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3 making an infantry division GiventheWardepartment’srecentconcernwiththerelationshipbetweenregularArmy officers and national Guard units, lieutenant Colonel Screws seemed unlikely to receive a promotion. however, on August 14, 1917, not two weeks after Screws was threatened with the loss of his command, the War department ordered the name of the 4thAlabama changed to the 167th United States infantry.1 in the process, it elevated Screws to full colonel, thus validating his leadership.2 he now held a coveted army officer job—and the promise of leading into combat the infantry regiment he had trained. the change from the 4thAlabama to the 167th carried more than a new name. orders authorized the regiment to grow from approximately 1,400 to 3,720 officers and men.As part of the transition, rifle company strength increased from 150 to 250, and even the band expanded from twenty-two men to forty-nine.3 the 1st Alabama infantry, 2nd Alabama infantry, 1st Alabama Cavalry, and 4th Alabama infantry had a total of 5,025 men.4 Screws knew all the units, which helped him select men among them for the new regiment. the troops learned of the changes while on a road march nearWare’s Ferry, north of montgomery, but not all was in flux.the field grade officers and company commanders from the 4thAlabama continued to hold their ranks and positions in the new 167th US infantry regiment. everybody seemed to benefit from the regiment’s new name and new future.While acknowledging that the transitions would take some effort, Captain mortimer Jordan shared with his wife the enthusiasm of most that surrounded the changes:“the new men seem to be highly pleased with the transfer and have already begun to accuse their former comrades of being‘tin soldiers’while they belong to the 167th US infantry. Some of our new men from the 1st infantry had several fights on that account the day they transferred.they were ‘rearing’ to go with us.”5 For most of the men chosen, the prospect of travel across the ocean for wartime action far out- 36 / Chapter 3 weighed the irritation of changing companies or platoons or of taking a stranger into their squad.overall,the men met the changes with excitement and energy. origins of the rainbow division on the day after the name-changing order, the Montgomery Advertiser announced that the 167th United States infantry regiment would become part of a new fullstrength US Army division, the 42nd, to be called the rainbow division.6 Secretary of War newton d. baker asked major GeneralWilliamA. mann, chief of the militia bureau,to form a new division that would“cover the United States.”7 earlier,theWar department had successfully created the 1st division by selecting and synthesizing into it superior elements of the regularArmy. major douglas macArthur, who worked as theWar department’s press censor,suggested a similar approach in amalgamating elements of the national Guard. baker asked for the most highly trained people possible,so mann created the 42nd from elements of national Guard units drawn from twenty-five states and the district of Columbia , each filled with men having mexican border experience.8 many states had lobbiedWashington to be first to send troops overseas, and news of the new division offered some of them immediate satisfaction. macArthur described the unnumbered division as stretching like a rainbow across the United States.building on this comment,a reporter called it the rainbow division,and the name stuck.9 deciding on the division’s official numerical designation proved somewhat more complicated.theWar department reserved numbers 1 through 25 for regular Army divisions and 26 through 41 for national Guard divisions.therefore, the number 26 marked the new england division (known most commonly as the “yankee division” oryd), and the system continued until the last regional division,that of the Pacific northwest,received number 41. however, as a composite of units from across the nation, the rainbow division differed from these geographically defined divisions,and“throughout all the organization of the national guard divisions it stuck out in everyone’s mind in theWar department as a special division. Finally, it was decided to give it the number forty-two.”10 in time, the division’s numerical designation proved somewhat inconsequential, as “its nickname became more universally recognized than its number.”11 of even greater significance was the division’s actual existence.As reilly observes ,“the decision that the national Guard could be trusted to fight in France, and in fact was...

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