Today is the first day of Spring.
1836 Texan garrison of Goliad surrenders to the Mexican Army.
1876 The Chugwater division station on the Cheyenne to Black Hills stage line was established. This is notable do a degree in that another 1876 event, the Battle of Powder River, had just occurred, in a year that would later see the Battle of the Rosebud and the Battle of Little Big Horn, showing that the region was far from settled. Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.
1884 Laramie incorporated. Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.
1895 An explosion at the Red Canyon Mine in Almy killed 61 miners. Attribution: On This Day.
1916 The Punitive Expedition in the Press: Casper Daily Press for March 20, 1916
1916 The Punitive Expedition in the Press: Casper Daily Press for March 20, 1916
1917 The Wyoming Tribune for March 20, 1917. Colorado Cavalry at Ft. Russell. Lack of coat lethal?
Wyoming was contemplating adding cavalry to its National Guard, but Colorado had it.
Colorado cavalrymen were disembarking at Ft. D. A. Russell. They were demobilizing late in comparison to the Wyoming National Guard.
And one Wyoming National Guardsmen wouldn't be called back up for World War One. He'd died of pneumonia.
Pvt. Charles Schmidt of Company B, Lander Wyoming, had become ill after having to turn in his overcoat at Ft. D. A. Russell. Apparently a lot of men were sick, and that likely explains the delay we recently read about in discharging from active service the men from Laramie, who made up the medical company.
March in Wyoming is cold and these papers have had stories of a cold spell being in the works in this time frame. It seems a lot of men were sick and frankly viruses going through troops is a pretty common thing in military units. Overcoats were an item of equipment, not a uniform item, which may sound odd to readers who have no military experience, but that's exactly how field jackets were viewed when my father served in the Air Force during the Korean War and how they were viewed when I was in the National Guard in the 1980s. The National Guard had denied that it was taking the coats from the men when the story broke, but obviously there was some truth to the story for some units.
Would an overcoat have kept Pvt. Schmidt alive? It sure couldn't have hurt.
1918
So, you're picking up the Cheyenne paper before you go to work. If you
don't live in Cheyenne, maybe you're doing that in a hotel lobby, like
that of the Plains Hotel in downtown Cheyenne.
You've been worrying about what seems likely to be a big Spring German offensive, a logical thing to worry about. The Germans and the Russians just signed a peace treaty after all, and there should be millions of German soldiers now available for the Western Front (and millions of horses as well.
So what does the paper reveal?
The Germans are still advancing in Russia? Geez, what could they be thinking. They've already won there, and yet they can't seem to stop themselves.
What a relief, you may be thinking. That should (and indeed did) tie up well over a million German soldiers.
Of course, if you live in my neck of the woods reading that the Shoshone Bonneville cutoff was set to be abandoned would be less than thrilling. Hopefully that appeal will keep that line open.
So what does the other Cheyenne paper have to say?
Oh heck, great news. The Germans have given up plans to advance on Paris. The anticipated big Spring offensive will be called off (and heck, they're all tied up in Russia anyway). What a relief.
Now you can rest easy.
Right?
1919 March 20, 1919. Pershing has visitors, Villa let's his unwilling guests go, the 148th FA set to return home, Red Army seeking to be unwelcome guests.
King Albert and Queen Victoria of Belgium visited Gen. Pershing on this day in 1919.
In Mexico, Poncho Villa, who had taken a part of Mormon figures prisoner a few days prior, let them go. The released prisoners were residents of Colnia Dublan and still had a ways to go to get home, as he didn't return them to their town.
And news arrived that the 148th Field Artillery was soon to sail home.
The same news was printed in Cheyenne, along with a photo that appeared here sometime ago of a teenage plowgirl.
Both papers printed distressing news that the Soviets appeared set to invade Germany. That news was not merely a rumor. As the fronts swung wildly in the Russian Civil War it seems that those who saw the Russian Revolution as a global revolution to occur immediately were indeed planning just that.
From the vantage point of a century later, that goal seems insane, and there were those with in the Soviet power circles who disagreed with it then, such as one Josef Stalin. Those who backed it, such as Trotsky, were not without their own logic however.
The Reds were in fact gaining in the far north and were about to push the Allied mission in Northern Russia out of the country. At the same time, however, the White offensive in the east was meeting with huge success and observed from there, there were reasons to hope that the Whites would prevail. In the west, however, the Soviets were now fighting the Poles, who were doing well, but who also formed a wall between Red Russia and a Germany which seemed to be on the brink of falling into the hands of German Communists any day.
The really amazing thing, in retrospect, is that the Allies were rushing home their forces in Europe in the face of all of this. A Red victory in Germany, which was a possibility at the time, would have resulted in the spread of Communism throughout Europe fairly rapidly, with other countries teetering on the brink of Communist revolution. Even seemingly stable countries, such as the UK, were having some problems at this point.
Of course, long term, the Reds would prevail in Russia but not in Poland, although they nearly did. Their failure to win there meant that they were not able to proceed into Germany. It also meant that Stalin's star rose while Trotsky's fell.
Wyoming was contemplating adding cavalry to its National Guard, but Colorado had it.
Colorado cavalrymen were disembarking at Ft. D. A. Russell. They were demobilizing late in comparison to the Wyoming National Guard.
And one Wyoming National Guardsmen wouldn't be called back up for World War One. He'd died of pneumonia.
Pvt. Charles Schmidt of Company B, Lander Wyoming, had become ill after having to turn in his overcoat at Ft. D. A. Russell. Apparently a lot of men were sick, and that likely explains the delay we recently read about in discharging from active service the men from Laramie, who made up the medical company.
March in Wyoming is cold and these papers have had stories of a cold spell being in the works in this time frame. It seems a lot of men were sick and frankly viruses going through troops is a pretty common thing in military units. Overcoats were an item of equipment, not a uniform item, which may sound odd to readers who have no military experience, but that's exactly how field jackets were viewed when my father served in the Air Force during the Korean War and how they were viewed when I was in the National Guard in the 1980s. The National Guard had denied that it was taking the coats from the men when the story broke, but obviously there was some truth to the story for some units.
Would an overcoat have kept Pvt. Schmidt alive? It sure couldn't have hurt.
1918
The March 20, 1918 News. The Germans and the Press Getting it Wrong
Lobby of the Plains HotelYou've been worrying about what seems likely to be a big Spring German offensive, a logical thing to worry about. The Germans and the Russians just signed a peace treaty after all, and there should be millions of German soldiers now available for the Western Front (and millions of horses as well.
So what does the paper reveal?
The Germans are still advancing in Russia? Geez, what could they be thinking. They've already won there, and yet they can't seem to stop themselves.
What a relief, you may be thinking. That should (and indeed did) tie up well over a million German soldiers.
Of course, if you live in my neck of the woods reading that the Shoshone Bonneville cutoff was set to be abandoned would be less than thrilling. Hopefully that appeal will keep that line open.
So what does the other Cheyenne paper have to say?
Oh heck, great news. The Germans have given up plans to advance on Paris. The anticipated big Spring offensive will be called off (and heck, they're all tied up in Russia anyway). What a relief.
Now you can rest easy.
Right?
1919 March 20, 1919. Pershing has visitors, Villa let's his unwilling guests go, the 148th FA set to return home, Red Army seeking to be unwelcome guests.
King Albert and Queen Victoria of Belgium visited Gen. Pershing on this day in 1919.
In Mexico, Poncho Villa, who had taken a part of Mormon figures prisoner a few days prior, let them go. The released prisoners were residents of Colnia Dublan and still had a ways to go to get home, as he didn't return them to their town.
And news arrived that the 148th Field Artillery was soon to sail home.
The same news was printed in Cheyenne, along with a photo that appeared here sometime ago of a teenage plowgirl.
Both papers printed distressing news that the Soviets appeared set to invade Germany. That news was not merely a rumor. As the fronts swung wildly in the Russian Civil War it seems that those who saw the Russian Revolution as a global revolution to occur immediately were indeed planning just that.
From the vantage point of a century later, that goal seems insane, and there were those with in the Soviet power circles who disagreed with it then, such as one Josef Stalin. Those who backed it, such as Trotsky, were not without their own logic however.
The Reds were in fact gaining in the far north and were about to push the Allied mission in Northern Russia out of the country. At the same time, however, the White offensive in the east was meeting with huge success and observed from there, there were reasons to hope that the Whites would prevail. In the west, however, the Soviets were now fighting the Poles, who were doing well, but who also formed a wall between Red Russia and a Germany which seemed to be on the brink of falling into the hands of German Communists any day.
The really amazing thing, in retrospect, is that the Allies were rushing home their forces in Europe in the face of all of this. A Red victory in Germany, which was a possibility at the time, would have resulted in the spread of Communism throughout Europe fairly rapidly, with other countries teetering on the brink of Communist revolution. Even seemingly stable countries, such as the UK, were having some problems at this point.
Of course, long term, the Reds would prevail in Russia but not in Poland, although they nearly did. Their failure to win there meant that they were not able to proceed into Germany. It also meant that Stalin's star rose while Trotsky's fell.
1922 President Harding ordered U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.
Often forgotten, the troubles that commenced with the Mexican Revolution and more particularly the raid on Columbus, NM, continued, and remained a focus for the U.S. military. All Guard units, including Wyoming's, had ceased border service, however, with the start of World War One.
1995 An earthquake measuring 4.2 occurred 95 miles from Green River, WY.
2003 At 5:34 AM Baghdad time on 20 March, 2003 (9:34 PM, 19 Mar 2003, EST) the Iraq Invasion began. Wyoming's Army National Guard would see service in this war with Iraq.
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