Biography of Captain Albert Charles Bosshardt – Camp Adjutant at Camp Cody
My father, Capt. Albert Charles Bosshardt, was Camp Adjutant at Camp Cody, reporting September 25, 1918, and reassigned to Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, in January 1919, after participating in the demobilization of Camp Cody. I have several letters he wrote to his sister during that time.

Al was engaged to Miss Jessamine Moayon, of Louisville, Kentucky, shortly before being transferred to Camp Cody. He wrote on October 15, 1918, that their plans to marry on the 22nd had been “shot all to pieces” because the camp was under quarantine for influenza.

They were finally married in El Paso on November 21 (or at least, their marriage was recorded there.) Apparently he took his bride back to Camp Cody. Your web site makes several references to El Paso. I assume it was the closest town of any size near the village of Deming.

A native of Terre Haute, Indiana, at age 18 Al enlisted in the Indiana National Guard on May 29, 1914. He advanced from private to sergeant. On June 22, 1916, he was ordered to active duty with the Guard at Llano Grande, Texas, in response to Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico, the previous March. The expedition, under General Pershing, withdrew from Mexico February 5, 1917 and Al was demobilized from Fort Benjamin Harrison, in Indianapolis, on February 26.

World War I was declared April 6, 1917, and he was ordered back to active duty the same day. On May 25 he was one of twenty-five NCOs chosen to report to Officers’ Training Camp at Fort Harrison. On August 15 he graduated and was commissioned a First Lieutenant of Infantry. He was one of the first people assigned to the new temporary Camp Zachary Taylor, in Louisville, Kentucky.

On June 6, 1918, he reported to Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio, where the 84th Division was being staged for service in Europe. On June 28, before the Division went overseas, he was promoted to Captain and transferred from the Infantry to the Adjutant General Department. He went first to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, before being transferred to Camp Cody. – Bob Bosshardt, Kettering, OH

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