Wyoming History: WWI Commander Took Troops To Fight In France, Never Came Home

A southern boy from Georgia came West seeking the promise Wyoming and the West had to offer.

In 1903 it was raising sheep, later it would be practicing law, and finally it would be leading the state’s men in uniform overseas to France and engaging in the Great War to end all wars.

There his life would be taken under circumstances initially covered up by the U.S. Army and five months later laid out in headlines.

At home, Joseph W. Cavender would be honored and remembered for his skills preparing state men for the world campaign and not for the way he died.

As Veterans Day earlier this month marked the armistice that ended World War I on the 11th day of the 11th month at 11 a.m. 107 years ago, the Wyoming Military Department’s contract historian Mark Johnson agrees that Cavender is worthy of being remembered.

“He did some good things for the Wyoming National Guard,” Johnson said, who is also the lead author of a two-volume history on the state’s National Guard set to be available early next year. “He was a very effective leader until he got to the front as an artillery officer, and at that point he was out of his element, through really no fault of his own.”

Cavender is among the officers’ and enlisted rank names found in the first volume of “Cowboy Soldiers, The History of the Wyoming National Guard Vol. 1: 1870 - 1945,” that is headed to the printer and set to be released early next year. Johnson researched and wrote the book.

Born on Feb. 1, 1878, in Gaddistown, Georgia, Cavender graduated from high school in his hometown, studied at the University of North Georgia between 1895 - '97, worked as a businessman from 1897 to 1903 and studied law on the side. In 1904, he and his brothers were in Rawlins working as sheep ranchers. He stayed through 1906.

“Joseph, William and John Cavender departed for Spokane, Washington, Saturday where they expect to take up permanent abode,” The Rawlins Republican reported on Oct. 31, 1906. “These boys have been employed by the Pioneer Sheep Company the past two years except for one term that Joe attended law school and have made many friends (who) regret to see them go.”

Joseph Cavender had returned to Georgia earlier in 1906 and finished his law education at a law firm in Atlanta and was admitted to the Georgia Bar in June of that year. He returned to Wyoming to practice and either never went to Washington State or returned in time to be admitted to the Wyoming State Bar in December 1906.

Cavender started a law practice in Baggs and in 1910 moved to Cody. While at the University of North Georgia he had become a commissioned officer in a cadet battalion and served in the state militia.

Once in Wyoming, he joined the Wyoming National Guard and held the rank of captain from 1910-1911 and then was promoted to major in charge of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment of the Guard in May 1911.

Attorney And Soldier

While working as an attorney, he continued to pursue his military interests.

“A Cody man, member of the state militia, has, in competition with West Point graduates, won second place in the grading of officers attending school at Fort Mackenzie at Sheridan,” the Northern Wyoming Herald in Cody bragged on Dec. 29, 1911. “Major Cavender, who left Cody for Fort Mackenzie November first, having been named by President Taft, returned home last Saturday and will again leave for Sheridan about January 3rd to resume his studies and work.”

Cavender’s military success was augmented by progress in his civilian capacity as well. In 1912, he ran for the county attorney’s office and won on the Republican ticket by a “tremendous majority” of 612 votes over his Democratic foe, the Northern Wyoming Herald reported on Nov. 8, 1912.

For the next three years, Cavender mixed his Guard duties with the role of prosecutor in Park County, for example, taking on the prosecution of Nick and Slim Manilla for selling whiskey unlawfully, Harry Wagoner for statutory rape, and Tony Rodoschek for murder in a June 1913 session of court as reported in the Northern Wyoming Herald on June 13, 1913.

In 1914, the Wind River Mountaineer in Lander had a story that listed Cavender as third in line to command the state’s civilian soldiers should they be called up to assist the U.S. Army and also listed him as the judge advocate general on Gov. Joseph Carey’s staff.

As a commander, Cavender showed imagination in disciplining troops. A story in the July 14, 1916, Northern Wyoming Herald reported that two young soldiers had slipped away from a guardhouse for failure to return to camp, went into the town, were pursued by a squad of soldiers and taken into custody. In their possession was a quart of liquor.

Trench Work

Cavender reportedly ordered the men to dig a trench 30 feet long, six feet wide, and six feet deep. Once it was dug, the bottle was placed in the center and taps played as the pair were ordered to shovel the dirt back into the hole.

After President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany in April 1917, the Rawlins Republican reported on May 10, 1917, that a favored son was returning to recruit men for service.

“Major J. W. Cavender, of Cody, who recently returned from the Mexico border where he spent several months, is expected in Rawlins this week to take charge of recruiting for the regular army,” the newspaper reported. “The people of Carbon County are pleased to note that our former resident has made good in the militia and that he has already advanced to the position of major.”

Johnson’s research shows that Congress passed the Selective Service Act, or draft, on May 18 and that Cavender was among a trio of men who drafted a new militia law that organized the National Guard into the Third Regiment, National Guard of Wyoming. Cavender was chosen by the acting Gov. Frank Houx to lead the regiment.

After a recruiting campaign, all the state’s Guard members gathered at Fort F.E. Warren and shipped out to Camp Greene, North Carolina.

The Wyoming troops were broken up, with Cavender assigned to lead the 148th Field Artillery and some Wyoming troops under him. Other state soldiers helped form the 116th Ammunition Train and were responsible for transporting artillery rounds to the front in France.

Johnson said Cavender’s 148th included Guard troops from Colorado, cavalry troops from Oregon, as well as draftees from other places in the country, and they received training in North Carolina and then in the first half of 1918, several months of artillery training in France before being deployed to the front.

The first shots fired by the 148th were in the Second Battle of Marne on July 8, 1918.

‘Valley Of Death’

The 148th in early August 1918 was positioned in an area that became known as the “valley of death.” The unit suffered casualties from enemy artillery and on Aug. 11, the commander ordered the 148th to withdraw from the valley. Cavender sent 1,400 rounds at German positions and then withdrew in the daytime.

Germans sent a hail of shells in response as different components of the 148th started moving out and men and equipment became casualties. Aug. 11 became the unit’s worst day of the war in terms of casualties for the unit.

On Aug. 12, Cavender was relieved of his command.

Johnson said in his research, he believes it was a series of events that led to Cavender being removed, including an earlier issue where the 148th took two nights to move a battalion to the right flank along with other perceived issues such as possibly not digging entrenchments deep enough to protect men and not enforcing appropriate military discipline and etiquette on troops despite the war setting.

Cavender had issued a memo to battalions to clean up areas and restore proper military order that was lacking.

“Men will clean their clothes and improve their appearance as much as possible. An effort will be made to restore where it is lacking the discipline that was part of the organization before the present campaign,” Cavender’s memo read. “Strict attention will be made to saluting by both officers and men.

"Every advantage will be taken of the present let-up in our work to restore the batteries to their former standard of discipline and cleanliness.”

In 1919, a soldier in Cavender’s command wrote a letter to his wife that was reprinted in several Wyoming newspapers and seemed to indicate that the unit was supposed to retreat from the “valley of death” at night and instead Cavender did it in the daytime on Aug. 11 because he thought if he waited until night “that he was going to cut off and perhaps lose all his men.”

The soldier’s letter praised Cavender for his actions.

Johnson said if that was true, then it indicated that Cavender disobeyed his superior’s orders.

He believes Cavender made a “terrible decision” to do it in the daytime because German spotter aircraft would have pinpointed the movement of trucks and men and added to casualties.

After being relieved of his command, Cavender was sent to an officer reclassification board. Johnson said General John “Blackjack” Pershing made it clear that he would not tolerate failure in the American Expeditionary Forces and that the boards were set up.

“So, they had some pretty draconian policies that if you did anything wrong you could be relieved of your command and sent to a reclassification board that would decide your fate,” he said. “It was pretty harsh, it wasn’t a board to determine your guilt or innocence, it was, if you were sent to this board here is what is going to happen to you.”

Options

For Cavender, the board gave him the option of being demoted to captain and sent to a supply assignment, or resigning his commission and going home.

Johnson said Cavender opted for “option number three,” which involved him going to a hotel and committing suicide by shooting himself in the head. The date was Sept. 5, 1918. He was 40 years old.

Of the thousands of officers, both National Guard and regular military, sent to the officer reclassification board, Johnson’s research shows only Cavender took his own life. He said the U.S. Army tried to cover it up.

“They sent a very misleading telegram to his wife, saying that he had died of his wounds,” Johnson said. “That board kept very meticulous records on every officer that appeared before the board. But I’ve looked through all the registers of the National Archives and Cavender’s case file from his appearance at that board is not present.

"So, it appears they destroyed the paper trail about what happened to Cavender.”

Cavender’s wife, Sarah, was living in Georgia with her sister at the time of her husband’s death. She sent a telegram to Wyoming Gov. Frank Houx, who released information to the state and media.

“Col. Cavender, Commanding 148th Field Artillery Dies As Result Of Injury,” The Cheyenne State Leader headline read on Sept. 27, 1918. The newspaper’s lead paragraph reported that the commander “died of wounds received in action while leading his command in a terrific encounter with the Huns according to word received by wire by Gov. Houx.”

Johnson in his research found a telegram sent from Wyoming’s Adjutant General W. K. Weaver to Sarah Cavender that “all of Wyoming weeps with you in your sorrow over the death of Colonel Joseph W. Cavender. He made a splendid record in France.”

In Cody, the town held a memorial service, and a gold star was painted on the door of the Park County attorney’s office that still had Cavender’s name.

But the cover-up began to unravel with letters home from Wyoming troops who had learned their former commander committed suicide, and it became a national story when U.S. Rep. James A. Gallivan of Massachusetts took to the U.S. House floor in February 1919 and accused the U.S. Army of lying by issuing an initial report that Cavender was “killed in action.”

The congressman characterized the reclassification board as a “canning factory” and pointed to a February 1919 revision of Army records that stated Cavender “died from self-inflicted wounds.”

Guard Vs. Regular Army

In a story from the New York Times news service and published in the Northern Wyoming Herald on Feb. 19, 1919, Gallivan reportedly produced a letter from a regular army colonel who said he could produce the names of 50 generals, colonels, and lieutenant colonels of the National Guard who suffered injustice by the officer reclassification board.

He cited a General Hill of Illinois who took a demotion to major and continued to fight.

The newspaper cited Gallivan as referring to a “Leavenworth clique” that demoted National Guard officers before the armistice was signed to make way for West Point graduates.

“Representative Gallivan asserted that the conduct of those in charge of the reclassification (board)… had caused many brave officers to return home wounded in pride and feeling and reputation,” the article stated.

Papers throughout the state then published other stories reporting that Cavender had died by taking his own life.

On Feb. 26, 1919, the Casper Daily Tribune reported comments made by the state’s former adjutant general Col. George Sliney who said Cavender was second in command under him as the state Guard mobilized for their overseas assignment.

Sliney characterized Cavender as an excellent infantry officer and his demotion as a “bad blunder” by the U.S. Army.

Johnson said his research found a letter from a Major Edwin Wyman of Boston who commanded the 148th’s medical detachment that Gallivan entered into the Congressional Record on Feb. 13, 1919.

He characterized Cavender as someone who “left Wyoming with as good a regiment of husky westerners as was ever organized, and who was transferred from the infantry to the artillery, with no choice, and who took up the new work with vim and enthusiasm, and put together a regiment that has not been excelled …”

Wyoming Congressman Frank Mondell successfully lobbied to get Cavender’s record changed again to state that he died in the “line of duty.”

A story datelined Washington and reprinted in the Rawlins Republican on Sept. 11, 1919, stated because of Mondell’s actions Cavender’s widow would be able to receive compensation from the government.

“Affidavits were secured from those intimately associated with Colonel Cavender just previous to his death, showing that worry solely due to his military service had brought him to a state of mind in which he could not be held responsible for the rash act,” the article stated.

Johnson said the newspapers blaming a “cabal” of regular officers wanting to get West Point graduates into positions held by the Guard officers does not hold water in Cavender’s case.

“The guy that replaced Cavender was Burke Sinclair, another Wyoming guy from the Wyoming National Guard,” he said.

Not A Good Fit

Johnson said the tactics used by the officer reclassification board did not involve trying to find a position that would better meet an officer’s talents and strengths. He believes that Cavender was likely not a good fit as an artillery officer, but he was an effective leader in preparing the Guard for their deployment.

“It’s not surprising that he got relieved, but he actually lasted longer than a lot of peers,” he said. “Over the years he was portrayed as a victim of vindictiveness. And that is not really the case. My interpretation is that the commander that relieved him was fully justified taking that action.”

Cavender is buried in Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in Fère-en-Tardenois, France. In addition to his wife, he left a young son.

Johnson said the issue in World War I was that the U.S. Army was unprepared and there was not a strong officer corps available and in place. Lessons learned from the war led to better preparation and training two decades later when Hitler attacked in Europe and U.S. leaders understood what likely lay ahead.

They prepared before there needed to be any mobilization of troops.

“We learned a lot of lessons from that (World War I) mobilization,” he said. “But that doesn’t help a guy like Joseph Cavender, unfortunately.”

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.