Title: U.S. Army 107th Engineer Regiment Records
Inclusive Dates: 1917-1960

Creator:

• United States. Army. Infantry Division, 32nd. Engineer Regiment, 107th

Call Number: Mss 414; PH 6875

Quantity: 1.2 cubic feet (2 archives boxes and 1 flat box), 1.2 cubic feet of photographs (3 archives boxes), 0.6 cubic feet of negatives (3 negative boxes), and 0.1 cubic feet of ephemera (1 oversize folder)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records, primarily from 1917-1919, for a regiment composed of Michigan and Wisconsin troops, including regimental and company histories from training at Camp MacArthur, Texas, through the 1918 Alsace, Marne, Oise-Aisne, and Meuse-Argonne campaigns in France, through occupying Germany; field messages, memoranda, general orders, reconnaissance and intelligence reports, daily operations reports, and blueprints of structures constructed; and miscellaneous material relating to Charles Scudder's manuscript history of the regiment, the Association of the 107th Engineers, and addresses of some unit members through 1960. Visual materials include prints, ephemera, negatives, and cartoons by Milton D. Youngren, who later became a well-known cartoonist at the Chicago Tribune.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00414

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

The First Battalion, 107th Engineers, composed mostly of Michigan troops, was organized in 1880 as an infantry company. In 1906, after serving in the “Mexican Trouble,” it was converted into an engineer company. In 1917, two new companies were added and the unit was mustered into the Michigan National Guard. The First Battalion received orders to move to Camp MacArthur, Texas. Arriving there in September of 1917, it was joined with the Second Battalion, a unit of Wisconsin National Guard troops, also organized in 1917, to form the 107th Engineer Regiment. With additional units from Michigan and Wisconsin, the regiment then became part of the Thirty-second Division of the United States Army.

The regiment underwent routine training at Camp MacArthur including instruction in the construction of bridges, dugouts, trenches, and roads. In January of 1918, the unit received its orders for transfer to France, where it arrived in February, quartering near Champlittle and Langres. The regiment continued its training until June of 1918, when it was ordered into Alsace with the rest of the 32nd. In July, the unit moved into the Marne sector near Chateau-Thierry, where some of the companies sustained casualties and suffered from almost constant shelling, gas and bombing. A move to Oise-Aisne was made in August. The next month the 107th joined other units of the 32nd in the Meuse-Argonne offensive and it was soon participating in the “March to the Rhine.” As part of the Army of Occupation in Germany, the 107th continued its role of building military facilities such as mess halls, stables, barracks and warehouses. On April 8, 1919, the regiment was relieved of duty with the Army of Occupation and, in May of 1919, left for the United States. The unit was demobilized on the 26th of May 1919.

The records of the Thirty-second Division, 107th Engineer Regiment is arranged in three categories: History of the 107th, Military Records, and Miscellany. The History of the 107th contains several histories and diaries of the individual battalions and companies from 1917 to 1919, as well as a manuscript history entitled “107th Engineer Regiment” by Charles Scudder. The Military Records document fully the daily military operations of the regiment during its significant campaigns in France and Germany in the war. They include blueprints of the structures the regiment built during World War I.

The Miscellany file contains a few letters received by Captain Charles Scudder of the 107th Engineers, and related material pertaining to his attempts to gather information on the regiment for his written history of the 107th. Also included here is some organizational material of the Association of the 107th Engineers and correspondence concerning the whereabouts of certain members of the unit through 1960.

Visual materials include photographs, negatives, cartoons, and ephemera, dating 1917-1919, relating to the war time activities of the 107th Engineering Regiment of the 32nd Division in World War I. Many prints and negatives are identified and show the daily life and work of the regiment. Of note are original cartoons by Milton D. Youngren, a member of the regiment who later worked as a well-known newspaper cartoonist at the Chicago Tribune.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Joseph Hrdlick and James G. Dickinson, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 26, 1973. Accession Number: M73-441; M73-442

Processing Information

Processed by K. Brennan (Intern) and Joanne Hohler, September 28, 1977.

Mss 414	History of the 107th Engineer Regiment, 1917-1919
Box   1 Folder   1	Manuscript Copy of “107th Engineer Regiment”
Box   1 Folder   2	Regimental Headquarters
Box   1 Folder   3	First Battalion
Box   1 Folder   4	Second Battalion
Box   1 Folder   5	Company A
Box   1 Folder   6	Company B
Box   1 Folder   7	Company C
Box   1 Folder   8	Company D and Company E
Box   1 Folder   9	Company F and the Band
Box   1 Folder   10	Training at Camp MacArthur
	Military Records, 1917-1919
Box   1 Folder   11	Field Messages
Box   2 Folder   1	Field Messages (continued)
Box   2 Folder   2	Memoranda and General Orders
Box   2 Folder   3	Reconnaissance Reports
Box   2 Folder   4	Intelligence Reports
Box   2 Folder   5-6	Daily Operations Reports
Box   3 Folder   1-6	Blueprints
Box   2 Folder   7	Miscellany, 1919-1960
PH 6875	Visual Materials
	Prints
	General
Box   1 Folder   1-3	Identified
Box   1 Folder   4	Portraits
	Unidentified
Box   1 Folder   5	Engineering work
Box   1 Folder   6	Military equipment/vehicles
Box   1 Folder   7	Wartime devastation
Box   1 Folder   8	Travel
Box   2 Folder   1-2	Aerial reconnaissance, 1918
Box   2 Folder   3-5	Sergeant Joseph Reynolds albums 1-3
	Cartoons
	Milton D. Youngren
Box   3 Folder   1	6x7-inch
Box   3 Folder   2	15x6-inch
Oversize Folder   1	12x15-inch
	Ephemera
Box   3 Folder   3	Sketches, business cards, souvenirs
Box   3 Folder   4	WWI Michigan Memorial Highway Marker woodblock
Oversize Folder   1	32nd Division calendar, 1919
Box   4-6	Negatives