Camp Jackson (later Fort Jackson) had an immediate financial impact on the surrounding community.  By August 26, 1917, the camp employed 9,592 men, and by mid-August the Columbia City Trolley Company had connected the camp with downtown to encourage business patronage and provide soldiers with access to social activities, such as dances and theater outings.  Droves of incoming soldiers and support personnel soon arrived at Camp Jackson, a veritable city within a city that boasted housing, mess halls, a theater, officer quarters, a library, training fields, a hospital, and other buildings totaling around $12 million dollars’ worth of construction.  On September 5, 1917, the first white draftees arrived at the camp, whereas the first black draftees entered the following month. 

By July 1918, Camp Jackson’s population peaked at 44,242 men, many of whom helped create an economic boom in Columbia’s economy.  Conversely, Columbians participated in a series of nationwide Liberty Loan campaign drives that encouraged citizens to buy war bonds for funding the war.  Parades, organized to remind civilians of their patriotic duty to support the Liberty Loan drives, “kept [Columbians] wild with pride and patriotic fever,” recalled Margaret Devereux.