The Citizen Soldiers: The Plattsburg Training Camp Movement, 1913-1920

The Citizen Soldiers deals with the military reform movement which took its name from the famous Business Men's Military Training Camps at Plattsburg, New York. It is also the story of two men who led the training camp movement: General Leonard Wood, the controversial former Rough Rider; and Grenville Clark, New York lawyer planned the political strategy and organized the civilian groups in the training camps. Far from being militarists, the Plattsburgers emphasized the need for a 'citizen army' rather than a professional establishment. This, they held, required universal military training in time of peace as well as in time of war. The debate over universal military training continued in the years prior to 1917 and after the war when Congress debated the 1920 Defense Act. Though it was partly vindicated in 1917 when the Wilson Administration supported the Selective Service Act and more-so realized in the National Defense Act of 1920.