12. The American troops deployed to Siberia were from mostly warm climates
The American troops which deployed to Siberia came initially from garrison units in the Philippines and were later supported by regiments deployed from Camp Fremont, Palo Alto, California. General Graves had commanded at Camp Fremont during 1918. The Americans were thus totally unprepared for the length and frigidity of the Russian fall and winter. Although they were equipped with cold weather gear in sufficient supply, much of it was unsuitable for a variety of reasons. As with their counterparts in the Polar Bear Expedition, their winter boots were of a design known as Shackleton’s, low heeled and smooth soled, and their cloth tops and liners frequently became soaked during daylight, to freeze at night.
The horses and mules which the army relied on to tow its wagons in warm months and sometimes sleighs in winter were also acclimated to the warmer climates of the Philippines and California, and in Russia they dropped like the proverbial flies. Getting sufficient food to the horses and mules was problematic year round. Foraging parties were harassed by Red partisans and Cossacks, and enclosures where the animals were kept were so often raided that Graves was forced to double, and then triple the number of men assigned to patrol them. That winter, as Japanese territorial ambitions at Russian expense became more and more evident, Graves repeatedly sent warnings up the chain of command to Wilson, who blithely ignored them.