Secretary of WarNewton Baker authorized Major General Franklin Bell to organize the 152d Depot Brigade, an element of the 77th Division.[7] The brigade was later detached and placed directly under Camp Upton, New York, as an independent unit.[8][9][10] The depot brigade filled two purposes: one was to act as a receiving unit for men sent to camps by local draft boards;[11][12] the other was to train replacements for the American Expeditionary Forces.
The role of depot brigades was to receive and organize recruits, provide them with uniforms, equipment and initial military training, and then send them to France to fight on the front lines. The depot brigades also received soldiers returning home at the end of the war and completed their out processing and discharges. Depot brigades were often organized, reorganized, and inactivated as requirements to receive and train troops rose and fell, and later ebbed and flowed during post-war demobilization.[14]
^Walter Hines Page, Arthur Wilson Page, The World's Work, Biography, George W. Read, Volume XXXVI, November 1918 to April 1919, page 90
^C. David Gordon, Nashoba Publications Fort Devens Museum: Biographies of 74th Infantry Regiment Commanders Archived January 10, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, March 6, 2004
^George Washington Cullum, Edward Singleton Holden, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy, Volume VI-A, 1920, pages 703-704
^Cullum, Holden, Biographical Register, page 564
^Ohio State University Alumni Association, Ohio State University Monthly, Volumes 9-10, February 1918, page 8
^"New Brigade Commanders". The Washington Herald. Washington, DC. January 5, 1919. p. 7.
^Wilson, 1998, p. 60.
^Organizations and Activities of the War Department, 1949, p. 1277.
^Territorial Departments, Tactical Divisions Organized in 1918, and Posts, Camps, and Stations, 1949, pp. 843-45
^Directory of Troops, 1949, p. 1277.
^WD Cir 23, 1918, p. 7.
^Wilson, 1998, p. 76n32.
^Laurence Bergreen, As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin, 1996, page 150
^U.S. Army Adjutant General (1918). Training Circular No. 23, Training Regulations for Depot Brigades. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of War. p. Table of Contents – via Army University Library System.
^Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Co., Memorial to the Employees of the Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co. Who Served at Home and Abroad in the Great World War, 1920, pages 42, 47. Harold A. Chalford is listed as a member of 31st Company, 8th Battalion, 152d Depot Brigade. Ernest O. Sandstrom is named as a member of 9th Company, 3d Battalion, 152d Depot Brigade
^"List of General Officers and Their Commands". Army and Navy Register. Washington, DC. December 1, 1917. p. 674.
References
Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War. Vol. 3, Part 1: Center of Military History Publication No. 23-3—Zone of the Interior: Organizations and Activities of the War Department. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of the Army. 1988 [1st. pub. GPO: 1949].
Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War. Vol. 3, Part 2: Center of Military History Publication No. 23-4—Zone of the Interior: Territorial Departments, Tactical Divisions Organized in 1918, and Posts, Camps, and Stations. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of the Army. 1988 [1st. pub. GPO: 1949].
Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War. Vol. 3, Part 3: Center of Military History Publication No. 23-5—Directory of Troops. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of the Army. 1988 [1st. pub. GPO:1949].
Wilson, John B. (1998). Center of Military History Publication No. 60-14-1—Maneuver and Firepower: The Evolution of Divisions and Separate Brigades (Army Lineage Series ed.). Wash., DC: U.S. Dept. of the Army.
U.S. War Dept. War Plans Div. A.W.C. (1918). Trng. Circ. No. 23—Training Regulations for Depot Brigades (Report). U.S. War Dept. Document No. 859. Washington, DC: U.S. War Dept.
Further reading
Barnes, Alexander F.; Belmonte, Peter L. (2022). United States Army Depot Brigades in World War I. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-4766-8205-1. OCLC 1310246266. OL 34132361M.