Editing Fort Gregg-Adams (section)

=== World War I ===
[[File:"Looking east from the water tank, Camp Lee, Va" - Barracks and buildings, Camp Lee, Va.jpg|thumb|Looking East from the Water Tank, Camp Lee, VA]]
Just 18 days after a state of [[American entry into World War I|war with Germany]] was declared, the first Camp Lee was established as a state mobilization camp and later became a division training camp.<ref name="auto"/>

Camp Lee was the mobilization center for the [[80th Division (United States)|80th Division]], the Blue Ridge Division. Because of significant common heritage in the past (Colonial Wars, [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], and [[American Civil War|Civil War]]), residents of [[Pennsylvania]], [[Virginia]] and [[West Virginia]] became the structure of the 80th Division. The 80th Division was organized in August 1917 at Camp Lee, Virginia. The units were made up mostly of men from the above three states.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stultz |first=Russell |title=History of the Eightieth Division A.E.F. in World War I: The Blue Ridge Division |publisher=Published by The Descendants of the 80th Division Veterans |isbn=0-9759341-7-1 |editor-last=Anthony |editor-first=Lee S. |publication-date=2004}}</ref>

Before long, Camp Lee became one of the largest "cities" in Virginia. More than 60,000 Doughboys trained here prior to their departure for the Western Front and fighting in France and Germany. Included among the many facilities here was a large camp hospital situated on 58 acres of land. One of the more trying times for the hospital staff was when the worldwide [[Spanish flu|influenza epidemic]] reached Camp Lee in the fall of 1918. An estimated 10,000 Soldiers were stricken by flu. Nearly 700 of them died during a couple of weeks.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web |publisher=Command History Office, US Army |date=11 September 2023 |title=Fort Gregg-Adams History |url=https://home.army.mil/greggadams/history |website=Fort Gregg-Adams Command History Webpage}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>

In June 1917, building began and within sixty days some 14,000 men were on the installation. The post was home to the 155th Depot Brigade. The role of depot brigades was to receive recruits and draftees, then organize them and provide them with uniforms, equipment and initial military training. Depot brigades also received soldiers returning home at the end of the war and carried out their mustering out and discharges. When construction work ended, there were accommodations for 60,335 men.

In 1920 Camp Lee was still active, as the US 1920 Census showed many soldiers still stationed there. After World War I, Camp Lee was taken over by the Commonwealth of Virginia and designated a game preserve. Later, portions of the land were incorporated into the [[Petersburg National Battlefield]] and the [[Federal Correctional Institution, Petersburg]]. In 1921, the camp was formally closed, and its buildings were torn down, all save one – the so-called "White House". During the war, this two-story wood-framed structure served as 80th Division Headquarters and as temporary residence for its Commander, Major General [[Adelbert Cronkhite]]. Years later, it became known as the "Davis House" in honor of the family that lived there in the 1930s and 40s.<ref name="auto1"/>