American involvement in World War I had a big impact on South Carolina

During World War I, six members of the S.C. National Guard’s 118th Regiment received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor in combat.

Upon their return in 1920 at the height of the Prohibition era – when the sale of liquor was generally banned – the four surviving members were able to purchase a bottle of medicinal whiskey because of their medals. The intent was for the last man living among the six to drink the whiskey in honor of the others.

That privilege went to James C. Dozier, who had attained the rank of lieutenant general and served as the state’s adjutant general for 33 years.

But Dozier didn’t drink it. Instead, he gave it to his granddaughter Tibby Dozier Steedly, who served as a long-time administrative assistant to South Carolina historian Walter Edgar.

“He was my grandfather and I loved him with all my heart,” she wrote from her home in Brevard, North Carolina.

Steedly decided to give the bottle to Edgar.

“Walter had such a respect for military history and also had a family connection with us, he should have it,” Steedly said. “It was an honor we wanted to pass on to him.”

Edgar said he wants to preserve the bottle for posterity as a legacy of the state’s contributions to World War I.

“I love it and I cherish it, and I’ve already instructed my daughters that when the time comes, it should go to another member of the United States Army,” said Edgar, a Vietnam War veteran and former director of the University of South Carolina’s Institute of Southern Studies.

Thursday marks the 100th anniversary of America’s entrance into World War I. On April 6, 1917, the U.S. House voted 373 to 50 to declare war on Germany, joining England and France as allies. Two days earlier, the Senate voted 82-6 in favor of war.

The war impacted South Carolina in several ways. Here’s a look at five of them.

Politics

Like much of America, South Carolina was divided in its support of American intervention in World War I.

Many Americans were isolationists, opposed to becoming entangled in European wars. Chief among them was President Woodrow Wilson, who grew up in Columbia and in Augusta, Ga. He had pledged to keep America out of the war, but was obliged to seek a war declaration on Germany after the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917.

In Lexington, Newberry, Orangeburg and Charleston counties, there was strong opposition to the war in the German and Irish-American communities, Edgar wrote in his “South Carolina: A History.”

“Germans weren’t happy with the image of the brutal Hun,” he said Monday. “Before we entered the war, we had pro-German rallies and pro-Allied rallies, sometimes going on the same day in different parts of the state.”

As for the Irish in Charleston, “they didn’t want to help the English,” Edgar said.

At the time, Ireland was on the brink of its own war of independence with Great Britain.

Charleston Mayor John P. Grace, of Irish descent and the publisher of the Charleston American newspaper, was vehemently opposed to the war. His newspapers were briefly banned from the U.S. mail because of their anti-Allied editorials, Edgar said.

Despite his stance, Grace was re-elected to office in 1919, but was defeated in 1923.

Former South Carolina Gov. Coleman Blease was also anti-war and was spiteful of his successor, Richard Irving Manning III, for his support of the war.

“He had a very famous quote,” Edgar said. “’Dick Manning is the worst governor the state ever had, worse than Scott, Chamberlain or Moses (referring to Reconstruction governors), because they only stole money and he is trying to steal the souls and bodies of your boys.’"

Fort Jackson

Fort Jackson was one of three Army training centers that opened in South Carolina during the war, along with Camp Sevier in Greenville and Camp Wadsworth in Spartanburg.

“And obviously training was stepped up at Parris Island and the Charleston navy yard got real busy,” Edgar said.

Initially called Camp Jackson, the fort opened in Columbia after the Columbia Chamber convinced the Army to open an Army training base in the Midlands. Columbia’s selection was announced on May 19, 1917, and the first draftees arrived on Sept. 5. In just six months, 1,519 buildings were constructed at the camp, including theaters, stores, barracks, training facilities, stables and garages, according to a history of the fort.

Fort Jackson is in the middle of a year-long celebration of its centennial that culminates during the first week of June.

Prior to the ramped up federal presence in South Carolina, “Charleston and Columbia had red light districts (where prostitution and sex-related businesses were widespread). The federal government forced both cities to shut them down,” Edgar said.

The move caused Columbia officials to change the name of Gates Street, the area in what is now the Vista that was home to the red light district, to Park Street. That’s because when Elmwood Park was developed, the Victorian ladies who lived there didn’t want to live on Gates Street.

The military

Patriotic fervor motivated more than 300,000 South Carolinians – both black and white – to sign up for the draft. About 52,000 of those were actually drafted.

Eight South Carolinans – including the six from the National Guard’s 118th Regiment – received the Medal of Honor, a remarkable achievement considering only 78 of the decorations were awarded nationally for service in World War I.

One of those recipients, Corp. Freddie Stowers, an African American from Sandy Springs in Anderson County, received his decoration from President George H.W. Bush on April 24, 1991 – 73 years after he was killed-in-action.

Many white South Carolinians were members of the 81st Infantry Division, called the Wildcat division, which saw action in Europe during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

The 371st Infantry Regiment, comprised of African-Americans, also trained at Camp Jackson and were part of the 93rd Infantry Division. On arrival in France, this unit was transferred to French command, where it received the Croix de Guerre and the Order of Légion d'Honneur medals. Stowers was a member of the regiment's 1st Battalion.

Also, the South Carolina National Guard was called into federal service along with units from North Carolina and Tennessee. They trained at Camp Sevier in Greenville and served as part of the 30th Infantry Division (Old Hickory Division), and fought at Verdun, Metz, Ypres, and the Hindenburg Line.

The economy

South Carolina’s economy, which had been devastated by the Civil War, still hadn’t recovered by the beginning of the century. But the advent of World War I was an economic boon to the Palmetto State, Edgar said.

The price of cotton – a major South Carolina crop – soared because of the need for uniforms, tents and other textile gear.

Prices began to rise in 1915 as worldwide demand began to increase. Then prices for South Carolina cotton soared when America entered the war in 1917.

Edgar wrote that the wealth was spread to all sectors of the economy, from major planters down to the most lowly sharecropper.

“And for the first time, tenants and sharecroppers had real disposable income and engaged ‘in a perfect orgy of spending’ on machinery, barns, housing and consumer products,” Edgar wrote, quoting a Works Progress Administration history.

In the spring of 1920, prices reached 40 cents a pound. But that soon came crashing down.

The war ended “and all of those economic perks went down,” Edgar said Monday.

The price of cotton dropped to 13.5 cents by the end of 1921. Activity at the state’s training and military bases also shut down or was drastically cut back, and the boom was over.

“As a result, South Carolina entered the Great Depression a decade before the rest of the country,” Edgar said.

Race relations

Black soldiers returning from World War I thought that they had earned the right to be first class citizens because of their service and the blood they shed on the battlefield.

After all, “they had made the world safe for democracy,” Edgar said. “It didn't happen.”

Bitter, many black former service members banded together to protest segregation and repressive voting laws and to demand better schools and representation on school boards.

“There were even race riots,” Edgar said. “We like to think this is South Carolina and that doesn’t happen here. But it did. There was a big one in Charleston (in May of) 1919.”

In his history, Edgar noted that Congressman James F. Byrnes echoed the sentiments of most white South Carolinians when he said: “The war in no way changed the attitude of the of the white man toward toward the social and political equality of the negro.”

Influential blacks, many of them World War I veterans, would eventually band together to form what would become the NAACP become the backbone of the civil rights movement, Edgar said.

This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 4:33 PM with the headline "American involvement in World War I had a big impact on South Carolina."