The Founder, Clarence
J. Smith
I concluded the last post by noting that a regiment of Coast
Artillery was formed from a group of World War I veterans with experience as
engineers, machine gunners and ammunition transporters. It took energy and commitment to bond these
men together, begin the process of training them in a new and technically
demanding military art and recruit additional young men into the unit. Many men lent their energy and personal
commitment to building the 213th Coast Artillery; but none put more
of themselves into the Regiment than its Commander, Clarence J. Smith.
Smith was born in 1874, the son of John J. and Sue Smith of
Easton, PA. The elder Smith was editor
of the Easton Daily Express and a
member of both the local National Guard company and the city’s Fire
Department. Clarence completed public
school in Easton and became a reporter for his father’s newspaper – by then the
Easton Argus – at age 19.
He joined the National Guard during the upwelling of
patriotic spirit attending the Spanish-American War in 1898, and remained a
guardsman for forty years. He was
commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in 1901 and rose to the rank of
Captain and Regimental Quartermaster of the 4th Regiment by 1913.
In 1904, Smith became the Editor or the Easton Argus, and in 1910 moved to Allentown to become the City
Editor of that city’s larger Morning Call.
When the Pennsylvania National Guard was federalized in 1916
for service on the Mexican Border, Smith served with distinction as the 4th Regiment’s Quartermaster, ensuring proper provisioning of materials and
supplies for the unit. It was in Camp
Stewart, outside El Paso, Texas, that Smith first encountered Charles C.
Curtis, then a recently enlisted private.
Smith saw potential in the young Guardsman and quickly saw to it that he
was promoted to Regimental Supply Sergeant.
The two formed a friendship that would significantly impact both their
lives and that of the 213th Coast Artillery.
Upon return from the border in January 1917, Smith resumed
his position as City Editor of the Morning Call. As a newspaperman, was well positioned to
watch the war clouds grow ever darker.
When War was declared in April, he knew that he would soon find himself
back in uniform.
The Pennsylvania National Guard was called up for World War
I service in July, 1917. The Division
was concentrated at Camp Hancock, near Augusta, Georgia, in late August. There the Pennsylvanians were reorganized to
become the 28th Division.
Smith rapidly found himself a supply officer without a
regiment to supply. With his logistical
expertise and contacts within the Guard, he soon found himself a position as a
Major in the 103rd Ammunition Train, responsible for the motorized
movement of munitions from rear area dumps to the using units. After the war ended, his journalistic
experience earned him a position with the Headquarters of the American
Expeditionary Forces conducting battlefield tours and lectures. He returned to the US for demobilization in
September 1919.
When the Pennsylvania Guard reorganized after its return to
the Commonwealth in early 1919, there was a “hole” in the military fabric of
the state. No 28th Division
units were assigned to the armories in the seven communities that had been the
principal homes of the old 4th Regiment. Smith, and other military and civic leaders
in the area, began to work with the office of the Adjutant General and the
Militia Bureau in Washington to develop a plan to ensure a citizen-soldier
presence in the area. The solution to
the problem was to organize a completely new unit – new to both the Regular
Army and the National Guard.
More on Clarence Smith and the new regiment next time.
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