LV. The World-War—The First University Measures
Before the United States declared war, the University
of Virginia was participating, so far as foreigners were
permitted to do, in many of the numerous provinces of
the belligerency in Europe. All the principal American
seats of learning organized an ambulance service for the
Red Cross, and the University of Virginia was one of
the first to purchase and equip a field ambulance for the
same purpose. A thousand dollars were subscribed
towards that end by persons associated with the University
community. Among the alumni who found their
way to the fighting line at this early stage of military
events were James McConnell, Chouteau Johnson, A.
Courtney Campbell, and James Drake. Dr. Vivian
Slaughter was a second lieutenant in the London Fusiliers,
William A. Fleet, a lieutenant in the Grenadier
Guards, and Wynne Cameron, a private soldier in the
British army operating in Mesopotamia. In the various
medical units dispatched to France were Doctors Robert
Bryan, George Benet, W. D. Anderson, Jr., Charles
T. Porter, and M. Blanchard. R. K. Gooch resigned
his appointment as Rhodes Scholar to enter the service
of the American Ambulance Hospital at Neuilly, and
John Ray was also employed in the same service.
At the general meeting of the Faculty in October, 1916,
the question was brought up for discussion whether or
not the University should introduce a system of military
instruction and training among the students. The
committee which was named to report upon its advisability
earnestly recommended the establishment within
the limits of one or more units of the Reserved Officers
Training Corps, in harmony with the regulations of the
War Department issued during the previous September.
But it was not until March 15, 1917, that this proposal
was approved by the General Faculty. Eight days
afterwards, the Board of Visitors convened, and having
decided to carry out the recommendations of the original
committee, instructed the rector, Mr. Gordon, and the
President, to make application to the War Department
for a Federal officer who would undertake the functions
of a professor or assistant professor of military science
and tactics. The Board were scrupulous to put on record
that it was not their purpose to incorporate for good in
the life of the institution a department of military science,
thus conferring on it the character of a military
school. Rather, they said, they were impelled to take
this step by considerations of patriotic duty, and on account
of the urgent requirements of the country in a
definite national crisis. "We hereby solemnly pledge
to Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States,"
they added, "the loyal cooperation of his alma mater
in the defense of that liberty, honor, and independence,
which George Washington and Thomas Jefferson did
so much to establish and maintain."
The General Faculty assembled on March 27. "If
war is declared," said the President of the University
on that occasion, "there will be great need of men
with academic training to serve as officers. This institution
should take a leading place among other institutions
of a similar grade in this country towards the
formation of units for a Reserve Officers' Corps."
The dean of every department was instructed to appoint
a committee of its professors to consider how to
make the resources of that department most useful to
the Nation. But a more important agency was the
Council or Committee on National Service appointed
at a somewhat later date. Its general function was
to bring about such an adjustment in the current life of
the University as the military situation called for. Of
this committee, the President was the chairman, and
Professor Echols, the vice-chairman. It held its first
session on April 1. Military committees were then
chosen for all the departments out of the membership
of the minor faculties, and shelter was provided for
military storage. It was decided to recommend to the
Board of Visitors that a military course should be introduced
into the circle of the studies that would be entitled
to credit for degrees; and also that the Federal
officer should be admitted to a seat at the Faculty
table.
Lieut.-Colonel James A. Cole, U. S. A., retired, had
been appointed as the military instructor. He was a
graduate of the United States Military Academy; had
won distinction in the Indian, Spanish, and Philippine
Wars; and at the time of his withdrawal from the active
list, was attached to the Sixth Cavalry, and was entitled
to wear three foreign service badges. Arriving at the
University during Easter Week, he took up the performance
of his duties at once, and prosecuted them
with such skill and energy that very soon the corps of his
pupils,—who included four-fifths of all the students,
and over one-half of the Faculty,—was in so advanced
a stage of training as to allow of its being divided into
regular companies, under the command of those of the
young men who had been drilled in military schools or
in the National Guard. Before three weeks had passed,
these companies were able to go through the manoeuvres
without a hitch, and even without an appearance of
serious awkwardness. By April 19, about eight hundred
students had been enrolled. They came upon the
field in all sorts of dress,—golf costumes, tennis suits,
summer flannels, military school uniforms, and Plattsburg
khaki. Colonel Cole lectured once a week on
military science. This course, however, was optional.
A special committee, appointed by the University
Council on National Service, submitted a report which
laid down the general policy to be pursued by the institution
so long as the war should last: (1) all the resources,
in the way of men and equipment, which it
possessed, should be put at the disposal of the National
Government; (2) its regular functions and activities
should not be interrupted; (3) the students under twenty-one
years of age,—who were not eligible to commissions
in the Federal Military and Naval forces,—
should continue in their classes at the University of
Virginia, and if physically fit, prepare themselves for
the front by acquiring the military training offered on
the campus; (4) the departments of engineering and
medicine, and the hospital also, should be used for the
national benefit; (5) all college athletics should be suspended;
and (6) leave of absence should be granted to
all members of the Faculty and officers of administration
whose offer of their services should be accepted
by the government at Washington.
By the end of the session of 1916–17, when the
United States had been involved in the war only during
two months, about three hundred and thirty-four
alumni of the University of Virginia were taking an
active part in the hostilities, in one way or another.
Sixty-eight of these were enrolled in the ambulance
unit, and the remainder in the other military sections.
Seven hundred and eighty-four students and twenty-four
professors were registered in the Reserve Officers' Training
Corps, while about forty-six of the graduates were
stationed in the widely dispersed camps.
Before the session of 1917–18 began, there was organized
an impressive series of new college studies for
the benefit of the matriculates who expected ultimately
to enter the Federal service. They embraced meteorology,
oceanography, elements of electrical engineering,
telephony, telegraphy and signaling, navigation, field
astronomy, automobiles, timber characteristics and uses,
practical Spanish, political geography, photography,
international law and diplomacy, engineering, geology,
plane surveying, topographical drawing and military
service and tactics. Professors Rodman, Mitchell,
Hancock, Newcomb, and Colonel Cole were the instructors
in these varied courses.
