active service, but it suffered severely from disease while in the camps, losing a number of men from this cause. In 7–8 February 1904, the Great Fire destroyed most of the waterfront and central business district of the city. The Fifth Regiment of the Maryland National Guard was called out and spent several days rescuing persons and property and establishing order. In this same year the Fifth Regiment Armory, along North Howard Street near West Chase, and Biddle Streets, under construction for four years with its massive thick granite stone block walls and a barrel-vaulted roof occupying practically an entire city block, was dedicated in Baltimore. The landmark Fifth Regiment Armory, often serving as a meeting hall and convention place hosted the 1912 Democratic National Convention where Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey received the nomination over Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Champ Clark of Missouri. Two decades later, after a devastating fire in 1932, the old armory was reconstructed using the same walls but a flatter roof. and served as the headquarters for the regiment until 1995. In 1916, the entire state National Guard was mobilized for service on the Mexican border, ostensibly to put down the Mexican "Pancho Villa", but more probably turned out as unexpected training for World War I, which began in Europe in 1914. The regiment spent eight months at Eagle Pass, Texas until the United States severed diplomatic relations with Germany in February 1917. World War I The regiment had just returned to Baltimore, when in April 1917, the United States entered the First World War. The Fifth Regiment was at once a part of the Army of the United States. In spite of strenuous efforts in opposition, the Fifth Maryland was combined with the First Maryland Regiment to form the 115th Infantry Regiment, 58th Brigade, 29th Division on 20 April 1917. Training at Anniston, Alabama, was followed by departure for France. After preliminary service in Alsace, the 115th entered the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on 8 October 1918, and continued in the attack almost up to the close of the war. The 115th Infantry demobilized in June 1919. The Fifth Maryland Regiment reorganized between 1919 and 1923 and was federally recognized on 1 May 1923. The regiment resumed its normal course of training for further emergencies. In 1933, its armory was wrecked by fire, but a new building was erected from the ruins.