74th REGIMENT
COAST ARTILLERY CORPS
COAST ARTILLERY CORPS
The 74th Artillery was organized in June of 1918 at Ft. Schuyler, New York. In September of that year they moved to Camp Upton, New York for final preparations before sailing orders. In September 1918 those orders to go to France came and the regiment moved from Camp Upton to the Port of Embarkation Hoboken, New Jersey. There the regiment boarded the transport USS President Grant. The voyage over was a costly one as 137 men died of the flu. The Regiment went to O&T Center No. 6 at Mailly and Haussimont, France. This was the training camp for the US Army's Railway Artillery. The 74th Artillery was one regiment of the 40th Artillery Brigade. The other two sister Regiments were the 73rd Artillery and the 75th Artillery.
The 74th Artillery was to be assigned to Railway Artillery and most likely would have had the 400mm or the 340mm railway guns. Their training had not yet finished when the armistice was signed. They did not see any action while in France. On the 14th of December, 1918 the 74th Artillery had orders to move out for the trip back home. That day they sailed from Brest, France aboard the transport USS Mongolia along with it sister regiment the 73rd Artillery. On December 22, 1918 they reached New York and on the 23 went ashore and went to Camp Mills, New York for a short stay and then moved to Ft. Totten, New York. In January of 1919 the 74th Artillery was demobilized and ceased to exist.
Pvt. 1cl Chamberlain, 1st Battalion, Battery A
Submitted by the daughter of Pvt. 1cl Chamberlain, Ann Chamberlain Terhune, Lexington, Kentucky. "I got interested in his WWI time when I started looking for information on the brass shell he brought back from France. It had been turned into a vase which I know is called trench art."
My father, Leo Martin Chamberlain, was a soldier with the 74th Railway Artillery Regiment, Battery A, C.A.C., 40th Brigade. I have several postcards he must have bought on the ship home form France. He was a Pvt. 1st class.
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Pvt. 1cl Leo Martin Chamberlain in uniform back home after the war. He was from Chalmers, Indiana. He was born Dec. 27, 1896. After high school he went to Normal School which gave him a teaching certificate, He taught school before joining the Army. After the war he taught school for a while, then went to Indiana University where he got his Bachelors, Masters and PHD degrees. The rest of his working life was spent at the University of Kentucky where he became vice-president. He died in 1968. He was 44 when I (Ann Chamberlain Terhune) was born in 1941.
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| Pvt. 1cl Leo Martin Chamberlain. Ann Relates this of her father: "I remember him telling me that he was on one of the first ships back from France and the men received a heroes welcome. He said he always felt bad about this since the men who should have received this welcome were still in France. His group never got into the fight. He loved to tell about November 11th. His Battery was called out and everyone thought it was their turn to get into the fight when the Captain said five words they would never forget, "Gentlemen, the war is over." The Captain then told them they were going to take a little march. (To keep them out of trouble I'm sure.) They marched through all the little French towns nearby and were treated like heroes. Lots of hugging and kissing, food and wine. He was asked to go to Officers Candidate School but turned it down to ship out to France with his group." |
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| Above is a Liberty Pass. It states that Pvt. Chamberlain of Battery A has permission to visit Brest, France between 9 am and 5:30 pm on December 5th, 1918. It has the official stamp of the 74th Artillery and is signed by the commander of Battery A, Robert A. Chamfelt. It was approved by Lt. Col. Cooper and 1st Lt. Cedric B. Smith Asst. Adjutant, 74th Artillery. At that time the Regiment was stationed at Camp Pontanszen in Brest, France. This was one of the largest Camps that the American army used both for embarking and debarking soldiers. |
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| A view aboard the USS President Grant. You can see at least 16 wooden coffins containing some of the 137 men who died on the trip over. The other taller wooden crates visible in the background of this photo are actually wooden life rafts that would be thrown over in case of a sinking. Not much protection from the cruel sea but they did float. |
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A photo of a French Naval gun used by the American Army. This looks to be like that of the 400mm railway gun type. This photo was most likely taken at O&T Center (Operations and Training) No. 6 in Mailly and Haussimont, France.
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This is a photo of the aft gun aboard the USS Mongolia. It was James Goodwin of Edenton, North Carolina a gunner's mate aboard the Mongolia who took the first official hostile action against Germany after the U.S. entered the war and was credited with sinking a German submarine.
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| December at sea in the cold Atlantic. This is a view of the troops aboard the Mongolia on the return trip from France. Again note the many wooden crates. These are box type life rafts that would be used to throw over and be lashed together for the men to climb on and hopefully save them from the cruel icy waters of the Atlantic. |
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Again another view of the return voyage on the Mongolia 14 December - 22 December 1918
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The Mongolia in her war time dazzle paint. This was done to help confuse and camouflage the ship from the peering eyes of the German U-boats Commanders. It is unknown how many lives this may have saved.
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3rd Battalion Commander
Above is the officers identity card and uniform ribbons to Captain R. J. VanBuskirk, who was commander of the 3rd Battalion, 74th Artillery.
This page is owned by Joe Hartwell, was created on 27 May, 2001 and last modified on
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