8. Camp Beauregard, Pineville, Louisiana
The United States Army established Camp Beauregard in 1917 as a training and mobilization site during the First World War. At the same time, the Army established the 17th Division, containing several units of infantry, which trained in preparation for deployment to France. The 17th division did not deploy during the course of the war, and in 1919 the Army demobilized at Camp Beauregard. The Army turned the facility over to the State of Louisiana the same year. Returned to Army control in 1940, Camp Beauregard expanded into an important training facility. It supported the Louisiana Maneuvers prior to US entry into World War II and continued to expand throughout the war.
After World War II Camp Beauregard again returned to Louisiana control, as a National Guard facility for two years, before deactivation. It returned to active status in 1973, underwent extensive modernization, and became an important training center for infantry and engineering commands. The 225th Engineer Brigade component of the Louisiana National Guard, one of the largest engineering commands of the United States Army National Guard, established its headquarters at Camp Beauregard. Camp Beauregard is sometimes confused with a Civil War-era Confederate camp of the same name, established in Kentucky in 1861. That camp became so disease-ridden that Confederate Colonel Thomas Logwood, ordered it abandoned and burned.