John Van Bokkelen Metts Papers, WWI 62

[Item name or title], [Box Numbers], [Folder Numbers], John Van Bokkelen Metts Papers, WWI 62, WWI Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.

The collection is composed of photographs, military unit rosters, unit histories, military correspondence and reports, Old Hickory (30th) Division Association, biographical information, military appointment records, and miscellaneous documents, from the service of Maj. Gen John Van Bokkelen Metts of Wilmington, North Carolina, during his time as a commanding officer in the North Carolina National Guard amid the Mexican Border Crisis from 1916 to 1917; as commander of the 119th Infantry, 60th Brigade, 30th Division, U.S. Army, during World War I; and as the North Carolina National Guard Adjutant General from 1920 through 1951. The collection is organized in three series: Series I: World War I Materials; Series II: North Carolina Adjutant General Materials; and Series III: Oversized Materials.

The collection is arranged by format, subject content, and size within folders. The collection is divided into three series:

Series I: World War I Materials
Series II: North Carolina Adjutant General Materials
Series III: Oversized Materials

John Van Bokkelen Metts was born on December 17, 1876, in Wilmington, North Carolina, to James I. and Cornelia Cowan Metts. John V. B. Metts attended the Tileston Normal School, then Cape Fear Academy in Wilmington until age sixteen. Due to his father's influence on his life as a former Confederate Civil War officer, Metts took U.S. Army extension courses as a youth. John Metts spent two years in the wholesale grain business with his father, before joining the Walker Taylor Insurance Company in Wilmington. After five years, he sold his interest in the company, and established his own general insurance business. In 1894, John V. B. Metts enlisted in the Wilmington Light Infantry, which later became a part of the North Carolina National Guard as a private. While in the North Carolina National Guide, Metts began rising through the ranks, becoming a captain in 1903, and lieutenant colonel in 1907. While serving in the National Guard, he would serve on the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners in Wilmington. In 1906, Metts married Josephine Budd of Petersburg, Virginia. The couple had two children, Josephine Budd Metts Huntt and John Van Bokkelen Metts Jr.

John V. B. Metts was called into active U.S. military service in June 1916. He went with members of the 2nd Infantry, North Carolina National Guard, to serve in the Mexican Border Crisis between 1916 and March 1917, including being stationed in Columbus, New Mexico, in February 1917, and in El Paso, Texas. Metts was commissioned a colonel in 1917 while along the Mexican border. After returning from the Mexican border by order of President Woodrow Wilson, Metts' regiment came to train at Camp Sevier, South Carolina, at the United States' entrance into World War I. While Metts was at Camp Sevier, the 30th Division was organized, and his North Carolina National Guard unit was converted into the U.S. Army as the 119th Infantry, 60th Brigade.

While in Europe during WWI, John V. B. Metts commanded the 119th regiment throughout in three major operations, including the Ypres defense sector, the Ypres-Lye offensive, and the Somme offensive. Metts was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, receiving special recognition for the combat action of his regiment in breaking the Hindenburg Line in September 1918. The 119th Infantry returned to the United States in April 1919. When the 119th Infantry was demobilized from active service, Colonel Metts continued in active service with the Operations Branch of the U.S. War Department's General Staff, and as the commanding officer of the Panama Replacement Depot at Jackson Barracks in New Orleans, Louisiana. While in Louisiana, John V. B. Metts was appointed North Carolina Adjutant General, serving initially under Governor Thomas W. Bickett. Metts moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1920, and remained in that city until his death.

As Adjutant General, Metts reorganized the North Carolina National Guard. In June 1926, he also assumed command of the 60th Brigade, 30th Division, as a brigadier general of the line, in which position he served until 1936. In 1940, Adjutant General Metts was appointed to be the state director of the U.S. Selective Service System by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Metts served throughout World War II as both Adjutant General and state director of the Selective Service System. When the entire North Carolina National Guard was activated into federal service during WWII, Metts began to organize the North Carolina State Guard as a protective force for the state. After WWII, Metts had to reorganized the structure of the state's National Guard for the second time, as the war affected many structural requirements that were not able to be met in the pre-war organization. In 1949, Metts was promoted to the rank of major general. After serving North Carolina as Adjutant General for 31 years during the tenure of nine governors, John V. B. Metts resigned on July 31, 1951.

During his military career, Metts was president of the Adjutants Generals Association of the United States, and served on various committees of the National Guard of the United States. Metts received the Medal for Merit for Selective Service from President Harry S Truman. John Van Bokkelen Metts died on October 14, 1959, in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was buried in Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina.

[Biographical information taken from biographies within this collection, as well as from the Josephine Metts Huntt's biographical entry for "John Van Bokkelen Metts," Dictionary of North Carolina Biography: L-O. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2016]

The materials in this collection were received by the State Archives of North Carolina in separate donations between 1919 and 1921, and in 1999. John Van Bokkelen Metts communicated in 1919 and 1920 with the North Carolina Historical Commission (subsequently the State Archives of North Carolina). The Historical Commission acquired these items as part of an on-going World War historic materials collection project, which was authorized by Sections 3 and 4 of Chapter 144 of the North Carolina Public Laws and Resolutions in 1919. North Carolina's War Records Collector Robert B. House received these materials from the Metts, and entered the donations in the Historical Commission's accession registers in general descriptive terms. A letter included in the collection indicates the communication between Metts and House through around 1921.In June 1999, Josephine H. Rhinehart of Wilmington, North Carolina, a direct family descendant from John V. B. Metts, donated additional items to the Metts Papers in the Military Collection at the State Archives-including a number of artifacts of Metts which were transferred to the North Carolina Museum of History.