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

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
The following naturalizations occurred in the in the state which provided soldiers to this division. Some of the naturalizations may have taken place at the training camp and others elsewhere. Soldiers in these collections may have also served in other divisions.
 * 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


 * United States, World War I Correspondence Relating to Foreign Born Soldiers, 1917-1921

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