Just added to Etsy - Custer Memories 214th Field Signal Battalion, Camp Custer Michigan (1918) www.etsy.com/listing/4318... #CampCuster #Michigan #Antique #Etsy

Please see the rest of this thread in Part Two! #CampCuster #SpanishFlu

#ArmedForces #twitterstorians #MichiganHistory #USArmy #SpanishFlu #CampCuster #FortCuster #1918flu #FollowTheFlu #SpanishFlu1918 #Influenza #WWI #pandemic

This @USNatArchives photograph of a funeral at #CampCuster is dated 1918. One would assume this is not an image related to the #SpanishFlu epidemic--no one wears masks. Base hospital at the left. /31

#CampCuster’s epidemic was officially over on November 3. According to the Division Surgeon’s report, the camp counted 11,626 #SpanishFlu cases (29% of camp population), 2,437 of which were complicated by pneumonia, with a mortality of 27.8%--669 deaths, included 3 nurses. /30

Crowding also was thought a cause, Billings stated: “due to a series of lectures on venereal diseases just about the time the epidemic appeared, gave opportunity for the wide dissemination of the contagion.” #SpanishFlu #CampCuster /29

Billings also noted that men with less than two months’ military service were infected at a higher rate. He ascribed these men’s susceptibility to being “unfit”; they would have been “weeded out” during basic training. #CampCuster #SpanishFlu /28

Billings: #SpanishFlu at #CampCuster spread in several ways: 3 details totaling 235 men, 41st Field Artillery—the hardest hit—were sent to Base Hospital Annex for “night work” Oct. 5-7, resulting in a great increase in cases (images: l-@librarycongress; r-@USNatArchives). /27

#SpanishFlu symptoms (Billings): “marked prostration, almost comatose somnolence, dull expression, flushed and often cyanotic face, relative absence of cough, and marked congestion of the mucous membranes, congested eyes, red throat, hemoptysis and epistaxis.” #CampCuster /25

In post-war reports, the consensus was that “true influenza” began on September 27, the cases being “of a very different and more severe type” than those before that date. #SpanishFlu #CampCuster /24

Many #SpanishFlu quarantine restrictions were raised on October 22 at #CampCuster, though communication with the outside world remained cut off. Despite quarantine, new barracks were made ready to occupy on October 23. The playhouse reopened the next night. Morale lifted. /23

The automobile speeding fines collected by Detroit Judge Sellers’ court on October 11--$994--were donated to the National League for Woman’s Service to purchase cigarettes and other comforts for #CampCuster soldiers. #SpanishFlu /22

#CampCuster library, run by @ALALibrary, provided reading matter to hospitalized soldiers; books burned afterwards. Magazines such “Judge” and “Life” were donated (images @USNatArchives). Camp also quickly “overrun” w/donated pillows, pillowcases, & handkerchiefs. #SpanishFlu /21

By October 10, deaths by pneumonia overtook deaths by #SpanishFlu at #CampCuster. Gossip of German infiltrators in Battle Creek spreading germs abounded. /20

By October 6, #CampCuster had 5,500 #SpanishFlu cases, including Lt. Col. S. S. Creighton, division surgeon, and Lt. Col. Ernest E. Irons, base hospital head. Two days later the total number of victims dropped. Medicos believed the crest had passed. 94 deaths so far. /18

In a week’s time, Battle Creek women made 25,000 face masks for #CampCuster soldiers, staff & #SpanishFlu victims. In the epidemic’s first 2 weeks, @RedCross women drivers ferried nurses, doctors, and relatives (1,222 passengers) as well as running errands and telegrams. /17

With strict quarantine in place at #CampCuster, smokers suffered nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Mrs. V. M. Heister, a captain in the National League for Women’s Service, received a request for cigarettes and asked women in Detroit to contribute them. #SpanishFlu /16

The nurses were needed. On Oct. 3, 1,010 new #SpanishFlu cases were reported. #CampCuster commander Brig. Gen. Howard L. Laubauch requisitioned 13 carloads of woolen clothing & blankets by sending 2 quartermaster officers to Chicago rather than use telegraph or telephone. /15

.@RedCross called for more nurses to serve at #CampCuster on Oct. 3. Detroit had provided 30 young women but 6 more were needed to fill the quota to fight the #SpanishFlu there. Battle Creek had already sent 25 nurses. Women were arriving from all over Michigan. /14

Oct. 2: newspapers reported the number of #SpanishFlu cases at #CampCuster at “nearly 2000”; “from 7 o’clock Monday until 7 o’clock Tuesday there were 804 admissions to the base hospital from this cause, and they were still coming.” Visitors were turned away. Quarantine. /13

A telegram, dated Sept. 30, 1918, in the collections of @USNatArchives, tells us how quickly steps were taken once #SpanishFlu broke out at #CampCuster. The number of cases? 1700. /12

Sept. 26, 1918: order given at #CampCuster to sterilize all mess kits and to clean unsanitary conditions in kitchen drains and grease traps. These photographs (left @USNatArchives) reveal much the perils for contagion in feeding thousands within a contained area. #SpanishFlu /11

Influenza in Camp Custer

But Major John S. Billings, #CampCuster epidemiologist, noted Sept. 23 as the beginning of the camp’s #SpanishFlu attack, “the number of cases increased in fairly regular geometrical proportions.” Billings’ account in @UMich’s Influenza Encyclopedia: https://bit.ly/2ORkoor /10

.@freep report Sept. 25, 1918: #CampCuster had its first #SpanishFlu scare— “suspects merely had bad colds” & “probe was exciting while it lasted.” Preventive measures: hanging shelter tent halves or double-thickness mosquito netting between bunks. (Image @USNatArchives) /9

The Michigan Railway advertised in @LSJNews direct service to #CampCuster. Families, friends, the patriotic, and the curious throughout the state visited daily. Civilian doctors and army surgeons inspected train passengers to prevent contagion. #SpanishFlu /8

Hundreds of civilians also worked at #CampCuster. Carpenters were erecting buildings for the War Camp Community Service. Volunteers for Red Cross (@USNatArchives image), Red Cross, and Knights of Columbus were at the camp daily. #SpanishFlu /7

Many men were living in tents at #CampCuster (image, @librarycongress). The new construction would house between 50,000 and 60,000 soldiers. Wood huts, each holding 8 men, would be built as detention and, if necessary, quarantine camps. #SpanishFlu /6

When #SpanishFlu hit in September-October 1918, #CampCuster was even busier. A $4,000,000 construction project had just begun, with 100s of carpenters erecting buildings in which they stayed. A railroad was being laid around the hospital to connect existing and new sectors. /5

News of #SpanishFlu at Camp Devens, MA, put #CampCuster on alert on Sept. 19, 1918. Recruits kept being drafted--and fed (@USNatArchives image dated Aug. 1918) . Each were “thoroughly inspected” and a “strict quarantine” was created for “suspicious cases.” /4

Another way to think about scale is to consider this photographic image, “The Human U.S. Shield,” which depicts 30,000 officers and men at #CampCuster in 1918. (The 5,000 men not pictured may have experienced #FOMO.) /3