This blog is about a man, a railroad, and a war. It is the history, one hundred years later, of EP Dudley’s experience in the 13th Engineers (Railway) during the First World War and covers the period 1917 to 1919.

Edwin Paul Dudley

Edwin Paul Dudley was born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1890. More correctly, he was born in the community of Argentine, the Santa Fe Railroad’s name for Kansas City. His father was a sailor-turned-railroader, and was one of the first engineers to handle passenger service on the line between Chicago and Kansas City. Edwin always wanted to follow in this father’s footsteps, and started his own railroad career during his school break in the summer of 1904 wiping down the rods on the steam engines in the shops in Fort Madison, Iowa. He progressed quickly up the ranks, becoming a telegraph operator and, at the tender age of twenty-one, a dispatcher in the division headquarters in Marceline, Missouri. By the time he retired in 1956, he was Assistant General Manager of the Western Lines of the Santa Fe, overseeing the operations from No. 4, his personal railway car.

At the time of the call to service, Edwin was a dispatcher in La Junta, Colorado. Santa Fe president E. P. Ripley issued a letter informing all employees that if they enlisted in the army they would be protected in their jobs at the conclusion of the war, and would return to the same position or better than they vacated; their standing with the company on all privileges such pension rights and seniority would be rigidly protected. This policy was mandated by federal law in World War II, but in the First World War it was entirely at the discretion of management. Edwin jumped at the chance to serve his country, and fortunately for us, he maintained a diary of his experiences during the war.

Edwin Dudley is also my grandfather. I remember him from his visits to our house in Pueblo, Colorado when I was a child, and he also had the foresight to leave behind a rich legacy in the personal memoirs he wrote in retirement.

13th Engineers (Railway)

The 13th Engineers (Railway) regiment was one of the first American units to reach the front lines in Europe after the US declared war in April 1917. It consisted of experienced men from all the major US railroads, and was initially attached to the 2nd French Army. More about the formation and history of the unit will be in the blog posts to follow.

I began this project with just the idea of transcribing the handwritten diary my grandfather kept while serving with the 13th Engineers in France during the First World War. But as I read it through, there were many questions that occurred to me about the time and the events he experienced, and I felt I should do more. Each experience is more than just a day’s events. It is a snapshot of the politics, of the society, of the times when he lived, and of the conflict that raged just a few miles away at the front lines. So rather than just preserve his diary as a simple transcription, I have attempted to fill in a few gaps, find a few photographs, and record his experiences in the broader context of the war, and of his life. In doing so, I have come to understand this diary a little better myself, and I will hopefully leave a clearer picture of Edwin Dudley for his great-grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren, who might be interested.

“April 6, 1917
WHEREAS, The Imperial German Government has committed repeated acts of war against the people of the United States of America; therefore, be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial German Government.”

This first blog post is made on April 6, 2017, 100 years after our country made a formal declaration of war on Germany. I intend to make this blog more or less a concurrent (plus 100 years) record of the experience of our country, the 13th Engineers, and of my grandfather, in the war to end all wars.