Catalog Number: 1982.044.05

Now that mud season is (happily) upon us, have you dug out your best waterproof boots? If last year’s galoshes won’t cut it, consider finding a pair of Pershing boots, like the ones in the La Crosse County Historical Society’s collection.

“Oh the ruddy mud, the muddy mud, the mud that gets your goat,” wrote Corp. Jack Warren Carrol in a May 1918 edition of The Stars and Stripes. When American forces got to France in 1917 during World War I, they quickly found themselves marching, sleeping and fighting in mud.

Battlefields covering dozens of square miles turned into oceans of mud, and men and machines had to slog through it for months on end. U.S. infantry troops quickly discovered that their boots were not up to the task, largely because the leather uppers were not waterproof.

We can presume that having cold, wet feet for several days or weeks at a time did nothing for morale. But more importantly, the damp boots were ripe environments for the development of “trench foot,” a medical condition that at best hinders a soldier’s fighting ability, and at worst results in amputation.

In January 1918, Gen. John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, personally cabled the War Department to request a new boot. The result was the Pershing Boot, a larger, sturdier and more waterproof model. Impressed by their size and effectiveness, soldiers called them “Little Tanks.”

Many years ago, a Wisconsin soldier must have brought these boots home with him. After all, if the Pershing boots could stand up to the muddy fields of France, they should be able to handle a Wisconsin spring.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on March 14, 2015.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.