The Doughboys of Camp Sherman: Soldiers & Military Units at Camp Sherman

Featuring collector and historian Larry Strayer, Dayton.

Larry Strayer returns to our Spring Speakers Series with a talk about the role of Camp Sherman’s 83rd Division during World War I. As a national army division of draftees, the 83rd was slated to serve as replacements for regular army and national guard divisions already in France. Yet about half of its subunits ended up serving with their original organizations left intact including the entire field artillery brigade, the 308th Engineers, and the 332nd Infantry (which was the only American combat unit that served in Italy). Larry will also explore the wartime career of Chillicothe’s Company H, 4th Ohio National Guard which was among the earliest groups to go overseas in 1917. Reassigned as the 166th Infantry of the legendary Rainbow Division, these men served for over 18 months in five major operations and in the Army of Occupation before returning home to be demobilized at Camp Sherman. Two other divisions that briefly occupied Camp Sherman – the 84th & 95th – will be covered.