This Week in Texas Methodist History Nov. 11

Armistice Day for Southwestern Students  Nov. 11, 1918

Armistice Day, November 11, 1918, meant an end to unimaginable horror.  In 1914 the belligerent nations went confidently into what they believed would be a short war.  They were horribly wrong.  As the initial invasion of France by German forces was repulsed, the two sides dug into fortified positions in trenches that changed very little through the next years.    The application of the technologies of the industrial revolution meant that killing was mass produced.  The efficiency of machine guns, submarines, poison gas, large munitions, and other products of the industrial revolution meant causalities in the thousands as the generals continued to stick to the same tactics they had learned in the horse cavalry era.  

Nowhere was this outmoded thinking more evident than in the last weeks of the war.  As nations staggered to some sort of resolution, generals stuck to the same tactics that had produced such horror.  

Although it was well known that an armistice was imminent, commanders continued giving orders to continue artillery barrages and “over the top” mad assaults through barbed wire and machine guns until 11:00 a.m. To be fair, some field commanders ignored such orders on the morning of November 11.  

What about the home front and in particular, Southwestern University in Georgetown which had embraced militarization like most of the rest of American society?

One November 9, 1918 ten members  of the Student Army Training Corps at Southwestern  were given a grand send off as they were inducted into the regular army and sent to Camp MacArthur in Waco for officer training.  The SATC sergeants, corporals, and privates would spend three months at Camp MacArthur and then be thrown into the maelstrom of war in Europe.   The men were selected because they had spent 8 weeks the previous summer at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, receiving basic training along with the faculty sponsor, Professor Godbey who also taught chemistry and coached the football team.  

There was a send off  banquet, complete with oysters and multiple toasts (with grape juice).  The SU band went to the train depot to send the men, who ranged from freshman to senior, off. 

Lt. Riley ordered an honor guard be posted at the flag pole each Sunday.  In spite of the heavy rains, SATC students were able to resume drills from 2:00 until 4:00.  Drill had been suspended for weeks because so many cadets were afflicted with the influenza.  Cadets who were not ill spent their time swabbing the floors where a temporary hospital of cots had been set up.

The 10 men chosen for Officer Training at Camp MacArthur arrived the night of the 9^th, and on the 11^th learned that the Armistice had been signed.  They were not allowed to go into Waco and participate in the joyous celebrations and church services being held there.   The camp was quarantined because of a meningitis outbreak. 

Although the war was over, the SU men stayed at Camp MacArthur for another two weeks.   One of their tasks was constructing the barracks in which they would live.   Six of them returned to the SATC, and four were honorably discharged.  

The Armistice did not mean an end to the SATC.  They continued to drill as usual. 

One of those men was Wesley Hardt, my grandfather.   Upon discharge, the men were told to keep their equipment.   I inherited the carpenter tools that had been issued for the barracks construction.  Wesley was still at Camp MacArthur when the SU Pirates came to play the Baylor Bears in a football game.   Wesley’s brother Henry was the starting left guard for the Pirates.  The Pirates beat the Bears 14-6.   Wesley not only attended the game, but was called down from the bleachers to act as timekeeper.  He was invited to spend that night in the Waco hotel with the team rather than going back to his tent at Camp MacArthur.