by Theo Emery
When she tucked the children in: Reorganization of the Army, 504.
The fens of Gunpowder Neck: Memorandum from Amos Fries to Executive Officer, Edgewood Arsenal, July 21,1919. General Fries Files, 1918–1920, O–S, RG 175, War Department, CWS, Fries’ Files, finding aid PI-8, entry 7, box 19, NACP.
He also drew up: Memorandum from Commanding Officer, Edgewood Arsenal, to Director, CWS, Re: Project for Future Operation of Edgewood Arsenal, July 8, 1919, War Department, CWS, General Fries’ Files, 1918–1920, RG 175, PI-8, entry 7, box 19, NACP.
Fries smelled nothing: Letter from Amos Fries to Lieutenant Colonel Earl J. Atkisson, Sept. 25, 1919, General Fries’ Files, A–C, RG 175, finding aid PI-8, entry 7, box 15, NACP.
Epilogue: “The Devil’s Perfume”
Around spring of 1921: “World Mastery Lies in Dew of Death,” New York Herald Magazine and Books, May 8, 1921, 79.
Fries’s aggressive advocacy: “Gas Warfare,” New York Times, May 13, 1921, 14.
Fritz Haber also helped: “Nobel Prizes to Germans,” New York Times, Nov. 15, 1919, 11.
An international outcry: McGrayne, Prometheans in the Lab, 73.
As debate over Haber: Letter from Arthur B. Lamb to Ellwood Hendrick, Feb. 13, 1920, HUG 4508.7, Special Personal Files for 1918–19, General A–L, box 5, Arthur B. Lamb Papers, Harvard University Archives.
At the fixed-nitrogen laboratory: Signal Corps photo 111-SC-67774, NACP.
As the talks over chemical: “Do Away with Gas, Is Plea of Maimed Boys out at Walter Reed,” Washington Times, Dec. 14, 1921, 1.
During the disarmament conference: Committee on Limitations of Land Armaments report, Nov. 30, 1921, John J. Pershing Papers, 1882–1971, General Correspondence, 1904–48, box 81.
In late February of 1920: “Sibert to Leave Chemical Warfare Service,” New York Times, Feb. 29, 1920, 10.
ordered to assume command: “Sibert’s Transfer Stirs Army Men,” New York Times, Mar. 1, 1920, 15.
The War Department scuttlebutt: “Sibert Transfer Punishment, Says Herty,” Chemical Engineer, 28, no. 3 (Mar. 1920): 78.
The demotion was an unmistakable rebuke: “General Sibert Resigns,” New York Times, Apr. 7, 1920, 10.
He moved to a farm: “Kentucky Calls to the Fox Hunter,” New York Times, Nov. 2, 1924,
He remarried: Clark, William L. Sibert, 175–87.
How exactly Fries: “Pershing on Duty as Chief of Staff,” New York Times, July 2, 1921, 4.
That year, the league held: “Arms Sale Parley Opens in Geneva,” New York Times, May 5, 1925, 23.
After the delegates returned: Frederic J. Brown, Chemical Warfare: A Study in Restraints (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968), 104
Many other members: “Will Fight Abolition of Poison Gas,” New York Times, Nov. 15, 1926, 2.
Shortly after the Geneva talks: “Signing of Accords Ends Arms Parley,” New York Times, June 18, 1925, 4.
Lewis was recalled: War Department order, June 16, 1925, courtesy of L. Philip Reiss.
Fries spoke of how preparation: “Gas Upheld as Humane in War,” Sept. 25, 1925, publication unknown, L. Philip Reiss Collection.
Even General John Pershing: Letter from John J. Pershing to Senator W. W. Borah, Dec. 10, 1926, John J. Pershing Papers, 1882–1971, General Correspondence, 1904–48, box 81.
The rejection so enraged: “Hits Legion on Poison Gas,” New York Times, Jan. 22, 1927, 7.
For a time, he claimed: “Gen. Fries Defends Chlorine Treatment,” New York Times, Jan. 6, 1925, 14.
Years after the war: Letter from Van H. Manning to George A. Burrell, Nov. 24, 1923, Correspondence 1917–23, A–Cha, HUG 4508.5, box 5, Arthur B. Lamb Papers. 1. Letter from unnamed agent in charge to Mr. J. M. Nye, Chief Special Agent, Department of State, Dec. 5, 1919, Investigative Case Files of the BOI, 1908–1922.
When he died: “Dr. Van H. Manning to Be Buried Today,” Washington Post, July 15, 1932, 5.
In late January of 1920: “2,855 New Cases of Influenza; 30 Deaths Reported,” New York Times, Jan. 26, 1920, 2.
Despite his temperance: “Richmond Levering Dies of Pneumonia,” New York Times, Jan. 30, 1920, 15.
Even the Department of Justice: Alien Property Custodian Investigation Report into Richmond Levering and A. Bruce Bielaski, Investigative Case Files of the BOI, 1908–1922, NARA M1085, OGF, 1909–21, case no. 8000-12490, roll 335, NACP.
On December 9: U.S. Patent Office, patent no. 1,382,804, US1382804-0.
On September 16, 1920: Beverly Gage, The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 30.
His report identified: Ibid., 199.
The New York Times: “Wall Street Explosion Laid to Gelatin,” New York Times, Oct. 16, 1920, 16.
Just before the Wall Street bombing: Letter from Rear Admiral W. Strother Smith to W. H. Meadowcraft, July 25, 1920, Edison Papers, reel 281, frame 164.
Edison’s assistant provided: Letter from W. H. Meadowcraft to Rear Admiral W. Strother Smith, July 28, 1920, Edison Papers, reel 281, frame 166.
Five years after his indictment: “Dr. Scheele Let Off with One-Day Term,” New York Times, Feb. 26, 1920, 7.
He bought advertisements: City directory, Hackensack, NJ, 1921–22, 24.
The following year: “Dr. Walter T. Scheele Dead,” Washington Post, Mar. 6, 1922, 3.
As World War II began: “Gen. Fries Says Planes Will Decide War: Holds Neither Side Can Hope to Win Unless It Dominates in Air,” Washington Post, Sept. 5, 1939, 1.
President Franklin Roosevelt: “President Assails War Gases in Veto,” New York Times, Aug. 5, 1937, 8.
While the Nazis: Brown, Chemical Warfare, 230.
In an unspeakable: McGrayne, Prometheans in the Lab, 77.
After the war: Annie Jacobsen, Operation Paperclip (New York: Little, Brown, 2014).
“It will be used”: Fries memoir.
In 1974, almost fifty years: Tucker, War of Nerves, 235.
President Trump used: “Transcript and Video: Trump Speaks about Strikes in Syria,” New York Times, Apr. 6, 2017.
“The new profession”: Warren K. Lewis, “Chemical Engineering: A New Science, date unknown, Warren K. Lewis Papers (MC 578), box 3, Institute Archives and Special Collections, MIT Libraries, Cambridge, MA.
James Bryant Conant: James B. Conant, Memorandum I: Teaching and Research in the 1920s (outline and notes for Conant’s 1970 memoir My Several Lives), call no. UAI 15.898, box 11, Papers of James Bryant Conant, 1862–1987, Harvard University Archives.
In a draft of a document: History of Chemical Warfare Service, AEF, 17.
Fries himself acknowledged this: Amos A. Fries, letter to the editor, San Francisco Journal, Mar. 29, 1923, Chemical Warfare Correspondence, 1918–1940, RG 197, finding aid PI-8, entry 1, box 469, NACP.
He died in Poughkeepsie: “Tom Jabine,” Gas Attack, May 1938, 2.
His gassing at Charpentry: Thomas Jabine Jr., “Learning to Fly for the Navy.”
Harold Higginbottom—“Higgie”: Phone interview with Betty Higginbottom.
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