Camp Toccoa Georgia and The 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment: How the Second World War came to Stephens County Georgia.

 Camp Toccoa Georgia and The 506^th Parachute Infantry Regiment: How the Second World War came to Stephens County Georgia.

Introduction

Stephens County, located in northeast Georgia in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains is strategically situated along the Atlanta-Charlotte Rail Road helped establish the community that labored in “furniture, thread, and steel” prior to the second World War.  The post-bellum era in northeast Georgia saw the railroad arrive and with it, economic expansion. A cotton mill, several furniture manufacturers, and two small colleges employed the local citizens of Toccoa and Stephens County. When the Second World War arrived in Stephens County the quiet Southern community, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, was forever change.

Background

Stephens County was founded on 18 August 1905. In the early 1900s it was a remote part of North Georgia and life centered around agriculture, furniture building, cotton mills and the railroad that connected Charlotte North Carolina with Atlanta, Georgia.

Life along the Blue Ridge in northeast Georgia was bucolic. From the “Southern Record” newspaper in Toccoa, Georgia, the news of 20 August, 1897, highlighted the changing of leadership at the Toccoa Cotton Mill. “Mr. T.A. Capps was elected to fill the vacancy caused by Mr. Matheson’s resignation” as the president of the mill. In addition, the “Southern Railway was running a mountain excursion to Asheville N.C. on 26 August.” Lastly, the “Blue Ridge and Atlantic Railroad was up for sale for 40,000.00 with no bids on the opening day of sale.[1]

Stephens County was named after Alexander Stephens, a classic Georgian and Southerner who was a statesman, Vice President of the failed Confederacy, and fifty-third Governor of Georgia. Stephens’ life-long companion, General Robert Toombs served in the Confederacy as a General and the County would be named after Stephens, while a camp would be named after Toombs. A Mr. William Peterfield Trent, wrote in his work of 1897, Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime: Washington, Jefferson, Randolph, Calhoun, Stephens, Toombs, and Jefferson Davis, that “Toombs was the more energetic whereas Stephens, the more shrewd.”[2] Both were ardent segregationists and Stephens would serve as a U.S. Senator after the war.

The city of Toccoa was strategically situated between the Charlotte, N.C. and Atlanta. The rail line facilitated the local entrepreneurs, from the cotton mill to the furniture manufactures and farmers, however the county remained small and rural. As a mini-transportation hub, Toccoa would eventually see 13 trains serving Toccoa, six going northeast from North Carolina to New York, and seven to Atlanta.”[3]

In 1898, five local men, all residents of Toccoa, mustered into service with Company G, 2^nd U.S. Infantry for service in the Spanish American War.[4] Life in Stephens County, however, was little touched in the late 1890s on into the new century.

In 1911, the ‘County Survey’ produced by the Hudgins Company showed the 1910 Census for the entire County as 9,728.[5] By 1930, the little city of Toccoa, the County seat of Stephens County, had a population of 4,602.[6]   

The first real experience of war for the young Stephens County was World War I.  By 1918, with America finally involved in the Great War in Europe, young men from Stephens County were being drafted.[7] In September of 1918, three men were ordered to report for induction at Camp Gordon Georgia. Of these six men, five worked in farming and the sixth, as a railroad clerk. By October, ten students and six more farmers and a young man who worked in the cotton mill were drafted. By November, they finally drafted the bank clerk.

On the heels of the Great War was for a moment, the ‘roaring twenties.’ The stock market crash of 1929 impacted the whole of the United States. Perhaps the most excitement in the early 1920s in Toccoa was a lawsuit involving just about every company in Toccoa. The United States vs the Capps Manufacturing Company, owner of the Capps Cotton Mill saw that a “new company will undertake the purchase of the assets belonging to the First National Bank, to be sold by said W. L. Wilson, receiver, and will undertake to purchase all the property of Capps Cotton Mill, Toccoa Banking Company, Toccoa Falls Light & Power Company, Georgia Furniture Company, and Toccoa Realty Company, so that said new company will have every asset, real, personal, and mixed, including notes, accounts, choses in action, judgments, mortgages, bonds, and everything obtainable from said companies and said receiver, all of said assets to belong solely to the new company after the payment of such indebtedness as may exist, not having been paid up to the time of said several companies, including the bonds due T. A. Capps, which are secured by mortgages on the property of said Capps Cotton Mill."[8]

There was a decline in key industrial production orders followed by, as some argue, a termination of the international gold standard. No matter the cause, the effect was the ‘Great Depression.’ President Roosevelt launched numerous programs across the United States to address unemployment, provide employment opportunities, and to address critical deficiencies across the nation’s infrastructure.

One of the key initiatives undertaken was the construction of defense facilities by both, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA).  Both organizations were unique and touched the lives of the citizens in Stephens County.  From 1935 to 1943, over 265,000 Georgians were employed by the WPA.[9] Camp Toccoa was originally constructed by the WPA along with Georgia National Guard officials, set out to build a small training camp complete with barracks, a fitness field, latrines, a mess hall, and offices. The camp was completed in 1940 and named Camp Toombs, after the famous Georgian General, segregationist and loyal friend to Alexander Stephens who shared his libertarian secessionist opinions.

Civilian Conservation Corps Newspaper; “Happy Days.”[10]

Post-Great War life returned to its bucolic patterns once again across Stephens County. By 1939, having eked out a living in the foothills of northeast Georgia, a Mr. C.W. Camp placed an advertisement in the January edition of the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s newspaper, the Farmers and Market Bulletin. “Pit game stags, never, trimmed, 7 or 8 mos. old. Quill and Gradys crossed, sale or trade.”

In 1941, the city of Toccoa was officially incorporated. “House Bill No. 447,” a proposed house bill amended a previously “approved act from December 20, 1897, incorporating the City of Toccoa.”[11]

 

The Geography

Stephens County has numerous lakes, creeks, and streams meandering down and around the foothills of the Blue Ridge in the Georgia Piedmont. The eastern boundary of the county is the Tugaloo River that separates Georgia and South Carolina.

Curahee Mountain in Stephens County Georgia was made famous by Stephen Ambrose’s book, “Band of Brothers, Easy Company, 506^th Regiment, 101^st Airborne, From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagles Nest.” At the base of the mountain are the remnants of Camp Taccoa, the roughly made camp, purpose built in July, 1942 to train the very first ‘paratroopers’ in the U.S. Army during the Second World War.

Curahee, a Cherokee word meaning “to stand alone,’ is a small mountain, approximately 900 feet in height. The mountain is 1,735 feet above sea level. Compact in size, it is, however, much like the rest of the locale; rugged. Upriver is Toccoa Falls, 186 feet in height, and one of the tallest freefalling waterfalls east of the Mississippi River.

 

Camp Toombs

Camp Toombs along with several other local area projects were all constructed in the mid to late 1930s to 1940. The camp was used for several summers by the “Camp Fire Girls,” who learned how to put out wild fires, and work backpack fire pumps in the summer of 1941.[12]

Camp Toombs, was turned over to the Georgia Army National Guard and ultimately opened in 1942 as one of several U.S. Army Camps dedicated for basic training of “Parachute Infantry” Regiments.

Originally called Camp Toombs, named for Confederate

  Camp Fire Girls receiving a Class circa 1941.[13]

Civil War General Toombs, the camp was commandeered in 1942 by the U.S. Army to prepare a new kind of soldier.

The Camp would house several thousand trainees between 1942 and 1944. Most of the Paratroopers would see action in Europe while several Regiments deployed to the Pacific theater.

In July 1942, 5,000 men arrived at the remote training camp 5 miles outside of Toccoa, Georgia at Currahee Mountain for training as a new type of soldier – a paratrooper.

Four regiments of men received their primary training as paratroopers here. During the next three years, 18,000 recruits passed through a space that was filled with hundreds of tents, buildings, training areas, roads, and parade grounds.[14]

Local Impact                                                                                                           

Stephens County would see many of its citizens employed at the Camp working as laborers, cooks, mechanics, administrative staff, and general support for the thousands of men who would train there.[15] At the height of the Camp’s operations, at full capacity, the population exceeded that of the City of Toccoa! In addition, and an often-forgotten aspect of Second World War history on the home front, many of the servicemen’s families accompanied the men for weeks and months at a time.

Of the servicemen training at Camp Toccoa in 1943 and 1944, many were from well beyond Georgia. Large numbers of Jewish Americans were serving at Camp Toccoa and they organized themselves for mutual support. Many of their spouses accompanied them to Toccoa. Many of the wives integrated themselves into the many volunteer organizations that established themselves in Stephens County during the war. “The wives [would] meet to do Red Cross bandage work and to prepare sandwiches for the men twice a month.”[16] The wives would participate in Friday service, attend choir, and mend clothing of their husbands and others during their stay at Camp Toccoa.

Aerial image of Camp Toccoa. Permanent and temporary structures.[17]

Other activities would follow such as the Army “taking over the Lake Louise Hotel” and turning it into the Camp Toccoa Hospital.[18] By 1942 small towns and communities across the United States were involved in activities to support what would grow to be the largest conflict in human history. Stephens County and the City of Toccoa saw citizens join in War Fund rallies to raise funds for the purchase of War Bonds, support Veterans, or even to outright support the war effort. The United Services Organization (USO) established nationwide chapters to support the millions of servicemen as they moved about the nation from recruit and training depots to active military installations.

The USO met in Toccoa at a repurposed building established for the USO activities like socials, dances, coffee and doughnuts. On September 29^th 1943, the USO meeting included speeches by USO officers as well as several officers from Camp Toccoa. Many in the audience were local to Stephens County while “Col. Bertram Morrow, Commander of the Second Army stationed at Toccoa, spoke on the value of the War Fund to the men in uniform and away from home” and “Col Gerald Woodruff, surgeon in charge of Station Hospital, Camp Toccoa, spoke on the three fronts served by the United War Fund, the Allied Front of United Nations, the Home front and the Military front.”[19]

Once the paratroopers deployed to England in early 1944 Camp Toccoa was then re-purposed to hold German Prisoners-of-War. In July of 1945, 100 German prisoners arrived at Camp Toccoa on Sunday aboard train “No. 30 and were taken to Camp Toccoa immediately, in trucks, where they will pick and pack the crop of peaches from the government orchards.”[20]

Legacy

Stephens County and the City of Toccoa operate a combined museum within the old train station converted to showcase and celebrate the local history. The County and many veterans concerned for the maintenance of the unique history associated with Camp Toccoa and the U.S. Army Paratroopers, have invested a great deal of time, energy, and funds to support their cause.

In 2010, for example, the museum “drew about 20,000 people [to] Toccoa, including those attending the Currahee Military Weekend and reunion that has become a fall feature.”[21] Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and the anniversary of D-Day are all important dates celebrated by the community of Stephens County and beyond. The Stephens County Historical Society and the Curahee Military Museum ensure that the history of Camp Toccoa and by default, the local area, is preserved through organized public history events all through the year.

Historians and history buffs alike, familiar with Stephen Ambrose’s fine work, Band of Brothers, the story of Company E, 2^nd Battalion 506^th Parachute Infantry Regiment, have excitedly participated in the numerous events that has positioned the Stephens County and Curahee museums to expand.

Stephens County, a quiet railroad town nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, adjacent to a small mountain named Curahee, endured expansion by the rail road in the 1880s, the horror of the Great War, and the subsequent trials of the Great Depression. The County and the little city of Toccoa were provided a front row seat in the greatest conflict in human history. Camp Toccoa and Curahee are important symbols of a shared and public history. The local governments of the County and city, through their museum, along with the Camp Curahee at Toccoa Project and the Stephens County Historical Society, demonstrate what is best about public history. Public history is practiced here and is done so by professionals and amateurs alike. Moreover, the historians, government officials, and the citizens of the local community model the code of standards as set out by the National Council of Public History (NCPH) as they “serve as advocates for the preservation, care, and accessibility of historical records and resources of all kinds, including intangible cultural resources.”[22] Camp Toccoa is indeed sacred ground, and the history of hardship and sacrifice is both, enshrined and forever remembered by a grateful small town today.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

PRIMARY SOURCES

1. “Blue Ridge and Atlantic Rail Road For Sale,” The Southern Record,   Toccoa, Georgia, 20 August 1897, https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn88054065/1897-08-20/ed-1/seq-3/#sort=date_asc&index=6&rows=12&words=camping+Toccoa&sequence=0&region=north&proxtext=Camp+Toccoa&amp=&page=1.

 

 

2. Capps Mfg. Co. V. United States No. 4767, Circuit Court of Appeals, 5^th, 15 F.2d 528 (1926), October 19, 1926. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/15/528/1547525/.

 

3. Chandler, Ray, “Toccoa and Its Paratrooper Camp Not Just a Distant Memory,” Independent Mail.  https://archive.independentmail.com/news/local/toccoa-and-its-paratrooper-camp-not-just-a-distant-memory-ep-412570595-349029551.html/.

 

 

4. County Maps, Surveyor General, RG 3-9-66, Georgia Archives. https://vault.georgiaarchives.org/digital/collection/cmf/id/411/rec/2.

 

5. County Maps, Surveyor General, RG 3-9-66, Georgia Archives. https://vault.georgiaarchives.org/digital/collection/cmf/id/412/rec/3.

 

 

6. “General Sink, STRAC Commander Visit,” Armored Sentinel, Vol. 17, No. 30, Ed. 1 Temple, Texas, Friday, December 18, 1959, newspaper, December 18, 1959. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth254614/: accessed February 23, 2022, University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Casey Memorial Library.

 

7. “German POW’s Arrive to Pick Peaches,” The Jackson Herald, Jefferson, Georgia, Thursday 19 July 1945. https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn89053140/1945-07-19/ed-1/seq-3/#sort=date_asc&index=10&rows=12&words=Camp+Toccoa&sequence=0&region=north&proxtext=Camp+Toccoa&amp=&page=7.

 

 

 

8. “Spanish American War Service Summary Cards”, Georgia Archives, University System of Georgia, (Bright James, Green, William, Lawson Merton, Nichols, Thomas and Wofford, Abb). https://vault.georgiaarchives.org/digital/collection/swc/search/searchterm/toccoa%2C%20ga./field/covera/mode/exact/conn/and.

 

 

9.  Georgia General Assembly, "Journals of the ten-days special session and the regular session of the House of Representatives of the State of Georgia 1941," House of Representatives, 1941, February 22, 2022. http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/do:dlg_ggpd_y-ga-bl404-b1941.

 

10. “Lake Louise Hotel,” The Jackson Herald, Jefferson, Georgia, Thursday 3 September 1942, 4. https://gahistoricnewspapers-files.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn89053140/1942-09-03/ed-1/seq-4.pdf.

 

11.  National Archives, Georgia SP Toccoa Downtown Historic District, National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Program Records: Georgia. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93209489.

 

12.  National Archives, Record Group 163: Records of the Selective Service System (World War I), 1917 – 1939, Series: Lists of Men Ordered to Report to Local Boards for Military Duty, 1917 – 1918, File Unit: Georgia - Spaulding, Stephens, Stewart, Talbot.

 

13.  National Archives, Civilian Conservation Corps Newspaper 'Happy Days,' 1933-1940, Series: "Happy Days" Newspapers, 5/20/1933 - 10/26/1940. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/208138788, Record Group 35: Records of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933 – 1953.

 

14.  National Archives, Camp Fire Girls, Photograph 414148, August 1941, NAI 7002926, Record Group 95-GP-119-414148, Photographic Print. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7002926.

 

15.  Photograph, Unknown, Camp Toccoa at Curhaee Project, Photo Gallery, https://www.camptoccoaatcurrahee.org/restoration-photo-gallery.

 

16.  Skodnik, Jack, Chairman, The Southern Israelite, Friday, September 24, 1943, Page 3 (Three), “With our Armed Forces: Fourth Service Command,” Toccoa, Georgia. https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn78003973/1986-09-19/ed-1/seq-1./.

 

17.  Stephens County Government, History, https://stephenscountyga.gov/camp-toccoa/.

 

 

18.  United States Federal Works Agency, Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-1943, Washington, D.C., U.S. Govt. Print Off, 1947, Retrieved from the Library of Congress. www.loc.gov/item/47032199/.

 

19. “War Fund Rally held at the USO Club,” The Forsyth County News, unknown, October 07, 1943, Vol 35, No. 40, Cumming, Ga. https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn84007709/1943-10-07/ed-1/seq-/#date1=01%2F01%2F1942&nottext=&date2=12%2F31%2F1944&words=Camp+camps+Toccoa&searchType=advanced&sequence=0&index=5&proxdistance=5&sort=relevance&rows=12&ortext=&proxtext=&andtext=Camp+Toccoa&page=7.

 

 

20.  William Peterfield Trent, Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime: Washington, Jefferson, Randolph, Calhoun, Stephens, Toombs, and Jefferson Davis, New York: T. Y. Crowell & company, 1897.

 

 

SECONDARY SOURCES

 

1. Camp Toccoa at Curahee Project, Photograph, Black and White, Photo Gallery. https://www.camptoccoaatcurrahee.org/photo-gallery-1.

 

2. National Council on Public History, NCPH Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, Item 1. https://ncph.org/about/governance-committees/code-of-ethics-and-professional-conduct/

 

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[1] “Blue Ridge and Atlantic Rail Road for Sale,” The Southern Record, Toccoa, Georgia, 20 August 1897, https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn88054065/1897-08-20/ed-1/seq-3/#sort=date_asc&index=6&rows=12&words=camping+Toccoa&sequence=0&region=north&proxtext=Camp+Toccoa&amp=&page=1

[2] William Peterfield Trent, Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime: Washington, Jefferson, Randolph, Calhoun, Stephens, Toombs, and Jefferson Davis, (New York: T. Y. Crowell & company, 1897) 200.

[3] National Archives, Georgia SP Toccoa Downtown Historic District, National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Program Records: Georgia, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93209489

[4] Georgia Archives, University System of Georgia, Spanish American War Service Summary Cards, (Bright James, Green, William, Lawson Merton, Nichols, Thomas and Wofford, Abb), https://vault.georgiaarchives.org/digital/collection/swc/search/searchterm/toccoa%2C%20ga./field/covera/mode/exact/conn/and.

[5] County Maps, Surveyor General, RG 3-9-66, Georgia Archives, https://vault.georgiaarchives.org/digital/collection/cmf/id/411/rec/2

[6] County Maps, Surveyor General, RG 3-9-66, Georgia Archives, https://vault.georgiaarchives.org/digital/collection/cmf/id/412/rec/3

[7] National Archives, Record Group 163: Records of the Selective Service System (World War I), 1917 – 1939, Series: Lists of Men Ordered to Report to Local Boards for Military Duty, 1917 – 1918, File Unit: Georgia - Spaulding, Stephens, Stewart, Talbot.

[8] Capps Mfg. Co. V. United States. No. 47675^th , Circuit Court of Appeals, 15 F.2d 528 (1926), October 19, 1926, https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/15/528/1547525/.

[9] United States Federal Works Agency, Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-1943, Washington, D.C., U.S. Govt. Print Off, 1947, Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/47032199/.

[10] National Archives, Civilian Conservation Corps Newspaper 'Happy Days,' 1933-1940, Series: "Happy Days" Newspapers, 5/20/1933 - 10/26/1940, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/208138788

Record Group 35: Records of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933 – 1953.

[11] Georgia General Assembly, House of Representatives, 1941," Journals of the ten-days special session and the regular session of the House of Representatives of the State of Georgia 1941," February 22, 2022, http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/do:dlg_ggpd_y-ga-bl404-b1941.

[12] National Archives, Camp Fire Girls Photograph 414148, August 1941, NAI 7002926, Record Group 95-GP-119-414148, Photographic Print, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7002926.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Stephens County Government, https://stephenscountyga.gov/camp-toccoa/

[15] History, Camp Toccoa at Curahee, https://www.camptoccoaatcurrahee.org/history-of-camp-toccoa.

[16]Jack Skodnik, Chairman, The Southern Israelite, Friday, September 24, 1943, Page 3 (Three), “With our Armed Forces: Fourth Service Command,” Toccoa, Georgia, https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn78003973/1986-09-19/ed-1/seq-1./.

[17] Camp Toccoa at Curahee Project, Photograph, Photo Gallery, https://www.camptoccoaatcurrahee.org/photo-gallery-1.

[18] “Lake Louise Hotel,” The Jackson Herald, Jefferson, Georgia, Thursday 3 September 1942, 4, https://gahistoricnewspapers-files.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn89053140/1942-09-03/ed-1/seq-4.pdf.

[19]  “War Fund Rally held at the USO Club,” unknown, The Forsyth County News, Vol 35, No. 40, Cumming, Ga., October 07, 1943,  https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn84007709/1943-10-07/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=01%2F01%2F1942&nottext=&date2=12%2F31%2F1944&words=Camp+camps+Toccoa&searchType=advanced&sequence=0&index=5&proxdistance=5&sort=relevance&rows=12&ortext=&proxtext=&andtext=Camp+Toccoa&page=7.

[20] “German POWs To Pick Peaches,” The Jackson Herald, Jefferson, Georgia, Thursday 19 July 1945, https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn89053140/1945-07-19/ed-1/seq-3/#sort=date_asc&index=10&rows=12&words=Camp+Toccoa&sequence=0&region=north&proxtext=Camp+Toccoa&amp=&page=7.

[21] Ray Chandler, “Toccoa and Its Paratrooper Camp Not Just A Distant Memory,” Independent Mail https://archive.independentmail.com/news/local/toccoa-and-its-paratrooper-camp-not-just-a-distant-memory-ep-412570595-349029551.html/.

[22] National Council on Public History, NCPH Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, Item 1, https://ncph.org/about/governance-committees/code-of-ethics-and-professional-conduct/