The 31st Chemical Brigade is an Army National Guard CBRN brigade. The brigade was reduced in size from a division in 1973 when it became the headquarters of the 31st Armored Brigade. The brigade traces its lineage back to the 31st Infantry Division ("Dixie"), active almost continuously from 1917 to 1968. It was made up of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Mississippi personnel at various points in its existence. The division saw battle in both World War I and World War II. It was mobilized during the Korean War but not sent overseas.
Organized in 1917 during World War I from the national guardsmen of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, the division deployed to France in September 1918, arriving weeks before the Armistice of 11 November that ended the war. In France, it was reduced to a cadre and most of its troops used to provide replacements for units already in France. It returned to the United States in December and was demobilized in January 1919.
The 31st was reorganized in 1923 with national guardsmen from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. It was mobilized in 1940 during World War II, and spent several years training in the United States. In 1944 it was sent to the South-West Pacific Area, fighting in the New Guinea campaign and in the Battle of Mindanao. After the end of the war the division was demobilized in December 1945.
In 1946, the 31st was reactivated with Alabama and Mississippi units. Mobilized during the Korean War, the division served stateside at Camp Atterbury and Camp Carson. The 31st was demobilized in 1954 and reorganized in Alabama and Mississippi. During the height of the Civil rights movement, Mississippi elements of the division were called up to restore order during the Ole Miss riot of 1962, while Alabama elements were Federalized to ensure school integration during 1963 and to keep order during the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965. In 1968 the division was eliminated, with its units becoming part of the 30th Armored Division.
History World War I
Organization and training According to the 5 May 1917 organization plan of National Guard divisions, selected units from Alabama, Florida, and Georgia were to form the 10th Division, though it was not organized at the time. On 18 July, the War Department designated National Guard troops of these three states to form the 31st Division. For training, the division was directed to concentrate at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, on 3 August; the Alabama, Florida, and Georgia National Guards were drafted into federal service two days later. However, the units that were to form the 31st did not begin concentration until 25 August, when Major General Francis Joseph Kernan took command. Kernan was replaced by 56th Field Artillery Brigade commander Brigadier General John Louis Hayden, the senior brigade commander, on 18 September.
The division included the 61st and 62nd Infantry Brigades and the 56th Field Artillery Brigade by the end of the concentration period. The 61st included the 5th Georgia Infantry, separate Georgia infantry companies, and detachments of the 1st and 2nd Georgia and 1st Florida Regiments of Infantry; the 62nd included the 1st Alabama and 2nd Florida Infantry, and detachments of the 1st Florida and 1st Georgia Regiments of Infantry and of the 1st Alabama Cavalry; the 56th included detachments of the Georgia Field Artillery, the 1st Florida, 1st Georgia, and 2nd Alabama Regiments of Infantry, and of the 1st Alabama Cavalry.
On 1 September, the 31st was reorganized in accordance with the tables of organization of 8 August, which called for a square division with four infantry regiments. As a result, the 61st Brigade included the 121st and 122nd Infantry with the 117th Machine Gun Battalion, the 62nd included the 123rd and 124th Infantry with the 118th Machine Gun Battalion, and the 56th included the 116th, 117th, and 118th Field Artillery Regiments with the 106th Trench Mortar Battery. During October, the division was reinforced with 10,000 Selective Service draftees from Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, transferred from Camp Gordon, Georgia, Camp Jackson, South Carolina, and Camp Pike, Arkansas, as it began systematic training on 22 October. On 15 March 1918, Major General Francis H. French became division commander; he was replaced by Major General LeRoy Springs Lyon two months later.
However, from November 1917 to June 1918, the 31st transferred or otherwise lost almost all of its infantry privates and about half of its artillery privates, including 4,300 who were sent to Camp Merritt, New Jersey, in June for shipment overseas as replacements. In June, 9,200 men from Michigan and Illinois were transferred to the division, followed by 5,700 more from Illinois in July. By 21 July, the division fielded 24,000 men, with its officers mostly from the Organized Reserve Corps and the National Army. The 56th Field Artillery Brigade left to train at Camp Jackson on 24 July, while the 2nd Battalion, 122nd Infantry relocated to Camp Greene, North Carolina, on 20 August. During the latter month, 2,000 men, including 1,200 from Camp Travis, Texas, joined the 31st. On 28 September, the 61st Infantry Brigade commander, Brigadier General Walter Alexander Harris, took command of the division, leading it until 14 November.
Overseas deployment and demobilization
The division began its overseas movement in September, relocating via Camp Mills to the Brooklyn, Hoboken, and New York Ports of Embarkation. The 106th Engineers and Train were the first to depart from New York on 16 September, arriving in Scotland on 29 September. On the latter date, the Advance Detachment of the division sailed from Hoboken, arriving at Brest on 7 October. The division headquarters (aboard the USS Orizaba), most of the infantry, the 106th Field Signal Battalion, and the 106th Train Headquarters and Military Police sailed between 30 September and 11 October. They landed at Brest between 13 and 21 October, except for the 117th and 118th Machine Gun Battalions and the 106th Train Headquarters and Military Police, which arrived in England on 17 October. The 56th Field Artillery Brigade sailed with the remaining infantry and trains between 14 and 28 October, and landed at Brest between 25 October and 9 November, except for the 124th Infantry, which landed in England on 24 October. The troops in England spent a brief period in rest camps, then moved to Brest through Cherbourg and Le Havre.
For duty with the Services of Supply, the 106th Engineers, without Train, relocated from Le Havre to Brest on 4 October. Once in France, the 31st was planned to become the seventh depot division, a cadre formation responsible for processing replacements and forwarding them to frontline units. As six depot divisions were already operating, the American Expeditionary Forces' Chief of Staff did not believe that a seventh depot division was necessary, and on 17 October the 31st Division was instead ordered skeletonized. Two days later, the division headquarters, both infantry brigades, the 116th Machine Gun Battalion, 106th Supply Train, and 106th Train Headquarters and Military Police moved to Le Mans, with some units relocating through the Loches area, while the remaining units were detached from the division when they arrived at Brest. On 29 October, the division was ordered to be further reduced to a record cadre numbering 10 officers and 102 men, although the 56th Field Artillery Brigade was detached to Camp Coëtquidan for training. The 106th Trench Mortar Battery of the brigade relocated to Vitrey on 4 November, preceded by the 106th Field Signal Battalion, which left for the Signal Corps Replacement Depot at Cour-Cheverny on 30 October.
The division headquarters, both infantry brigades, the 116th Machine Gun Battalion, and 106th Train Headquarters and Military Police were skeletonized early in November. Most of the personnel were transferred to the 2nd Depot Division for processing and reassignment as replacements. The 106th Sanitary Train, which had remained at Brest, relocated to Camp de Souge on 25 November, and thence to the American Embarkation Center at Le Mans in December, where it was skeletonized. On 27 November, the record cadre and 56th Field Artillery Brigade (without the 106th Trench Mortar Battery) moved to Brest, from which they sailed aboard the USS Manchuria between 9 and 10 December. After arriving at Camp Merritt on 20 December, they moved to Camp Gordon on 1 January 1919, where the record cadre and 56th Brigade demobilized on 14 January.
Elements of the division remained in France for several months longer, however. The 106th Supply Train relocated to Camp de Souge on 29 November. The 106th Trench Mortar Battery and part of the 106th Sanitary Train sailed on 2 and 15 January, respectively. The 106th Field Signal Battalion departed Bordeaux on 18 April, and the last units of the division overseas, the 106th Engineers and 106th Supply Train, returned to the United States on 5 July.
Interwar period Under the National Defense Act of 1920, the 39th Division was allotted to Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, part of IV Corps, in 1921. On 1 July 1923 it was reorganized, less the Arkansas units, and renamed the 31st Division, following the recommendations of a joint board of Regular and Guard officers, due to its allocation to states which raised the 31st Division in World War I. In August 1924, the division, except for the 124th Infantry, conducted squad and platoon level training at Camp McClellan, its designated mobilization training center, due to its troops being relatively inexperienced. Its headquarters was organized and Federally recognized on 15 October of that year, stationed at St. Augustine, Florida, under the command of Major General Albert H. Blanding of Florida. During the interwar period, the division was organized in accordance with a square organization similar to its World War I structure, although medical and quartermaster regiments and a separate headquarters for special troops (the division headquarters, ordnance, signal, and light tank companies) were added and the division artillery initially lacked a 155 mm howitzer regiment.
The 141st Field Artillery (75 mm) was initially assigned to the states of Louisiana and Alabama, but was reorganized in 1926 when the Louisiana elements were reorganized as the 167th Separate Battalion, Field Artillery (Horse) and assigned to the 23rd Cavalry Division. The regiment, by this time an all-Alabama unit, was redesignated the 117th Field Artillery in 1927, taking the designation of a partially Alabama-organized unit that had served with the 31st Division in World War I. In 1932-1933, the 114th Field Artillery (155 mm howitzer) was organized in Mississippi and assigned to the division.
During the interwar period, the division did not train together in most years, as separate summer camps were held for the units of each state. Florida units trained at Camp J. Clifford R. Foster, Alabama units at Camp McClellan, Mississippi units at Camp Shelby, and Louisiana and sometimes Mississippi units at Camp Beauregard. The division staff, which included men from all four states, conducted joint summer training at Camp McClellan between 1924 and 1926 and 1929 and 1931, Camp Beauregard in 1927, Camp Foster in 1928, and Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, in addition to participation in multiple corps area and army command post exercises, including the September 1936 Third Army command post exercise at San Antonio. On 4 March 1933, the divisional headquarters was relocated to Bartow, Florida.