Author: James Patton (Page 1 of 34)

On the evening of April 3^rd, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson, who was in Paris for the Versailles Treaty negotiations, became suddenly and dangerously ill. At first his doctor thought that he’d been poisoned. Wilson had a high fever and bad cough for five days, during which time the same doctor told the outside world that Wilson had a bad cold. When Wilson returned to the conference he was visibly weakened, seemingly exhausted. As time passed at least two lingering after- effects manifested themselves: first, an apparent neurological disorder as Wilson became paranoid in petty ways, suspecting the French of spying on him, and second, likely due to debility, when he returned to the conference he caved in on all of his 14 points then still in contention excepting number XIV (a League of Nations), which Clemenceau and Lloyd George disdained to give him. Read more about this by clicking here. ...read more

Having previously discussed other voluntary service organizations that provided ambulance and nursing services during WW1 (click here), here’s the story of another British group –  The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, familiarly known as the FANY (their personnel are known as ‘FANY’s’). This is an all-female group organized in 1907 which in WW1 provided ambulances and drivers to the Western Front. Although rebuffed by the British Army who considered them amateurs and totally unsuited to war conditions, the astute FANY leadership quickly attached themselves to the Belgian Army instead, before the War Office got around to banning civilians from travelling to the Front. Click on this link to read about the FANY in WW1. ...read more

Fearing that anti-war speeches and street pamphlets would undermine the war effort, President Woodrow Wilson and Congress passed two laws, the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918, that criminalized any “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the U.S. government or military, or any speech intended to “incite insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty.” The previous Alien and Sedition Acts passed in 1798 had been mostly repealed or had expired by 1802. ...read more

Pvt. Marcelino Serna, who was living in Colorado when drafted, served in Co. B, 1^st Bn., 355^th Infantry, along with the 353^rd “All Kansas” Infantry, in the 89^th “Rolling W” Division.

On September 12^th, 1918, fighting in the St. Mihiel Salient, Serna single-handedly took out a German strong point, killing 26 and capturing 24. Later, fighting in the Meuse Argonne, he was severely wounded but survived. ...read more