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Long Days in the Hot Sun: Patrolling the Mexican Border:
Wisconsin Guard units took up positions near San Antonio, Texas, in July 1916. For the next nine months, the Guard marched and drilled in monotonous field exercises. Although they witnessed no battles and suffered not a single fatality, border service helped shape the Guard into a hardened and disciplined force.
Clad in their heavy wool uniforms, members of the Wisconsin National Guard arrived in Texas during an unusually hot summer. Because Wisconsin cavalrymen refused to sell their horses to the Federal government for less than market value, replacement horses had to be found and trained. The entire Wisconsin Guard had only sixteen machine guns, French-designed Benet-Mercier types, nicknamed "Ben-As." These weapons were cumbersome and complicated. Each had more than 180 parts!
The highlight of the Mexican border service for Wisconsin troops came at the end of September 1916, when the state's forces, along with thousands of other troops, undertook a week-long march from San Antonio to Austin with full equipment. Motor vehicles and horses transported food and water as the division-sized column moved through the dust. By early 1917, the border crisis began to calm while American relations with Germany worsened. |