Remount Depot at Keyton Station - Montgomery, Alabama
Posted by: 
xptwo
N 32° 21.661 W 086° 16.403
16S E 568363 N 3580684
Two-sided marker at the site of Keyton Staion where the Army had a remount depot in World War One.
Waymark Code: WMDKWQ
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 01/28/2012
Views: 16
Although Camp Sheridan was some miles north of this point, this station was a prime location to ship and store the horses and mules needed to support an World War I Army infantry division. Today we tend to forget how important pack animals were until the complete transformation to mechanized warfare by the time of World War II. The marker is located on East 5th Street, to the west of the intersection with Robinson Hill Road. It was placed by the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Historical Promotion and Preservation Foundation and the Alabama Historical Association in 1996
Marker Name: Remount Depot / Keyton Station
Marker Type: Urban
Addtional Information::
The text of the marker reads
Remount Depot
During World War I, in the summer of 1917 the U.S. Army opened a remount depot here to buy horses and mules for Camp Sheridan's 27,000-man 37th Division from Ohio. Despite the introduction of motor transport to war, an infantry division still needed nearly 4,000 horses and 2,700 mules as draft, riding and pack animals to pull 40-wagon trains, guns and field ambulances in 1918. This post occupied 160 acres alongside the Central of Georgia R.R. on the highest elevation within 20 miles of Montgomery.
Keyton Station
Major K.F. Schumann commanded this depot during most of the war. It had a capacity of 5,000 animals with 14 corrals and 14 packing chutes at the railroad platform. About 300 officers and men were in the permanent party and a blacksmith school trained 100 farriers. Troops were quartered south of the railroad and the animals kept to the north. The Remount Depot closed June 1919. The railroad stop here was called Keyton Station.
Date Dedicated / Placed: 1996
Marker Number: Not Listed
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Visit Instructions:
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