Interview No. 125
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University of Texas at El Paso ScholarWorks@UTEP Combined Interviews Institute of Oral History 4-18-1974 Interview no. 125 Crampton Jones Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.utep.edu/interviews Part of the Oral History Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Interview with Crampton Jones by Robert H. Novak, 1974, "Interview no. 125," Institute of Oral History, University of Texas at El Paso. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Institute of Oral History at ScholarWorks@UTEP. It has been accepted for inclusion in Combined Interviews by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UTEP. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNIVERSITYOF TEXAS AT EL FASO INSTITUTEOF ORAL HISTORY I NTERV I EIdEE : Col. H. CramptonJones (1893- ) I IITERVI EI,JER : RobertH. Novak PROJECT: TheMexican Revolution DATEOF INTERVIEII: Apri'l 18, 1974 TERI'ISOF USE: Unrestricted TAPENt).: 125 TRANSCRIPTI,IC.: 125 TRAIISCRIBER: RobertH. Novak DATETRANSCRIBED: April, 1974 BIOGRAPHICALSYNOPSIS OFII\TERVIEIJEE: .l9.I6. Memberof PershingExpeditionof sui'ii'4ARY0F IIITERVIEi'l: Personalities and eventsof the PershingPunitive Ex- pedition into Mdxico. 45 minutes(1 7/8 tape speed);13pages. intervievrwith Col. H. CramptonJones by RobertH. Novakon April lB, 1974. N: ColonelJones, to start whydon't you just give mea litile bit of biognaphica'lbackground about yourself. J: All right. I wasborn Novernber 4, lB93 in a litile armypost on the ColumbiaRiver, VancouvenBaracks or Fort Vancouver.It,s acrossfrom Portland, 0regon. My father wasan officer in the old Sixth infantry. Thearmy then wasrather small. He had goneto WestPoint in the same year' lBB2' that his classmateGeneral Pershing had gone. I wasthen, naturally, broughtup in the army,an armybrat as we call ourselves, and traveled with rnyfather and motherand sister from one armypost to another'across the continentand twice to the PhilippineIslands. Before I wastwelve I had beenaround the world by armytransport. So I naturally hada love of the armyand I followedmy father to ' WestPoint, enteringthere in ]912. I graduated1916 in June. Villa hadalready raided Columbus,New Mexico, which was of coursein March l916' while I wasstill a cadet. l^lefollowed with interest the events Jones of the PunitiveExpedition. I wasassigned to the field artillery branchof the armyand specifically to the old FourthField Artillery" which is knownas packartil'lery, mountainbatteries. Theweapon is a 2.95 inch howitzer,equivalent to the 75 millimeter Frenchgun in caliber. 0f course,the weaponis divided into four loads for a mule and packedon the top of the mulesso that they can go anywherein the mountains,just anywhere. I joined the FourthField Artillery as a first lieutenant, havingbeen promoted rapidly. A hlestPoint graduate is first a secondlieutenant, but WoodrowWilson, the president, had urged Congressto pass a law that increasedthe armyby five yearly increments,because the Europeanwar wason and he sawthe needfor a larger army. It wasonly 75,000officers andmen together at that time. That Punitive Expeditionurged congress to put not only the one incrementthrough, but all five of themat once. That mademe a first lieutenant. I then joined Battery "C" of the old FourthArtillery down there at campin ColoniaDublu'n n.ur" Casas Grandes, about 125miles south of the borderat Columbus.I did not ioin immediatelyafter graduation in June, but wasgranted the usual so-called "graduationleave," which I took. I then joined in the middleof september1916. I went by rail to Columbus,New Mexico and got off the train there and transfemedto a truck train. That wasgenerally the modeof transportationsouth of the borderfor long distances. It took two days to arrive at colonia Dubla'n. The roads were very poor; in fact, there were no real roads at all. Almosteach day the truck train wouldseek out a newroad becausethe ruts becameso deep, filled either with mudor with dust. Jones Incidentally, one could see a truck train z0 or 30 miles awayby the cloud of dust that it raised. Therewere about 24 or 25 trucks in a train, four wheeldrive. Manyof themwere FWD' which means four wheeldrive, and somewere the white companytrucks. so I arrived at my station and commencedmy duties as a youngofficer. we call a youngofficer a shavetail,and that title lasts until someyounger officer comesalong. Myduties weregenerally camp duties becausethe movementof troops, the chaseafter villa, had finished. I foundthat my battery hadbeen long enoughin this one campto construct for themselvesadobe bamacks, an adobemess hall, and quarters for the officers' simplymixing the clay there with a little strawand building very comfortablebui'ldings. Thecavalry had not donequite so much. Eachtwo menin one shelter tent haddug downand built up the side wall so that they cou'ldstand up in a sma]l tent using the shelter tent as a roof only. But it wasdecided by my battery commanderto be advisableto havemore comfortable quarters. Themen were not occupied in chasingVil'la anymore.We had marches and we had target practice, and a youngofficer suchas I wouldspend time on routine duties -- taking eariy morningreveille andsupervising stables, the groomingand feeding of the animals. But I wasassigned to special duty two times. It was rather interesting one time whenthe commanderof a wagontrain got a month'sleave and cameback to the UnitedStates to visit his family; I wasassigned as commanderof this long wagontrain. It consistedof two wagoncompanies of 24 four-muleteam escort wagons. Its duty was to haul forage for the cavalry farther south. I,.letook hay and oats from Jones the train at CasasGrandes over Charcospass, whichwas Z0 niles away, on downinto the valley to El valle, in an adjacentriver valley, and back again -- it was a three day trip eachway. That was very interesting -- for the monththat I was in commandI was the only officer, thoughI did havea civilian veterinarianwho was very capable. we wereable to travel day after day and this little veterinarian, Docwelch, I rememberas being very faithful and fine. Incidentally, his father had hada livery stable in san Franciscoat the time of our engagementwith the Filipinos in the insurrection of .|899 and had sold the mulesto the u. s. government.I had beside DocWelch a very fine wagonmaster-- no, I shouldcall him a train- mastersince we had two wagoncompanies -- o]d SergeantToft had been in the cavalry for manyyears and he handledthose teamstersvery well. Theteamsters, incidentally, thoughin uniformand called soldiers, were real1yjust muleskinnersfrom the farm. Theydidn,t knowmuch, if anything, about the manualof arms, andyet eachwas armed and had by his seat a boot with a rifle. In addition, though,I hada guard,and sitting on the other side of the seat from the driver or teamsterI had an infantryman.Then at night I couldpark the vehicles, usually in a c'ircle as they did in the old Indian daysoand hada guardaround camp. we encounteredMexicans on the road, a troop of cavalry nowand then, but they were carrancistas and of course friendly. The chaseafter villa wasgiven up, as everyoneknowsn about christmastime of 19.|6. It wasdecided that the expeditionshould withdraw. I supposedthat everyonerealized that we might be drawninto l,{orldlllar I, which had Jones beengoing on for two to three years in Europe. Incidentally, 1 think it might be interesting for peopleto knowabout litile experiencesI had before we withdrew. I happenedto be on christmas Day1916 the officer of the guard, in chargeof the prisonersin a wire stockade. That day has beenrecorded as a very stormyweather day all a'longthe Mexicanborder. It affected us downthere at Colon'iaDubldn next to CasasGrandes because Gen. Pershing had planned an enormousbarbecue for the men. For two days he had preparedthese steers and they were being barbecuedin a trench. But whenthis stormcame along, one could not see but a few feet in front of him, and of coursethe barbecuedbeef wasruined, coatedwith mudand dust. Theonly roof that we hadat ColoniaDubldn, our camp,was on the signal corpsbuilding; it wasgalvanized iron. It blewup and into the stockade,setting fire to the tents in there. we huddledthe prisonersin one corner -- four of themhad beencharged with murder, so it wasa difficult situation. Oneother specia'lduty job that I hadwhile I wasstfll downin Mdxico,and that with the quartermaster department,was that of officer in chargeof the issue of meat. The expedition had a contract with the two Houghtonbrothers whohad a 'large ranch halfway downfrom Columbus,as I remember,to CasasGrandes. Theywould supply each day to us 12 headof cattle. TheMexicans would slaughterthem and we would hang them in a long adobehouse which had no windows,hang them on one side, and issue the other 12 whichhad beenslaughtered the day before. you see, of course there was no refrigeration. Themeat was palatable, but at first menwho had been Jones usedto refrigerated meator meathe'ld longer were not pleasedwith it' but graduallythey beganto'like it, andit wasall right, Then we were orderedout and we marched. My regimentdid not comeout as far as Columbusbut branchedoff to the northeastbelow Columbus, joining the railroad betweenColumbus and El Pasoat aboutmidpoint wherewater cars werespotted for us. we arrived at Fort Bliss, I think in aboutthe middleof JanuaryrlgrTrandwent into camp. It's there that we were on April 6owhenwar was declaredagainst Germany. My regimentwas divided into two parts, forming a newregiment and maintainingthe old. Thenew regiment was the Fifteenth Field Artillery, to whichI wasassigned. N: Let mego backand ask you iust a coupleof questionsI haveabout the Punitive Expeditionand then we could talk aboutyour experiencesin WorldWar I. ldell' of course,that's all beenwritten up, aboutworld ldar I. I was assigned,as I sd.y,to the Fifteenth Field Artillery, whichwas part of the secondDivision, whichwent overseas early andfought well. But I had beenordered to Fort Sill, 0klahomarasan instructor whereI taught gunneryand materiel. I only went to Francefollowing the armistice whereI wason duty, various duties, and then hada leave.