Did You Know?: Battery B
February 7,2014
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A photo from Purdue University Archives and Special Collections shows a train car that carried Battery B equipment to Texas in 1916. Purdue's Battery B, a precursor to the ROTC program, were sent to Texas to secure the border against Mexican revolutionaries. (Photo courtesy of Purdue University Archives and Special Collections) |
In the summer of 1916, members of Purdue's Battery B, a precursor to the ROTC program, were sent to Texas to secure the border against Mexican revolutionaries.
Established in November 1914 as a part of federally established artillery batteries at state universities, Battery B was a unit in the Indiana National Guard. Traditionally, students and staff at Purdue assumed that student membership in the battery was terminated after graduation. Due to the unit’s affiliation with the National Guard, however, student members unknowingly remained a part of the National Guard. As a result, Purdue graduates were called to serve in the Indiana National Guard in 1916, although it appears that they were later relieved of duty.
Early in 1916, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa’s rebel army attacked Columbus, N.M., prompting a defensive response by President Woodrow Wilson. That summer, the president called members of the National Guard to secure the Texas-Mexico border against the Mexican rebels. Purdue’s Battery B was the best-trained artillery unit in Indiana at the time, and much to the surprise of the members, was called to Texas in May. Of the 163 men in the unit, all but three were students. Units from other land-grant colleges also were called to duty.
Due to a fire in the Purdue armory three months before the unit's departure for Texas, weapons were issued to Battery B at Fort Benjamin Harrison and were relatively new. Although they saw no action, members of the unit built encampments on the Texas-Mexico border, where they were stationed for three months. In their wool uniforms, they were poorly equipped for the dry summer heat, making the experience miserable for many.
As September approached and classes at Purdue began, members of Battery B wrote to Wilson, explaining that they were students and were worried about missing classes. In response to their letters, the president defederalized the unit from Purdue, allowing the students to return to school, missing only one week of classes.
In 1967, a 50th anniversary reunion for the surviving members of Battery B was held at Purdue Memorial Union. Seventeen members attended and were photographed beside the flag they carried with them to Texas in 1916. The flag was given to Purdue in May 1919 and encased in Purdue Memorial Union in 1941. Today, the flag is displayed in the Great Hall of the Union near the front entrance.
David Hovde, associate professor of library science, is currently conducting research on Battery B and intends to publish a paper on the unit.
Writer: Hannah Harper, harper4@purdue.edu