcoe, governor of Upper Canada issued a proclamation forming the county of Kent embracing Detroit and the entire state of Michigan and extending north as far as the Hudson bay country.

No sooner had the American troops invested the forts along the northern boundary of the United States than Winthrop Sargent, secretary and acting governor of the Northwest Territory issued the following proclamation on August 15, 1796, erecting Wayne county:

"Whereas, by an ordinance of Congress of the thirteenth of July, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, for the settlement of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio, it is directed that for the due execution of process, civil and criminal, the Governors shall make proper Divisions of the said Territory and proceed from time to time, as circumstances may require, to lay out the same into Counties and Townships, and, Whereas, it appearing to me expedient that a new county should immediately be erected to include the settlements at Detroit, etc., I do hereby ordain and order that all and singular the Lands lying and being within the following Boundaries, viz.: beginning

"At the mouth of the Cuyahoga river upon Lake Erie, and with the said river to the portage between it and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, thence down the said branch to the forks, at the carrying place above Fort Lawrence, thence by a west line to the eastern boundary of Hamilton county (which is a due north line from the lower Shawonese Town upon the Scioto river), thence by a line west-northerly to the southern part of the portage between the Miamis of the Ohio and the St. Mary's river, thence by a line also west-northerly to the southwestern part of the portage between the Wabash and the Miamis of Lake Erie, where Fort Wayne now stands, thence by a line west-northerly to the most southern part of Lake Michigan, thence along the western shores of the same