DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Camp Logan. Harris County, Texas.
Some places carry more history than the ground seems able to hold — and this is one of them. Soon after the United States entered World War I in 1917, the U.S. Army set about building thirty-four training camps to prepare troops for warfare.
One of those camps rose right here. Named for General John A. Logan — Mexican War veteran, Civil War veteran, U.S.
Senator from Illinois — Camp Logan was established at this site on July 18, 1917. Thirty-four camps, and this one carries a name that meant something. Thirty-four camps, and this one would become the most talked-about of them all, though not entirely for reasons the Army would have chosen.
The camp encompassed seventy-six hundred acres. That is not a small piece of ground. It held a main camp, an auxiliary remount depot, a rifle range, an artillery range, and drill grounds.
The Army meant to build something serious here, and it did. During construction, members of the 3rd Battalion of the 24th Infantry — Black soldiers commanded by white officers — were assigned to Camp Logan as guards and stationed about a mile to the east. Now.
You need to understand what Houston looked like in 1917. Jim Crow laws. Police harassment.
These were not abstractions; they were daily realities pressing down on men who had been handed rifles and told they were serving their country. On August 23, 1917, those pressures broke into open armed revolt. What happened that day became known as the Houston Mutiny and Riot of 1917 — the camp's most publicized incident, and one of the most sobering chapters in the whole story of the American military in that war.
History doesn't let you look away from it, and you shouldn't try. The training went on. The 33rd Division, composed of the Illinois National Guard, trained here.
Part of the 93rd Division trained here. Other Regular Army units trained here. Following their time at Camp Logan, they went on to serve in battle in France in 1918.
Men who drilled on this ground crossed an ocean and fought in a war. Camp Logan closed on March 20, 1919. The guns had gone quiet in France.
The men had come home, or hadn't. And part of these seventy-six hundred acres — this ground where soldiers trained and history turned hard — became Memorial Park, named in tribute to the soldiers who fought in Europe. The park is still there.
You can walk it. And now you know a little more about what you're walking on.
What the marker says
Soon after the United States' entry into World War I in 1917, the U. S. Army established 34 training camps to prepare troops for warfare. Named for Gen. John A. Logan, Mexican War and Civil War veteran and U. S. Senator from Illinois, Camp Logan was established at this site on July 18, 1917. Encompassing 7,600 acres of land, it consisted of a main camp, auxiliary remount depot, rifle range, artillery range, and drill grounds. During construction, members of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry (black troops commanded by white officers) were assigned to the camp as guards and were stationed about a mile to the east. The black soldiers' August 23, 1917, armed revolt in response to Houston's Jim Crow laws and police harassment resulted in the camp's most publicized incident, the "Houston Mutiny and Riot of 1917." Troops receiving training at Camp Logan included the 33rd Division, composed of the Illinois National Guard, part of the 93rd Division, and other Regular Army units. Following training, they went on to serve in battle in France in 1918. Camp Logan closed on March 20, 1919. Part of the land later became Memorial Park, named in tribute to the soldiers who fought in Europe.