American Expeditionary Forces, Infantry, 42nd Division

Forty-Second Division - National Guard

 * Nickname: Rainbow Division
 * 42nd Division Insignia


 * Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War. American Expeditionary Forces. Division. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1931 First Image 279

The volume will include the following for each Regular Army (RA), National Guard (NG) and National Army (NA) or Draft division:
 * Division Commanders
 * Division Composition: Infantry and Field Artillery Brigades, Divisional Trains; Trains: Ammunition, Supply, Engineer, Sanitary (Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals); Attached: short term unit attachments; Detached: units detached from the division
 * Division Chronology- Assignment: Army, Corps, Date; Division Headquarters: Location, Date
 * Record of Events: Organization and Movement Overseas; Completion of Organization in France; Record of Events: Training and Operations; Record of Events: Return to the United States and Demobilization


 * 42nd Infantry Division Files, 1917-1984. NAID 34428347
 * Native Americans Serving with the Forty-Second Division. NARA NAID 34394148

Troops Drawn
N. G. troops of 26 states and D. C.

Training Camp in the United States

 * Camp Albert l. Mills, New York. 9.1917-3.31.1920

Overseas Service

 * Date landed in France: November 1, 1917-December 3, 1917

Major Operations

 * Battle Participation of Organizations of the American Expeditionary Forces
 * Summaries of Operations - 42nd Division
 * 42nd Division - Maps
 * St. Mihiel.
 * Meuse-Argonne.

Military Units attached to the Forty-Second Division
83rd Infantry Brigade 84th Infantry Brigade  67th Field Artillery Brigade Divisional Troops  Trains 
 * 165th Infantry
 * 166th Infantry
 * 150th Machine Gun Battalion
 * 167th Infantry
 * 168th Infantry - Third Iowa Infantry
 * 151st Machine Gun Battalion
 * 149th Field Artillery
 * 150th Field Artillery
 * 151st Field Artillery
 * 117th Trench Mortar Battery
 * 149th Machine Gun Battalion
 * 117th Engineers
 * 117th Field Signal Battalion
 * HQ Troop
 * 117th Train HQ and Military Police
 * 117th Ammunition Train
 * 117th Supply Train
 * 117th Engineer Train
 * 117th Sanitary Train (Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals 165-168

Unit Histories

 * Harold Stanley Johnson. Roster of the Rainbow Division (Forty-Second) Major-General Wm. A. Mann Commanding.New York: Eaton & Gettinger, inc, printers, 1917
 * Henry J. Reilly. Americans All: the Rainbow at War: official history of the 42nd Rainbow Division in the World War. Columbus,Ohio: F.J. Heer Print Co., 1936.
 * Martin Joseph Hogan. The Shamrock Battalion of the Rainbow: A story of the "fighting sixth-ninth New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1919
 * Alan B Ellis. A brief History of Appleton's Old Company G. Co. A 150th Machine Gun Battalion. 1919
 * J. Bennett Nolan The Reading militia in the Great War. Reading, Pennsylvania : F.A. Woemer, 1921. The career of Company I, later known at Company D, 150th Machine Gun Battalion, Forty-second Division, American Expeditionary Force.--The career of Company A, later known as Company B, 108th Machine Gun Battalion, Twenty-eighth Division, American Expeditionary Force.
 * Nimrod Thompson Frazer. Send the Alabamians: World War I Fighters in the Rainbow Division. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2014. This history covers the 167th Infantry.
 * Vernon E. Kniptash, ed. E. Bruce. Geelhoed. On the Western Front with the Rainbow Division A World War I Diary. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009
 * Robert Thompson.  Suddenly Soldiers. The 166th Infantry Regiment in World war I. Yardley, Pa.: Westholme Publishing, 2020.
 * George Sparks. Macon's war work : a history of Macon's part in the great world war.Macon, Georgia : J.W. Burke Co, 1940? Includes a roster of the 151st Machine Gun Battalion
 * Winfred E. Robb. The price of our heritage : in memory of the heroic dead of the 168 Infantry.Des Moines, Iowa : American Lithographing and Printing, 1919

Soldier Naturalization

 * John J Newman. American naturalization processes and procedures, 1790-1985. pp. 15-16 will discuss naturalization of soldiers
 * Marian L. Smith. ‘’ ‘New Means and New Machinery:’ the problem of World War I soldier naturalization research.’’ NGS News Magazine (April/May/June,2005): 23-28

Naturalizations may have occurred in the in the state which provided soldiers to this division. Some of the naturalizations may have taken place at the training camp or other courts.
 * United States Index to Naturalizations of World War I Soldiers, 1918
 * United States, World War I Correspondence Relating to Foreign Born Soldiers, 1917-1921 Training Camps

Related FamilySearch Historical Record Collections

 * United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
 * United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940
 * United States, World War I American Expeditionary Forces Deaths, 1917-1919
 * United States, Enlisted and Officer Muster Rolls and Rosters, 1916-1939
 * United States Index to Naturalizations of World War I Soldiers, 1918

Related FamilySearch Wiki Articles

 * Beginning United States World War I Research
 * United States World War I Infantry Divisions
 * World War I American Expeditionary Forces Table of Organization, 1917-1919
 * World War I United States Military Records, 1917 to 1918

Related Websites

 * United States World War One centennial Commission
 * National World War I Museum and Memorial. Kansas City, Mo.

Reference Sources

 * American Expeditionary Forces Distinctive Cloth Insignia Chart
 * U.S. Army Center of Military History Campaigns: World War I
 * U.S.Army Center of Military History World War I Divisions: Then and Now