Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-08-01


infantry troops, much interest has
arisen concerning Camp Green, the Ma
tional Guard cantonment camp at
Charlotte. North Carolina. How is
il being built? What the the housing
conditions? What sort of climate?
These are some of the questions being
asked by anxious parents and friends
of boys who may be sent there any
time And at last comes first hand
information from Captain Ara B. Cush-
man, Jr., of Auburn, who. together
with Major Green of Rhode Island, has
been sent by the government as con-
structing quartermaster of Camp
Green.
Captain Cushman, who is at the
head of the Maine State Quartermas-
ter corps, was summoned to Washing
ton two weeks ago, and was dispatch
ed to North Carolina with Major
Green. who. it is interesting to know.
is a descendant of General Nathaniel
Green, for whom the camp Is named
Eighteen men in all were sent for, and
their duty is that of government in
spectors to the various National Guard
camps being constructed
Captain Cushman went Immediately
from Washington to Charlotte, and
his letters home are enthusiastic over
the comfortable weather there as a re-
lief from the excessive heat at Wash
tngton. He writes that it is no hot
ter there than during a summer in
Maine, and he has been very comfort
able all of the time.
The camp site is four miles outside
the city of Charlotte. at a height of
seven or eight hundred feet above sea
level. The air. is dry and cool, and the
location is excellent. This is one of
the last sites to be chosen, and will
probably be one of the last to be fin
ished
The quickness and dispatch with
which the government is working is a
revelation to the lay mind. Never be-
fore in the history of our country has
work of this sort been called for
and that makes the building of these
cantonment camps on so huge a scale
doubly interesting.
Captain Cushman arrived at Char
lotte on Sunday, July Is. It is a city
of something under 10000 inhabitants
He laughingly says that they have
even the New York traffic laws: he
was stopped by a policeman when he
attempted to cross a street diagonal
ly, thing he had always done if he
had wanted to in Lewiston or Auburn.
On Monday morning, July Is. there
were IS surveyors at work, laying out
streets, water pipes, sewers, electric
lights, positions of buildings, railroad
sidings and the like. On the first day
three miles Of street were laid out
The site was for the most part rough,
and bushes and underbrush had to be
cleared out before anything else was
done. Two houses on the place were
taken over for the use of the two
quartermasters and the contractors.
Three days after arriving, the camp
was practically located on paper, and
the work contracted for
The contractors, a Baltimore firm,
certainly have some job on their
hands. Before receiving the contract
they were obliged to give a full ac-
count of their previous work and how
it had been accomplished. They had to
agree to have a force of 40C0 men to
go to work Immediately and certain
per cent. of the total cost Of the build
ing will be their pay.
Over seven hundred buildings are to
be erected, permanent wooden quar-
tiers, that will house 10000 men-more
than there are inhabitants in the city
of Charlotte. Camp Green will be
city in itself. For the water supply.
a Pinch water main has been laid
from Charlotte to the camp.
On last Saturday 1000 men were al
ready to work, and by Wednesday of
this week the entire force of 1000 were
on the grounds, coming on horseback,
by train and by automobile-anv way
so long as they got there. 1t is hoped
that the camp will be finished by
August s, unless delay is caused in
getting lumber.
Captain Cushman writes that they
have had quite a lot of rain-of the
real tropical kind, that when it does
rain. makes a business of it: but most
of his letters report "a nice breeze. and
not too warm" In winter the tenn
perature sometimes goes as low as 10
degrees above zero.
What he will do when the camp IS
completed. Captain Cushman has no
idea. He started for Washington on
about 10 hours notice. not knowing
whether he was going to be sent to
France or to Kalamazoo; and now his
orders do not extend beyond the build
ing Of the camp.
Mrs. Cushman is now planning to
Join him at Camp Green just before It
is completed. and see the work that is
going ahead with. such leaps and
bounds.