Calvin Talmadge Faircloth Served on the Homefront in WW1
Brief military history of my great-grandfather
Born 4 October 1889 in North Carolina, Calvin is the only Faircloth of his generation to move north, specifically to Minnesota. He made the move sometime between 1910-1917. It’s not clear what drove that decision, but in February 1918 he registered for the war and had noted that he’d already served a year in the Minnesota National Guard as a Corporal, having enlisted April 6, 1917.
He was enlisted in Supply Company, 1st Infantry which later became Company “D” 135th Infantry. He was discharged January 16, 1918. During his time as the MN National Guard, he most likely went to Camp Cody in Southern New Mexico for training.
On May 4, 1918, he was officially enlisted in the United States Guard (USG) as part of Company “B” USG, 35th Battalion where he served until December 26, 1919. He was a Sergeant. The war fostered influenza and it wasn’t long before there was a national Influenza Pandemic. In fact, influenza and pneumonia killed more American soldiers and sailors during the war than did enemy weapons. (Read about how my other great-grandfather dealt with the influenza pandemic while training at Camp Dodge in Iowa.) As part of the USG, Calvin may have been involved in efforts to control the spread and help treat the ill (helping transport and set up facilities.)
Eventually, Minnesotan soldiers were reassigned and sent to France as individual replacement troops while the division was reorganized and filled with new draftees from the southwest. It’s not clear if Calvin served overseas.
Source: https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/minnesota-in-ww1.html
Super interesting facts!
Hi. Great article. I'm not sure if you (or your readers) know about these resources, but they will help you reconstruct Calvin's service. There are still payroll records at NPRC and if his service file didn't burn, that is available but FamilySearch and Ancestry have a few databases that will help.
First, it doesn't appear Calvin went overseas. He was only in the Army from May - December 1918 according to the VA Index. You can search for and download his VA Card here: https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2968245
Second, further evidence he didn't go overseas can be found in the Ancestry database U.S., Army Transport Service Arriving and Departing Passenger Lists, 1910-1939. All service members who went overseas will show up twice in these manifests. Once going over and once coming back. Even if they died in service overseas, their name will be listed on the manifest for the funeral ship which repatriated their remains.
To reconstruct his service, FamilySearch has Muster Rolls available https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/3346936. These were created monthly or by a 2-month period.
Just search for Calvin and download the docs where he appears. Be sure to also look at the thumbnail view of all the images and download the first page or two of each month/bi-monthly page where he appears so you keep the unit and date of that specific report together.
Using these three resources to begin with, you can reconstruct any Army soldier's service from roughly 1917 - 1939. If you need other tips on WWI/WWII research - you can visit my website https://wwiirwc.com. Lots of information there. Also - Internet Archive may have unit histories available which will provide more contextual details, maybe have another photo of Calvin or list his name.
Good luck with learning more about his service.