Military Brief




Military Brief

Great-grandpa Dave Ferguson's younger son, Jo Orval Ferguson, was in the infantry, stationed in France. When the company returned to America, he remained in France, to assist in updating the Post Office system. At one time he censored the outgoing mail from their station - see his postcard under Misc. Relative's letters.

After the war, a booklet was compiled of the various Howell County, Missouri companies. Uncle Jo wrote the Brief Sketch of the History of Co. F, 6th Mo. Infantry (140th Infantry), and included the roster of men in the company from Willow Springs, Howell Co., Missouri and Cabool, Texas Co., Missouri.



By Lieut. Jo O. Ferguson

This is only an outline and necessarily must be brief, but the briefest sketch of any company of the Sixth Missouri Infantry cannot be complete without referring to the fact that this regiment is not a new organization; back in the forties the Sixth Missouri Infantry won fame with Colonel Doniphan in the Mexican War - later in the sixties the Civil War found a Sixth Missouri Infantry lined up with Confederates and another with the Union. In ninety-eight this outfit was the only Missouri regiment to see service on foreign soil.

In the Spring of 1917, shortly after Congress declared war with Germany, the Governor of Missouri undertook to increase the National Guard to the full quota allowed this state. In order to do this it was necessary to organize two new regiments. The Fifth Missouri Infantry was organized in St. Louis and the Sixth Missouri Infantry was organized in the hills and low lands of South and Southeast Missouri. Walter W. Durnell and Dick Stogsdill were authorized to enlist a company at Cabool and Joe Ferguson received similar authority for organizing a company at Willow Springs. This was late in May, and the full intent of the draft law recently passed by Congress not being clearly understood it was generally thought that no volunteer could enlist for the regular army or for the National Guard after registration day; thus it was presumed necessary that all national guard organizations must be mustered into service prior to June 5th, the day set for registration. This left but a short time to organize the companies at Willow Springs and Cabool and it was found impossible to enlist a sufficient number of men at either place for a full National Guard Company.

Being determined that the boys from Northern Howell and Southern Texas County should have opportunity to volunteer for service before the draft law was placed into effect, Durnell and Ferguson put their forces together and organized Company F. at Willow Spring with men from the localities near that town and Cabool. On the night of June 4, 1917 at 10:00 o'clock just two hours before the day set for registration for the draft, Company F. was mustered into service in the K. of P. Hall at Willow Springs by Capt. Mark D. Springer of West Plains. Walter W. Durnell had been chosen Captain. Joe O. Ferguson first Lieutenant and R. H. Stogsdill second Lieutenant.

Nineteen years before Co. F. 6th Missouri Infantry had been mustered in at Willow Springs for the Spanish American War.

Pursuant to a call of the President, the company reported for duty at the Home rendezvous, Willow Springs, August 5, 1917; mobilized with the rest of the Missouri National Guard at Nevada, on August 12, and was mustered and sworn into the Federal Service a few days later. Here they remained in training until September 29th: by that time a sufficient supply of clothing had been received to give each soldier one outfit and the regiment moved to Camp Doniphan, Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. During the first three or four weeks at Nevada supplies of all kinds were scare. The soldiers all wore civilian clothing and not much of that. When on guard duty the equipment consisted of a home-sick look and a tent stake. It was no unusual sight to see some twenty year old volunteer wearing a straw hat, overalls and canvas shoes, armed with the ever present tent stake guarding a pair of hard-boiled prisoners, who carried axes or picks or shovels depending on the kind of work they were doing. Many of the men wore out their "civie" shoes and were generally excused from drill in the early morning on account of not being equipped to wade through the long dew-soaked prairie grass.

Arriving at Camp Doniphan, the company moved into camp in tents which they pitched at the place previously designated near Tower Number 1, about two miles east of Signal Mountain. Company F. never lived in barracks on this side until they returned to Funston to be mustered out. Theirs was always the tent life. But this was the case with all or practically all volunteers. They lived in tents full of holes thru which the sand or snow came in drifts; a great part of the winter of '17-'18 they bathed under cold showers, and endured various other similar inconveniences which their brothers who had not volunteered lived in steam-heated barracks with hot and cold water at hand and enjoyed every luxury that the war department could afford. Naturally we could not understand why this difference was made.

It was at Camp Doniphan the 35th Division was organized from Missouri and Kansas National Guard troops. Maj.-Gen. W. M. Wright of jackrabbit fame was in command. The Division was composed of various organizations, making a total of about 25,000 men; and an infantry regiment was enlarged to about 3,500 men; and each line company was to have about 250 men. This was in compliance with a new table of organization recently issued by the War Department. In order to meet this requirement it was decided to consolidate some of the units; thus it came about that the powers that be saw fit to make the 140th U. S. Infantry out of the old Sixth Missouri -- the boys from the hill and the Third Missouri - the boys from Kansas City. And Company F. was composed of the Companies F from both the old organizations with Capt. Jefferson Dunlap of Kansas City in command.

Here we lost Captain Durnell, who was transferred to another camp soon after Christmas. The Lieutenants from both the old organizations remained with the company for several months. But sometime in the Spring of 1918 Lieutenant Stogsdill was transferred to the Headquarters Company of the regiment. About the first of the year lst Sergeant Fleming was designated as a candidate at the divisional officers' training camp where he was commissioned in early April, but was never sent back to the Regiment. Sergeant Patterson was transferred to an Engineers' regiment sometime during the winter.

Training at Camp Doniphan made soldiers from recruits. Bayonet, grenade, wave, machine gun, rifle and pistol schools were only some of the various courses of instruction that made the volunteers realize that all his school days had not been spent at the little red school house. Close order drill with plenty of Double Time - the night-mare of the recruits - seemed to be the ruling passion of many of the higher-ups. Parades and Inspections, maneuvers day and night caused many to believe that the front line trenchers would be a cinch. Open tents, a severe winter and daily storm of dust and snow did not help to sweeten the soldiers life. The camp was in the heart of a drought-stricken area and many stories were told to prove just how dry the country really was. One Sunday Sergeant Holloway returned to camp after a day spent near Signal Mountain. he said he had met an old man who started a conversation and in the course of remarks the Sergeant said 'Wouldn't you like to see it rain?" "Well, no", said the old man, "but I got a grandson twenty year old and I'd like powerful well for him to see it rain." "How long have you lived here?' asked the Sergeant. "I don't know how many years," said the old man, "but I 'low its been a long time, fer when I come here Signal Mountain was a hole in the ground."

Company F. lost two men at Camp Doniphan; Privates Clive Findley of Willow Springs and Elmer Weatherman of Dunn, both of whom died of pneumonia.

In April the Regiment moved with the rest of the Division to Camp Mills, Long Island, New York. While here Lieutenant Ferguson was transferred from Co. F to Co. I.

Continued in Part 2 - Overseas

Back to Letters from Grandpa Ferguson's Desk

This page was last updated January 18, 2001.