Plattsburg Training Camps

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

United States military barracks, established in 1838 and having a reservation of over 700 acres on the W. side of Lake Champlain, S. of Plattsburg, N. Y., on the Delaware and Hudson railroad. The barracks are among the largest in the United States, and is usually garrisoned by a regiment of infantry. The reservation has often been used as a training camp in military exercises by business men from New York and the surrounding towns, and in 1915 a training camp was established there by the Government. During the campaign for preparedness that preceded the entry of the United States into the European War, exercises in drill were carried on at Plattsburg continually, and college and business men went in large numbers to submit themselves to training. After the entry of the United States into the war, the training camps were greatly extended, and recruits were there put through their drill in great numbers. In 1915 the organizers of the camp at Plattsburg sought the co-operation of professional and business men from the south. The military encampments usually lasted a month, during which the men were instructed in military calisthenics, rifle practice, offensive and defensive field work, camp sanitation, trench digging, signalling, marching, and in the general duties of a soldier. Before the United States entered the war the number of men voluntarily attending ran up to about a thousand, and the cost of the instruction was about $60. The civic authorities co-operated and the policemen of New York who desired to attend camp were permitted to do so on full pay. General Wood inspected the camps of college students and addresses were delivered by Colonel Roosevelt and other public men. Among those who took the training were Mayor Mitchel and other New York City officials. The men so trained were encouraged to join the National Guard, and as a result of the work accomplished business men in Chicago and other cities had similar training camps established. On several occasions the trenches at Plattsburg were used in mimic battles.