1905-1929

Bragg, Pope rise from Sandhills

Bragg

Pope

This is the story of how Fort Bragg came to be, how it was nearly abandoned and how it was made permanent, all in the span of three years.

Col. E.P. King, on a scouting mission under the direction of Maj. Gen. C.P. Snow, was touring the South in an Army staff car on a June morning in 1918.

His mission was to find a place suitable for training with the big artillery guns then being fired on the battlefields of France in World War I. He found an ideal location, with miles of room for shooting, in the sandhills near Manchester (Spring Lake) and the Lower Little River.

The Fayetteville Observer announced on July 24: "Fayetteville Gets Big Military Camp. It Will Be The Largest Yet Located In The United States and Will Be Permanent."

The Army drew up plans for a 135,000-acre range and a cantonment housing 16,000 troops, with an airfield and a 500-bed hospital. After the government moved in and bought the property, some families in Cumberland and surrounding counties were displaced from land they had farmed for generations.

Construction began in September 1918. On Sept. 4, Camp Bragg - named for Confederate general and North Carolina native Braxton Bragg - was officially established.

Even as World War I ended, the building continued and the first soldiers began arriving. On Jan. 7, 1919, Lt. Harley Pope died when his "Flying Jenny" airplane crashed into the Cape Fear River. Pope Field, later Pope Air Force Base, was named for him.

With an influx of construction workers, a new military city was taking shape in the sandhills, including housing, a hospital and a water system.

But on July 28, 1921, the Observer announced: "Fort Bragg To Be Abandoned."

The sprawling artillery post was on the hit list along with other installations as Congress looked to pare down the already-small postwar Army.

That's when a full-bore campaign to save the post began. It was led by Brig. Gen. A.J. Bowley, the post commander, working with Gen. Snow and others in Washington.

Fayetteville civic leaders, including John G. Shaw and Dr. J. Vance McGougan, rallied behind the post, which then had only about 70 officers and 1,700 enlisted men.

The maneuvering worked, as the Observer proclaimed in its "extra" edition on Sept. 14, 1921: "CAMP BRAGG WINS."

The post, which officially became Fort Bragg within a few months, was here to stay.

Camp Bragg was officially established on Sept. 4, 1918.