The demobilization of officers proceeded simultaneously with that of the troops. Nearly all the officers "who came in to the service at the outbreak of the war" were, according to Spence, discharged though a few remained temporarily on recruiting duty. In August, 1918, General March had abolished all identifications such as National Army and National Guard by declaring "all land forces, however raised, then on active duty to be the United States Army." Guard and Reserve officers with creditable records were, upon release from active service, permitted to retain their commissions in the Officers Reserve Corps. Guard officers who did not apply for or receive reserve commissions were released from all duty, state or federal. Nevertheless, a number of 36th officers subsequently turned up in the Texas National Guard whose infantry organization was designated as the 36th Division "to preserve the memories and traditions of the National Guard Division which represented Texas so gloriously during the World War." General Hulen, Colonel Birkhead, and Major Weatherred each rose to command the Guard at one time or another and Major Thomas D. Barton served a turn as adjutant general. Birkhead’s first service upon his return home was as Texas chairman of the new American Legion. Another notable officer in the post-war Guard, Colonel Nimon, the commander of the 111th Train Headquarters and Military Police in France, had spearheaded the embryonic organizational efforts of the American Legion in the 36th while the division was still in the Tonnerre area.¹⁰

General Smith and Colonel Williams were among the few ranking Regular Army officers who assisted in the demobilization at Camp Bowie. Smith himself was greeted, at Hoboken with orders relieving him of his command, but members of Congress from Texas persuaded General March to change them. The people of Texas and Oklahoma wanted a closer look at the man who had led their boys to glory in the great war! On June 11, the general met with the Texas and Oklahoma congressional delegations in Washington and modestly attributed the success of the 36th to "the men to whom all the credit must go." At the train station in Fort Worth three days later, Smith told the welcoming committee that the 36th had endured the "hardest test of any unit" in France and that "the men from the West were almost infallible as scrappers."

Smith and Williams were guest speakers on the evening of June 17 at a banquet at the River Crest Country Club given in honor of 57 officers of the division. Williams praised the National Guard for its services in World War I while Smith paid tribute to the 36th officers who were "too brave in leading attacks" and to the men who "were always eager to follow ... regardless of the danger." As "a closing feature," Smith was presented with a "handsome gold watch, with a panther in attitude of combat" on the back "’over which was the inscription ‘Camp Bowie, Fort Worth, Texas."’ Engraved on one side of the watch case were the words, "Presented to Major General W. R. Smith by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, June 17, 1919." Infixed on the other was an arrowhead with the figure "36" above it and the inscription "Meuse-Argonne (Champagne) October, 1918" beside it. Although the 36th did not fight in the Meuse-Argonne per se, its support in the Champagne was regarded as a part of that offensive.

In his public statements in Washington and Fort Worth, Smith tactfully refrained from singling out a 36th unit for special praise. And of the various national groups and races represented, he mentioned the contribution of only one, the -Indians. Their "hereditary cunning in forest warfare," he declared, "’was a wonderful asset to the Division." And the transmittal of messages in Indian languages "completely baffled the Huns." Several of "our Indians" were killed, but "not one of them was ever taken prisoner." The Germans "did not like the Indians" and "were afraid of them."

Smith’s remarks were probably in response to questions on the subject of their performance in combat. If the newspaper publicity accorded the Indians is any indication, the homefolks were more than a little curious about their service. Perhaps the most colorful account of their exploits was published in the Stars and Stripes and reprinted in the Star-Telegram. "It was the Prussian Guard against the American Indian on the morning of Oct. 8 in the hills of Champagne." The Prussians, remembering the red man’s reputation for scalping, were at one point observed "running over the hill tops, casting away their rifles, knapsacks, canteens—sacrificing everything for speed." With the Prussians in full retreat, the warriors of Company E, 142nd Infantry, "looked down on the town of St. Etienne." This and other newspaper stories about the Indian veterans were generally more interesting than true.

The 36th officers regarded the Native Americans as hard working, truthful, well-behaved, patient, athletic, fearless under fire, keen observers, "par excellent" in orienting themselves, and more likely to volunteer for hazardous duty than Caucasians. On the negative side, they were weak in imagination, did not immediately grasp the abstract, reverted "to type" in combat, and were "much given to the use of intoxicants." Captain Ethan A. Simpson stated that the majority of Indian soldiers in his battalion were National Guardsmen of some education and that he "would rather have a company of educated Indians than an ordinary company of white men." The comments were not intended to be unfavorable—Indeed, the 36th officers portrayed the Native Americans as fine soldiers—but they tended to reflect the white man’s stereotyped view of their behavior. Apparently neither of the two Indian officers in the 142nd Infantry who saw combat was consulted. One, Charles H. Johnson, rose from captain and company commander to major and battalion commander.

On the basis of the responses to his questions, which one historian says were designed "to elicit the results he wanted," Eddy proposed the creation of ranger companies of Indian scouts. Although his proposal was allowed to collect dust, the military did not forget the 36th’s use of Indians as telephone operators. A report on the subject submitted by Colonel Bloor to General Smith, dated January 23, 1919, and marked to the attention of Captain Spence, was included in Eddy’s report. Bloor’s account was "widely reprinted and described by the press," and other officers, including Major Robinson, discussed the matter for public consumption. In World War II the military utilized Comanches in Europe and Navajos in the Pacific to solve the problem of intercepted messages.¹²

The large number of Croix de Guerre awarded to Arrow Heads, many posthumously, might cause one unfamiliar with the French practice of conferring them by the "hundreds of thousands" in World War I to conclude that the Texans and Oklahomans were inordinately heroic. If they received more than their share, it was probably due in part to their good fortune of serving with the French army whose generals were said, no doubt with some exaggeration, to have carried the medal "about in their pockets to bestow ... on soldiers." The Croix de Guerre was not, as the American public believed, the "supreme reward" for valor. It might compare at the least to the Bronze Star and at the most to the Silver Star of later years. Over 50 percent of the French war crosses distributed to Arrow Heads went to officers and about one-third of the total number of 36th officers in the Champagne received them.

Awarded for gallantry in action, the Medaille Militaire was, according to Frederick Palmer, the French equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Four Texans—Sergeant Sam Dreben of El Paso, Sergeant Jesse S. Morrison of Moody, Corporal Ernest H. Boggs of Pilot Point, and Private John D. Reese of Josephine—and three Oklahomans—Sergeants William T. Harden of Cordell, Charles J. Liddell of Marietta, and Howard S. Woods of Wewoka—received the Medaille Militaire. All except Dreben were members of the 142nd Infantry.

The award most coveted by the Americans was, of course, the Medal of Honor. Of the 95 issued in World War I, two went to members of the 36th, Sergeant Sampler and Corporal Turner, whose heroics have been discussed elsewhere in this study. The two Oklahomans were decorated by Pershing personally at Chaumont late in April, 1919.

At least 475 decorations were distributed to Arrow Heads. Of this number, both Medals of Honor, 30 Distinguished Service Crosses, and 129 Croix de Guerre were conferred before the division left the Tonnerre area. All, or nearly all, were received by the time of demobilization. It is possible that the grand total awarded exceeded the number above since that figure is based almost entirely on the lists of medal winners at the termination of divisional record keeping in June, 1919, and additional medals may have been forthcoming after that time.¹³

Another officer whom Smith undoubtedly held in much esteem was Captain Spence. Presumably in accordance with the wishes of the new Historical Section of the General Staff, the combat divisions of the AEF, following the Armistice, prepared official histories of their activities in the war. Thus the 36th no sooner arrived in the Tonnerre area than Smith selected Spence to chronicle the official history of the division. Upon its completion, copies were to be sent "to the historical sections of the General Staff both at Washington and ... Chaumont" and to the "archives of the States of Texas and Oklahoma."

Probably owing to the great difficulty of sifting through the massive files of messages and orders, which were long on fact and short on explanation, Spence sought to lighten his burden and to enrich his narrative by soliciting the accounts and statements of numerous participants. Unit accounts were, as a general rule, prepared by ranking officers who saw action and were still with the division. Although several took the form of outline histories, most were presented as battle reports and limited to the 36th’s tour at the front. A small number were subsequently published in one medium or another. One of the unit reports that was widely published in the newspapers was that of Colonel Bloor. The accounts were, on the whole, surprisingly candid and modest and much of the information they contained was checked by Spence and other "staff officers and representatives of the different units" during the "special trip" made by them to the battleground in January, 1919, referred to in Chapter Seven.

Spence made extensive use of the reports and statements of officers in preparing his official history. By the time the 36th left the Tonnerre area the story of the division to that time had been completed. Brought up to date at Camp Bowie, the lengthy manuscript covered the entire history of the 36th from inception to demobilization. Although it provided much valuable data on the organization and training of the division and its post-Armistice activities, it focused mainly on the fighting. Prepared in some haste, it was cumbersome and lacked overall perspective.

Published not as a book but as articles in the Star-Telegram during the last two weeks in June was a relatively well-presented "official" condensation of that part of the full manuscript dealing with the 36th abroad. The condensed history was also composed mainly in France by Spence "under the order and with the advice" of Smith. The original purpose of the short version, if not for newspaper publication, has not been ascertained.¹⁵

Although Spence’s complete history was never published, another account, prepared by Captain Chastaine at about the same time, was printed privately in 1920 under the title, Story of the 36th: The Experiences of the 36th Division in the World War. A journalist by profession, Chastaine told an interesting story, but, like Spence, he made some minor errors, dwelled disproportionately on the 36th in the Champagne, and assumed a considerable knowledge of the American participation in the war by his readers. One suspects that Chastaine utilized either one or both of Spence’s works in its composition, but it was based largely on the captain’s numerous and lengthy articles written in 1918-1919 for the Daily Oklahoman. Rich in detail on practically every aspect of the 36th’s activities and written on the spot, his newspaper articles were an even greater contribution to posterity than his book. Understandably, Chastaine stressed the Oklahoma role in his writings, especially in his articles. Another book published in 1922 by one of Chastaine’s fellow Oklahomans, Chaplain Barnes, dealt wholly with the partially Sooner regiment, the 142nd Infantry.¹⁶

Smith himself, on July 15, less than two weeks after the last Arrow Head was mustered out at Camp Travis, reverted to his Regular Army rank of colonel. Five years later, after assignments that had taken him to Washington, the Philippines, Virginia, and Hawaii, he was once again a two-star general. From 1928 until his retirement from the army in 1932, he served as superintendent of West Point. Employed afterwards as superintendent of the Sewanee Military Academy in Tennessee, his military career did not finally end until his death in 1941. A competent, modest, and sensible officer, however, strict and demanding, the Texans and Oklahomans who served with the 36th in France were fortunate to have had him as their commanding general.¹⁸