Roster of the Rainbow division (Forty-Second) Major General Wm. A. Mann commanding — Text and Context

Structure and Scope

The roster is organized by unit, beginning with division headquarters and proceeding through artillery, infantry, and support branches. Each entry typically includes name, rank, and home address. For example, the 117th Field Signal Battalion from Missouri is listed, as are the 117th Ammunition Train from Kansas and the 117th Supply Train from Texas. The 149th Machine Gun Battalion hails from Pennsylvania. This geographic diversity is central to the division's identity.

Diction and Voice in the Foreword

Johnson's foreword employs a formal yet earnest tone. He writes of the “great desire” for acquaintance and the “necessity of personal contact” for efficiency. The phrase “co-ordination of each branch of the service into a unit of the highest possible efficiency” reveals a bureaucratic precision. He credits Major-General Mann, Colonel MacArthur, and the Statistical Department, emphasizing institutional cooperation. The closing line, “May its career be as brilliant as the rainbow itself,” uses a simile that ties the division's name to aspiration.

Addresses as Social Record

The home addresses in the roster offer a snapshot of early 20th-century America. Soldiers from New York City list streets like 173 E. 90th St. and 108 E. 81st St., while others come from small towns: Olean, New York; Matamoras, Pennsylvania; East Liberty, Pennsylvania. Some addresses include rural routes or post office boxes. A few soldiers give Irish origins, such as “Labasheeda, Co. Clare, Ireland.” These details ground the division in specific communities.

Rank and Role Distribution

The entries show a hierarchy of ranks: privates, privates first class, corporals, sergeants, and first sergeants. Special roles appear, such as “Cook” for Michael J. O’Brien. The roster includes ordnance detachments and engineer trains, indicating the division's logistical breadth. The 117th Engineer Regiment draws from South Carolina and California, while the 117th Engineer Train comes from North Carolina. This mix of states and roles underscores the Rainbow Division's composite nature.

Readers should approach this roster as a primary document of military organization and social history. The names and addresses are not mere data but traces of individual lives converging in a single division. Johnson's compilation, though utilitarian, reveals the deliberate assembly of a national force. The foreword's emphasis on efficiency and honor frames the list as both a practical tool and a patriotic statement.

There’s something humbling about those old lists—names, ranks, addresses—all those lives folded into a page. I kept thinking about that while reading The Tunnellers of Holzminden (with a side-issue) — Text and Context. It felt less like history and more like a quiet room where someone left the lights on, holding a breath I hadn’t expected to remember.