Commissioned Officers 317th Engineers, Indianapolis, 1918

Item Overview

Title

Commissioned Officers 317th Engineers, Indianapolis, 1918

Alternative title

U.S. Army Officers, including Leon Marsh

Photographer

Patton Studio

Date Created

May 16, 1918

Date

1918-05-16

Collection

Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
OpenUCLA Collections

Notes

Description

Group portrait of fifty five African American soldiers, commissioned officers of the 317th Engineers, wearing military uniforms, seated and standing in front of a wood frame building.
The 317th Engineers was first constituted on 24 October 1917 and organized at Camp Sherman, Ohio as the 317th Engineer Regiment, 92nd Division. Like the rest of the 92nd Division, the 317th Engineers was an all black, or “Negro troops” unit, with many of the NCOs coming from the 9th and 10th Cavalry. The 317th Engineers sailed for France in June 1918, and it was the first unit of the 92nd Division to enter the line, completing the relief of the 7th Engineers on 23 August 1918. The unit earned campaign streamers for the Meuse-Argonne and Lorraine campaigns supporting the 92nd Division and the 1st Army Corps. After the war, the 317th was demobilized 31 March 1919. [http://www.317thengineers.com/history]

Caption

Caption above: Commissioned Officers 317th Engineers. May 16, 1918. Photographer identification: Patton Studio / Indianapolis, Ind.

Physical Description

Extent

1 photograph

Keywords

Genre

group portraits

Names

U.S. Army Engineer School. Engineer Officer Basic Course Training Detachment

Subject Geographic

Indianapolis (Ind.)

Resource type

still image

Subjects

African American soldiers