Sunday, July 26, 2015

The Story of the First Gas Regiment

James Thayer Addison - The Story of the First Gas Regiment (1919)

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Continuing last post's World War I soldier-life theme here's one that's a bit less humorous.  The First Gas Regiment was the only offensive gas unit in the U.S. Army and lasted for just 18 months.  Today of course a book about gas warfare is like a book promoting the value of DDT but really this is more a straightforward account.  If anything it's a bit dull even for a regimental history.

Addison (a 1909 Harvard graduate) was the regiment's chaplain and was an active writer afterwards.  He wrote a history of the Episcopal Church, on Ahmadiyya and religion in India, a study of medieval missionaries, and Ancestor Worship in Africa among many others.  None of these appear to have been digitized.