Holidays in peacetime can sometimes be taken for granted as we become wrapped up in ourselves, but in wartime things are different. The celebrations of 1917 would be the first time since the Civil War that the term “home front” would have real meaning.

By October, the United States had been involved in the Great War for seven months. During that time an army had been drafted and cantonments, such as Camp Dix in Burlington County, had been erected for its training.