THE DELTA OF THE
TRIPLE ELEVENS
THE HISTORY OF
BATTERY D, 311th FIELD ARTILLERY
UNITED STATES ARMY,
AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES
By
WILLIAM ELMER BACHMAN
Standard-Sentinel Print
Hazleton, Pa.
1920
COPYRIGHT 1920
BY
WILLIAM ELMER BACHMAN
GROUP PHOTO OF BATTERY D. 311th F. A
Taken at Benoite Vaux, France, March 14, 1919. Reproduced from the Official Photo taken by the Photographic Section of the Signal Corps, U. S. A.
To
The memory of our pals
whom we buried in France
This Book
Is Dedicated
WILLIAM E. BACHMAN
ARMY RECORD.
Inducted into service at Hazleton, Penna., November 1st, 1917. Sent to Camp Meade, Md., November 2nd, 1917, and assigned as Private to Battery D, 311th Field Artillery. Received rank of Private First Class, February 4th, 1918. Placed on detached service, May 18th, 1918, and assigned as Battery Clerk, First Provisional Battery, Fourth Officers' Training School, Camp Meade. Rejoined Battery D June 27th, 1918, and accompanied outfit to France. Assigned to attend Camouflage School at Camp La Courtine, September 30th, 1918, and qualified as artillery camouflager. On October 3rd, 1918, was registered, through Major A. L. James. Jr., Chief G-2-D, G. H. Q., A. E. F., with the American Press Section, 10 Rue St. Anne, Paris, which registration carried grant to write for publication in the United States. Remained with battery until March 7th, 1919, when selected to attend the A. E. F. University, at Beaune, Cote D'Or. Rejoined battery at St. Nazaire May 1st, 1919. Discharged at Camp Dix, N. J., June 4th, 1919.
FOREWORD.
"You're in the Army now."
"So this is France!"
Oft I heard these phrases repeated as more and more the realization dawned, first at Camp Meade, Md., and later overseas, that war seemed mostly drudgery with only the personal satisfaction of doing one's duty and that Sunny France was rainy most of the time.
The memory of Battery D, 311th U. S. F. A., will never fade in utter oblivion in the minds of its members. 'Tis a strange fancy of nature, however, gradually to forget many of the associations and circumstances of sombre hue as the silver linings appear in our respective clouds of life in greater radiance as each day finds us drifting farther from ties of camp life.
Soldiers, who once enjoyed the comradeship of camp life, where they made many acquaintances and mayhap friends, are now scattered in all walks of civilian life. While their minds are yet alive with facts and figures, time always effaces concrete absorptions. The time will come when a printed record of Battery D will be a joyous reminder.
With these facts in mind I have endeavored to set forth a history of the events of the battery and the names and addresses of those who belonged.
The records are true to fact and figure, being compilations of my diaries, note-books and address album, all verified with utmost care before publication.
In future years when the ex-service men and their friends glance over this volume, if a moment of pleasant reminiscence is added, this book will have fully served its purpose.
William Elmer Bachman,
1920. Hazleton, Penna.
PREFATORY NOTE.
An effort has been made in this volume to state as concisely and clearly as possible the main events connected with the History of Battery D.
To recount in print every specific incident connected with the life of the organization, or to attempt a military biographical sketch of every battery member, would require many volumes.
My soldier-comrade readers will, no doubt, recall many instances which could have been included in this volume with marked appropriateness.
The selection of the material, however, has been with utmost consideration and for the expressed purpose of having the complete narrative give the non-military reader a general view of the conditions and experiences that fell to the lot of the average unit in the United States Army in service in this country and overseas.
Grateful acknowledgment is due to those who aided in the verification of all material used. Many of the battery members made suggestions that have been embodied in the text.
To A. Ernest Shafer, D. C., and Conrad A. Balliet, of Hazleton, Penna., belongs credit for information supplied covering periods when the author was on detached service from the battery. To Dr. Shafer acknowledgment is also due for the use of photographs from which a number of the illustrations have been reproduced.
From Prof. Fred H. Bachman, C. A. C., of Hazleton, Penna., who read over the manuscript, many valuable suggestions were received.
W. E. B.
Hazleton, Penna., 1920.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
World Events -- The Nucleus -- Declaration of War. U. S. Joins -- Selective Service Plans.
CHAPTER II.
Selection of Camp Meade Site -- Cantonment Construction Building Progresses -- Home Leaving Preparations.
CHAPTER III.
Officers at Fort Niagara -- Assignment of Officers Barrack org. -- New Soldiers Arrive.
CHAPTER IV.
Description of Barracks -- A Day's Routine -- Getting Catalogued -- Inoculations and Drills -- Soldiers Arrive and Leave.
CHAPTER V.
First Non-Commissioned Personnel -- Effects of
CHAPTER VI.
Holiday Season Approaches -- Thanksgiving Feast Practice Marches -- Barrack 0103 -- Christmas 1917.
CHAPTER VII.
Stable Police -- Inspections -- Staff Changes.
CHAPTER VIII.
Formal Retreat -- Quarantine -- Celebration -- Rumors. Baltimore Parade -- West Elkridge Hike.
CHAPTER IX.
Getting Ready -- Advance Detail -- Departure.
CHAPTER X.
Set-Sailing -- Coastland Appears -- Halifax Harbor -- Convoy Assembles.
CHAPTER XI.
Ocean Journey Starts -- Transport Life -- Sub Scares. Destroyers Delayed -- Battle With Subs.
CHAPTER XII.
Barry, South Wales -- Parade -- His Majesty's Letter. English Rail Journey.
CHAPTER XIII.
Crowded Tenting -- English Mess -- A Rainy Hike. Off for Southampton -- Flight Across the Channel.
CHAPTER XIV.
Cherbourg -- A Battery Bath -- Side-Door Pullmans. Montmorillon.
CHAPTER XV.
Racial Difficulties -- French Billets -- Impressions. The Gartempe.
CHAPTER XVI.
To La Courtine -- French Artillery Camp -- Russian Revolt -- Life on the Range -- Sickness -- Casualties.
CHAPTER XVII.
November 7th -- November 11th -- Celebration -- Farewell Banquet -- Ville Sous La Ferte -- Fuel Details -- Delayed Departure.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Mud and Rats -- Historic Monteclair -- Thanksgiving 1918 -- Candle Mystery -- Sick Horses Arrive.
CHAPTER XIX.
Belgian Trip Proposed -- 100 Volunteers -- Remount 13 -- Convoying Mules -- Christmas 1918.
CHAPTER XX.
Anxious to Join Division -- First Service Stripe -- A. E. F. Leave Centers -- Mounted Hikes -- Overland to Benoite Vaux.
CHAPTER XXI.
Two Battery Mascots -- Battalion and Regimental Shows -- Division and Corps Shows -- More Personnel Changes -- Maneuvres -- More Sickness and Casualties.
CHAPTER XXII.
Boncourt -- Cirey les Mareilles -- Divisional Review. Camp Montoir -- St. Nazaire -- Edward Luckenbach -- New York -- Camp Dix -- Home.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Story of the Seventy-Ninth Divisional Insignia.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Names of Those Who Died and Graves Where Buried.
CHAPTER XXV.
Tribute to Private First Class Joseph A. Loughran.
CHAPTER XXVI.
In Memory of Departed Comrades.
CHAPTER XXVII.
First Commissioned and Non-Commissioned Personnel.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Complete List of Officers Associated With the Battery.
CHAPTER XIX.
List of Names That Comprised the Sailing List of the U. S. S. Edward Luckenbach.
CHAPTER XXX.
Those Who Gained Commissions--List of Men Transferred to Other Organizations.
CHAPTER XXXI.
A Few Battery Reflections.
CHAPTER XXXII.
Messages From Several of the Officers.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Calendar of Battery's Eventful Dates.
LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTIONS.
Page
Group Photo of Battery D. 3
William Elmer Bachman. 5
Albert L. Smith. 18
David A. Reed. 22
Perry E. Hall. 39
Sidney F. Bennett. 39
C. D. Bailey. 39
Frank J. Hamilton. 39
Third Class French Coach. 57
Side-Door Pullman Special. 57
Interior of French Box Car. 57
A Real American Special. 57
Montmorillon Station. 67
Montmorillon Street Scene. 67
Entrance to Camp La Courtine. 81
American Y. M. C. A. at Camp La Courtine. 81
A Battery D Kitchen Crew. 88
Group of Battery D Sergeants. 88
Battery D on the Road. 99
Aboard The Edward Luckenbach. 99
At Bush Terminal. 99
Serving Battery Mess Along the Road. 110
Battery D on the Road. 110
Lorraine Cross. 117
Joseph A. Loughran. 124
Cemetery at La Courtine. 124
Horace J. Fardon. 129
Barrack at Camp La Courtine. 129
CHAPTER I.
SOURCES OF THE DELTA.
Official records in the archives of the War Department at Washington will preserve for future posterity the record of Battery D, of the 311th United States Field Artillery.
In those records there is written deep and indelibly the date of May 30th, 1919, as the date of Battery D's official demobilization. The history of Battery D, therefore, can be definitely terminated, but a more difficult task is presented in establishing a point of inception.
The development of Battery D was gradual--like a tiny stream, flowing on in its course, converging with the 311th Regimental, 154th Brigade, and 79th Division tides until it reached the sea of war-tossed Europe; there to flow and ebb; finally to lose its identity in the ocean of official discharge.
The Egyptians of old traversed the course of their river Nile, from its indefinite sources along the water-sheds of its plateaux and mountains, and, upon arriving at its mouth they found a tract of land enclosed by the diverging branches of the river's mouth and the Mediterranean seacoast, and traversed by other branches of the river. This triangular tract represented the Greek letter Δ "Delta," a word which civilization later adopted as a coinage of adequate description.
Fine silt, brought down in suspension by a muddy river and deposited to form the Delta when the river reaches the sea, accumulates from many sources.
In similar light the silt of circumstances that resulted in the formation of the Delta of the Triple Elevens, accumulated from many sources, the very nucleus transpiring on June 28, 1914, when the heir to the Austrian throne, the archduke of Austria, and his wife, were assassinated at Sarajevo, in the Austrian province of Bosnia, by a Serbian student.
Austria immediately demanded reparation from Serbia. Serbia declared herself willing to accede to all of Austria's demands, but refused to sacrifice her national honor. Austria thereby took the pretext to renew a quarrel that had been going on for centuries.
Long diplomatic discussions resulted--culminating on July 28, 1914, with a declaration of war by Austria against Serbia. This, so to speak, opened the flood-gates, letting loose the mighty river of blood and slaughter that flowed over all Europe.
The days that followed added new sensations and thrills to every life. The river of war flowed nearer our own peaceful shores as the days passed and the news dispatches brought us the intelligence of Germany's declaration of relentless submarine warfare and the subsequent announcement of the United States' diplomatic break with Germany.
Momentum was gained as reports of disaster and wilful acts followed with increasing rapidity. The sinking of American vessels disclosed a ruthlessness of method that was gravely condemned in President Wilson's message of armed-neutrality, only to be followed by acts of more wilful import--finally evoking the proclamation, April 6, 1917, declaring a state of war in existence between the United States and the Imperial German government.
Clear and loud war's alarm rang throughout the United States. All activity centered in the selection of a vast army to aid in the great fight for democracy. Plans were promulgated with decision and preciseness. On June 5th, 1917, ten millions of Americans between the ages of 21 and 31 years, among the number being several hundred who were later to become associated with Battery D, of the 311th F. A., registered for military service.
The war department issued an order, July 13, 1917, calling into military service 678,000 men, to be selected from the number who registered on June 5th. Days of conjecture followed. Who would be called first?
July 20th brought forth the greatest lottery of all time. The drawing of number 258 by Secretary of War Newton D. Baker started the list of selective drawings to determine the order of eligibility of the young men in the 4,557 selective districts in the United States.
War's preparations moved rapidly. Selective service boards, with due deliberation, made ready for the organization of the selective contingents. While the boards toiled and the eligible young men went through the process of examination, resulting in acceptance or rejection, officials of the war department were planning the camps.
Battery D and the 311th Field Artillery were in the stages of organization but plans of military housing had to mature before the young men who were to form the organization, could be inducted into service, thereby bringing to official light The Delta of the Triple Elevens.
CHAPTER II.
A CAMP BELCHED FORTH.
On that eventful day in 1914, when the war clouds broke over Europe, the farmers of Anne Arundel county, Maryland, in the then peaceful land of the United States, toiled with their ploughshares under the glisten of the bright sun; content with their lot of producing more than half of the tomato crop of the country; content to harvest their abundant crops of strawberries and cucumbers and corn, to say nothing of the wonderful orchards of apples and pears, and not forgetting the wild vegetation of sweet potatoes.
The peaceful, pastoral life in the heart of Maryland, however, was destined to be disturbed. A vast American army was needed and the vast army, then in the process of organization, needed an abode for training. Battery D and the 311th Field Artillery was organized on paper soon after the call for 678,000 selected service men was decided upon. The personnel of the new organization was being determined by the selective service boards. Officers to command the organization were under intensive instruction at Fort Niagara, New York. All that was needed to bring the organization into official military being was a point of concentration.
The task of locating sites for the sixteen army cantonments, decreed to birth throughout the United States, presented many difficulties. What could be more natural, however, than the fertile farm lands of Anne Arundel county, almost within shadow of the National Capital, to be selected as the site of a cantonment to be named after General George Gordon Meade?
Territory in the immediate vicinity of Admiral and Disney was the ideal selection: ideal because the territory is only eighteen miles from Baltimore, the metropolis of the South; one hundred miles from Philadelphia, the principal city of the State which was to furnish most of the recruits; and twenty-two miles from Washington, the Capital of the Nation.
Situated between the heart of the South and the heart of the Nation, Camp Meade is easily accessible by rail. Ease of access through mail-line facilities, was a necessity for transportation of building materials and supplies before and during construction. The same facilities furnished the transportation for the large bodies of troops that were sent to and from the camp; also assured the cantonment its daily supply of rations.
Admiral Junction furnished adequate railroad yard for the camp. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad station is at Disney, about one-half mile west of Admiral; while the Pennsylvania Railroad junction on the main line between Baltimore and Washington is at Odenton, about one and one-half miles east of Admiral. Naval Academy Junction is near Odenton and is the changing point on the
Camp Meade having been officially decided upon as the home of the 79th Division, a sanitary engineer, a town planner, and an army officer, representing the commanding general, were named to meet on the ground, where they inspected the location, estimated its difficulties, and then proceeded to make a survey in the quickest way possible, calling upon local engineers for assistance and asking for several railroad engineering corps.
The town-planner, or landscape architect, then drew the plans for the cantonment, laying it out to conform with the topography of the location and taking into consideration railroad trackage, roads, drainage, and the like. Given the site it was the job of the town-planner to distribute the necessary buildings and grounds of a typical cantonment as shown in type plans.
The general design for the camp was prepared by Harlan P. Kelsey, of "city beautiful" fame, who was one of the experts called on by the war department to aid the government in the emergency of preparing for war.
After the town-planner came Major Ralph F. Proctor, of Baltimore, Md., who on July 2nd, 1917, as constructing quartermaster, look charge of the task of building the cantonment. Standing on the porch of a little frame-house situated on a knoll, set in the midst of a pine forest, Major Proctor gave the order that set saw and axe in motion; saws and axes manned by fifteen thousand workmen, consecrated to the task of throwing up a war-time city in record time.
Chips flew high and trees were felled and soon the knoll belched forth a group of buildings, fringed by the pine of the forest--to be dedicated as divisional headquarters--around which, with speed none-the-less magic-like, land encircling was cleared and buildings and parade grounds sprang up in quick succession.
The dawn of September month saw over one thousand wooden barracks erected on the ground, most of which were spacious enough to provide sleeping quarters for about two hundred and fifty men; also hundreds of other buildings ready to be occupied for administrative purposes.
While workmen of all trades diligently plied their hands to the work of constructing the cantonment, hundreds of young men were getting ready to leave their homes on September 5th, as the van-guard of the 40,000 who were in the course of time to report to Camp Meade for military duty. The cantonment, however, was not fully prepared to receive them and while the first contingent of Battery D men were inducted into service on September 5th, the cantonment was not deemed sufficiently ready to receive them until almost two weeks later.
CAPT. ALBERT L. SMITH
ARMY RECORD.
Discharged from the National Guard of Pennsylvania, First Troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry, after seven years of service, to enter First Officers' Training Camp at Camp Niagara, N. Y., May 8th, 1917. Commissioned Captain, Field Artillery Reserve, August 15th, 1917, and ordered to report to Camp Meade, Md., August 29th, 1917. Placed in command of Battery D, 311th Field Artillery. Accompanied battery to France and remained with outfit until ordered to Paris on temporary duty in the Inspector General's Department, February, 1919. Rejoined regiment to become Regimental Adjutant May 6th, 1919. Discharged at Camp Dix, N. J., May 30th, 1919.
CHAPTER III.
YOU'RE IN THE ARMY NOW.
At Fort Niagara, situated on the bleak shores of the River Niagara, New York State, the nucleus of the first commissioned personnel of Battery D assembled, after enlistment, during the month of May, 1917, and began a course of intensive training at the First Officers' Training School, finally to be commissioned on August 15th in the Field Artillery Reserve.
On August 13th, pursuant to authority contained in a telegram from the Adjutant General of the Army, a detachment of the Reserve Officers from the Second Battery at Fort Niagara were ordered to active duty with the New National Army, proceeding to and reporting in person not later than August 29th to the Commanding General, Camp Meade, for duty.
A day's brief span after their arrival at Camp Meade--while the officers, who were the first of the new army units on the scene of training, were busily engaged in dragging their brand new camp paraphernalia over the hot sands of July-time Meade,--the dirt and sand mingling freely with the perspiration occasioned by the broiling sun,--to their first assigned barracks in B block, an order arrived on August 30th, assigning the officers to the various batteries, headquarters, supply company, or regimental staff of the 311th Field Artillery, that was to be housed in O block of the cantonment.
Captain Albert L. Smith, of Philadelphia, Pa., was placed in command of Battery D. Other assignments to Battery D included: First Lieutenant Arthur H. McGill, of New Castle, Pa.; Second Lieutenant Hugh M. Clarke, of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Second Lieutenant Robert S. Campbell, of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Second Lieutenant Frank F. Yeager, of Philadelphia, Pa.; Second Lieutenant Frank J. Hamilton, of Philadelphia, Pa.; Second Lieutenant Berkley Courtney, of Fullerton, Md.
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles G. Mortimer was placed in command of the regiment on August 28, 1917. He remained in command until January 17, 1918, when Colonel Raymond W. Briggs was assigned as regimental commander. Both are old army men and were well trained for the post of command. On March 31st, Col. Briggs, who had been in France and returned to take command of the 311th, was again relieved of command, being transferred to another outfit to prepare for overseas duty a second time. Lieut. Col. Mortimer had charge until June 10th, 1918, when he was promoted to Colonel, remaining in command until the regiment was mustered out of service.
Major David A. Reed, of Pittsburgh, Pa., was placed in command of the 2nd Battalion of the 311th at organization and remained with the outfit until put on detached service in France after the signing of the armistice. Major Herbert B. Hayden, a West Point cadet, was assigned to the command of the 1st Battalion of the regiment. When time to depart for overseas came he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment. Capt. Wood, of Battery A, was made Major of the 1st Battalion and First-Lieut. Arthur McGill, of Battery D, was placed in command of Battery A. Later he was given the rank of captain.
Major-General Joseph E. Kuhn was commanding officer of the 79th Division and Brigadier General Andrew Hero, Jr., commanded the 154th Field Artillery Brigade.
"O" block, in the plan of Camp Meade, was designated as the training center of the 311th Field Artillery and barrack No. 19 was the shelter selected for Battery D.
Barrack 019 was situated in a small glade of trees which fringed the edge of the horse-shoe curve that the general plan of cantonment construction assumed. The spurs of the great horse-shoe were at Disney and Admiral. The blocks of regimental areas starting at Disney, designated by A block, followed the horse-shoe, encircling at the base hospital in alphabetical designation. "N" and "O" blocks nestled in a glade of trees, partially sheltered from the Southern sun,
It was at "O" block the newly assigned officers established themselves and made ready to receive the first influx of the selected personnel. Blankets and cots and barrels and cans and kitchen utensils began to arrive by the truck load and the officers in feverish haste divided the blankets, put up as many cots as they could, and established some semblance of order in the mess hall. They were pegging diligently at their tasks when the first troop trains pulled in at Disney on September 19th and unloaded the first detachment of future soldiers.
Scenes of home-leaving and farewells to the home-folks and loved ones, which first transpired on September 19th, to be repeated with similarity as subsequent quotas of recruits entrained for military service, were of too sacred a nature to attempt an adequate description.
What might have been the thoughts of the individual at the breaking of home-ties and during the long, tiresome railroad journey to Camp Meade, were buried deep in the heart, to be cherished as a future memory only. Personal griefs were hidden as those seven hundred young men in civilian clothes stepped from the train at Disney, grasped their suit case, box, or bundle, firmly and set out on the mile and a quarter hike through the camp--past divisional headquarters; perspiring freely under the heat of the setting sun. It was with an appearance of carelessness and humor they jaunted along, singing at times, "You're in the Army Now"--finally to breast the rise of the hill previous to "O" block, the descent thereof which was to mark the first stage of their transformation from civilian to soldier.
Descent of the hill lead down to a sandy square in front of a long building that housed regimental headquarters. After, what seemed like hours to the recruits lined-up, roll of the seven hundred was called, divisions made, and the first quota of Battery D was marched to 019.