Original WWI US Identified 86th Division Uniform, Gas Mask, & Ephemera Grouping
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Original Item: Only One Available: Private Louis R. Rosenberg served in France during World War I with the 86th Division, and this grouping tells the story of his experiences. This is a beautiful grouping with lots of character.
This is the uniform grouping of Private Louis R. Rosenberg, Serial #: 2832946, Company A, 311th Train & Military Police, 86th Division. The grouping includes his uniform jacket, with USNA & Field Artillery Battery C collar discs and an 86th division patch stitched onto the left shoulder. The uniform also has one overseas chevron and a discharge chevron. The jacket is in fantastic shape with almost no mothing all around. The interior of the collar has been reinforced/relined at some point. His breeches are included as well, and are in similar condition. His gas mask and bag are included, the bag being named and numbered on one side, “Rosenberg 2832946”. Also included are his two overseas caps, yardlongs of his training camp and of boys returning home. Also included are a souvenir pillowcase, several small personal items, and a drill regulation training book.
Rosenberg was from Madison, Wisconsin, and went overseas with the 86th division on August 7th, 1918. He returned stateside with the division on March 28th, 1919.
Approximate Measurements:
Collar to shoulder: 9.5"
Shoulder to sleeve: 24”
Shoulder to shoulder: 15”
Chest width: 18"
Waist width: 18"
Hip width: 24"
Front length: 30"
Pants:
Waist: 17"
The 86th Division
The 86th Division was first organized as a so-called "square division" on August 25, 1917, well over four months after the American entry into World War I, at Camp Grant, Rockford, Illinois. There was a small cadre of Regular Army, in addition to Officers Reserve Corps and National Army officers, staffed the division, while the enlisted men were predominantly Selective Service men drawn from the states of Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin.
After conducting training for over a year the 86th Division began to depart from the United States in August 1918, with the first elements of the division arriving to reinforce the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in France in late September, while the last arrived in the first week of October.
The division was sent to the area around Bordeaux, with the division's headquarters being established at Saint-André-de-Cubzac. As the AEF's Meuse–Argonne offensive, launched in late September, continued to grind on, there was an increasing need for replacements for the heavy casualties the AEF was sustaining in the campaign. This, as well as the shortage of replacements being sent overseas each month, contributed to a decision by General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the AEF, to break up newly arrived divisions, the 86th being one of them, to bring the other severely depleted AEF divisions up to strength. As a result, the 86th Division, in particular its infantry and machine gun units, was ordered to be skeletonized. By November 8 the remnants of the division was ordered to the area around Le Mans. Three days later the Armistice with Germany caused the war to come to an end.
The division was nicknamed the "Black Hawk Division," named after the Sauk Leader Chief Black Hawk. Frederic McLaughlin, was a commander with the 333rd Machine Gun Battalion of the 86th Infantry Division during World War I. In 1926, McLaughlin would be granted a franchise by the National Hockey League, which he would put in his hometown of Chicago. He named the team the Chicago Blackhawks after the unit.
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