Fifty-Sixth Pioneer-Infantry (First Maine Heavy Field Artillery) with the Army of Occupation in Germany New Year 1919

The FIFTY-SIXTH PIONEER INFANTRY was originally organized by Colonel ARTHUR T. BALENTINE as a regiment of HEAVY FIELD ARTILLERY in the National Guard of the State of Maine, under the name of THE MILLIKEN REGIMENT’. The regiment, which was strictly a volunteer organization, was organized in nineteen days, being completed July 25, 1917, under the title THE FIRST MAINE HEAVY FIELD ARTILLERY Immediately after its organization, on August 20, 1917, by order of the War Department, Colonel BALENTINE formed from the personnel of the regiment the ONE HUNDRED AND FIRST TRENCH MORTAR BATTERY. This was the first TRENCH MORTAR BATTERY organized in the United States. It comprised one hundred and eighty-one men and two lieutenants under the command of Captain Roger A, Greene. They were assigned to the 26TH DIVISION and shortly afterwards sailed for France. At the same time one hundred men were transferred to the ONE HUNDRED AND FIRST REGIMENT OF ENGINEERS of the same Division. After these transfers were made, and the physically unfit eliminated, there remained eight hundred men of the original command. Of these, two hundred were later commissioned as officers, or sent to Officers’ Training Schools.

By order of the War Department the regiment was transferred August 24, 1917, to Camp Bartlett, Mass., and thence on November 17, 1917 to Camp Green, N. C. By a subsequent order from the War Department the regiment was changed to Infantry, February 13, 1918, under the name of the o 56TH PIONEER INFANTRY” and on February 18, 19 i 8, was sent to Camp Wadsworth, S. C.

In August, 1918, the regiment was raised to a strength of thirty-four hundred and fifty men and one hundred and one officers, and received orders for duty overseas, going to Camp Merritt, N. J., August 30, 1918, for overseas equipment. September 4, 1918, the regiment sailed from Hoboken N. J., and arrived at St. Nazaire, France, September 13, 1918. In less than one week at the rest camp at St. Nazaire, they were attached to the First Army, and ordered to the area of active operations, leaving St. Nazaire September 19,1918, going by way of Latrecey, Haute Marne, (with a billet in this neighborhood for a week) and Fleury, to Dombasle-enArgonne, arriving there October 2, 1918. The different companies of the regiment were scattered all along the Argonne Sector during the last big drive of the war and were under 1. constant she.Ifire. They worked in conjunction with the 21ST and 23TH ENGINEERS.

Rosters

• Headquarters Company
• Supply Company
• Company A
• Company B
• Company C
• Company D
• Company E
• Company F
• Company G
• Company H
• Company I
• Company K
• Company L
• Company M

After the armistice was signed, the regiment was again mobilized at DOMBASLE, was transferred to the Third Army and ordered to Germany as part of the Army of Occupation. It left DOMBASLE November 17, 1918, marching by way of Luxembourg, crossed the Sauer River into German territory near TREVES December 4, 1918, and reported to Army Headquarters December 15, 1918, at COBLENZ on the Rhine, being one of the first Regiments to enter COBLENZ.

The publication is organized by unit. We have no additional information for the individuals listed and we are unable to correct errors and omissions in the publication. This information is provided in order to help you locate information regarding your ancestors. We cannot vouch for and make no claims regarding the authenticity of information presented.

Source: Fifty-Sixth Pioneer-Infantry (First Maine Heavy Field Artillery) with the Army of Occupation in Germany New Year 1919. Privately published.