The Bourbons were in power when rumblings of World War I began to break the tranquility of the first decades of the twentieth century. Alexandria had become a center for the fledgling Union movement in the lumber industry, as well as having a fair number of Socialists among its citizens. But World War I put an end for the time being to the cries of the dissenters and Rapides participated wholly in the war effort.
This was the period when Camp Beauregard came into being.