WWI Army Morning Report, Sep 1918, Page 8 on Fold3
Source: removepaywall.com
TL;DR
- This is a digitized scan of page 8 from a U.S. Army morning report dated September 1918.
- Morning reports track daily company-level personnel changes like duty status, transfers, illnesses, or absences for pay and rations.
- It aids genealogy researchers tracing WWI soldiers' service records on Fold3's archival collection.[[1]](https://blog.fold3.com/introducing-our-collection-of-morning-reports)
The story at a glance
The "article" links to an image of a historical U.S. Army morning report, page 8, from September 1918 during World War I, hosted on Fold3 behind a paywall. Fold3, run by Ancestry, digitizes National Archives microfilm for military records. It's reported now as part of their ongoing U.S. Morning Reports, 1912-1939 collection release in 2022.[[2]](https://www.fold3.com/publication/1141/us-morning-reports-1912-1939)[[1]](https://blog.fold3.com/introducing-our-collection-of-morning-reports)
Key points
- Document ID: Fold3 image 707954188, titled "Sep 1918 - Page 8 - US Morning Reports 1912-1939".
- Covers a specific infantry company (exact unit not visible without subscription; similar pages list e.g. Company B, 57th Infantry).[[3]](https://www.fold3.com/document/707300179/sep-1918-page-8-us-morning-reports-1912-1939)
- Location listed as United States in metadata, though WWI units were often overseas by late 1918.
- Reports daily roster updates: present for duty, sick, AWOL, transfers, promotions, or casualties.
- Part of 11+ million records in the collection, complete through 1939, from Army microfilm.[[2]](https://www.fold3.com/publication/1141/us-morning-reports-1912-1939)
- Requires Fold3 subscription for full view; previews show headers but blur details.
Details and context
Morning reports were company-sized forms filled daily to account for every soldier, affecting pay, rations, and muster rolls. They often list names, ranks, serial numbers, and status changes like "joined from hospital" or "to AWOL".[[1]](https://blog.fold3.com/introducing-our-collection-of-morning-reports)
This September 1918 timing aligns with the war's final months, including the Meuse-Argonne Offensive where U.S. units saw heavy action. Similar Fold3 pages from the period note infantry units training or deploying stateside before shipping out.
The collection helps reconstruct service since many WWII records burned in 1973; WWI ones like this survived on microfilm. Researchers search by unit and date, then scan roster pages for ancestors.
Key quotes
- "Morning reports are company-level reports that were filled out each day to reflect status changes of all personnel assigned to the unit." — Fold3 blog.[[1]](https://blog.fold3.com/introducing-our-collection-of-morning-reports)
Why it matters
These records preserve granular WWI Army data lost in later fires, filling gaps in official service histories. For family historians or vets' descendants, they confirm exact dates of illness, transfer, or duty, vital for claims or stories. Watch Fold3 for more digitizations beyond 1939, though unit indexes help navigate first.[[4]](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2022/05/morning-reports)
[[5]](https://www.fold3.com/image/707954188/sep-1918-page-8-us-morning-reports-1912-1939)