Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years

The Beginning of Everything Meade
WORLD WAR I YEARS
11
By the spring of 1917, Germany had been on the attack
in the Atlantic using its submarine fleet to sink merchant
vessels despite stern warnings from the United States.
Not only had Germany ignored the warnings, it had even
attempted to lure Mexico into an alliance against the U.S.
On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went
before a joint session of Congress to ask for a Declaration
of War against Germany.
Two days later, on April 4, the Senate passed the
Declaration of War, the House passed it two days later.
April 6, 2017, marked the 100th anniversary of our entry
into WWI and the beginning of an irreversible, seismic
change that transformed the United States and the state
of Maryland.
Our entry into the war was problematic on many
levels–we were wholly unprepared. We had a small
standing Army and Navy, with few resources devoted to
military production, yet we had entered a global conflict
demanding a large, modern Army.
The prospect of war united the disparate factions in
Washington, and the nation sprang into action. On May
18, the Selective Service Act passed Congress, giving the
President authority to conscript men between the ages
of 21 and 30 years for the National Army. To provide
housing, equipment and training for these new soldiers,
Congress also added legislation authorizing the building
of 16 new cantonments.
The business community, Maryland elected leadership
and land owners, recognized an opportunity for growth
and knew a particular portion of their state would
uniquely fit the War Department’s needs. Part of the
appeal of the proposed site, located in western Anne
Arundel County, was that the land sat in close proximity
to Baltimore’s shipping ports and within easy reach of the
War Department in Washington D.C.
The village of Admiral, on the WB&A rail line,
was chosen for the Maryland camp. The government
purchased 4,000 acres of land, mostly used for fruit
farming, then months later added another 5,000 acres
bringing the total to 9,349 acres.
On June 23, 1917, a little more than three months since
By Robert Johnson
war against Germany was official declared, a general
contract was signed for the construction of the camp,
with actual construction beginning on July 2.
Originally called Camp Admiral, the name lasted only a
couple of weeks until on July 18, 1917, General Order 95
named the new military base, Camp Meade, in honor of
Maj. Gen. George G. Meade.
Under the direction of Maj. Ralph F. Proctor, the
constructing quartermaster overseeing the massive
project, builders began the work.
Materials arrived by truck, horse drawn carriage and
rail in round-the-clock deliveries. The continual din of
hammers, saws, engines, men and animals lasted from
day into night. The cleared land and dry conditions
created furious dust clouds that drifted across the camp
and into neighboring farms and homes where it settled
on furniture and clothing hanging on the line. Dust
also blinded workers and animals and at times, they say,
blocked out the sun. The breakneck activity was made
even more difficult on days of rain as trucks and horse
drawn wagons slogged through muddied fields carrying
heavy loads and leaving roads almost impassable.
Training and deploying troops couldn’t wait for
construction to be completed. The first groups camped
out in an unoccupied cotton mill in Laurel while the
construction frenzy continued.
On the day it officially opened, Sept. 19, 1917, train
after train arrived at Camp Meade disembarking several
thousand men from Eastern Pennsylvania. They arrived
before the Camp was finished, some walking in the front
door of the hastily built wooden structures, while the
contractors scrambled to leave via the backdoor. Once
started, the train traffic never stopped. By October 1917,
it was estimated that as many as 23,000 men lived and
trained in the newly constructed camp.
The first phase of construction consisted of 1,200
wooden buildings. A remount station built to hold 12,000
horses and mules and a school for blacksmiths took up
25 acres of land. Soon after, a hospital, heating plants and
fire stations became part of the rapidly growing Army
camp. Camp Meade continued to expand as directed by