Camp Custer Music Company

Organization

Staff Only

Biography

Summarized from Regional Training Camps: The Case of Camp Custer: Camp Custer was a regional camp in Michigan hastily built in 1917 for military training during World War I. It was originally named Camp Custer after General George Armstrong Custer, the Civil War General most famous for his death at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Located about five miles west of Battle Creek, Fort Custer continues to be a bustling military facility. ROTC students from Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana train there, and it remains one of the busiest centers for the Michigan National Guard.

Of the students and graduates of the University of Michigan involved in the war, many were funneled through the camp on their way overseas, and the University maintained an active presence there. The Michigan Alumnus proudly reported the high percentages of Michigan students who had been named officers at Camp Custer. Moreover, university clubs from Ann Arbor regularly visited the camp to entertain enlisted men by hosting cookouts and performing operas and other vaudeville-style acts in order to boost morale and have a bit of fun. Other activities included baseball and listened to bands. The local business advertised in the troop-produced Camp Custer Bulletin, offered soldiers billiards, cigars, and dance lessons.

The camp Bulletin also had other functions: it facilitated these events by posting announcements regarding games, and practices. Though the Bulletin was primarily informational, it also published jokes and poetry attributed to the soldiers training at the camp. From humorous articles to one-line jokes, the lighter articles worked to provide distraction and comfort to soldiers and those waiting at home for editions alike. The poetry published in the Bulletin worked in a different way, capturing the patriotic fervor promoted by the Army camp as well as the fears and concerns the men had regarding their future in the trenches. It is likely that the camp song "We're Custer's Soldier Boys" (1917) was originaly published in this Bulletin, the the actual date for which the Bulletin began is unknown.