Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Having found, after three weeks in our mobilizationcamp, that there was a great desire on thepart of the officers and men of individual organizationsto become acquainted with their co-workers,and realizing the necessity of personal contact for ourmutual benefit to secure the co-ordination of eachbranch of the service into a unit of the highest possibleefficiency, I have undertaken to compile this Roster.Any success attained is due to the hearty co-operationof Major-General William A. Mann, Colonel DouglassMacArthur, the Statistical Department and Officers ofDivision Headquarters.
The Rainbow Division was so christened by Secretaryof War Baker when he assembled the official Forty-secondbecause it represented organizations fromtwenty-six States of the Union, embracing a territoryfrom coast to coast and from Maine to the Gulf ofMexico.
In his selection, only those units which had shownmarked ability making them worthy of distinction werechosen, the majority having seen actual service eitherin the Spanish-American War or during the morerecent border troubles. To be among them is anhonor of which any man can justly be proud; forbeing so chosen is significant of the proven abilitythat our country appreciates. One hundred millionpeople depend upon the Rainbow Division to carryOld Glory to victory on the battlefields of Europe. Thedivision is selected to be among the first to Franceand to be America’s representatives in the greateststruggle of the ages.
May its career be as brilliant as the rainbow itself.