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    Fort Devens
    Fort Devens
    Fort Devens
    Ebook133 pages29 minutes

    Fort Devens

    By William J. Craig

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    About this ebook

    The geographical location of Fort Devens has a military history that dates back to the 1600s, when the area was first garrisoned by British troops. In 1915, the region was again chosen for a cantonment, one of only sixteen in the country. In order to build the camp, the War Department assembled the largest labor force in history. New buildings sprang up at the rate of about ten per day and supported more than one hundred thousand troops that were processed at Camp Devens, as it was originally named, during World War I.

    Fort Devens is the first book to trace the military activity in this area. Throughout the twentieth century, troops were trained and deployed from Fort Devens for every major conflict the United States was involved in. During World War II, Fort Devens inducted more than six hundred thousand men into the army from the New England area. The list of individuals who have served here included Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Bill Mauldin, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, and Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Even NASA can trace its birth to Fort Devens by way of Dr. Robert Goddard's liquid-fueled rocket experiments.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateFeb 19, 2004
    ISBN9781439615652
    Fort Devens
    Author

    William J. Craig

    William Craig (1929–1997) was an American historian and novelist. Born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts, he interrupted his career as an advertising salesman to appear on the quiz show Tic-Tac-Dough in 1958. With his $42,000 in winnings—a record-breaking amount at the time—Craig enrolled at Columbia University and earned both an undergraduate and a master’s degree in history. He published his first book, The Fall of Japan, in 1967. A narrative history of the final weeks of World War II in the Pacific, it reached the top ten on the New York Times bestseller list and was deemed “virtually flawless” by the New York Times Book Review. In order to write Enemy at the Gates (1973), a documentary account of the Battle of Stalingrad, Craig travelled to three continents and interviewed hundreds of military and civilian survivors. A New York Times bestseller, the book inspired a film of the same name starring Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes. In addition to his histories of World War II, Craig wrote two acclaimed espionage thrillers: The Tashkent Crisis (1971) and The Strasbourg Legacy (1975).

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      Book preview

      Fort Devens - William J. Craig

      prayers.

      INTRODUCTION

      For nearly 350 years, there has been a military presence in or around the area known as Fort Devens. The earliest military occupation occurred in 1656. Maj. Simon Willard, a colonizer for the British, was ordered to form a colony and establish a garrison for troops on territory known as Nashoba, near the Nashaway River. He settled some 40 households in the area, allocating their land, administering justice, commanding troops, and acting as governor of the Nashoba colony.

      Major Willard’s house was located at the Verbeck Gate of Fort Devens. This house was not only the residence of Major Willard’s numerous families (he was married three times and had 17 children), it was also a meeting place to conduct all colonial affairs in the region. In addition, it served as a military garrison, housing Willard’s Dragoons, soldiers of Britain, and the first organized military force west of Boston. In 1676, the house was pillaged and burned by the Niantick Indians, who came down the Mohawk Trail in King Philip’s War (1675 to 1676). The entire colony was destroyed, and many of the settlers were slaughtered. A handful of survivors, including Major Willard, fled to Boston and never returned.

      Camp Stevens was the next military camp to settle in the area of Fort Devens. Camp Stevens was located at Groton Junction, approximately one mile from the Verbeck Gate. It served as an army cantonment during the Civil War for the 53rd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Camp Stevens closed shortly after the Civil War ended.

      In 1915, the War Department began to realize a need for an army camp in the northeast region of the United States, due to the growing conflict of World War I in Europe. The War Department offered to rent land in Shirley, Ayer, Harvard, and Lancaster for a $1.50 a month, with an option to purchase that would expire in 1920. Two hundred and fifty parcels were leased from 112 landlords for the construction of Camp Devens. This site was believed to be ideal due to its close proximity to the Boston & Maine Railroad. This was a necessary factor because of the need to dispatch troops quickly. Edward Richardson, who worked for the War Department and had negotiated the acquisition of the land, suggested naming the post after Major Willard, who had occupied the site 250 years earlier. Since Major Willard had been a British colonizer and not in the U.S. Army, the camp took its name from Civil War brevet Maj. Gen. Charles A. Devens. Devens was a Massachusetts native and attorney general under Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes.

      In June 1917, construction began on Camp Devens. The largest workforce ever assembled in the United States converged on the site to build an entire city for 10,000, including infrastructure. The building rate during this time was 10.4 buildings a day.

      One

      CAMP DEVENS

      The post officially opened as Camp Devens on September 5, 1917. It was one of only 16 army cantonments in the country. Two divisions were assigned to the camp: the 76th and the 12th. John B. Murphy of Fitchburg was the first man from New England to report for the 1917 draft. During World War I, more than

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