Mess line of the 14th Engineers at Camp Rockingham, Salem NH in 1917. From “History of the Fourteenth Engineers, U.S. Army,” 1923.
The Light Railway Engineers of World War I are little known regiments composed of men initially recruited from among railroad workers. Most of the men of the Fourteenth Engineers (Rwy), my primary focus, came from the Boston MA area including New Hampshire. When war was declared in April of 1917, the United States War Department requested nine regiments to be formed to work specifically with railroads–three for operating, five for construction, and one for repair. These recruiting efforts resulted in the Eleventh Regiment from New York, NY; Twelfth Regiment from St. Louis, MO; Thirteenth Regiment from Chicago, IL; Fourteenth Regiment from Boston, MA; Fifteenth Regiment from Pittsburgh PA; Sixteenth Regiment from Detroit, Michigan; Seventeenth Regiment from Atlanta GA; Eighteenth Regiment from San Francisco, CA; and the Nineteenth Regiment from Philadelphia PA. Continue reading
