In Iredell County we have access to two interstate highways, I-40 east-west and I-77 north-south, which intersect just north of the county seat, Statesville. We take these two freeways for granted and often don’t think about how they came to be.
Convoy inspired by wartime observation
In 1919, less than a year after the end of World War I, an officer in the US Army’s Office of War Planning in Washington, DC, wondered whether troops and east coast military supplies (eg from Washington, DC). ) could make a long-distance emergency move to the West Coast (say, San Francisco) on the roads then in place, and if so, how long would it take vehicles to make the trek.
The person who probably came up with this question and project was a young and brilliant then lieutenant colonel named Dwight David Eisenhower, known to friends as “Ike,” who was later destined for greater responsibilities as the 34th President of the United States. The official name of the proposed project was “The 1919 Army Motor Transport Corps Convoy”. It was the first motor convoy to cross North America.
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Troops and/or supplies sent across the country would not necessarily be used to repel a coastal invasion, but could bring manpower, food, medical supplies, and the like to an earthquake-stricken West Coast city, floods, fires or other natural disasters. .
It is one thing to send vehicles across Britain or France or Germany, such as Eisenhower had seen during the First World War, and quite another to send a very large motor convoy over 3,000 miles with few accurate maps, little accurate signage, few service stations, no kilometers and no fast food restaurants.
In charge of the motorized convoy were 24 officers, including “Ike,” the 28-year-old lieutenant colonel born in Denison, Texas. Eisenhower’s childhood home was in Abilene, Kansas, where the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum is located. Ike volunteered to represent the nascent Army Tank Corps on the 1919 convoy. There were also 15 official War Department “observers” along for the ride.
The men
There were 258 men enlisted to do the driving and the work. It is interesting to note that “twenty-one men were lost by various casualties on the way.”
It was estimated that due to road conditions, the average night’s sleep for staff was around 5.5 hours. Other adversities suffered by all the staff were: “…lack of shelter, rationing difficulties, lack of bathroom facilities and, at times, the scarcity of drinking water. Other unpleasant conditions included alternating extreme temperatures, rain, high winds, excessive dust, sandstorms and the rarefied and extremely dry atmosphere of the arid western region.”
Commenting on the personnel, Eisenhower noted that “At the beginning of the trip, discipline among the enlisted personnel of the MTC was almost unknown. . . . This lack of discipline was largely due to inexperience and the wrong type officers. It resulted in over speeding of trucks; unauthorized stops; misbehavior and mishandling of truck in convoy.”
Ike further commented that “It is not believed that the enlisted men were of an inferior type to any other body of soldiers, but they lacked training and good officers.”
The vehicles
As for the vehicles used, there were “34 heavy duty trucks, 4 light delivery trucks”, 2 mobile machine shops, 1 blacksmith shop and 1 demolition truck, a “Artillery wheeled tractor” Militor, which tow 9 trucks at once. and was equipped with an electric lathe. There were also several Harley-Davidson motorcycles equipped with sidecars that were used to scout ahead of the convoy. In addition, there was a French-built Reynault light tank.
It is easy to forget that the First World War was the first conflict in which motor vehicles played a significant role.
Of the mechanical members of the expedition, “9 [of 79] vehicles were destroyed or damaged to such an extent that they required removal en route.”
The convoy would be as self-sufficient as possible, carrying its own spares, tires, fuel, lubricants and water for the vehicles, and sufficient food and water for the men. But which route would they take? Were there maps with enough detail to plan the odyssey? Would the existing bridges be able to support a fully loaded US Army transport truck? Would the convoy be able to conquer the steep slopes of the Rocky Mountains?
the route
Ready or not, and under the direct command of Colonel Charles W. McClure, Motor Transport Corps, United States Army, the convoy began its journey at 8:30 a.m. on July 7, 1919, at the ” south side of the White House.” ” and concluded on September 6, 1919 in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
It took him 62 days to make the trek. The convoy passed through several good-sized cities, as well as about 350 smaller communities, and it was estimated that over 3,000,000 people (perhaps as many as 3,250,000) witnessed it somewhere along the route. One source has described America’s road network in 1919 as “uneven, disjointed, and sometimes nonexistent.”
The route taken by the convoy was the “Lincoln Highway” of 1915. [today’s U.S. 30], which crossed 11 states and the District of Columbia. Major cities the convoy passed through included: Gettysburg, Pittsburgh, Canton, Ft. Wayne, Chicago Heights, Cedar Rapids, Omaha, North Platte, Laramie, Ogden, Salt Lake City, Ely and Carson City. They then came to Oakland and then went, by ferry, to San Francisco, a distance of about 3,251 miles.
The Lincoln Highway, which was picked up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, became the de facto template for the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System (EIHS).
OC Stonestreet is the author of “Tales From Old Iredell County,” “They Called Iredell County Home,” and “Once Upon a Time… in Mooresville, NC.”
