THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



427 



A few scattered farms, wood-covered 

 hills, and stretches of close underbrush 

 patched the gently rolling country. The 

 glistening rails of the Norfolk and West- 

 ern Railroad trailed over this ground to 

 City Point. The site was as bare of the 

 elements that constitute a city as any 

 farm area you may glimpse from the 

 window of a speeding train. Such was 

 Camp Lee before the first timber was 

 cut or the first nail driven. 



Behold today that barren area trans- 

 formed. In your imagination, climb with 

 me to the top of that spindle-shanked 

 water tower that now dominates the 

 scene. Below us are the shining metalled 

 roofs of a thousand houses ; grouped as 

 regularly as battle lines of an army, they 

 stretch away in two curves to the east. 



A broad belt of road divides the lines 

 of the houses through the center. On one 

 side of this belt are the low structures of 

 the officers' quarters, the administration 

 buildings, and the hospitals ; on the other 

 side rise the soldiers' two-storied barrack 

 buildings. These stand in sets of fours, 

 the number necessary to house a bat- 

 talion, one barrack to a company. Be- 

 yond the company barracks are other 

 structures — a house for the band, the 

 regimental general store (where the sol- 

 dier can buy anything from a cone of ice 

 cream to a set of safety-razor blades and 

 know that the profits thereof will go to- 

 ward buying extras for his mess), and the 

 buildings of the Young Men's Christian 

 Association. Flanking these are the 

 warehouses. 



EFFICIENCY THE KEY-NOTE OF THE 

 CANTONMENT LAY-OUT 



The men who planned these cities 

 sought no aesthetic municipal effect ; 

 utility was the key-note throughout, and 

 the grenadier-like formations of the row 

 following row of buildings might be 

 criticised on the score of monotony ; but 

 for convenience of the officers and men 

 who are working and training 14 hours 

 each day to the end of creating the Na- 

 tional Army, they closely approach the 

 ideal. 



The new soldiers live within three 

 minutes' march of their work. They have 

 but to cross the main camp road, pass the 



officers' quarters, and they parade a drill 

 ground suitable for the work of any unit 

 from a squad to a regiment. In a word, 

 officers and soldiers live with their work. 

 In their unpainted rawness, the houses 

 of this city again bring to mind the new 

 mining camp ; but no mining camp ever 

 boasted the water, light, and plumbing 

 installments of the cantonment. You will 

 search in vain for architectural embellish- 

 ment in any building from one end of 

 the cantonment to the other, but in every 

 barracks and quarters you enter you will 

 find all the items included in the general 

 term modern conveniences — from elec- 

 tric lights to shower baths. These con- 

 veniences, which in the United States we 

 have come to look upon in the light of 

 necessities, temper the raw and Spartan 

 simplicity of the buildings. 



THE OFFICERS' QUARTERS 



The officers' quarters have no advan- 

 tages not vouchsafed the men, except the 

 very necessary one of privacy. Their 

 quarters are long, low buildings about 

 25 feet wide by 150 feet long. The bat- 

 talion commander — remember, the bat- 

 talion is the cantonment street unit — lives 

 in two rooms at one end of this building, 

 his captains and lieutenants have each 

 one room throughout its length, and in 

 the end is the battalion mess and kitchen. 

 The arrangement is ideal in its simplicity. 



Parallel to the row of officers' quar- 

 ters are the regimental offices, where the 

 colonel, the adjutant, the sergeant major, 

 the supply officers, and staffs conduct the 

 business of the regiment. Plere again all 

 is subordinated to utility. Each office is 

 a bare-boarded room, but the never-ceas- 

 ing tinkle of the typewriters, the ring of 

 the telephones, and the hurrying of order- 

 lies indicate the activities of organization 

 in full swing. 



The office buildings face the row of 

 company barracks, the homes of the men 

 of the National Army. All are of the 

 same outline — framed structures, 120 feet 

 long by 40 feet wide and two stories 

 high. At one end of this boxlike build- 

 ing a short extension holds the kitchen. 

 Such is the house where the men sleep 

 and eat ; they have all outdoors in which 

 to work and play. 



