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Concept
86th Infantry Division (United States)
Summary
The 86th Infantry Division, also known as the Blackhawk Division, was a unit of the United States Army in World War I and World War II.
Currently called the 86th Training Division, based at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, members of the division now work with Active Army, Reserve, and National Guard units to provide them with a Decisive Action Training Environment on a yearly basis.
The 86th Division was first organized as a so-called "square division" on August 25, 1917, well over four months after the American entry into World War I, at Camp Grant, Rockford, Illinois. There was a small cadre of Regular Army, in addition to Officers Reserve Corps and National Army officers, staffed the division, while the enlisted men were predominantly Selective Service men drawn from the states of Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin.
After conducting training for over a year the 86th Division began to depart from the United States in August 1918, with the first elements of the division arriving to reinforce the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in France in late September, while the last arrived in the first week of October.
The division was sent to the area around Bordeaux, with the division's headquarters being established at Saint-André-de-Cubzac. As the AEF's Meuse–Argonne offensive, launched in late September, continued to grind on, there was an increasing need for replacements for the heavy casualties the AEF was sustaining in the campaign. This, as well as the shortage of replacements being sent overseas each month, contributed to a decision by General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the AEF, to break up newly arrived divisions, the 86th being one of them, to bring the other severely depleted AEF divisions up to strength. As a result, the 86th Division, in particular its infantry and machine gun units, was ordered to be skeletonized. By November 8 the remnants of the division was ordered to the area around Le Mans. Three days later the Armistice with Germany caused the war to come to an end.
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