Army-Navy Game: Big Red One -- Army to Honor 1st Infantry Division
On the 100th Anniversary of America's First Division helping end the first Great War and Army is honoring the 1st Infantry Division for the Army-Navy Game, ...
THE “FIRST” DIVISION
President Woodrow Wilson promised the Allies he would send “a division” to France immediately, but the Army had no such divisions. The United States quickly ordered four infantry and three artillery regiments from the Mexican border in Texas to Hoboken, N.J., to board transports to France. That group of seven regiments joined together to officially form the "1st Expeditionary Division," later the 1st Infantry Division, under Brigadier General William L. Sibert on June 12, 1917. With more than 28,000 men, the "Big Red One," as the division was later nicknamed from its shoulder sleeve insignia, was twice the size of either the allied or German divisions on the Western Front.
BLACK LIONS OF CANTIGNY
The 1st Division’s 28th Infantry won the first major American victory in World War I at the Battle of Cantigny, a small village north of Paris held by the German Army. Along with the rest of the 1st Division and French Troops, they successfully attacked and defeated the German forces in just 45 minutes, holding the village against repeated counterattacks. Their success raised the Allies’ morale and disproved German propaganda about American combat incapacity.
GENERAL OF THE ARMIES: JOHN “BLACK JACK” PERSHING
A 1886 graduate of West Point, John J. Pershing had been the First Captain as a cadet. As a First Lieutenant he commanded a cavalry troop in the 10th Cavalry Regiment, a Buffalo Soldier unit, earning the nickname “Black Jack.” Prior to World War I he had seen service in a number of campaigns and wars, including the Spanish-American War, Philippine War, and the Pancho Villa Expedition in Mexico. Selected to command the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), the American contribution to Allied operations during World War I, Pershing became the first full (four-star) general in the U.S. Army since Philip Sheridan. Charged with organizing, training, and supplying the over two million Americans who would serve in the AEF, Pershing would eventually be honored with a promotion to General of the Armies, a six-star rank equivalent, the only American to be so-privileged in his lifetime.
GEORGE MARSHALL
George C. Marshall, a 1901 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, served as the 1st Division’s Operations Officer before and during the Battle of Cantigny, earning widespread acclaim for his planning of the successful American attack during the battle. Later serving on General Pershing’s staff, Marshall would go on to become the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army during World War II as a five-star General of the Army. During World War II, he is reputed to have said, “I want an officer for a secret and dangerous mission. I want a West Point football player.” These words are immortalized on a bronze plaque at Michie Stadium, a plaque which all Army football players touch before they take the field for home games.
RAGS, THE OFFICIAL UNIT MASCOT
A stray mixed-breed terrier, Rags, was befriended and given his name by then-Private Jimmy Donovan in Paris in July of 1918. More than just the 1st Divison’s mascot through World War I and afterwards, Rags served as a messenger and helped Donovan, a Signal Corps soldier, find broken telephone lines in need of repair. On some occasions, Rags even alerted 1st Division soldiers to incoming artillery fire, and both he and Donovan suffered injury from German artillery and gas shells during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Rags remained a celebrity after World War I, being featured in several New York Times articles and receiving a number of awards before passing away in 1936.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Although American forces had been working with troops from other nations since the alliance with the French in the American Revolution, World War I arguably saw the first large-scale contribution of troops to work with the forces of foreign nations in a coalition. AEF units were commonly armed with French machine guns and field artillery, and during the Battle of Cantigny, American infantry benefitted from the support of French tanks and French artillery.
The collar insignia replicate bronze collar disks worn by enlisted soldiers in the First Division.
Assigned to the 1st Division in 1917, the 28th was the primary unit involved in the attack on Cantigny and was later given the nickname “The Black Lions of Cantigny” after the unit’s successful attack during that battle. As of 2018, the 1st Battalion of the 28th Infantry Regiment is still serving as part of the 3rd Infantry Division.
Nicknamed the “Blue Spaders” for a device on their regimental distinctive unit insignia, the 26th Infantry Regiment was authorized by Congress in 1901 to meet American overseas commitments and formed part of what became the 1st Division in 1917. Operating in support of the 28th Infantry’s attack at Cantigny and seeing heavy fighting near Soissons during World War I, like its sister regiments in the 1st Division, the 26th Infantry earned seven battle streamers and two foreign awards during the war. The regiment’s 1st Battalion is currently part of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
Reinforcing the 28th Infantry Regiment following its successful seizure of Cantigny, the 18th Infantry Regiment would later serve in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne Offensives and won fame during World War II for its storming of Omaha Beach during the Normandy Invasion. The unit is still part of the 1st Infantry Division and is nicknamed “Vanguards.”
Like their counterparts in the 18th Infantry Regiment, the troops of the 16th Infantry relieved and reinforced units of the 28th Infantry during the Battle of Cantigny. Noted for success during the Meuse-Argonne Campaign, and later during the first grim hours of the assault on Omaha Beach during World War II, the 16th Infantry would remain with the 1st Division to the present day.