Transcontinental Motor Convoy

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The Transcontinental Motor Convoys were two crossings, one in 1919 and one in 1920, in which the US Army sent a convoy from Washington, DC to San Francisco; the Army wanted to determine how well troops could be moved from the Eastern United States to the Western United States.

Dwight D. Eisenhower's experience with the first Transcontinental Convoy, plus his encounters with the Autobahn in World War II, led to his support for the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 and the establishment of the Interstate Highway System.

The convoy was also the first motor convoy to cross North America from east coast to west coast.

Contents 1 Background 2 The first convoy 3 The second convoy 4 Influence of the convoys 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Background

World War I had made extensive use of motor vehicles, both trucks and tanks, and the question arose as to whether American roads could accommodate military traffic.

Meanwhile, the Lincoln Highway Association wanted to increase awareness of the poor quality of roads which comprised the Lincoln Highway's route. Consequently, LHA president Harry Ostermann encouraged the War Department to undertake a transcontinental convoy to test and demonstrate the realities of east-west transportation in the United States.^[1] Conception and planning of the convoy itself was undertaken by Captain Bernard H. McMahon. McMahon was to have been the expedition's commanding officer, until he was replaced three days before its departure; instead, McMahon served in the lower position of Train Commander, below the Expedition Commander.^[2]

[edit] The first convoy

The first convoy had five stated purposes.^[2][3]:

1. Determining through experimentation the difficulties associated with sending the Army to the Pacific Coast in the event of war
2. Road testing of the US Army's vehicles
3. Demonstrating United States Department of War participation in the Good Roads Movement
4. Recruiting students to enroll in motor transport schools
5. A demonstration to the general public of the importance of motor vehicles in winning the First World War.

The convoy, consisting of eighty-one vehicles, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Charles W. McClure^[2][3][4], set off from the zero milestone in Washington, DC on 7 July 1919. On the sixty-two day trip, the convoy passed through three hundred fifty villages and towns to arrive in San Francisco on 6 September, four days behind schedule, with only seventy-two vehicles. Nine vehicles were lost during the trip. En route, the convoy found bridges collapsing beneath the weight of their vehicles and exceedingly poor roads after the end of the main paved segment of the Lincoln Highway in Illinois. The trip had averaged fifty-eight miles per day -- a mere six miles per hour. The convoy's purpose was to test the ability of the United States to respond in the event that California was attacked by an "Asiatic enemy" and was meant to be self-reliant, treating all the area it passed over as potential enemy territory; as such it included an engineering unit to construct bridges and improve roads to make them passable for US truck movement. 24 officers, 15 War Department staff observers, and 258 enlisted men were part of the convoy; of these, 21 were lost to injuries during the course of the convoy's trip.^[3]

Conditions on the convoy were compared to an extended tour in the advance area of a war zone. Some 54.7% of the convoy's trip, nearly 1,800 miles (2,900 km), was on dirt roads. There were also 230 accidents, mostly vehicles becoming stuck in mud or quicksand; the entire convoy was nearly lost to quicksand in Utah and Nevada. Personnel averaged five and a half hours of sleep each night and often worked 24-hour days.^[3] Colonel McClure, though unpopular with his troops, worked tirelessly to bring the convoy to San Francisco as close to schedule as possible while avoiding losses.^[2] In order to avoid vehicles going astray in the often-difficult terrain, two motorcycles scouted ahead of the main body of the expedition, leaving marker triangles and reporting back with road conditions.^[2]

One of the Army's observers was Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Eisenhower, who joined the convoy on its first stop in Frederick, Maryland; Eisenhower at the time had been assigned to nearby Fort George G. Meade. Contrary to the statements of some sources, Eisenhower was not commanding officer of the convoy. Eisenhower's November 1919 report on the convoy noted the overall poor condition of roads in much of the United States:

In Illinois [the convoy] started on dirt roads, and practically no more pavement was encountered until reaching California.

...two days were lost in western part of this state [Nebraska] due to bad, sandy roads.

From Orr's Ranch, Utah to Carson City, Nevada, the road is one succession of dust, ruts, pits, and holes. This stretch was not improved in any way, and consisted only of a track across the desert. At many points on the road, water is twenty miles distant, and parts of the road are ninety miles from the nearest railroad.^[5]

Eisenhower also noted that each of the various kinds of touring cars, trucks, tractors, and other vehicles had its own best rate of speed, making maintaining the convoy's formation difficult.

Eisenhower found the convoy's officers "poor" and its troops badly disciplined due to lack of training.

The convoy was well-received throughout the course of its journey, and was welcomed with barbecues, festivals, and at its conclusion a special dinner in Sacramento. The convoy was also lent two trucks from the Firestone Tire Company in Columbiana, Ohio to replace a missing vehicle.^[6]

The convoy's journey set a world record for the greatest continuous distance traveled by a motor convoy.^[3]

The military report on the convoy made several conclusions:

1. The expedition was generally successful in achieving its goals
2. Using a wide variety of vehicles increased the difficulty of maintaining and organizing a large convoy
3. While public support for improved roads and for the Army was high, direct recruitment was not effective and enlistment through the convoy was sparse
4. Motorcycles and heavy trucks should both be eschewed in favor of light trucks

Furthermore, the officers of the expedition became convinced that the maintenance of a national highway system should be the province of the federal government, as supported by the Townsend Bill.^[2]

[edit] The second convoy

A second Transcontinental Motor Convoy left Washington on 14 June 1920 and followed the Bankhead Highway to San Diego, California, where it arrived on 2 October.

A smaller expedition than the first, the second convoy consisted of 50 vehicles, 32 officers, and 160 enlisted men under Col John F. Franklin. A rate of 45-60 miles per day was initially estimated, commensurate with that of the first convoy.

The convoy's trip proceeded smoothly as far as Atlanta. However, as it moved west into Tennessee, its progress slowed. Detours became necessary due to flooding and the crossing of the "black gumbo" of the Mississippi River proved very problematic. However, despite high hopes that the Southern United States had presented the worst part of the trip, the convoy encountered almost impassable sands between Maricopa and Wellton, Arizona.

Like the first convoy, at every stop the expedition was met by local celebrations and dances. After 111 days and an average rate below 30 miles per day, the convoy reached the West Coast, where an officer's banquet was given in San Diego.

After its arrival in San Diego, the convoy then went north to Los Angeles and was broken up, its equipment distributed to California's public services as part of a program to make use of war surplus.^[7]

[edit] Influence of the convoys

Main article: Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956

Eisenhower's support of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 can be directly attributed to his experiences in 1919 as a participant in the U.S. Army's first Transcontinental Motor Convoy. The convoy was memorable enough for Eisenhower to include a chapter about the trip, titled "Through Darkest America With Truck and Tank," in his book At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends (Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1967). "The trip had been difficult, tiring, and fun," he said. That experience on the Lincoln Highway, plus his observations of the German autobahn network during World War II, convinced him to support construction of the Interstate System when he became President.

"The old convoy had started me thinking about good, two-lane highways, but Germany had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land."

His "Grand Plan" for highways, announced in 1954, led to the 1956 legislative breakthrough that created the Highway Trust Fund to accelerate construction of the Interstate System.

However, in the shorter term, the Convoys did not bring enough public support to ensure passage of the Townsend Bill, which failed and was replaced by the Federal Highway Act of 1921.

Both convoys are memorialized on the Zero milestone on the Ellipse in Washington, DC.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• America on the Move, an Eyewitness online exhibit on the convoy from the United States National Archives and Records Administration
• 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy Digital Documents and Photographs from the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum