Great-Grandpa and Indiana’s Forgotten Military Campaign

William “Bill” Jasper Morris (marked by the x in the above photograph) was just a month shy of twenty years old when he married Edith Mae Menges on November 25, 1915. Edith was already twenty-one, and according to family lore, Bill was the hired boy on her mother’s farm west of Bristol, near Elkhart, Indiana, that her mother did not want to lose. Family lore also suggests that his father arranged for him to work on the farm in the first place because Bill was a bit at loose ends and getting into trouble.

Bill's position in the photograph is indicated by a checkmark.

 Before moving to the Menges farm, Bill worked in one of Elkhart’s papermills (according to his Army Discharge Paper). What happened between June 1, 1915, and November 25, 1915, is conjecture. If Bill’s father thought his son needed the farm job to provide structure, does this mean Bill lost his job at the papermill? Did the search for structure in his life lead to his enlistment in the Indiana National Guard on June 1, 1915 (or June 4, available documents disagree on the date)? Bill was also known for his sociability. It is just as easy to conjecture that some of his friends were enlisting in the Guard, and he thought it would be a lark to join them. That lark turned more serious in June of 1916.

Mexico had been destabilized since the ouster of President Porfirio Díaz in 1911. Díaz was followed by a couple of short-lived, disastrous leaders. Although preoccupied by the war in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson could only be relieved when Venustiano Carranza took the reins of power in Mexico. However, Wilson took his time granting Carranza official recognition from the United States, giving Carranza’s rival, Pancho Villa, hope that he could overthrow Carranza. When the United States government finally recognized Carranza as the legitimate president of Mexico in October 1915, Pancho Villa was furious.

Encouraged by German agents to lure the United States into attacking Mexico—Germany’s goal was to keep the United States out of Europe; Pancho Villa’s goal was to discredit Carranza—Pancho Villa killed sixteen American college students on a train in Santa Ysabel, Mexico, on January 11, 1916. As tragic as this event was, the United States chose not to retaliate. Pancho Villa escalated. Early on the morning of March 9, 1916, Pancho Villa and his men raided the munitions depot of the 13^th U.S. Cavalry in Columbus, New Mexico. The ensuing fight destroyed the town and led to Wilson’s “punitive expedition” into Mexico. (For an excellent summary, see “Pancho Villa’s New Mexico Raid and the Punitive Expedition Into Mexico.”) Activation was authorized on June 18, 1916, for approximately 135,000 guardsmen from forty-four states and the District of Columbia.

Among the troops sent to the border were Indiana guardsmen of the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd Infantry regiments mobilized at Fort Benjamin Harrison. Soldiers began deploying to the Texas in July where training continued. After twelve days of field maneuvers in November 1916 at Camp Llano and Port Isabel, diplomacy prevailed. Indiana’s soldiers began returning home in December 1916.

However, Bill Morris was not among them.

Today National Guard training focuses on readiness. Training is kept up-to-date and units are adequately supplied. That was not the case in 1916. The Report on Mobilization of the Organized Militia and National Guard of the United States 1916 published during this time, indicates that nearly every mobilized unit faced supply shortages of some type. Physical exams were one of the biggest challenges in many states, and Indiana was no exemption. To save money, the National Guard did not generally conduct medical and physical fitness exams until a unit was activated. Thus, after June 18 nearly every guardsman had to undergo a physical exam by a doctor, creating a bottleneck.

Bill initially drilled with the 3^rd Indiana Infantry Regiment. When Bill’s company was activated for Federal service on June 27, 1916, it was redesignated the 162^nd Infantry Regiment (United States). Bill was in Company E. Sometime within the next ten days, he underwent a physical examination and was deemed unfit. He was honorably discharged on July 7, 1916, having served one year of his three-year enlistment. His service was characterized “excellent…honest & faithful.”

The exact nature of Bill’s medical disqualification is unknown. It could have been as simple as flat feet. (His records have been requested from the Indiana Archives and Records Administration, and this post will be updated if the records reveal any new information.)

While Bill may have been disappointed to be out of the action, Edith was doubtless relieved for she was pregnant that summer. Their first child, Arnold Lamar was born on September 12, 1916.

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