The second wave of draftees began arriving late in May, 1918. The system of depot brigades at the training camps, having failed to function satisfactorily, had by this time been scrapped. The 61st Depot Brigade, which as early as October, 1917, contained only a handful of officers, was supplanted by a detention camp for new arrivals. The camp was enclosed by a 10-foot-high barbed wire fence built by the 111th Engineers for easier enforcement of a recently-imposed two week quarantine on newcomers.

The War Department plans called for the 36th to receive 3,400 draftees from Oklahoma and 1,124 from Texas. By June 2 the entire quota was in camp having come in groups as small as 10 and as large as 1,500. All were Oklahomans and Texans except 60 who reported directly from Wellington, Kansas. Many of the draftees were residing, presumably temporarily, in states other than Texas and Oklahoma at the time of their conscription.

Arriving by train in downtown Fort Worth, the conscripts were hauled to camp in trucks. They impressed inspecting officers as the "best material for soldiers" they had "ever seen." Certainly they did not appear as dispirited and disinterested as the 1917 draft group. After processing, the men played baseball, pitched horseshoes, participated in card games, or shot craps, and they were "always jesting and singing," according to a Star-Telegram story. This was not true of one draftee who tried, though evidently not too hard, to kill himself, first by cutting his throat with a pen knife, and then, by choking himself with a handkerchief. Despite their generally good physical appearance, a number were released for medical reasons.

The 36th Division though composed primarily of men of Anglo-Saxon stock contained representatives of numerous races and nationalities. Star-Telegram reporter Mae Biddison Benson who wrote a story on Camp Bowie as a "vast melting pot of nationalities" found men scattered about the 36th of French, Italian, German, Polish, Danish, Filipino, Assyrian, Indian, Mexican, Chinese, Turkish, and Bohemian backgrounds. Of the several groups, Mexicans from the Texas border counties, Germans from Central Texas, and Indians from Oklahoma predominated.

Many Mexicans came to Camp Bowie as members of the Texas National Guard. Others joined the division later as draftees from Camp Travis. The Star-Telegram reported that one "company" sent from Camp Travis in October, 1917, consisted "entirely of Mexicans." Among the interesting Mexican-American soldiers in the 36th were George Gonzales, 143rd Infantry, and Louis Lucero, Field Hospital 141. Gonzales, who served as Colonel Hoover’s orderly, had been a general in the Mexican army of General Venustiano Carranza. Half Negro, he was reputedly the only soldier of Negro blood in the division. Lucero, a former art student in Mexico City, enjoyed "no small reputation" at Camp Bowie for his paintings of such subjects as the 111th Sanitary Train. One of the few Mexican officers in the 36th, Captain Augustine de Zavala, 143rd Infantry, a Spanish American War veteran, was the grandson of a distinguished Texas patriot in the revolutionary era, Lorenzo de Zavala.

Although a number of German aliens were discharged because they opposed fighting the Fatherland, they were relatively few. At [44] least 250 Germans in the 36th received their American citizenship papers in federal court before the division left for Europe. Two interesting German-American enlisted men were veteran Guardsmen John and George Muller of Weatherford, Texas, 144th Infantry, whose father had fought in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. John would be severely wounded in France. The highest ranking German-American officer was none other than Colonel Muchert, former postmaster at Sherman and veteran Guardsman, who had been born in Germany and had served in the Prussian Army.¹⁷

No other race or nationality in the 36th received more attention in the press than the Oklahoma Indians. Most of the Native Americans were members of the 1st Oklahoma, especially Companies H and L. Upon the merger of the 1st Oklahoma with the 7th Texas to form the 142nd Infantry, the majority of the Indian Guardsmen in the two companies were placed in Company E under Captain Walter Veach. Assigned as first sergeant was Walter’s brother, Columbus, who was subsequently commissioned a second lieutenant. Captain Locke, who had commanded Company L of the 1st Oklahoma, was placed in the Depot Brigade and was eventually transferred or discharged. One of the most gala affairs of the 36th’s sojourn at Camp Bowie was a farewell dinner-dance at the Metropolitan Hotel in Fort Worth given in Locke’s honor by the members of his old company. The other Indian or part Indian officers of the 1st Oklahoma, Captain Johnson and First Lieutenant Bellmard, were placed in Company C, 142nd Infantry, a largely white company, with the former as commandant.

An estimated one-third of the Indian Guardsmen were fullbloods; the rest were mixed bloods of varying degrees. Some Indian leaders in Oklahoma favored all-Indian organizations and there was more discussion in the newspapers during consolidation that the Oklahoma Indian Guardsmen might be assigned to a separate regiment filled to strength by Indian draftees and volunteers. But the War Department decided against separate units and the Indian Guardsmen were scattered about the 36th with the large majority going into the 142nd Infantry.

The Indian Guardsmen placed in the 142nd Infantry were on the whole fairly well educated, many having graduated from academies and colleges in Oklahoma and elsewhere, some from [45] the Carlisle and Haskell Indian schools. This was not true of the more than 300 Indian draftees brought from Camp Travis in 1917-1918. Some were so deficient in English that it was found necessary to discharge them.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Cato Sells visited the Indians at Camp Bowie twice, once late in 1917 and again in March, 1918. Sells found their morale high, their "treatment" satisfactory, and their reputation as soldiers excellent. He was nonetheless disappointed at finding an organization—Company E—composed almost entirely of Native Americans. The Indians should be "mixed indiscriminately among the whites, elbow to elbow, so that they will absorb the English, habits and civilization of their white brothers." No further adjustment was forthcoming and Company E remained the only largely Indian organization in the army.

Many of the 600-plus Native Americans in the 36th, which claimed more Indians than any other division, were oil rich and the majority received, if not royalty checks, income from government allotment property. A Pawnee Indian named Roy Mitchell received a check for $66,000, which Chastaine asserted was "the largest single check ever seen in camp." It is little wonder that Company E was commonly known as the "Millionaire Company," even though some of its members may have been poor.

At least 17 tribes were represented in the division. In Company E alone there were, in November, 1917, Choctaws, Cherokees, Osages, Creeks, Chickasaws, Shawnees, Seminoles, Delawares, Peorias, Quapaws, Poncas, Arapahos, Cheyennes, and Caddoes. Serving in other organizations were Pawnees, Kaws, and Comanches. Nearly all the tribesmen’s names were anglicized and easily pronounceable, but a few, such as Eastman Hoparkentubbee and Steson Eltomonotubbi, made roll-calling difficult. The Indians were accepted not only by their white comrades, but also by the local citizenry, which appreciated their patriotism.¹⁸

Other non Anglo-Saxon groups in the 36th were represented by Lieutenant Colonel Lapowski, Major Kuznik, Private Juan Salazar, and Private Wong Lo Lim. Both Lapowski and Kuznik were natives of Poland. Kuznik, a veteran Regular Army officer, came to the United States as a boy, but Lapowski spent his [46] youth in his native land and served in the Russo-Turk War of 1877. Salazar, a Filipino in Company C, 144th Infantry, came to America as a servant to an officer who left him stranded; later, in San Antonio, he joined the 4th Texas Infantry. Wong fought with the revolutionary army of Sun Yat-sen and fled China to avoid execution. Drafted in Oklahoma, he came to Camp Bowie via Camp Travis, and was assigned first to Truck Company Number 3, 111th Ammunition Train, and then to Headquarters Troop where he served as Lieutenant Colonel Stevenson’s orderly. One of the "most active, hard-working, intelligent men at camp" who spoke fluent English, although he had lived in the United States only three years, he was not, declared his sergeant major, "an ordinary Chink by any means.¹⁹ There are indications in the sources to suggest a measure of prejudice on the part of the majority toward some of the minority, but there is no evidence of difficulty between the various racial and national groups or of blatant discrimination in the 36th.

Well over one-third of the troops at Camp Bowie in December, 1917, had been farmers in civilian life. No figures are available, but printers, surprisingly enough, ranked second in the numerous occupations represented. In order that a particular skill might be made available to an organization in need, Captain P. R. Crippen, the division personnel officer, maintained an index file containing the name and civil occupation of every man in the division. The greatest demand was for stenographers, machinists, carpenters, cobblers, tailors, farriers, cooks, and mechanics. Because the same skills were needed by divisions departing for Europe and the 36th was called upon to help supply them, there were never enough men in these areas to satisfy the demand at Camp Bowie.

Among the other entries in Crippen’s file were astronomers, artists, watchmakers, bartenders, teachers, plumbers, lawyers, doctors, ministers, musicians, singers, actors, and cowboys. The 111th Engineers boasted 400 cowboys, more than any other regiment. Company C, commanded by Captain Harry Hord, formerly city engineer of Sweetwater, Texas, was comprised almost entirely of West Texas cowboys. Organized as a National Guard company in the summer of 1917, the Company C cowboys expected to go into "mounted service" and were "keenly disappointed when it was decided to motorize the engineers." "Wall, when they told us boys we were motorized," drawled [47] Sergeant R. W. Barlow, late of the T-Bar Ranch, "we jest hated it, but what the devil can a fellow do?" If "they think we can put the brandin’ irons on the seat of the Kaiser’s pants with an auto better’n by using a cayuse, then we’ll do it and say, we ain’t kickin’ either." Barlow’s was typical of the generally positive attitude and high morale that existed in the 36th notwithstanding the disappointment of some members in their assignments in the modern army.

Several men with interesting civilian occupations were Robert Moore who had "thrilled thousands of audiences" as a violinist; Charles T. Haubiel, a "piano genius" formerly of the conservatory of music at the University of Oklahoma; Jack Clifford, a vaudevillian from Amarillo; George F. Gifford, a movie star who played a minor role in Birth of a Nation; Fred L. Webster, an impersonator on the stage; Klingle Smith, "a famous circus contortionist" who had traveled with Ringling Brothers; Harold L. Shamberger, a big-time Houston "oil operator"; Sam Dreben, a real estate and mining tycoon from El Paso who had fought both for and against Pancho Villa; and a number of newspapermen, three of whom were First Lieutenant Emmett R. Hambrick, Sergeant Kent Watson, and Private Hugh J. Kent from the Fort Worth-Dallas area.

There were in the officer ranks a relatively large number of lawyers which suggests, since attorneys were most likely to have political ties, that politics indeed played a role in their appointments as National Guard officers. Some like Major Felix Robertson and Captain Richard F. Burges were quite active in Texas politics.²⁰

One reading the sources is left with the distinct impression that the large majority of men were in their early and middle twenties. Some soldiers were in their late teens, and at least two were 15-year-olds, Lee Evans, Company E, 141st Infantry, and Ira Stidham, Company G, 144th Infantry, who misstated their ages at the time of enlistment. Toward the other end of the age spectrum was Sergeant John S. Grace of Weatherford whose son, Private John L. Grace, also served in the 36th. Other relatives in the division were three brothers, an uncle, and a cousin in Company D, 142nd Infantry, from Checotah, Oklahoma, named Ledbetter. Two brothers, Roland T. and Philip S. Allen, Company G, 142nd Infantry, from Elbert, Texas, would die in France.²¹

Presumably the women were relatives of the recent conscripts. Spence states that the draftees received in 1917 "were the culls of the first Texas and Oklahoma draft," and that "aside from that fact, and simply because they were drafted men in a Division of volunteers an animosity arose between them and their fellow soldiers which it took months of common association finally to eliminate." As to the 1918 draftees, they were regarded as higher caliber and were more readily accepted by the Guardsmen. It was not, however, an uncommon occurrence in World War I for National Guardsmen to look down upon conscripts, just as Regulars were often contemptuous of Guardsmen.

The negative attitude of the Texas and Oklahoma Guardsmen toward the drafted soldiers in 1917 probably stemmed in part from the efforts of their families and friends to get them out of the service. Both the Star-Telegram and Chastaine asserted that there was no reason for anyone to claim exemption on account of dependents. The War Risk Insurance Act of 1917 provided an allotment for dependents and a pension for soldiers disabled by injury. Moreover, the act made available life insurance in amounts from $1,000 to $10,000 at nominal cost. Major Owsley, until his assignment to the Officer Training Camp, Captain Gustine, and Lieutenant Spence, as insurance officers, pushed the life insurance program vigorously until over 98 percent of the division membership owned policies. Spence as chairman of the Camp Bowie Bond Committee also promoted the sale of Liberty Bonds with similar success.²²

Despite the War Risk Insurance Act and the belief by some that it provided sufficiently for dependents, the 36th high command [49] seems to have unofficially discouraged enlisted men  from marrying. Soldiers did not make enough money to support wives, and besides, marriage allegedly decreased efficiency. Still, many enlisted personnel at Camp Bowie sought and received the military’s permission to marry. Lieutenant Chastaine stated in February, 1918, that "the marriage market at the courthouse [in Fort Worth] is one of the most prosperous scenes of the business district." A "genial sergeant," when asked by reporter Benson why men would marry under such adverse circumstances, replied that "It’s because they are going to France and every fellow wants somebody to kiss him goodbye, and write him soft letters and shed tears for him." The attitude of the women was, if we may believe Chastaine, "My goodness, if I didn’t get him now I might not get him at all."

There was no particular objection to officer marriages, and indeed, many officers, one of whom was Alexander W. Spence, took wives during the Camp Bowie training period. A seemingly high percentage of officers, presumably because they were usually older men, were already married. Many of the married officers and enlisted men established homes for their families in Fort Worth, or its suburbs, and in Weatherford about 30 miles to the west. The demand for rental houses was so great that landlords often charged as much as $75 per month.²³

The general character of the 36th Sammies,²⁴ according to James A. Crain, an artillery chaplain from Fort Worth, was quite good. They were, he declared, "big, strong, whole-souled" men, "clean and have good morals. Some swear a little, but they are good at heart." There were those who kicked "over the traces occasionally because they have not been accustomed to military discipline before, but taken generally they are a fine lot." To which may be added Spence’s reflections that the Camp Bowie trainees "showed a willingness, an adaptability, a devotion to duty, and a spirit of patriotism which augured well for the future of the Division." And "despite what the sophisticated may think, the great majority of them were inspired by feelings of purest patriotism, and by a desire to do their bit in what they considered to be the struggle of democracy against autocracy."²⁵

Although the Texas and Oklahoma National Guards were organized formally as the 36th Division in September and October, 1917, the formation of the division was actually a continuing process at Camp Bowie. Several thousand recruits and draftees were received during the 36th’s stateside training period in an effort to fill the division to authorized strength and to compensate for men lost through discharge or transfer. The surplus of officers in some ranks and the shortage in others was dealt with and the infusion of Regulars in the upper grades and Reserve officers in the lower undoubtedly upgraded the officer personnel. The reception of non Guard officers and enlisted men notwithstanding, the 36th remained primarily a National Guard division. Though the percentage of Guardsmen was reduced to less than two-thirds of the total membership, its status as a rural Texas-Oklahoma division was virtually unimpaired since over 90 percent of the recruits and draftees received were Texans and Oklahomans. Probably no other division contained more Indians and Mexicans; certainly the several races and nationalities represented gave it a cosmopolitan flavor. There were many problems involved in the formation of the 36th, but they appear, in retrospect, to have been less formidable than those encountered in its preparation for combat.