Students of history trace many important events of the Twentieth Century to the Great War. The rise of communism in Russia, the loss of colonies by the European powers, and the rise and success of Adolf Hitler are but a few. In addition to the great political, territorial, and financial losses, the effect on individuals is beyond comprehension.

Consider the effect of the war on Harry S Truman. In early 1917 he was 33 years old, unmarried, working on the family farm in western Missouri, and not too successful in a couple of commercial ventures. In the Great War he served with distinction as an Army captain and artillery battery commander in combat. He first ran for political office in 1922. Because most of the 35th Division, in which he served, was drawn from Kansas and Missouri National Guard units, there were many voters who knew and respected Truman. In addition, he had the support of the powerful Tom Pendergast Democratic faction in Kansas City. Tom's nephew, Jim Pendergast, served in Truman's regiment (the 129th Field Artillery). Jim Pendergast persuaded his uncle to back Truman, who was elected and served as judge (an administrative rather than judicial post) of the county court until 1934. Truman was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934 and re-elected in 1940. He was elected vice president in 1944 and became president in 1945. Truman himself said he would not have entered politics if not for the Great War. What follows is a brief history of Truman in the Great War.

Truman was graduated from high school in 1901. He had hopes of going to West Point, but he could not pass the eye test. Because of family financial problems, going to college was not possible. His first job was as a timekeeper on a construction crew for the Santa Fe railroad. He next worked in the mailing room of the Kansas City Star. In 1904 he went to work for the national Bank of Commerce in downtown Kansas City, and in 1906 he was employed by the Union National Bank.

During the time Truman was working in Kansas City, he lived at a boarding house. Also living at the boarding house was Arthur Eisenhower, the older brother of Dwight, who was still in high school in Abilene, Kansas. When Truman became 21 years old, he joined the Missouri National Guard. The Guard unit was Battery B of the 2nd Missouri Field Artillery. Battery B had weekly drill sessions at the old armory at 17th and Highland in Kansas City. Each member of the battery was assessed 25 cents a week for the use of the armory.

Lt. Truman

The prewar uniform of the Missouri National Guard was blue with red stripes down the trouser legs, red piping on the cuff, and a red fourragere over the shoulder. Truman's grandmother raised a fuss when he wore the uniform to the family farm. She said it looked like a Yankee uniform and that it was the first time since 1863 that a blue uniform had been worn in her house. The history of the Civil War on the Kansas-Missouri border reads a lot like the horrible conflict in the Balkans in the 1990s. Kansas was a freestate, and although Missouri stayed in the Union, the sentiments of the rural population were generally with the Confederacy, and Missouri was under martial law during most of the Civil War.

In 1861 a group of Jayhawkers lead by Jim Lane crossed the border into Missouri and sacked the town of Osceola. On the way to Osceola, they stopped at the Truman grandparents farm, killed 400 hogs and burned down some buildings. In retaliation for this raid and other actions taken against rebel families, a group of Missourians under William Ouantrill invaded Kansas and attacked the city of Lawrence at dawn on 25 August 1863. At least 150 men of Lawrence were killed and most of the town was destroyed. As a result of Quantrill's raid, the Union military commander for western Missouri, General Thomas Ewing, issued the infamous Order Number 11 on 25 August 1863, requiring all the residents of Jackson, Cass, Bates, and half of Vernon counties to leave their land if they lived more than a mile from a Union military post. Truman's grandmother was forced off the farm and moved her six children to Kansas City as refugees until the end of the war. In deference to his grandmother's feelings as a result of these events, Truman never wore his National Guard uniform to her home again.

Truman stayed in the Guard until 1911 and advanced to the rank of corporal. In late 1906 it had been necessary for him to return to the farm full time. When the United States entered the war in 1917 he was the sole male in the family (his father died in 1914), and he would not have been called up in the draft. Historians ponder the question of why people like Truman enlisted when they could have stayed home. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that Truman had had boyhood dreams of going to West Point. Now he was 33, perhaps wanted some independence, and there was also the idea of adventure. He rejoined Battery B in 1917 and was very active in recruiting new members. In 1916 Battery B had gone to the Mexican border in the expedition against Pancho Villa, but by April 1917 most of the enlistments had expired.

Battery B in Kansas City and Battery C in Independence became the nucleus of the 129th Field Artillery. Some of the officers of the regiment had served in the Spanish-American War and on the Texas border. (Ted Marks, Truman's good friend and in 1919 the best man at his wedding, had served in the British Grenadier Guards).

Before the National Guard was federalized in August 1917, the officers were elected by the troops. This practice was common from the time of the Civil War until World War I. To his surprise, Truman was elected to the rank of 1st lieutenant in Battery F.

From May to September 1917, the 129th was quartered in the Kansas City and Independence Armories, as well as a tent camp across the street from the Kansas City Convention Hall. On 26 September 1917 it entrained for Camp Doniphan, Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Camp Doniphan was located on the site of the old Comanche Indian reservation and was named for Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan, a hero of the Mexican War from Liberty, Missouri. Near the camp was a prominent landmark called Monument Hill (1500 feet), which was the burial place of Geronimo.

At Camp Doniphan the 129th was designated a light artillery regiment and trained with horsedrawn 3-inch guns, later in France it was issued 75-mm guns. The 129th was joined with the 128th Light Artillery (from the 1st Missouri Artillery in St. Louis), the 130th Heavy (155-mm) Artillery (1st Kansas Field Artillery), the 110th Trench Mortar (6) Battery, and the 110th Ammunition Train to form the 60th Field Artillery Brigade. This brigade was part of the 35th Division, which consisted of about 6000 officers and men mostly from Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas.

In addition to his duties with Battery F, Truman was appointed the regimental canteen (PX) officer. He picked Sergeant Eddie Jacobson, whom he had known in Kansas City, to work with him. Truman kept the books and Jacobson bought the goods. The canteen was financed by assessing each units mess fund $2 per man. Truman's canteen operation was an outstanding success due to the fact that most of the others in the 35th Division were shut down because of financial problems. At the end of six months Truman's canteen repaid the original assessment, plus $10,000 in dividends, and it still had $5000 in inventory.

On 20 March 1918, Truman left Fort Sill with a group of 600 officers and men to go to France with an Overseas School Detail. Before going overseas he had an opportunity to do some sightseeing in New York City, and while there purchased two more pairs of glasses. He now had a total of six pairs of glasses to take to France and in 1919 returned home with all of them!

On 31 March Truman's group sailed from New York on the George Washington, a confiscated German luxury liner, a large, fast ship which minimized the danger from the slow-moving German U-boats. (This was the same ship that Wilson was to sail on in December 1918 on his way to the peace conference.) After arriving in France on 14 April 1918, Truman had a couple of weeks to enjoy France before the training started in earnest. He then spent five weeks in rigorous training at the artillery school at Montigny-sur-Aube and had additional training at Coetquidan, which was one of Napoleon's old artillery camps.

On 18, 20 and 27 May the rest of the 129th sailed for France. By 11 June it was billeted in the Angers area of Brittany. The regiment had left its American artillery in Oklahoma and were issued their French 75-mm guns.

The Puteaux 75-mm was a highly mobile, quick-firing (20-30 rounds per minute) field gun with a rifled bore, high initial velocity, and a relatively straight trajectory. The gun and carriage weighed 2657 pounds. Each gun and caisson was drawn by six horses, a driver guiding each pair of horses. This was a very tiring job, especially on all-night marches. The 75 had a long recoil cylinder, which enabled the gun to absorb recoil smoothly without having to reposition the piece after each round. The range of the 75 was 7400 yards, while its German counterpart (the 77-mm) had a range of 9200 yards. Another drawback was the 75's low trajectory, which hampered its ability to fire on troops behind breastworks. In spite of these problems, the 75s were widely used on the Western Front and were known for their phenomenal accuracy.

At Camp Coetquidan, France, July 1918

Capt. Harry

Victory Parade in Kansas City

This article originally appeared in Relevance: The Journal of the Great War Society, Vol. 2-4; Spring-Fall 1993.

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