Camp MacArthur Scrapbook
Camp MacArthur, named for Lt. General Arthur MacArthur Jr., Medal of Honor Recipient in the Civil War, was a military camp that was constructed on the shores of Lake Waco in Waco, Texas in 1917. The camp was designed to support the preparation of troops being sent to fight in Europe in World War I, and their relocation or demobilization when they returned from the fighting. Within the confines of the camp were administration offices, parade grounds, and a tent city that included wooden buildings for a base hospital, barns, supply warehouses, recreational facilities and mess halls. The camp also had the Red Cross Convalescent House where soldiers recovered from wounds, illnesses, and the effects of the Spanish Influenza outbreak that ultimately claimed the lives of over 20 percent of the soldiers who were afflicted. Camp MacArthur was located immediately adjacent to the already existing Rich Field Army Air Base. From September 1917 to March 1919, when the camp closed, more than 80,000 soldiers moved through the facilities, many of them from Wisconsin and Michigan with the 32nd Infantry Division of the National Guard, and from Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and New Mexico.
The Memories from Camp MacArthur, Waco, TX Scrapbook was created by Nurse Linda Cornelia Baker who provided care for the soldiers at the base hospital and the Red Cross Convalescent House. Ms. Baker, a descendant of one of the oldest families in Chicopee, was born on October 11, 1883. She lived her entire life in the Willimansett section of Chicopee, with the exception of her training to become a nurse, and the time she spent at Camp MacArthur. After World War I, Ms. Baker returned to Chicopee where she served her community as a “visiting nurse” specializing in communicable diseases with the Chicopee Board of Health until her retirement in 1953. She died on April 8, 1982 at the age of 98. Photographs in the collection cover the period of time she spent at Camp MacArthur, from March 1918 through the end of World War I.
Lt. General Arthur MacArthur Jr., was born in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts on June 2, 1845. At the outbreak of the Civil War, MacArthur was living in Wisconsin. On August 4, 1862, at the age of 17, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant and appointed as adjutant of the 24th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, seeing action at Chickamauga, Stones River, Chattanooga and the Atlanta Campaign. At the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863, during the Chattanooga Campaign, the 18-year-old MacArthur inspired his regiment by seizing and planting the regimental flag on the crest of Missionary Ridge at a particularly critical moment in the fighting. For these actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. There is a Lt. General Arthur MacArthur Civil War Monument in Chicopee located on the intersection of Church Street and Broadway. Arthur’s son, General Douglas MacArthur, was a five-star General and played a prominent role in the Pacific Theater of World War II. He was also a Medal of Honor recipient for his service in the Philippines campaign during WWII. Arthur MacArthur Jr. and Douglas MacArthur were the first father and son to both be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Credits: Charles Abel and Cheryl McNeill Schwab