Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is an extremely scarce example of a hand-made WWI guidon for the 23rd Engineer Regiment, the Road Builders of the American Expeditionary Force. Guidons from the First World War are a heavily debated topic, with very few confirmed examples known. This is a fantastic French-made example that’s drawn instead of being a multi-piece construction, making it very unique. This would’ve been used on basecamp tents, buildings, workshops, etc.

The 23rd was constituted on 15 August 1917, in the National Army by the War Department General Order 108, as the 23d Engineer Regiment (Road).  In spite of the problems faced by the War Department and the Corps of Engineers since the declaration of war in the previous April, it took just three weeks to gather a nucleus of men and activate the 23d Engineers on 5 September 1917 at Camp Meade, Maryland.  There they began their training.  Very little has been recorded of these early days of the 23d Engineers except the terse entries in Army Records.

The 23rd Engineers began deploying to France in November 1917, and served in support of various allied actions, earning for itself the title "The Road Builders of the AEF."  Based upon the written histories of other units in the same sections, we know that the 23rd Engineers contended successfully with building and maintaining highways destroyed by shell fire, areas contaminated by chemical warfare that had to be rehabilitated in order to be used by the support troops, and as in any war, the enemy of all armies, mud.

The degree of success of the unit is measured by their nickname and earning three campaign streamers: Lorraine, Saint Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne.  

From the day of surrender of the Germany Army until June 1919, the 23rd Engineers were engaged in the standard after action (post hostilities) missions of clean up and repair.  In that month of June, the unit was returned to the United States.  The regiment, less the 2d battalion, was demobilized on 16 June 1919, at Camp Devens, Ma.  The 2d battalion was inactivated three days later at Camp Mills, NY.

The guidon itself measures roughly 12 x 16½”, while the frame measures roughly 22 x 18”.  It depicts the U.S. Engineers Castle with 23 drawn above in white. This is the first World War I guidon we have ever offered at IMA, and we don’t expect to find another one anytime soon. Comes ready for further research and display!

The guidon is framed but the frame does not have any mounting, so one will need to be installed to hang this on the wall.