President Wilson speaks to Congress on 3 February 1917 announcing the severing of relations with Germany
The Great War reached a major turning point in the first week of February 1917. To the horror of German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, on January 31 Kaiser Wilhelm II allowed his military leadership to resume unrestricted submarine warfare against the Allies and their supporters. It was not quite the final straw for the United States; the pacifist sentiment among a majority of Americans was still too great. The New York Peace Party, for one, implored President Wilson to explore every measure for avoiding entrance into the war. Wilson was caught in the middle of several competing military and political forces, domestically and abroad. One hundred years ago today at 2:00 pm President Wilson addressed a joint session of Congress announcing the severing of diplomatic relations with Imperial Germany.
For all the talk among Preparedness advocates–not least Theodore Roosevelt–that Wilson was doing too little, the sitting president had been increasing America’s military readiness for much of the past year, especially with the appointment of Newton Baker as Secretary of War the previous March. It would take a few sinkings and the Zimmerman Telegram to finally bring America fully into the war. No one knew it at the time of course, but Wilson would address Congress asking for a declaration of war less than two months later on April 2.
(image/Library of Congress)
The Strawfoot 
May 13, 1916 was “Preparedness Day” as you noted in your blog last year. By early 1917 the American Red Cross was organizing base hospital units of 500 beds each all over the country with the understanding that the U.S. Army would take them over when the time came. The New York Hospital, Presbyterian, and Bellevue each staffed, supplied and funded a base hospital by the summer of 1916. They were not called into duty for a year and only became really busy with American casualties in early 1918.
Robert, indeed there were so many hospitals and what we would now call NGOs working in various capacities for the Allied war effort before and after Congress’s declaration of war.
It is amazing how long it took the U.S. to fully get up to speed even after the country joined the fight in April. As you point out, the Americans did not begin suffering mass casualties for a year after joining the war. I know there were a lot of logistical issues to work out, but I have always found it curious.