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History of the University of Virginia, 1819-1919;

the lengthened shadow of one man,
  
  
  
  
  
  

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LIX. The World War,—Bureau and Ambulance Unit
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LIX. The World War,—Bureau and
Ambulance Unit

So far, our attention has been confined to the war
history of the University strictly within the precincts.
We will now proceed to relate the history of the institution
in connection with the activities which took place
beyond those narrow limits. We will first give an account
of the organizations with which it was associated
in this outside work; and will then consider the achievements
of the alumni in actual service.

The Inter-Collegiate Intelligence Bureau was created
at the suggestion of William McClellan, of the University
of Pennsylvania. Lewis D. Crenshaw received the
appointment of local adjutant for the University of Virginia,
and with the assistance of Professor William H.


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Faulkner, and the ladies of the community, he was soon
successful in making a military census of the great majority
of the alumni. Responses for information regarding
themselves were obtained from about twenty-five hundred;
and these facts were reported to the Bureau for
permanent record.

An organization of another character was the University
of Virginia Ambulance Section. Among the first
calls sent out by the Inter-Collegiate Intelligence Bureau
was one for the recruiting of ambulance companies, which
were to be enrolled in the United States Army Ambulance
Service. It seems that, in May, 1917, the Surgeon-General
of the War Department had requested the Bureau
to furnish fourteen hundred men for the performance
of ambulance duty in France. These men were to become
members of the Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps,
as required under the provisions of the National Defense
Act of June, 1916. It was anticipated that this body
would arrive in France by June, 1917. The unit
assigned to the University of Virginia was to comprise
thirty-six men, whose ages were not to fall below eighteen
years or to rise above forty-five. Application was
early made for permission to furnish two units; and consent
having been obtained, the University, through the
alumni office, was successful, in spite of many obstacles,
in assembling, by May 23, the two companies thus authorized.
It was said of these two units,—which were the
University's first organized contribution to the service
of the Nation,—that they distinguished themselves, not
only by their devotion to all the tasks assigned them,
but also by their exceptional courage under the heaviest
fire. Many were wounded and many gassed; and they
were awarded numerous commissions and decorations
for their conduct.


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Another practical step taken by the University of Virginia,
a few months later, was the establishment of a
bureau in Paris. The American University Bureau,
whose purpose was to be of assistance to all alumni in
the military arm, had already been organized in that
city, and it was due to the energetic initiative of Lewis
D. Crenshaw that his own alma mater was able to cooperate
with it. By an untiring personal campaign,
and the distribution of many thousand printed circulars,
he succeeded in collecting about nine thousand dollars
for the support of the proposed bureau, without counting
the one thousand reserved for travelling expenses and for
different items of equipment. He was appointed the
director of the bureau, and granted a leave of absence
from his duties as alumni secretary and editor of the
Alumni News. Professor Bardin was chosen to fill these
two offices temporarily, and Miss Nina Stout, an assistant,
was put in charge of the alumni files. Accompanied
by numerous trunks, weighted down with stationery and
the like miscellaneous material, and a large assortment
of cigarettes, Crenshaw set sail on November 30 (1917)
from "a port in America," to use his own description,
"in the good boat Ça ne fait rien, and landed ten days
later 'somewhere in France.'"

The University of Virginia Bureau found shelter in
the same building as the American University Bureau.
The walls of its four rooms were soon adorned with pictures
that reminded the visitors of Jefferson's academic
village, and the entire suite was furnished with many
of the comfortable appliances of a small club-house.
The apartment of the larger bureau nearby supplied a
restaurant, a general reading-room, baths, and an abundant
canteen; and there was also to be discovered in its
files the name of every American University man enrolled


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in the service in Europe. But in addition to its
proximity to these advantages, the University of Virginia
Bureau possessed special allurements of its own.
Hither came the alumni of that University, and of other
Southern institutions, to enjoy the hospitality which was
whole-heartedly held out to them, to the utmost limit
of the resources of the establishment; and besides these
visitors, there were numerous foreigners who were interested
in the likenesses, on the walls, of Thomas Jefferson,
Woodrow Wilson, and Edgar Allan Poe, or in the
classic architecture of the University. "My aim," said
Mr. Crenshaw at the time, "is to make the bureau a
home for the Virginia alumni, where they can step across
the threshold into Old Virginia. When a couple of travel-stained
boys come rolling through from the front, and
start getting the dirt off in time to meet two other of
their friends,—whom I happen to know are in town,—
one of the main reasons for the existence of the bureau
is served. It is the personal side all the way through,
which no other organization over here can give. I
could cite instance after instance of brothers, cousins, and
intimate friends, who have got in touch with each other
over here through the mails, or face to face, through the
mediation of the Virginia Bureau. It is almost uncanny
the way Tom from Flanders, or Dick from Alsace, or
Henry from Southern France, will land here the same
day,—all attracted by the old orange and blue banner,—
and fall on each other's necks, in a regular grizzly bear."[11]

The Paris editions of the Herald, Tribune, and London
Mail
were spread out on the reading table; and so
were the lighter French publications. Useful maps of


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Paris and France were tacked to the walls; and near at
hand, was the file, not only of all the alumni of the University
of Virginia then stationed in Europe, but also of
all those in America who were preparing for service
abroad. The list of the living alumni of every age was
also accessible.

One of the important functions of the bureau was to
forward the letters addressed in its care to the young
alumni at the front, whose precise whereabouts were not
known to the writers. So soon as the bureau received
information that some one of them had been wounded,
its aid was offered him in whatever manner would best
assure his comfort, while to the stricken alumni lying
in the wards of the local hospitals, cigarettes, chocolates,
socks, toothpowder, and magazines, were sent in as
large quantities as its limited resources would allow.
The bureau also acted as the purchasing agent of the
alumni in the trenches. "The demands," said Mr. Crenshaw,
"ranged from trigonometry to five readable
French novels; from kodak films to aviators' goggles;
and from a French Easter rabbit, toy for a little Alsace
kid, to a bottle of something that would cure pustules.
Every day brought its requests; and very often these
requests were for theatre, hotel, or train reservations."

Another useful purpose which the bureau served was
that, for many of these young men, it afforded the practical
facilities of a bank; money was deposited with the
director to be transferred to some one at home in America;
and he also became the custodian of all sorts of
articles, large and small, which the alumni departing
for the front wished to leave behind for safe-keeping.
In addition, he was the fountain of information to all
who were on furlough in Paris about the operas, museums,
restaurants, and stores of the city. The bureau


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was also the centre of informal gatherings; and on New
Year's Day, 1918, there was an abundant dinner, in
which a large turkey, stuffed with marrons in the French
style,—a toothsome object in those narrow times,—
occupied the place of honor on the table. The anniversary
of General Lee's birthday was also celebrated
with great distinction. In the following April, a tablet
of marble and bronze was, with the participation of the
bureau, attached to the house in which Jefferson had
lived between 1785 and 1789, while minister to France.

 
[11]

Mr. Crenshaw's assistant was Madame Des Noyers, whose kindness
to the young soldiers visiting the bureau was often a subject of grateful
reference in their letters to the superintendent of the bureau, after their
return to the trenches.