OcmulgeeNational Monument
1207 Emery Highway
Macon, Georgia 31217-4999
(478) 752-8257
CAMPWHEELER
WORLD WAR I
During World War One a representative of the city of Macon by the name of Harry Stillwell Edwards, traveled to New York to meet with General Leonard Wood. General Wood was in charge of selecting a site for a new military training facility and Edwards hoped to convince the general to choose Macon. General Wood agreed to the southern location and in May 1917 picked a farm named Holly Bluff on which to build the training grounds. The camp would be named after Joseph Wheeler, an 1859 graduate of West point and native of Augusta, Georgia. Wheeler had the distinction of serving as a Lt. General in the Confederate Army and later as a Major General in the U.S. Army. He also became a member of Congress. Construction began in July of 1917 and by June of 1919 covered about 21,480 acres and cost $4,000,000.
Wheeler served as a temporary training camp for the 31st division (N.G.), JOSEPH WHEELER
known as the “Dixie Division.” Troops slept in tents set up on wooden platforms. Approximately 83,000 troops were trained at the camp during the war, with a peak capacity of 43,000 (though it appears it never operated at that level.) Life would not have been easy in camp, particularly during the deadly measles and influenza outbreak of 1917 and 1918 that swept the country.
The camp closed in December 1919. The following April the government sold the buildings for lumber. Twelve hundred horses and mules also changed ownership leaving the military service for civilian work. However, their military background re-emerged whenever the animals were near enough to CampHarris to hear the bugle calls.
WORLD WAR II
In 1940, with war waging in Europe, America began increase its military preparedness. On October 12, 1940, Congressman Carl Vinson's office announced that CampWheeler would be rebuilt and would again serve as a training camp. The first commander was Colonel A. R. Emery for whom Emery Highway was later named.
Although nearly one-third smaller in area than the World War I
WORLD WAR I LIVING QUARTERS facility, the construction was to be far more substantial. Instead of wooden floors and tents the army built steel reinforced concrete foundations topped with wooden buildings. Many of the men working on the huge Great Depression-era archeological projects at nearby OcmulgeeNational Monument were reassigned to the rehabilitation of CampWheeler. The total cost of construction was reported to be $13,550,485.
The camp included housing for a variety of groups including 24,603 enlisted men, 1,290 officers, and approximately 500 members of the Women’s Army Corps. Construction also included facilities to contain approximately two thousand prisoners of war. Of the twenty-four branch camps for POWs in Georgia, eight were located in the central Georgia area under the auspices of CampWheeler. At one time, around 4,700 prisoners were stationed at CampWheeler and its branch camps. At the height of the operation, there were regular Wheeler branch camps at Monticello, Ashburn, Waynesboro, Daniels Field, and Dublin. Seasonal work camps were established at Griffin, Sandersville, Fitzgerald, and Hawkinsville. Some prisoners worked as mechanics, typewriter experts, and tailors, but most worked as laborers in the sawmill or farm areas. They accrued wages at an average rate of eighty cents per day.
CampWheeler was built as an infantry replacement center, requiring that troops be trained in multiple types of small arms used by the military at the time. With this knowledge the troops could be sent anywhere the Army needed men. As the war progressed, the types of infantry weapons and tactics increased, leading to an extension of the training period from 13 weeks to 17 weeks, and the expansion of the firing ranges from twelve in 1940 to thirty-five by 1945. The ranges were reported to be some of the finest available to the Army during the war. In the nearly five years of operation, 217,878 soldiers were trained on those ranges, expending literally tons of munitions on the average every day. Rifle bullets and mortar bombs can still be found in some impact areas over fifty years later.
CampWheeler's importance to America's war effort can, perhaps, best be proved by the fact that in 1942 German spies confessed that CampWheeler was one facility they had concentrated on before their capture.
On December 15, 1945, the last graduation parade was held with Pvt. Edward A. Winarski of Baltimore, MD, being the last graduate. The camp was officially closed January 19, 1946.