CHAPTER X

WITH THE ARMY OF OCCUPATION

On the 16th we took to the road again, happy at the thought that the Rainbow Division had received the honor of being chosen as part of the Army of Occupation. At the end of the first day’s march our Headquarters were at Baalon. Crossing the Meuse at Duns sur Meuse I ran into Hogstrom and Mullen of Company C, whom I had thought dead, but who had been captured by the Germans in the wire on the night of October 14th. They had been well used, they said, except for the fact that there was little to eat. We crossed the Belgian frontier on the morning of November 21st at the village of Fagny, which was all decorated up like Old Home Day. The village band—a nondescript outfit—played us into town. The people had made out of dress material American flags, or rather well-meant attempts at them, as five or six stripes and a dozen stars was about as near as they could come to it. After crossing the border we received a new commanding officer in the person of Colonel Charles R. Howland, a regular army man who had a regiment in the 86th Division. When that Division was broken up for replacement purposes, he was assigned to fill the vacancy in ours. About the same time Colonel Henry J. Reilly, who had been ably handling our brigade during the past five weeks, was superseded by General F. M. Caldwell, U. S. A. Colonel Reilly returned to the command of the 149th F. A.

As we crossed Belgium at its southmost tip, we made only a two days’ job of it, headquarters being at Ste. Marie on November 21st and at Thiaumont November 22nd. My chief impressions were of a clean, orderly, prosperous country as compared with the ruined parts of France, and a very intelligent curé in whose house I stopped at Ste. Marie. When we passed the borders of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg at Oberpollen on the 22nd there were no brass bands to greet us. The inhabitants were civil and pleasant but they adopted a correct attitude towards us as foreigners crossing through their territory. Most of the regiment was billetted, and rather well accommodated, at Useldingen, a comfortable town with a fine new parish church. Here we stayed until the 1st of December, till arrangements could be made for our passage into Germany. We are part of the Third Army now, and the Third Army has been organized on a shoe-string. It cannot be said to be functioning very well, and the system of supplies and equipment is not in good shape. We have gotten a good deal of equipment—and we never needed it worse than after leaving the Argonne—but there are many old and ill-fitting shoes, which makes hiking a torture for the men.

The principal sight of Useldingen is the ruins of a very extensive medieval castle, standing on an elevation in the middle of the town. I wandered through it with Vandy Ward and Read of H. Q. Co., trying with the aid of the Curé to get an idea of its original plan and the sort of life that was led there by other soldiers a thousand years ago.

Thanksgiving Day came round while we were here and everybody worked to celebrate it in proper fashion. There is a fair supply of food in the country, though one has to pay high prices for it, all the higher because the national currency is in marks and the people demand the old rate of 100 francs for 80 marks. But, like all Americans, we want what we want when we want it, so the canny Luxembourgeois get what they ask for. Our religious services were in thanksgiving for peace. In the church we had a solemn high mass and Te Deum and I preached, Father Hanley singing the Mass. As Chaplain Holmes had not yet returned, I unfrocked myself of my papistical robes and went out to hold general services in the romantic courtyard of the old Schloss, using a breach in the fortifications as a pulpit. My friend Chaplain Halliday of the Ohios came along and added a few words in his earnest, sensible style.

There is great joy in the regiment, for Captain Hurley is back. He looks thin and none too fit, and I know he is with us, not because the hospital authorities thought that he should be, but through his own strong desire and pleading eloquence. We had a visit from Donovan also—on crutches. The Provost Marshal General had him transferred to his department while he was in the hospital, and now he is touring the country in a car, performing his new services. It is not a bad sort of a job at all—with headquarters in Paris, and a chance to tour all over France in a first-class automobile, with the best billets and the best food wherever he goes—but not for Donovan. No one of our enlisted men marooned in a casual camp with a lot of absolute strangers ever uttered with greater longing and pathos the formula, “I want to be back with my old outfit.” For Donovan’s case I shall omit the pathos. When that young man wants anything very bad he gets it. I expect to see him back on duty with us in a very, very brief time.

My mail is a very full one these days. All of our old-timers back in hospitals and camps are clamoring to return to the regiment, and they think that if I only speak to somebody, a word from me will manage it. I went to Mersch to see my ever kind friend, Colonel Hughes, our Divisional Chief of Staff, to inquire if some general arrangement could not be made for the return of all men in combat divisions who had been evacuated from the line through wounds or sickness. I found that he was doing everything that he possibly could to get our Rainbow fellows back, and he promised to work for an order along the lines I proposed.

The regiment marched on the 1st of December, Headquarters passing the night at Mersch; and on December 2nd to Waldbillig. December 3rd was the day on which we finally accomplished what we had started out to do—make our invasion of Germany. We crossed the border by a bridge over the Sauer river into the village of Bollendorf. Captain John Mangan, who had come to the regiment on business from the 2nd Army, George Boothby of the New York _World_ and myself crossed the bridge ahead of the others, very curious to see what reception we would get in the land of the enemy. The first indication of the sort of reception we were to have came from an invitation from an old farmer and his wife whose house stood at the end of the bridge to step inside and have a glass of schnapps; when we prudently declined this, we were offered apples, but not being there as visitors, we felt it proper to say no. The proffered kindnesses were inspired partly no doubt by a desire to propitiate, but nobody could doubt that it was largely the decent impulse of a nice old couple. We rejoined the regiment for the march across.

The column came down along the river, the band in front playing “The Yanks Are Coming” and, as we turned to cross the bridge, the lively regimental tune of “Garry Owen.” In front of us, above the German hill, there was a beautiful rainbow. As we marched triumphantly onto German soil, nothing more hostile greeted us than the click of a moving-picture camera. Every soldier in the line was glowing with happiness except myself, perhaps. On occasions like this of glory and excitement my mind has a habit of going back to the lads that are gone.

We marched, with advance and rear guards, as if entering a hostile country, our first stop being at Holsthum. We had hopes that our line of march would take us down the Moselle Valley towards Coblenz, but instead we struck off to the north and northeast, through the rough Eiffel country, along mountain roads that were badly worn down by the traffic of war. Our Headquarters for December 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th were Blickendorf, Wallerschein, Hillesheim (a romantic spot), Weisbaum and, after a desperate hike, Wershofen.

The greatest surprise of our first week in Germany was the attitude of the people towards us. We had expected to be in for an unpleasant experience, and I have no doubt that some of our fellows had a picture of themselves moving around in German villages with loaded rifle and fixed bayonet ready to repel treacherous attacks. We were received very peacefully, one might almost say, cordially. Farmers in the fields would go out of the way to put us on the right road, children in the villages were as friendly and curious as youngsters at home; the women lent their utensils and often helped soldiers with their cooking, even offering stuff from their small stores when the hungry men arrived far ahead of their kitchens. There were many German soldiers in these towns still wearing the uniform (they would be naked otherwise), and they, too, were interested, curious, almost friendly. Some of them had been against us in battle, and with the spirit of veterans in all times and places, they struck up conversation with our men, fighting the battles over again and swapping lies. I talked with the priests in the different towns—one of them a Chaplain just returned from the Eastern front. Like all the others that we meet, they say that their country had the French and British licked if we had stayed out; to which I make the very obvious retort that they had followed a very foolish policy when they dragged us in.

But it is only occasionally that this note is struck, the attitude of most people being that the war is over and they are glad of it. In fact, a surprising number have wanted to have it over for a considerable time past. No doubt the historical background of life in these countries makes them able to take defeat with more philosophy than we could ever muster up if foreign troops were to occupy our country. As for us, we are here in the rôle of victors, and our soldiers are willing to go half way and accept the attitude that for them also (unless somebody wants to start something) the war is a past issue.

Civilians hold grudges, but soldiers do not; at least the soldiers who do the actual fighting. The civilian mind is fed up on all sorts of stories about atrocities, most of which I believe are fabricated to arouse decent human beings up to the point of approving of this rotten business of war. We fought the Germans two long tricks in the trenches and in five pitched battles and they never did anything to us that we did not try to do to them. And we played the game as fairly as it can be played. We followed their retreat through three sectors, in two of which they had been for years, and we never witnessed at first hand any of the atrocities we read about. A church burned at St. Benoit without any good military reason that I could see; the shelling of the hospital in Villers sur Fere, in which case there was no way for them to know it was a hospital; some valuables piled up for carrying away—that is the whole indictment. But no crucified soldiers, no babies with their hands cut off, no girls outraged in trenches, to provoke our soldiers to rush on to death to rescue them, no poisoned food or wells (except of course through gas shells), no women chained to machine guns, and no prisoners playing treachery.

In the invaded territory of France we found plenty of evidence of harsh military occupation. It was bad at its best, and some local commanders made it more intolerable. The people were taxed without much to show for their money, forced to work for little or no pay, rationed rather slenderly though with enough to sustain strength, had to put up with requisitions of animals, houses and some minor property, such as linen and copper down to bedsheets and the brass knobs off the stoves. They were also dragooned about to various places to do work for their conquerors. I heard plenty of tales in Eastern France and Belgium of terrible experiences and unwarranted executions during the first couple of weeks of the German occupation from witnesses whose word I believe absolutely. After the civilians were thoroughly cowed these atrocities ceased, though many of the lesser hardships of military occupation persevered during the four years.

Most of the French and Belgians told me (though some voiced suspicions to the contrary) that the Germans saw to it strictly that none of their soldiers took the relief goods sent from America. One old lady told me that she had proof that all Germans were robbers; for they give her some patched clothing as coming from America and she knew that nobody in America would send over such stuff as that. It was hard to have to choose between being just and being loyal American. I refuse to state which attitude I took, but I am afraid that the dear old lady still thinks she has an argument to prove that the Boches are robbers.

At any rate, the older griefs of these people are for the soldiers who have come through an intense war experience, echoes of “Old unhappy far-off things, and battles long ago.” They judge the German soldier by their own experience and by soldier standards. They do not fear him, they do not hate him, they do not despise him either. They respected him when he put up a good fight or made a clean getaway, and that was most of the time. It was a rare thing to hear a soldier in a combat division talk about “Huns.” It was always the “Heinies,” the “Jerries,” the “Boches” or, simply the “Germans.”

The fine spirit on the part of our troops was much better, even for military value, than hatred would have been. I cannot see that deep bitterness could have made them any bolder. It would only have made them less efficient. And the spirit is admirable in itself.

At any rate we were convinced from the beginning that our experiences as part of the army of occupation were not going to be as unpleasant as we expected.

Aside from the attitude of the people the things that strike us most are two. Putting the two into one, it is the number and the fatness of the children. There are few children on the streets in French villages; German villages swarm with youngsters. Our coming is like circus day and they are all out, especially the boys. Boys everywhere! And such sturdy little towheads—chubby is the word for the smaller ones. I do not know about the rest of Germany, but the Rhineland is certainly not starved. Perhaps, as in Belgium, it is the townspeople who do the suffering. These children wear patched clothing, but the clothing covers rounded bodies. We find it easy to purchase meals at rates that are astoundingly reasonable after our experience in other European countries. Germany lacks many things—edible bread, good beer, real coffee, kerosene, rubber, oil, soap and fats; and in the cities, no doubt, meat and milk. The people here say that they eat little meat, their sustenance being largely vegetable and based on the foundation of the potato. It scores another triumph for the potato.

But I would like to know how they fatten the children. With good advertising a man could make a fortune on it at home. German breakfast food for boys, with pictures of chubby young rascals playing around American soldiers. But perhaps Germans are plump by nature or divine decree, and it would not work with lantern-jawed Yanks like ourselves.

During this period Lieutenant Colonel Donovan returned to duty with us by direct orders of General Headquarters, Lieutenant Dravo going back to his duties as Division Machine Gun Officer, thus being still near enough to us to keep up the ties of friendship which he had established in the Regiment. We remained in Wershofen and surrounding villages for five days, during which time the equipment was gone over, animals rested and some attempt made to patch up the shoes of the men, which had been worn to nothing by hiking with heavy packs on rough roads. On December 14th, we marched through the picturesque valley of the Ahr river over a good road to Altenahr, the scenery of which looks as if it had been arranged by some artistic stage manager with an eye to picturesque effect. It is a summer resort country and we had the advantage of good hotels for billets. On December 15th, we marched through Ahrweiler, an old walled town which was to be our Division Headquarters, and Neuenahr, a modern summer resort place with good roads, commodious hotels and attractive shop windows, and thence to the Rhine, where, turning north about two kilometers, we entered the most pleasant and excellent town of Remagen-am-Rhein, which was to be our home for the next three or four months.

Remagen was already in existence in Roman days. It is a charming well-built place of 3,500 inhabitants, with a large parish church and also an Evangelical church and a synagogue. In addition, there is on the hillside a striking pilgrimage church attended by Franciscan Friars and dedicated to St. Apollinaris, with the Stations of the Cross built on the roadway leading up to it. The much advertised bottled waters which flow from a source near Neuenahr get their name from this shrine. Remagen has also a large convent, Annacloster, a hospital and a town hall, in front of which our daily guard mounts are held.

I am afraid, however, that these edifices for religious and municipal uses made less immediate appeal to our fellows than the fact that the town possessed a number of large and commodious hotels, some of them ample for a whole company. We immediately took possession of these as well as of stores, beer-gardens and extra rooms in private houses; the principle being that every soldier of ours should have a bed to sleep in, even if the German adult males had to go without. Donovan and I went on ahead to billet for Headquarters. We called on the Bürgermeister, a kindly, gentlemanly, educated man, who was anxious to do everything to make our stay in town a harmonious one. His assistant, an agreeable young man who had been in America for a couple of years and had every intention of going back, came along with us on our tour. We had our pick of two or three modern villas of grandiose type north of the town on the hillside, the only difficulty about them being that they were a little too far away.

At first two of our battalions were placed in mountain villages to the west, but after a week or so we had everybody accommodated in Remagen. I settled down with my gallant followers, Halligan and McLaughlin, in the house of the Bürgermeister, which faced on the river just north of the parish Church. My German is a very sad affair, but he speaks French and his wife English. They have three nice children, the oldest about twelve. I keep my relations with the parents as official as is possible, when one is dealing with gentlefolks, but if I am expected to avoid fraternizing with the youngsters, they will have to lock me up or shoot me. I had a conference with the Parish Priest, a sturdy personality who has his flock in good control, at my house the other day and we were talking four languages at once—German, French, English and Latin. But I worked out my plans for a Christmas celebration.

Christmas Mass on the Rhine! In 1916, our midnight mass was under the open sky along the Rio Grande; in 1917, in the old medieval church at Grand in the Vosges; and now, thank Heaven, in this year of grace, 1918, we celebrated it peacefully and triumphantly in the country with which we had been at war. Attendance was of course voluntary, but I think the whole regiment marched to the service with the band preceding them playing “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Adeste Fideles.” We took full possession of the Church, though many of the townsfolk came in, and when at the end, our men sang the hymn of Thanksgiving, “Holy God, we praise Thy name” the Germans swelled our chorus in their own language “Grosser Gott wir loben Dich.” I preached on the theme “Can the war be ascribed to a failure on the part of Christianity?” I have been often irritated by ideas on this subject coming from leaders of thought who have given little place or opportunity to Christianity in their lives or projects. As Chesterton says: “Christianity has not been tried out and found wanting; Christianity has been tried—a little—and found difficult.” Father Hanley sang the Mass, the Guard of Honor with the Colors being from Company K, with Captain Hurley in charge.

For the Company dinners I was able to supply ample funds through the never-ceasing generosity of our Board of Trustees in New York City, and funds also placed at my disposal which were sent by Mrs. Barend Van Gerbig through the Veteran Corps of the 69th New York. But in their purchase of food, the wily mess sergeants found that soap was a better medium of exchange than money.

During January and February the men were kept busy during the day in field training, infantry drill, range practice and athletics.

## Particular attention was paid to smartness of appearance and

punctiliousness in soldierly bearing and courtesy. The weather was mild though often rainy. Coal was not too hard to procure and the billets were kept fairly comfortable. The regiment being all in one town there was a fine soldier atmosphere in the place. The townspeople are a kindly decent sort, but our fellows have enough society in themselves and there is little fraternization, and none that is a source of any danger—there is more chance of our making them American in ideas than of their making us German.

The Welfare Societies are on the job with good accommodations. In the “Y” we have still Jewett and the ever faithful Pritchard and two or three devoted ladies, one of whom is Miss Dearing, a sister of Harry Dearing who was killed in the Argonne. Jim O’Hara of the K. of C. got the Parish Priest to give up his Jugendheim, a new building with large hall, bowling alleys, all the German Verein sort of thing. There is no lack of places to go or ways to spend an evening. Lieutenant Fechheimer took charge of athletics and we had brigade contests, and also with the Canadians, who were just to the left of the Ohios.

The 3rd Battalion has lost the service of Mr. Kelly of the “Y.” When I first knew Mr. Kelly of the “Y” he was Corporal Kelly of Company I, 69th Regiment, at McAllen, Texas, and was sometimes known, Irish fashion, as “Kelly the Lepper,” as he was a famous runner. His eyes were not as good as his legs, so he was turned down for reenlistment. Being determined to have a part in the war he got the “Y” to send him over as an athletic instructor and finally worked his way up to our regiment and was attached to the 3rd Battalion which includes his own company. The assignment was more to the advantage of the 3rd Battalion than of the Y. M. C. A. for Kelly gave away gratis everything he could wheedle, bully, or steal from the “Y” depot officials. When we reached the Rhine, things were too quiet for Kelly and he started off to visit his native town in Ireland. If I ever hear that somebody has gotten stores from the police barracks to equip the Sein Feiners, I shall know that Kelly the Lepper is on the job.

My own life is an altogether pleasant one. I have for my office a well furnished parlor on the ground floor of the Bürgermeister’s house where I spend my mornings with Bill Halligan, mainly at the task of writing letters to soldiers who want to get back and to folks at home who ask news of their dear ones, living or dead. In the afternoons I float lazily around amongst the companies, just chatting and gossiping, and getting in a good deal of my work in my own way, sort of incidentally and on the side; or I drop in at headquarters and bother Captain Dick Allen and Jansen and Ed Farrell of the Personnel Department for correct data for my diary, or Ted Ranscht and Clarke for maps. Or I look in on the juvenile pro-consuls Springer and Allen to smile at the air of easy mastery with which they boss the German civilians into observing American Military Commands. My nights I spend at the building of the “Y” or K. of C. amongst the men, or at home, receiving numerous guests with a world of topics to discuss. It is an agreeable kind of existence, with no urgent duties except correspondence, and with the satisfaction of performing a not unimportant service without any feeling of labor, but merely by kindly and friendly intercourse. My orderly, “Little Mac,” is having the time of his life. If I only had a car for him to drive me around in, as Tom Gowdy did in Texas, he would never want to go home to the Bronx.

Father Hanley was made director of amusements and was kept busy providing entertainment five nights a week from our own and other Divisions for the two large halls conducted by the Y. M. C. A. and the K. of C., a task which he accomplished as he does everything—to complete satisfaction.

One thing that astonished everybody in this New York regiment was the number of illiterates amongst replacements from the Southern States. We had two hundred men who could not sign their names to the pay-roll. A strong movement was started throughout the American Expeditionary Forces after the Armistice to teach such men to read and write, and the simplest problems in arithmetic, as well as to give a better knowledge of English to foreign born soldiers. In our regiment this task was confided to Chaplain Holmes, who went at it with his usual devotion to duty and attention to details, so that Chaplain Nash who was Divisional School Officer told me that the educational work in the 165th was by far the best in the Division.

I had many examples of the need of schooling for certain of the men. Many of our recent replacements had been kept going from place to place and had not received pay in months. Whenever I heard of such cases I advanced them money from our Trustee’s Fund. One evening three of our old-timers came to my billet to borrow some money to have a little party, but I had to tell them that my stock of francs was cleaned out. Just then a fine big simple fellow from the Tennessee mountains came in to return the money I had loaned him. “How much do you owe me?” I asked. “Thirty-seven francs.” “All right, hand it over to these fellows here.” “Well, I reckon I’d rather pay you.” After a certain amount of joking about it, it dawned upon my slow intelligence that the poor fellow was embarrassed by not being able to count money, so I took him into another room and tried to teach him how much change he should have out of a fifty franc note.

The efforts of our generous friends in New York in supplying funds were much appreciated by the whole regiment. We had been in line for months and the men were seldom paid. Even when payday came those who were absent in hospital, or those who had been absent when the pay-roll was signed, got nothing. The funds were left absolutely at my disposal, and I knew from the calibre of our Trustees that it was their wish that they should be disbursed in a generous spirit. Many of our bright sergeants were started off to Officer’s School without a sou in their pockets. I believed that our New York backers would like to have the best men of our regiment able to hold up their heads in any crowd, so I saw that every one of them had fifty or a hundred francs in his pocket before starting. When I could be sure of addresses, I sent money to men in hospitals and in casual camps. While the regiment was in line money was no use to anybody, as there was absolutely nothing to buy, not even an egg or a glass of wine, but here in Germany, with shops and eating houses open, my cash was a real boon, and I did not hesitate to disburse it.

Just after the armistice, with the prospect that leaves might at last be granted, I sent to our trustees a bold request for $20,000.00, to guarantee the men a real holiday. When the permissions for leaves came I found that in most cases this money was not needed, as the long deferred pay gave most of the men sufficient money of their own. So I devoted a generous amount of it to help finance the company dinners which were gotten up on a metropolitan scale in the hotels of Remagen. These were joyous affairs—feasts of song and story-telling and speech-making. Colonel Donovan and I made it a practice to attend them all, and he got in many a strong word on spirit and discipline which had better results in that environment than could have been produced on a more formal occasion. Father Hanley was always a favorite at these gatherings as he handed out the latest rumors (which he himself had manufactured), discoursed on the superiority of Cleveland over New York, and of the 3rd Battalion over any other bunch of fighting men in the whole universe. It was a part of my share in the function to speak on the good men in the Company that had paid the great price; and it is a tribute to the loyalty and steadfastness of human nature to see how the merry-makers would pause in their enjoyment to pay the tribute of a sigh or a tear to the memory of their companions of the battlefield who were absent from their triumph.

Our winter on the Rhine was our happiest period in the whole war. First and foremost the regiment was all together in one place; and companionship is by far the biggest element of satisfaction in a soldier’s life. The men had good warm billets and most of them had beds to sleep on. The food was substantial and plentiful, though, for that matter, I think we were at all times the best fed army that ever went to war. There were periods of starvation in battles, but the main difficulty was even then in getting it from the kitchen to the men in line.

The men had enough work to do to keep them in good healthy condition and to prevent them from becoming discontented; but all in all, it was an easy life. All of the old-timers got a chance to go off on leave, most of them choosing Paris, the Riviera, or Ireland. Short excursions to Coblenz by rail or river were given to everybody.

Our band had a prominent part in adding to the pleasures of life. Bandmaster Ed. Zitzman had returned from school, and he with the Drum Major John Mullin and Sergeants Jim Lynch and Paddy Stokes made frequent demands on me for funds to purchase music and extra instruments. In France I had bought sixteen _clairons_ or trumpets for the Company buglers to play with the Band. Here on the Rhine I bought other instruments, including orchestral ones, so we were well supplied for field or chamber music. Lieutenant Slayter took charge of the Band in matters of discipline and march time, with excellent results.

One of the greatest of our successes during this period was the 165th Minstrels, organized by Major Lawrence, always active in everything for the good of the men. After having scored a distinct hit at home and throughout the Division, they went on a tour through the Army of Occupation, and were booked to go back through France if we had remained longer abroad. The performers were: _Interlocutor_, William K. McGrath; _End Men_, Harry Mallen, Thomas McCardle, Harold Carmody, Edward Finley, and Charles Woods; _Soubrettes_, Robert Harrison, James O’Keefe, James F. O’Brien, William O’Neill, James Mack, Melvin King, and John McLaughlin; _Chorus_: Charles Weinz, Edward Smith, John Brawley, John Ryan, John Zimmerman, John Mullins, Thomas O’Kelly, Eugene Eagan, Walter Hennessey, Peter Rogers, William Yanss, Clinton Rice, Thomas Donohue, Chester Taylor, Sylvester Taylor, James Kelly, Charles Larson, with T. Higginbotham as strong man and Milton Steckels as contortionist.

The health of the command has been excellent, although since we have come into civilized parts we have developed a certain amount of pneumonia which we escaped while living in the hardships of the Argonne. Since leaving Baccarat I know of only two of our men who have died from other than battle causes; Private Myers of the Machine Gun Company was drowned in the Marne in August and John E. Weaver of Company L died during the same month of illness. In Germany we lost Corporal Patrick McCarthy, Company E, died of pneumonia October 20th, W. J. Silvey of Company D, James Kalonishiskie and Robert Clato of M, James C. Vails of H, Corporal Joseph M. Seagriff, James O’Halloran, Charles Nebel and Terrence McNally of Supply Company, Emery Thrash and George Sanford of L, Carl Demarco of F, and one of the best of our Sergeants, John B. Kerrigan of Headquarters Company.

Our only grievances were the difficulties of getting back our old officers and men, and the stoppage of promotions for officers after the Armistice. Every day my mail had a number of letters from soldiers all over France asking me to get them back to the Regiment; and work on this line constituted my greatest occupation. Many of the men took the matter in their own hands and worked their way across France, dodging M. P.’s, stealing rides on trucks and trains, begging meals from kindly cooks and nice old French ladies, and finally, if their luck held out, getting back amongst their own. Others were returned by a more legitimate route, until, by the time we left the Rhine we had nearly fourteen hundred men who belonged to the original command.

A large number of our officers had been recommended, some of them over and over again, for promotion, and had not received it on account of wounds which kept them in hospitals when the promotion might have come through. And now they were barred from receiving the rank which they had earned on the battlefield, the vacancies being filled by replacements. Some of these replacement officers made themselves a warm place in the heart of the regiment especially Major James Watson, who joined us in Luxembourg and was put in command of the 3rd Battalion; and also an old friend of ours from the 12th New York, Major Jay Zorn, who was with us for a short time.

Finally this legitimate grievance was settled in the most ample and satisfactory fashion. Lieutenant Colonel Donovan was made Colonel, and placed in command of the regiment, Colonel Howland going to take charge of a leave area in France. Major Anderson was made Lieutenant Colonel, and Bootz, Meaney and Merle-Smith Majors. There were also a number of promotions to the rank of Captain both in the line companies and in the Sanitary Detachment. There were two other men that we all felt should have gotten their majority, but when the original recommendations were made they were both suffering from wounds in hospitals with no seeming prospects of ever getting back to the regiment. These two were Captain John P. Hurley and Captain Richard J. Ryan, who also, to everybody’s great delight, rejoined us on this river (which we call the Ryan river) though still in a doubtful state of health.

Many of these promotions came after Donovan’s accession to the command and through his energetic efforts. He also made use of every possible means through official and private channels, to get back every officer and man of the Old Regiment that was able to come. First and foremost amongst these was Lieutenant Colonel Timothy J. Moynahan, who left us in Baccarat as a Major and had won his Lieutenant Colonelcy as well as a D. S. C. and a Croix de Guerre with the 37th Division. Jack Mangan, now Major Mangan, came back from 2nd Army Headquarters. We had an abundance of majors though we had lost one of them—Major Tom Reilley, who had been sent home much against his will for a promotion which he never received, just after the fighting was over.

We also got back a lot of happy lieutenants who had gone to officers Candidate Schools, and had been commissioned in other Divisions, the happiest of the lot, I think, being Leo Larney, a fine athlete and a fine man. We had often recommended men for promotion in the regiment but had been successful in very few cases. Sergeant Thomas McCarthy was commissioned after the Ourcq; and later on Sergeants Patrick Neary and John J. Larkin were sent back to us from school as sergeants because the war started too soon after they left Ireland. When facilities for becoming citizens were extended to men in their case, they received their commissions in the regiment, and both did remarkable work in the Argonne. Sergeant Frank Johnston of Company E was for a long time an officer without knowing it, as his commission had been sent to his home address.

Colonel Donovan also inaugurated a series of little entertainments and dinners, inviting the leading officers of other regiments in the Division to partake of our Metropolitan Hibernian hospitality. Everybody in the Division likes Donovan, and they were as much delighted as we when he finally got command of the Regiment that he had so often led in action. One of our greatest friends is Colonel John Johnson of the Engineers, a manly forthright two-fisted South Carolinian; we delight also in verbal encounter with Colonel Henry Reilly of the 149 Field Artillery, a man of wide experience, unlimited mental resources, and agile wit. The other three infantry colonels Hough, Screws and Tinley have been with the Division from the beginning and our interchange of visits with them will be always one of the pleasantest recollections of the campaign.

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day on the Rhine in the best approved manner with religion, games and feasting. My altar was set up in a field beside the river. The theme for my discourse was the debt that the world owes to the sons of Saint Patrick for their fight for civil and religious liberty at home and abroad, with the prayer that that debt might now be squared by the bestowal of liberty on the Island from whence we sprung.

The day before Saint Patrick’s Day the whole Division was reviewed by the Commander-in-Chief, General Pershing, at Remagen. It was a note-worthy military ceremony in an appropriate setting, by the banks of that river of historic associations. When he came to our regiment the eyes of General Pershing were taken by the silver furls which covered the staff of our flag from the silk of the colors to the lowest tip. In fact, that staff is now in excess of the regulation length, as we had to add an extra foot to it to get on the nine furls that record our battles in this war. “What Regiment is this?” he asked. “The 165th Infantry, Sir.” “What Regiment was it?” “The 69th New York, Sir.” “The 69th New York. I understand now.”

This visit was the final hint that our stay was not to be long. The whole Division got together to organize the Rainbow Division Veterans which we did at an enthusiastic and encouragingly contentious meeting at Neuenahr.

When the orders finally came for our return to America I received them with a joy that was tinged with regret that the associations of the past two years were to be broken up. They had been years full of life and activity, and take them all in all, years of happiness. There never was a moment when I wanted to be any place other than I was. There were times of great tragedy, of seeing people killed and of burying my dearest friends, but all that was part of the tragedy of our generation. It would not have been any less if I were not present, and it was some consolation to be where I could render some little comfort to the men who had to go through them and to the relatives of those who paid the big price.

The sense of congenial companionship more than makes up for the hardships incidental to a campaign. What I am going to miss most is the friendships I have formed. In a very special degree I am going to miss Donovan. Nearly every evening we take our walk together along the river road that parallels the Rhine. It is the very spot which Byron selected for description in Childe Harold. The Rhine turns sharply to the right to make its way through the gorge of the Siebengebirge. “The castled crag of Drachenfels” looks down upon the peaceful cloistered isle of Nonnenwerth, upon pleasant villages and vineyard terraces and beautiful villas which, with the majestic river, make the scene one of the most beautiful in the world.

The companionship makes it all the more attractive. This young Buffalo lawyer who was suddenly called into the business of war, and has made a name for himself throughout the American Expeditionary Forces for outstanding courage and keen military judgment, is a remarkable man. As a boy he reveled in Thomas Francis Meagher’s “Speech on the Sword,” and his dream of life was to command an Irish brigade in the service of the Republic. His dream came true, for the 69th in this war was larger than the Irish Brigade ever was. But it did not come true by mere dreaming. He is always physically fit, always alert, ready to do without food, sleep, rest, in the most matter of fact way, thinking of nothing but the work in hand. He has mind and manners and varied experience of life and resoluteness of purpose. He has kept himself clean and sane and whole for whatever adventure life might bring him, and he has come through this surpassing adventure with honor and fame. I like him for his alert mind and just views and ready wit, for his generous enthusiasms and his whole engaging personality. The richest gain I have gotten out of the war is the friendship of William J. Donovan.

That is the way I talk about him to myself. When we are together we always find something to fight about. One unfailing subject of discussion is which of us is the greater hero. That sounds rather conceited, and all the more so when I say that each of us sticks up strongly for himself. Those infernal youngsters of ours have been telling stories about both of us, most of which, at least those that concern myself, attest the loyalty of my friends better than their veracity. There is only one way to take it—as a joke. If either of us gets a clipping in which his name is mentioned he brandishes it before company under the nose of the other challenging him to produce some proof of being as great a hero. The other day Captain Ryan gave Donovan an editorial about him from a paper in Watertown, N. Y. It was immediately brought to mess, and Donovan thought he had scored a triumph, but I countered with a quotation from a letter which said that my picture, jewelled with electric lights, had a place of honor in the window of a saloon on 14th Street. Donovan surrendered.

I got a letter from Tom Reilley, who is back in New York, and disgusted with life because he is no longer with us; and he gave me some choice ammunition. “Father Duffy,” he said, “You are certainly a wonderful man. Your press agents are working overtime. Recently you have been called the ‘Miracle Man,’ thus depriving George Stallings of the title. In the newspaper league you have Bill Donovan beat by 9,306 columns. I wish you would tell me, How do you wade through a stream of machine gun bullets? And that little stunt of yours of letting high explosive shells bounce off your chest—you could make your fortune in a circus doing that for the rest of your life.”

It is all very amusing now, but it is going to be extremely embarrassing when we get back amongst civilians where people take these things too seriously. They kept me too long as a professor of metaphysics to fit me for the proper enjoyment of popularity. Donovan says that after his final duties to the regiment are finished he is going to run away from it all and go off with his wife on a trip to Japan.

On April the second we boarded our trains for Brest—the first leg on the way home. We had a happy trip across France in the most comfortably arranged troop trains that Europe ever saw; remained three or four days at Brest, and sailed for Hoboken, the regiment being split up on two ships. Our headquarters and the first six companies were on the _Harrisburg_, formerly the _City of Paris_ in the American Line. Jim Collintine used to sail on it and is very enthusiastic in his praises. It is funny to hear him telling a seasick bunch “Ain’t it a grand boat! A lovely boat! Sure you wouldn’t know you were aboard her. And she’s the woise ould thing. She’s been over this thrip so often that if niver a man put a hand to her wheel she’d pick her own way out and niver stop or veer till she turned her nose into the dock, like an ould horse findin’ its way to the manger.”

After the men had found their sea-legs we had a happy trip. We spent Easter Sunday aboard, celebrating it in holy fashion.

It was a happy throng that stood on the decks of the _Harrisburg_ on the morning of April 21st, gazing at the southern shores of Long Island, and then the Statue of Liberty, and the massive towering structures that announce to incoming voyagers the energy and daring of the Western Republic. Then down the bay came the welcoming flotilla bearing relatives, friends and benefactors.

The number of our welcomers and the ampleness of their enthusiasm were the first indications we had of the overwhelming welcome which was to be ours during the following two weeks. I do not intend to speak here at any length, of these events, as the gentlemen of the press have described them better than I could ever hope to do. The freedom of the city was conferred upon Colonel Donovan and his staff by Mayor Hylan and the Board of Alderman; and a dinner was given to the officers by the Mayor’s Committee headed by the genial Commissioner Rodman Wanamaker. Our own Board of Trustees, the most generous and efficient lot of backers that any fighting outfit ever had since war began, gave the whole regiment a dinner at the Hotel Commodore which set a new record in the history of repasts. Our brethren of the 69th New York Guard also gave a dinner to the officers of the 165th. And Colonel Donovan and I enjoyed the hospitality of the Press Association and the Lamb’s Club. Another big baseball game, through the good will of the owners of the Giants, added fresh funds to the money at my disposal for needy families. My own fellow townsmen in the Bronx prepared a public reception, for which every last detail was arranged except the weather; but I was prouder than ever of them when they put the thing through in good soldier fashion, regardless of the meanest day of wind and rain that New York ever saw in the month of May.

There was nothing that imagination could conceive or energy perform that our Board of Trustees was not willing to do for us. Dan Brady, who has neglected his business for the past two years to look after the 69th, and all the rest of them, devoted themselves entirely to furthering our well-being and our glory. The only thing I have against Dan is that he makes me work as hard as himself, and bosses me around continually. At one of the dinners I said that if Dan Brady had taken up the same kind of a job that I had, he would be a bishop by now; but if he were my Bishop I’d be a Baptist or a Presbyterian; in some Church anyway, that doesn’t have Bishops.

The part of our reception which I enjoyed most of all was the parade up Fifth Avenue. The whole regiment shared in it, including the extra battalion, seven hundred strong, of men who had been invalided home, and others of our wounded who had a place of honor on the grandstand. Archbishop Hayes, who had blessed us as we left the Armory, Mayor Hylan, men prominent in State and City, in Army and Navy affairs, united to pay their tribute of praise to the old regiment. And thousands and thousands of people on the stands cheered and cheered and cheered, so that for five miles the men walked through a din of applause, till the band playing the American and Irish airs could scarce be heard.

It was a deserved tribute to a body of citizen soldiers who had played such a manful part in battle for the service of the Republic. The appreciation that the country pays to its war heroes is for the best interest of the State. I am not a militarist, nor keen for military glory. But as long as liberties must be defended, and oppression or aggression put down, there must always be honor paid to that spirit in men which makes them willing to die for a righteous cause. Next after reason and justice, it is the highest quality in citizens of a state.

Our fathers in this republic, in their poverty and lowliness, founded many institutions, ecclesiastical, financial, charitable, which have grown stronger with the years. One of these institutions was a military organization, which they passed on to us with the flag of the fifty silver furls. To these we have added nine more in the latest war of our country. As it was borne up the Avenue flanked by that other banner whose stars of gold commemorated the six hundred and fifty dead heroes of the regiment, and surrounded by three thousand veterans, I felt that in the breasts of generous and devoted youths that gazed upon them there arose a determination that if, in their generation, the Republic ever needed defenders, they too would face the perils of battle in their country’s cause.

Men pass away, but institutions survive. In time we shall all go to join our comrades who gave up their lives in France. But in our own generation, when the call came, we accepted the flag of our fathers; we have added to it new glory and renown—and we pass it on.

HISTORICAL APPENDIX BY JOYCE KILMER

I

Fifth Avenue held a memorable crowd on the afternoon of the ninth of March, 1917. There were old women there in whose eyes was the eager light that only the thought of a son can cause to glow; there were proud old men—some of them with battered blue garrison-caps, and badges that told of service in the War between the States—there were wives, mothers, children—all waiting, in jubilant and affectionate expectation, the sound of a band playing “Garryowen” and the sight of a flag fluttering from a pole so covered with battle-furls as to glisten in the sunlight like a bar of silver.

The Sixty-ninth Regiment was back from the border. Escorted by its old friend, the Seventh New York, the Regiment marched nearly eight hundred strong, down the Avenue and east to the Armory. The crowd—or a large part of it—followed, and soon families separated for months were reunited. When the Sixty-ninth was mustered out of service that March day, after months of arduous service on the Mexican Border, it numbered 783 men. Almost immediately it lost some three hundred officers and men. This was in accordance with War Department orders and the National Defense Act of June 3rd, 1916, which provided that men with dependant relatives should be discharged from the service. Men were lost also because of the system, now discontinued, by which a soldier in the National Guard was furloughed to the reserve after three years of active service.

So in the early Spring of 1917, with participation in the European War a certainty, the Sixty-ninth Regiment found itself far below war strength, having lost a great number of men whom experience and training had made ideal soldiers. At once a recruiting campaign was instituted, but a recruiting campaign of a special kind. The Sixty-ninth has never found it at all difficult to fill its ranks—when it was under Southern fire in the Sixties it was brought up to war strength nine times. But the purpose in view now was to bring into the regiment men who would, in every purpose and way—physically, mentally and morally—keep up its ancient and honorable standards. It was easy enough to enlist hundreds of strong men who could be developed into good soldiers. But this was not the object of the recruiting of the Spring of 1917. It was desired to enlist strong, intelligent, decent-living men, men whose sturdy Americanism was strengthened and vivified by their Celtic blood, men who would be worthy successors of those unforgotten patriots who at Bloody Ford and on Marye’s Heights earned the title of “The Fighting Irish.”

The Regiment set its own standards in selecting recruits. In weight, for example, one hundred and twenty-eight pounds was established as the minimum. And if some honest man with broad shoulders and a knockout in each fist was unable to read ACXUROKY on a card hung thirty feet away—why, the examining physicians were instructed not to be overly meticulous in their work. But if the candidate, having every physical perfection, seemed to be the kind of man who would be out of harmony with the things for which the Sixty-ninth stands and has always stood, then the rigorous application of some of the qualifying tests invariably resulted in his rejection.

When, on April 6th, 1917, President Wilson declared that a state of war existed between the United States and Germany, his words found the Sixty-ninth Regiment ready, its ranks filled to war strength with soldiers of whom the men who fought at Gettysburg and Chancellorsville would not be ashamed. There was new intensity in the nightly drills; there was new fervor in the resolve of every man, veteran of the Border and recruit alike, to make the Regiment as nearly perfect a fighting unit as possible.

The 6th of April is a date which no American soldier will forget. And almost equally memorable is the 15th day of July of the same year—the day on which the National Guard was called into Federal Service. The Sixty-ninth regiment, 2002 strong, scarcely felt the heat of that torrid midsummer, so intent were all the men on preparing themselves for the great adventure, and so passionately eager were they for the call to service over-seas.

On the 5th of August the Regiment, still retaining the numerical designation which is permanently engraved upon the tablets of our nation’s history, was drafted into the Regular Army of the United States. This was a step nearer to the firing line—made, accordingly, with enthusiasm. And on the 25th day of August came the electrifying news that the Sixty-ninth Regiment had been selected as the first New York National Guard organization to be sent to the war in vanguard of the American Expeditionary Force.

The circumstances in which the announcement was made to the regiment were striking. It was a boiling Saturday afternoon and officers and men were exhausted from the exercises of the morning—a Divisional inspection in Central Park. The regiment marched through the dusty streets and ascended the steps into the Armory to learn that they were not to be immediately dismissed, but were to stay on the drill floor or in the Company rooms. Lieutenant Colonel Latham R. Reed had gone to Governor’s Island to attend an important conference, and officers and men were ordered to await his return. Everyone hopefully awaited the arrival of splendid tidings, and the weariness seemed to pass away.

When Lieutenant Colonel Reed returned, he called a meeting of his staff and the Battalion and Company Commanders, and told them such details as were then obtainable of the great honor which had come to the regiment they loved. There were present Major William J. Donovan, Major William B. Stacom, Major Timothy J. Moynahan, Captain George McAdie, Captain Thomas T. Reilley, Captain William Kennelly, Captain James A. McKenna, Jr., Captain Alexander E. Anderson, Captain Michael A. Kelly, Captain James J. Archer, Captain James G. Finn, Captain Van S. Merle-Smith, Captain John P. Hurley, and Captain William T. Doyle. They heard the good news with undisguised delight and at once proceeded to prepare for the necessary intensive training.

But as great as was their delight, it was clouded with one regret. And that regret was felt also by every enlisted man. They all knew that the Regiment had been the first selected to go abroad not because of what it had done in the Civil War, nor because it was representative of what was best in the citizenship of our nation’s greatest city. It had been selected, after a long and searching examination of the military resources of the country, because its record in the most recent important test—the Mexican Border Campaign—showed it to be the best trained and equipped fighting unit that America possessed. And the man who had done more than all others to bring the Regiment to this point, the man who during the long strenuous months on the Border had moulded it after his own ideal pattern of soldierly efficiency—that man was absent from the conference at which was announced the momentous news. There was not an officer in the conference room, there was not an enlisted man on the drill floor that day, who did not think of Colonel William N. Haskell—of the joy with which he would lead his beloved Regiment into the Great War, of the joy with which that Regiment would follow him across the ocean and over the parapet and through the German lines to the Kaiser’s palace. There was not an officer or man who did not recall his last words when he was ordered to another duty “I want to lead the 69th Regiment into a fight.”

Colonel Haskell was absent from this historic conference. He had been lent, not given to the Regiment, and now the Government claimed his valuable services to solve some of the problems of the new National Army. But he was present in spirit—in the thoughts of everyone in the building and in the fitness he had given to the Regiment’s personnel.

Soon after the announcement that the Sixty-ninth Regiment was to be one of the very first into battle it was learned that the Regiment was to be brought up to a strength of 3500, according to the scheme which the French military experts had developed from their hard-bought experience with the conditions of modern warfare. It would have been a task gratifying to the whole Regiment, including Colonel Charles Hine, who now was placed in command, to build up the Regiment to this size by means of the recruiting methods which already had proved so successful. But it had been decided by higher authorities that the Regiment’s numbers should be augmented by additions from other New York National Guard organizations. Accordingly, one day in August, 1917, there arrived at the armory the first of the new increments—332 men from the 7th New York Infantry.

The ties that bind the 7th and the 69th are ancient and strong. The friendship between the two organizations has often been strikingly manifested. It was much in evidence when the New York National Guard was stationed on the Border. But it has never been displayed more convincingly than on the day that the men from the 7th joined the 69th. Escorted to the doors of the armory by the rest of the 7th, led by Colonel Willard C. Fisk, the men found the entire 69th Regiment assembled to welcome them. They were made at home; they found it no difficult task to orient themselves to their new surroundings. Without any disloyalty to the venerable regiment they had left, they accepted as their own the traditions and standards of the 69th and became not a distinct group added to the Regiment but a vital part of it.

On the 20th of August the 69th Regiment, now 2,500 strong, again marched through New York, and again an enormous crowd witnessed and followed the march. But this crowd, unlike that of the 9th of March previous, was not composed of people rejoicing over a long-sought reunion. The same men, women and children who had been present on the 9th of March to welcome the soldiers returning from the Rio Grande were present and they were as proud as, or prouder than before. But faces that had been happy were fearful now and the gestures were of farewell. Wives and mothers looked at the bright ranks with smiling anguish. The 69th was marching to the ferry to cross the East River and entrain for Camp Albert L. Mills, near Mineola, New York. It was the first move toward the front, to win new battle-rings for the pole that saw Cold Harbor and Bloody Ford.

There were many new and strange experiences in store for the officers and men during the period of intensive training on Hempstead Plains. A carefully planned schedule provided for drill and instruction enough to fill nearly every minute of the day. Much of the work was repetition for those of the men who had seen service on the Border, but they entered into it in a way that showed they thoroughly appreciated its value. There was also training in those phases of offensive and defensive warfare which have been developed since August, 1914. This work came in for an especially large share of attention. It was no longer a mere drill; it was active preparation for the use of what is, in spite of trench mortar, cannon, bomb and machine, the most effective weapon of modern warfare. The Regiment was instructed in the use of the bayonet by reserve officers who had acquired their knowledge from men with actual experience at the front. Cold steel propelled by Irishmen was said to be what the Germans chiefly feared and every effort was made to make sure that the 69th should not, through lack of practice, be less skillful with the bayonet than were the Dublin Fusileers and the Connaught Rangers. Visitors to the camp who were so fortunate as to be present at the bayonet drill were greatly impressed by the dexterity which the soldiers had gained in a few weeks, and by the intense realism which pervaded the exercise.

And now the Regiment gained, from day to day, the increments necessary to bring it up to the prescribed war strength of 3500. The men from the 7th had already been assimilated as privates and non-commissioned officers; they had become an integral part of the 69th (for only on paper was the name 165th in use). The 23rd, 14th, 71st and 12th now sent their delegations.

In most cases, the selection of the men in the various armories was made with perfect fairness, the prescribed number of sergeants, corporals and privates being arbitrarily taken from the ranks. But in certain companies it was soon evident that the officers had yielded to the natural temptation to endeavor to retain in their commands their best trained non-coms. Here was, for instance, a corporal to be taken from Blank Company of the Dash Regiment. By strict adherence to the letter of the law, Corporal Smith, a soldier of stainless record, with three month’s Border service to his credit, should be the man to entrain for Camp Mills. But here was Private Jones, a recent recruit, not especially happy in the Dash Regiment and probably not likely to be homesick for it if sent away. Why not let him sew a couple of stripes on the sleeves of his new blouse, and go on his way rejoicing.

This is the way some Company Commanders reasoned. And as a result, the 69th Regiment found that among its new members were some Sergeants and Corporals whose military knowledge included little more than the manual of arms, and privates who were physically, morally, and mentally unfit for the service. It was not to be expected that these men would be received with overwhelming enthusiasm.

Many of the soldiers received from other regiments—most of them in fact, were valuable additions to the 69th and at once proved their usefulness by merging with the rest of the outfit and working for the soldierly perfection of the whole body. Of the others—well, some of them were reformed by thorough disciplinary action, and others were allowed to drift back into civilian life by means of liberal use of dependency and surgeon’s certificate of disability.

So many soldiers were lost of those acquired from other regiments that although the time for sailing was almost at hand it was considered advisable to institute another recruiting campaign. There was no difficulty in gaining the desired number of recruits; the prospect of immediate service in France with the most famous regiment in America brought to the Armory doors three times as many candidates as could be accepted.

Now the wives and mothers who thronged the dusty Company streets on Saturday and Sunday afternoons began to show stronger anxiety, to look with new intensity into the eyes of their soldiers as they bade them farewell and returned to the city. For the time for sailing was at hand—no one knew just when or just where the Regiment was going, but all felt it was a question only of days or hours.

Twice secret orders to sail were received at Regimental Headquarters, and twice these orders were hastily countermanded. The suspense began to tell on officers and men, to tell even more, perhaps on those to whom they had again and again to say good bye. At last, on the night of October 25th, Major Donovan led the first battalion through the dark camp and down the silent lanes to the long train that was to take them to Montreal.

And now there were no crowds, there was no music. It was a journey more momentous, greater in historical importance, than the Regiment’s triumphant return from the Border, than its flower and flag decked setting forth for Camp Mills. But it was not, like those memorable events, a time for music and pomp. The feeling of the officers and men was one of stern delight, of that strange religious exaltation with which men of Celtic race and faith go into battle, whether the arena be Vinegar Hill, Fontenoy, or Rouge Boquet. As the trainful of happy warriors steamed through the first leagues of the journey to the Front, Father Duffy, the Regiment’s beloved Chaplain, passed from car to car hearing confessions and giving absolution. Rosaries—the last dear gift of mothers and sweethearts—were taken out and by squads, platoons and companies the soldiers told their beads. There was little sleep on the 69th special for Montreal that night—officers and men were too excited, too exalted for that. They had entered at last on the adventure of their lives.

General O’Ryan had said that a soldier is a man who always wants to be elsewhere than where he is. This is not true of soldiers of the race to which General O’Ryan’s name indicates that he belongs. They want to be elsewhere—only when they are in some peaceful place. If the Regiment had been restless before, the second and third Battalions were doubly so after they had seen four companies of their comrades go away.

But they had not long to wait. On the night of October 29th, the _America_ (formerly the _Amerika_ of the Hamburg-American line) pulled out of New York Harbor. There was no khaki on her decks; the only figures to be seen were sailors and deck-hands. But as soon as the vessel was out of range of spying Teutonic eyes, soldiers poured out of every hatchway. And as they thronged the deck-space available and looked their last for a long time at the lights along the fast receding shore, they showed a contentment, a mirth that amazed the crew, long accustomed to transporting troops.

“What’s the matter with you fellows?” asked one sailor. “Ain’t you sorry to be leaving your homes? Didn’t you ever hear there was such things as submarines?” He had helped carry over all sort of soldiers, he said, Regulars, Marines and Guardsmen, but he had never before seen passengers so seemingly indifferent to the grief of leavetaking and the perils of the wartime sea. He couldn’t understand it.

He might have been able to understand it if he had read Chesteron’s “Ballad of the White Horse.” For in that wise poem is an explanation of the psychology of the 69th New York, an explanation of the singular phenomenon of soldiers leaving their dear ones and setting out over menacing seas to desperate battle in a strange land as merrily as if they were planning merely an evening at Coney Island. Chesterton wrote:

“For the great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad For all their wars are merry And all their songs are sad.”

II

The First Battalion’s voyage to France was more interesting than that of the main body of the regiment or of Companies L and M, who followed them in a few days. Sailing from Montreal on the _Tunisian_ at 8 on the morning of October 27th, they landed at Liverpool, England, on November 10. There they entrained for Southhampton, reaching that city late in the night. In the night of the 11th they crossed the English Channel to Havre, and after a few hours’ rest they were packed into open box-cars for their cold journey across France. They detrained at Sauvoy on November 15.

The voyage of the good ship _America_ was made over a sea so glassy-smooth that sea-sickness was an impossibility. The boat-drills, the rules against smoking or showing lights on deck at night and the constant watch for submarines (a work which was put wholly in the hands of the 69th Regiment, and executed by them with unflagging devotion) served to remind the men that, peaceful as the blue water looked, they were actually in the war already.

The discomforts of a crowded ship could not daunt the spirits of the men of the 69th. The dark holes far below the water-level in which they were tightly packed rang with song and laughter every night until taps sounded. There were concerts on deck and in the mess-room every night, except when the ship’s course was through the danger zone and silence was enforced. If there is left in the Atlantic Ocean a mermaid who cannot now sing “Over There,” “Goodbye Broadway, Hello France,” “Mother Machree,” and “New York Town,” it is not the fault of the 69th New York.

And yet mirth was not the sole occupation of these soldiers, exhilarated as they were by the prospects of battle. During the day, one could find little groups gathered on hatchways and in corners, studying, from little manuals they had bought, such subjects as the new bayonet work and grenade throwing. The talk of the men was very seldom of the homes and friends they had left behind, it was nearly always of the prospect of battle. They talked of what front they might be expected to hold, with what troops they might be trained, and, above all, of how soon they were to go into action. They discussed such methods and instruments of modern warfare as they knew with the keen interest of those who are soldiers by their own choice.

Those who do not know the 69th Regiment would have been puzzled by the spectacle presented by the main deck amidships every afternoon and evening. There could be seen a line of soldiers, as long as the mess-line, waiting their turn to go to confession to the Regimental Chaplain, Father Francis P. Duffy. And every morning—not on Sundays alone—there was a crowd at the same spot, where, on an altar resting on two nail kegs, Father Duffy said Mass.

The voyage passed without any sight of hostile sea or aircraft, and after two weeks the _America_ came to anchor in the beautiful harbor of Brest. That is, it seemed a beautiful harbor at first, with its long white quay and its miles of dark green shore picked out with venerable gray stone buildings. But as day succeeded day with nothing for the soldiers to do but tramp the decks and yearn for the feel of sod under their hobnails, the view began to lose some of its beauty. There were two weeks on the open sea—these soon passed. But the week in Brest Harbor, in tantalizing sight of land, separated by only half a mile of green evil-smelling stagnation from shops and cafes and homes—that was cruel and unusual punishment.

When, after six days a detail for the hard work of loading freight cars was formed, every man in the regiment volunteered—and this sort of a detail usually is eagerly avoided. The volunteers who were accepted had little to reward them except the pleasure of being upon comparatively dry land. They were given no chance to taste the delights of the seaside city. When their task of unloading and loading baggage was finished, they and the rest of their shipmates learned what “Hommes 36-40, Chevaux 8” meant. From 40 to 50 men entered the waiting box-cars, with hard tack and canned corn-beef (Corn Willie) to feed them, and their own blankets to protect them from the hardness of the floors and the cold blasts that swept in at the open sides.

Three days and three nights of such travelling as no soldier of the 69th can ever forget, and they were at the village of Sauvoy, in the Department of Meuse. From this point a hike of some two hours brought them to the tiny village of Naives-en-Blois. Here was to be the new home of Regimental Headquarters, Headquarters Company, Supply Company and Company B. The other companies (including those of the First Battalion, which had arrived in the district on the fifteenth of the month) were quartered in the nearby villages of Sauvoy, Bovée, Vacon, Broussey and Villeroi.

The Regiment was put not in barracks, but in billets. Now billets, to those of the men who had done guard duty in upper New York State during the previous Spring, meant comfortable bedrooms, buckwheat cakes with syrup for breakfast, and the society of good natured farming people. But billeting in the European sense of the term, meant something different, as they soon found out. It meant that certain householders, in return for the payment of a few sous per man per twenty-four hours, were obliged to allow soldiers to sleep in their stables, barns or other outhouses. They were not obliged to furnish any food, light or heat. They were not obliged even to mend the roofs or walls of the shelters. Straw for filling bedsacks was furnished to the soldiers, and they were fairly launched on their first winter in France.

It was a winter of unprecedented severity. A freezing wind blew through the great holes in the tumble-down sheds where the men slept, covering them, night after night, with snow. They learned many soldierly things. How to make blouse and overcoat supplement the thin army blankets, for instance. How to keep shoes from freezing in the night by sleeping on them. How to dress and undress in the dark—for lamps were unknown and candles forbidden.

These things the soldiers taught themselves, or were taught by circumstances during their stay in Naives-en-Blois and environs. Their work consisted of close order drill, guard duty, and the thorough and much needed policing of the ancient village street.

Now, Naives was near the front—so near that the guns could clearly be heard when the wind blew in the right direction. This was cheering for the men, but as there were indications of a strengthening of the German lines at this point, with a possible view to an offensive, it was necessary to use the district for troops whose training had been completed; and, according to the new European standards, that of the 69th had not yet begun. So it was necessary for the Regiment—indeed, for the whole 42nd Division, which then had its headquarters in the nearby city of Vaucouleurs—to give place to seasoned French troops. So the men made their packs, the wagons were loaded, and the Regiment changed station from the 4th to the 5th area.

After two days of hiking (very easy hiking it seemed, in the light of later experiences) the Regiment arrived, on December 13, in the historic town of Grand. Here, centuries before, the conquering Romans had encamped, one hundred thousand strong. The ruins of the mighty ampitheatre that they built still stands, and the tower of the great church was once part of a fort. It was Caesar himself who planned the broad roads on which our Regiment drilled, and Caesar’s soldiers who made them. In this venerable church Father Duffy said midnight Mass on Christmas, and all the town came to see these strange, gentle, brave, mirthful, pious American soldiers, who, coming from a new land to fight for France, practiced France’s ancient faith with such devotion. The Regimental colors were in the chancel, flanked by the tricolor. The 69th band was present, and some French soldier-violinists. A choir of French women sang hymns in their own language, the American soldiers sang a few in English, and French and American joined in the universal Latin of “Venite, Adoremus Dominum.” It was a memorable Midnight Mass—likely to be remembered longer even than that which Father Duffy had said on the Mexican Border just a year previous, which troops for fifty miles around had crossed the prairies to attend.

Now it was considered advisable for the Division to proceed to the 6th area. This meant a hike of some four days and nights. Accordingly, at 8 on the morning of December 26th, the Regiment passed through the main street of Grand and out over the ancient Roman road.

This hike has become so famous—or so infamous—because of the undeniable sufferings of those who took part in it that it needs no detailed description here. It must by any impartial historian be admitted that during it the men of the 69th Regiment were insufficiently fed and shod, that they endured great and unnecessary pains and privations. It must also be admitted that they bore these trials with a cheerfulness which amazed the French civilians through whose villages they passed, accustomed as were these people to soldiers of almost every human race. They would crush their bleeding feet into their frozen, broken-soled hobnails of a black morning, and breakfastless start out, with a song on their lips, to climb the foothills of the Vosges Mountains through the heart of a blizzard. At noon (shifting their feet about to keep the blood moving) they would (if it was one of the lucky days) have a slice of bread or two pieces of hardtack for noon mess. At night they would have a sleep instead of supper. But they were never dispirited; they were never too cold, too hungry or too weary to sing or to teach the innocent French villagers strange bits of New York slang.

No man in the 69th Regiment “fell out” during that terrible hike. But many fell down. That is, no one, because of heart-breaking weariness, or faintness or lameness went to the roadside and waited for the ambulance to pick him up. Those who finished the journey in ambulances or trucks did so because they had fallen senseless in the deep snow, unable to speak or move. And wherever the Regiment passed there were bloody tracks in the white roadway.

“That hike made Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow look like a Fifth Avenue parade,” said one of the medical officers serving during this period. And many an observer compared the Regiment to Washington’s foot-sore soldiers at Valley Forge. It was only the indomitable spirit of the Irish American fighting man that kept the Regiment afoot through those four tragic days.

The Regiment that arrived in Longeau on the afternoon of December 29th looked different from the Regiment that had left Grand four days before. To judge them by their gait and their faces, the men had aged twenty years. But their hearts were unchanged. As they stood in the deep snow, the ice-crusted packs still on their bruised shoulders, they had a laughing word for every pretty face at a Longeau window. The weary bandsmen started a defiant air, and the Regiment joined in with a roar. The song was “The Good Old Summertime.”

III

Longeau, which with the surrounding villages constituted the Regiment’s new home, is a small farming town in the Haute Marne District. Unlike those of Naives, its houses are strongly built and in excellent preservation, and the billets in which (awaiting the completion of barracks) the troops were stationed were dry, warm and comfortable. As soon as possible, the Regiment moved into the new barracks built in the outskirts of Longeau and nearby villages, and was thus more nearly consolidated than it had previously been since its arrival in France.

In Longeau, the 69th Regiment was destined to receive much more practical training for the trenches than it had received in Camp Mills, Naives or Grand. These last two towns had really been merely stopping places, Longeau was a training camp. The most important event of the stay in Longeau was the advent of Colonel John W. Barker. Colonel Hine was withdrawn from his post with the regiment early in January, in order that he might take part in the transportation work for which he was especially fitted. He was succeeded on January 12th by Colonel John W. Barker, National Army. Colonel Barker was an up-state New Yorker, who graduated from West Point in the class of ’09. He had served in the Regular Infantry ever since in Cuba, the Philippines and on the Mexican Border. He saw considerable active service against the Indians, after taking part in almost the last of the Indian fight at Leach Creek, Minnesota.

Four years ago, he was recommended by his arm of the service to represent the Infantry for one year’s duty with a French Infantry Regiment. He was in France on this duty when the great war broke out, and remained as a member of our military organization until the arrival of the American Expeditionary Forces. Then he joined the staff of the Commander in Chief as General Staff Officer, 5th Section. He served General Headquarters in this capacity until personally selected by the Commander in Chief to command the 165th Infantry.

Now the regiment began to take the form of a modern fighting organization. It was Colonel Barker’s task to bring it into conformation with the new Tables of Organization, and to this task the best energies of himself and his staff were immediately devoted.

The specialized platoons (pioneers, trench mortar, one pound cannon) were now organized and intensively trained. Competent enlisted men from these platoons were sent to the schools newly established by General Headquarters and given the advantage of instruction by officers who had gained their knowledge of the subjects in actual warfare conditions. Hand grenades were supplied, and every man taught their effective use. Steel helmets now replaced the historic felt campaign hats. To every man were issued two gas masks, one French gas mask and one English box respirator. By means of constant drill in the rapid adjustment of these masks, under the direction of an officer who had specialized in the subject, the men acquired a proficiency in their use which saved many a life in the Lunéville and Baccarat Sectors and during the weeks of desperate fighting on the banks of the Suippes and the Marne.

It was during the stay in Longeau that the 69th Regiment organized its Intelligence Section, the first in the 42nd Division. Under the direction of the Regimental Intelligence Officer, Lieutenant Basil B. Elmer, U. S. R., there was organized and trained a group of scouts, observers, map-makers and snipers so expert in detecting and hindering the movements of the enemy that they were several times, in the course of the action that came later, asked to attach themselves permanently to the Headquarters of the 42nd Division, in order that they might serve as instructors to the other regimental intelligence sections.

There were several changes in the personnel of the Regiment’s administrative staff. Lieutenant Colonel Reed had been selected for Staff College, and the Regiment never got him back. Captain William Doyle, who had served as Regimental Adjutant in Camp Mills, had been relieved while the regiment was in Naives-en-Blois, and his place taken by Captain Alexander E. Anderson, long in command of Company E. Now Captain Anderson was relieved as Adjutant and placed in command of Headquarters Company. Its former commander, Captain Walter E. Powers, for several years Adjutant of the Regiment, went to the Headquarters of the 42nd Division, leaving an enviable record for absolute efficiency in company and regimental administration. His abilities were soon recognized by his commission as Major and appointment as Divisional Adjutant. Captain Doyle was attached to Brigade Headquarters. Captain Anderson’s work was taken over by Lieutenant William F. McKenna, who was appointed Acting Adjutant, an office which he had filled during part of the Border campaign.

The training of officers and men never flagged while the Regiment was stationed in Longeau. Battalion and company commanders, Lieutenants and enlisted men were sent for brief periods to the special schools instituted by General Headquarters for their benefit, and on their return imparted to others the knowledge they had gained. There were lectures and quizzes every evening in the barracks, supplementary to the instruction received every morning and afternoon in the drill field and on the range. A number of American officers who had seen service at the front were now attached to the Regiment, and their first hand information gave new actuality to the daily work.

The training of the Regiment for the action in which they were soon to take part received new and strong impetus during the month of February by the arrival in camp of the 32nd Battalion of Chasseurs. These famous French soldiers, who had been in violent action ever since 1914, proved to be the most useful instructors for the men of the 69th. On the range and during the long hours of grenade throwing and open and trench warfare practice, their instruction, example and companionship was a constant incentive to the American soldiers. And it was a proud day for the 69th Regiment when its soldiers perceived that in rifle marksmanship and in grenade throwing they had succeeded in proving their superiority to their veteran instructors.

From February 7th to February 13th the Regiment took part in manoeuvres in which it was opposed by the 166th Infantry. These manoeuvres took place in the hilly country around Longeau and had as their ultimate objective the seizure and holding of the town of Brennes. This difficult strategic task was eventually accomplished.

Now the desire of the men for immediate participation in the action, the lure of which had drawn them across the ocean, was so strong as to amount to an obsession. It was evident to any competent observer that the whole Division was ready to render valuable service, as thoroughly trained as any unit in the American contingent. This was evidently the opinion of those who directed the movement of American troops, for on February 16th, 17th and 18th the Regiment marched to Langres, under orders to entrain for the city of Lunéville, in the Department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, for training with French troops in the line—that is, for actual duty in the trenches.

Lunéville was the largest town in which the Regiment had been stationed since its arrival in France. Some of the companies were put in billets, and some in the Stanislas Barracks, a magnificent stone building in the center of the town. Regimental Headquarters was established in the Stanislas Palace, a building which had previously housed the Administrative staffs of some of the French regiments who since 1914 had done brilliant work in retarding the German advance.

Now the Regiment was placed under the tactical orders of the General commanding the 164th Division of the French Army, the Division then occupying what was known as the Lunéville Sector. On February 21st, the 1st and 2nd Battalions, Headquarters Company and Machine Gun Company paraded in the central square of Lunéville and were reviewed by Major General Bassilière, then commander of the 17th French Army Corps. A few days later, the Regiment was made happy by learning that orders to go to the front had been received. On February 27th and 28th respectively, Companies D and B marched to their posts in the front line trenches, relieving companies of the 15th Group of Chasseurs of the French Army.

And now came a chapter in the history of the 69th Regiment which blotted out from the minds of officers and men all the hard work of the Camp Mills training period, all the privations and discomforts of the ocean trip and the journey across blizzard-beleagured France. The 69th was actually in the fighting—it was called “a period of training in the trenches,” but it was no time of sham-battles and manoeuvres. It was, in fact, an initiation into battle, by way of what was (up to the time of the 42nd Division’s entry into it) a quiet sector.

A “quiet sector” is one in which the German and French lines are separated from each other by a considerable distance—sometimes as much as five kilometers—in which there is no immediate objective for which the troops on either side are striving, in which, finally, shots are seldom fired, the opposing forces being content merely to hold their trenches almost undisturbed. These are also termed “rest sectors,” and the task of holding them is given either to troops wearied by participation in great battles or to troops fresh from the drill field and lacking in experience in actual warfare.

Nothing could have been more idyllic than the Rouge-Bouquet-Chaussailles Subsector of the Lunéville Sector when Company D marched to its strong point before dawn on the morning of February 27th. The subsector is heavily wooded and almost clear of underbrush. As the company marched up the hill through groves of birch, pine, spruce, and fir, and saw to right and left little summer houses, benches, tables and dugout entrances elaborately decorated with rustic woodwork they were rather shocked by the idyllic beauty of what they saw. Not for service in such a recreation park had they crossed the seas. Where were the bursting shells, where was the liquid fire, where were the bayonets of the charging Boches? This series of outposts joined by little ditches seemed at first too much like Central Park to satisfy the battle-hungry soldiers of the 69th.

The impression of absolute peacefulness was further emphasized in the course of a thorough reconnaissance of the subsector made on the morning of the 27th by the Regimental Intelligence Section. They stepped across a ditch and learned that they had passed the front line trenches—had gone “over the top.” They wandered about what seemed to be a deserted pasture and learned that they were in No Man’s Land.

But this tranquillity was not long to endure. The “Fighting Irish” lived up to their reputation—they “started something” at once. Rifles were cracking merrily before Company D’s men had been at their posts for half an hour. And by dusk on the evening of the 27th, Corporal Arthur Trayer and Private John Lyons of Company D had earned the distinction of being the first soldiers of the Regiment to be wounded. A high explosive shell burst on striking the roof of a shack in which they were resting, and the fragments wounded them—not seriously, but enough to warrant sending them to a hospital for a few weeks and later awarding them the coveted wound chevrons.

By the night of the 27th the Chaussaille-Rouge Bouquet Subsector had lost much of its reputation for quietness. The Germans may not have known as yet that Americans were in the trenches opposite them, but they knew at any rate that some new and aggressive unit had taken over the line, and they felt in duty bound to show that they were not in the trenches entirely for a rest curé. So the fight was on.

Regimental Headquarters took over the Regimental Post of Command at Arbre Haut on March 3rd. Company A occupied Strong Point Rouge Bouquet from March 1st to March 7th, Company E from March 7th to 13th, Company L from March 13th to March 21st. Company B occupied Strong Point Chaussailles from March 1st to March 6th, Company H from March 6th to March 12th, Company K from March 12th to March 22nd. Company D occupied Strong Point Sorbiers from March 1st to March 5th, Company F from March 5th to March 11th, Company I from March 11th to March 17th, Company M from March 17th to March 22nd.

There were many minor casualties during the early part of this period, but nothing of a really tragic nature occurred until March 7th. Then came a calamity which would have broken the morale of any regiment less high-spirited than this, so sudden was it and so lamentable.

On that unforgettable Wednesday, all was quiet as if there were no war until exactly 3.20 in the afternoon. Then the enemy started a barrage of minnewerfer shells. Interspersed with 77s they fell steadily and thick for about an hour. One shell fell directly on the roof of a dugout in Rocroi—an old dugout, built by the French four years before. In it were 21 men and one officer—1st Lieutenant John A. Norman of Company E. All were buried in the broken earth and beams, and some were at once killed. Two men were sitting on the edge of the upper bunk in one of the rooms—a falling beam crushed the head of one and left the other uninjured.

At once a working party was organized and began to dig the soldiers from their living grave. There was bombardment after bombardment, but the men kept at work, and eventually they dug out two men alive and five dead. There were living men down in that pit—their voices could be heard, and they were struggling toward the light. Lieutenant Norman could be heard encouraging them and guiding the efforts of their bruised and weary hands and feet. Several times they were at the surface and willing hands were out-stretched to draw them to safety—when well-aimed shells plunged them down again into that place of death. At last, after almost superhuman efforts on the part of men from Company E and from the pioneer platoon of Headquarters Company, after deeds of heroism, brilliant but unavailing, the work was discontinued. The bodies of fourteen men and one officer still lay in that ruined dugout—it was unwise, in view of the constant bombardment of it, to risk the lives of more men in digging for them. So a tablet was engraved and erected above the mound, the last rites of the church were celebrated by Father Duffy, and the place where the men had fought and died became their grave.

After March 7th, no one called the Rouge Bouquet-Chaussailles Sector a rest park, no one complained that it was too peaceful to make them know they were at war. Not only the front line sector but the reserve position at Grand Taille and the road leading from the Battalion Post of Command at Rouge Bouquet to Regimental Headquarters at Arbre Haut were bombarded every day. But the Regiment held the line with undiminished zeal, and gave the enemy an experience novel in this sector in the shape of a _Coup de Main_ on the night of March 20th. Of this adventure, the first of many of the kind in which the regiment was to take part, a brief, accurate account is to be found in the citation of its leader, 1st Lieutenant Henry A. Bootz, (later Captain of Company C), by the Seventh French Army Corps.

His citation reads: “In the course of a raid, led a combat group into the enemy’s lines, going beyond the objective assigned, and recommenced the same operation eight hours later, giving his men an example of the most audacious bravery. Returned to our lines carrying one of his men severely wounded.”

It is a matter of no military importance but of deep interest to everyone who sympathizes with the 69th Regiment and knows its history and traditions, that when the raiding party marched up past Regimental Headquarters on their way to the trenches, there fluttered from the bayonet of one of the men a flag—a green flag marked in gold with the harp that has for centuries been Ireland’s emblem—the harp without the crown—and inscribed “Erin Go Bragh!” This flag had been given to Sergeant Evers of the Band and by a stranger—an old woman who burst through the great crowd that lined the streets when the Regiment marched from the armory to the dock on their journey to Camp Mills and, crying and laughing at the same time, thrust it into his hands. The flag went “over the top” twice that night, and for memory’s sake the name “Rouge Bouquet” was embroidered on it. Later, the embroidered names became so numerous that the design of the flag almost disappeared. Who the woman was who gave the Regiment this appropriate tribute is unknown. Perhaps it was Kathleen in Houlihan herself.

It was natural that this brilliant and utterly unexpected _Coup de Main_ should have the effect of irritating our country’s enemy. It did so, and the result was a dose of “Schrecklichkeit” which at first threatened to prove more serious than the fatal bombardment of the dugout in Rouge Bouquet. It came on the days of the raid—March 20th and March 21st. The French soldiers had been inclined to make light of the 69th Regiment’s elaborate precautions against gas-attacks, of the constant wearing of the French gas mask and the English box respirator at the alert position (the respirator bound across the soldier’s chest ready for immediate use) when in the trenches. The Germans, they said, could not send cloud or projector gas through Rocroi Woods, and their last gas shell attack had been made three years before. Why take such precautions against an improbable danger?

But the French officers and men saw the wisdom of the Regiment’s precautionary measures after March 20th and 21st. For on these dates occurred a gas attack of magnitude unprecedented in this sector, in which the French casualties far outnumbered those of the Americans. The gas sent over in shells that burst along the road from Arbre Haut to the Battalion Post of Command and along the trenches and outposts from Chaussailles to Rouge Bouquet were filled with mustard-gas, which blinded the men and bit into their flesh, and poisoned all blankets, clothing and food that was within the range of its baneful fumes. There were four hundred casualties in the Regiment on those two nightmare-like days—four hundred men, that is, who were taken, blind and suffering, from the fateful forest to the hospital in Lunéville and thence to Vittel and other larger centers for expert medical treatment. Most of these men were from Company K, others from Company M and Headquarters Company. But only two men were immediately killed by the gas, and of the four hundred who went to the hospital only three died—of broncho-pneumonia resulting from the action of the gas on their lungs. To their careful training in the use of the gas mask, the men owed the preservation of their lives in an attack which was intended to destroy all of the battalion then in the line.

A volume could be filled with a record of the heroism displayed by the officers and men of the 69th Regiment during these two days and nights of violent bombardment. The French authorities overwhelmed the Regiment with congratulations and awards. And surely the Croix de Guerre never shone upon breasts more worthy of it than those of First Lieutenant George F. Patton, of the Sanitary Detachment, who, standing in the center of a storm of mustard-gas, coolly removed his mask in order to give a wounded soldier the benefit of his medical attention, or that of First Lieutenant Thomas Martin of Company K, who, when every other officer of his company had been taken away to the hospital, took command of the unit and held the sector through forty-eight hours of almost incessant bombardments. The French Division commander bestowed the Croix de Guerre on Col. Barker, with the following citation:

“Commands a regiment noticeable for its discipline and fine conduct under fire. Has given his troops an example of constant activity and has distinguished himself especially on the 20th of March by going forward under a violent barrage fire to assure himself of the situation and of the state of morale of one of his detachments starting on a raid into the enemy’s lines.”

[Illustration: 165 U.S. INF. 1917-1919]

APPENDIX

NEW FURLS ON REGIMENTAL STAFF

LUNÉVILLE SECTOR, February 21 to March 23, 1918.

BACCARAT SECTOR, April 1 to June 21, 1918.

ESPERANCE-SOUAIN SECTOR, July 4 to July 14, 1918.

CHAMPAGNE-MARNE DEFENSIVE, July 15 to July 18, 1918

AISNE-MARNE OFFENSIVE, July 25 to August 3, 1918

ST. MIHIEL Offensive, September 12 to September 16, 1918.

ESSEY and PANNES Sector. Woevre, September 17 to September 30, 1918.

ARGONNE-MEUSE OFFENSIVE, October 13 to October 31, 1918

ARGONNE-MEUSE OFFENSIVE LAST PHASE, November 5, to November 9, 1918.

LOSSES IN ACTION

Killed: 644 Wounded: 2,857. Total: 3,501.

Kilometers gained: 55.

Headquarters: 83 different places.

Number of days in contact with the enemy: 180.

LIST OF DECORATIONS[6]

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS WITH PALM

Colonel William J. Donovan

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS

Lieut.-Colonels Timothy J. Moynahan Charles A. Dravo

Majors James A. McKenna (Deceased) Michael A. Kelly Thomas T. Reilley Van S. Merle-Smith

Captains Richard J. Ryan Louis A. Stout

First Lieutenants James B. McIntyre William M. Spencer John J. Williams

Second Lieutenants Oliver Ames (Deceased) James S. D. Burns (Deceased) John J. Burke Andrew Ellett

Chaplains Francis P. Duffy James M. Hanley George R. Carpentier

Sergeants Co. C, Joseph W. Burns Co. A, John J. Dennelly Co. D, Joseph J. Lynch Co. C, Thomas P. O’Hagan Co. D, John J. Gribbon Co. B, Spiros Thomas Co. H, Bernard Finnerty (Deceased) Co. H, Eugene J. Sweeney Co. A, Thomas J. Sweeney Co. I, Michael A. Donaldson Co. C, Thomas O’Kelly Co. Hq., Thomas E. Fitzsimmons Co. K, John J. McLoughlin Co. M, John McLoughlin Co. M, G. Frank Gardella (Deceased) Co. M G, John F. Flint Co. H, Martin J. Higgins Co. San, Victor L. Eichorn Co. M G, Peter Gillespie Co. K, Edward J. Rooney Co. I, Edward T. Shanahan Co. K, Herbert A. McKenna Co. D, Richard W. O’Neill Co. C, Michael Ruane Co. H, Dudley Winthrop Co. A, Martin Gill Co. A, Matthew Kane Co. C, Archibald F. Reilly Co. C, Harry C. Horgan Co. H, Patrick Travers Co. C, William McCarthy Co. K, Peter J. Crotty (Deceased) Co. H, William O’Neill (Deceased) Co. C, Michael Cooney Co. L, Michael Fitzpatrick Co. D, Michael J. McAuliffe

Corporals Co. C, Thomas F. O’Connor (Deceased) Co. M G, William J. Murphy Co. C, Frederick Craven Co. D, William P. White Co. E, Frederick Gluck (Deceased) Co. K, Victor Van Yorx Co. M, James E. Winestock Co. C, John Hammond Co. B, Matthew J. Brennan

Wagoner Supply Co. Albert Richford

Privates Co. K, William J. Bergen (Deceased) Co. G, Edmund Riordan (Deceased) Co. G, John McGeary (Deceased) Co. M, Robert Riggsby Co. D, Edward G. Coxe (Deceased) Co. K, Burr Finkle Co. H, Patrick Reynolds (Deceased) Co. C, John Teevan

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL

Chaplain Francis P. Duffy

LEGION OF HONOR

Brigadier General Frank R. McCoy

Colonel William J. Donovan

Lieutenant Colonel Timothy J. Moynahan

Major Michael A. Kelly

First Lieutenant William Maloney

MEDAILLE MILITAIRE

Sergeant Co. I, Michael A. Donaldson

Corporals Co. A, Matthew A. Kane Co. K, Burr Finkle

Private Co. M, Robert Riggsby

CROCE DI GUERRA (ITALIAN)

Colonel William J. Donovan

Sergeant Co. C, Michael Ruane

CROIX DE GUERRE

Brigadier Generals Frank R. McCoy John W. Barker

Colonel William J. Donovan

Lieutenant Colonels Charles A. Dravo Timothy J. Moynahan (Two Citations)

Majors Henry A. Bootz Michael A. Kelly

Captains Henry K. Cassidy Oscar L. Buck Kenneth Ogle Charles D. Baker (Deceased) Beverly H. Becker

First Lieutenants John Norman (Deceased) Thomas C. P. Martin George F. Patton

Second Lieutenants Arthur S. Booth W. Arthur Cunningham Henry W. Davis (Deceased) Raymond H. Newton

Sergeants Co. A, William J. Moore Co. A, Daniel O’Connell Co. A, Spencer G. Rossell Co. B, Spiros Thomas Co. C, Eugene A. McNiff Co. Hq., Abram Blaustein Co. D, Thomas M. O’Malley Co. E, Carl Kahn Co. E, William E. Bailey Co. G, James D. Coffey Co. G, James Murray Co. C, Thomas P. O’Hagan Co. K, Leo A. Bonnard Co. D, Joseph J. Lynch Co. A, John F. Scully Co. G, Martin Shalley Co. H, Jerome F. O’Neill Co. H, Bruno Gunther Co. A, Joseph G. Pettit Co. A, Frank A. Fisher Co. B, Christian Biorndall Co. B, William P. Judge Co. D, Thomas H. Brown Co. E, Alfred S. Helmer Co. F, Theodore H. Hagen Co. H, John P. Furey Co. D, John Cahill Co. A, Michael Morley Co. B, Daniel J. Finnegan Co. C, James Barry Co. C, Michael Cooney Co. D, Dennis O’Connor Co. D, Patrick Grogan Co. C, Herman H. Hillig Co. A, Thomas Sweeney Co. C, Michael Ruane Co. D, John J. Gribbon Co. I, Michael A. Donaldson Co. A, Matthew A. Kane Co. Hq., Joyce Kilmer (Deceased)

Corporals Co. F, John Finnegan (Deceased) Co. L, Lawrence G. Spencer (Deceased) Co. D, Marlow H. Plant Co. C, Bernard Barry (Deceased) Co. A, George A. McCarthy Co. B, Vincent J. Eckas Co. Hq., Charles S. Jones Co. B, Frank Brandreth Co. C, John J. Brawley Co. D, Harry H. DeVoe Co. E, James Quigley Co. A, Bernard McOwen (Deceased) Co. A, Matthew A. Rice (Two Citations) Co. K, Burr Finkle

Cook Co. M, Robert Riggsby

Private John Teevan

ORDER OF ST. LEPOLD (BELGIUM)

Second Lieutenant Thomas J. Devine

HEADQUARTERS, 165TH INFANTRY

(Old 69th N. Y.)

REMAGEN, Germany, March 28, 1919.

GENERAL ORDER. No. 12

To the Officers and the Men of the 165th Infantry, 42nd Division.

The following extracts from orders and letters commendatory of the 42nd Division and the 165th Infantry issued by our own Army and that of our illustrious Ally the French, indicate a deep appreciation of your worth as soldiers and pay a high tribute to your valorous conduct on the Fields of Battle.

WILLIAM J. DONOVAN JOHN P. HURLEY, Capt. Adj., 165th Infantry.

March 21, 1918.

The Lieut. Colonel Commanding the 13th Group of Chasseurs reports that in the course of the double _coup de main_ executed in the night of the 20-21 March, the conduct of the American detachment of the 165th Regiment has been particularly worthy of commendation, and that Officers and Soldiers have given proof of an enthusiastic bravery.

The General Commanding the 164th Division wishes to make known to all this appreciation, which justifies amply the confidence that we all have in our allies, a confidence doubled by the friendship and by the affectionate sympathy that the common life in the Sector has spontaneously brought into being.

General GAUCHER, Commanding the 164th Division.

April 1, 1918.

From: Commanding General, First Army Corps.

To: Commanding General, 42d Division, A. E. F.

Subject: Commendations.

1. The Chief of the French Military Mission has forwarded to the Commander-in-Chief, A. E. F., copies of citations and proposals concerning three officers and eight enlisted men of the 165th Infantry.

2. The Commander-in-Chief charges me with the conveyance to these officers and soldiers his particular appreciation of their splendid conduct, which has won for them these citations from the French Army.

3. To the appreciation thus conferred by the Commander-in-Chief, the Corps Commander adds his own and desires that the foregoing be made known in a suitable manner to the officers and soldiers cited.

By direction, Malin Craig, Chief of Staff.

May 21, 1918.

The First Company, under Captain Edart, penetrated the German line on the night of May 19-20, 1918, and the following night it drove back with vigor the Germans who came out against us from their lines, thus maintaining our superiority in morale.

In the course of these operations the American Volunteers (from Second Battalion, 165th Infantry), who were attached to the Edart Company displayed the utmost dash and coolness, as well as a splendid comradeship in battle.

I have the honor to ask for them in recompense the authorization to cite them in my Regimental Order.

Colonel Jungbluth, Cdt. 67th R. I.

6th ARMY CORPS H. Q. June 15, 1918.

At the moment when the 42nd U. S. Infantry Division is leaving the Lorraine front, the Commanding General of the 6th Army Corps desires to do homage to the fine military qualities which it has continuously exhibited, and to the services which it has rendered in the Baccarat sector.

The offensive ardor, the sense for the utilization and the organization of terrain, the spirit of method, the discipline shown by all its officers and men, the inspiration animating them, prove that at the first call, they can henceforth take a glorious place in the new line of battle.

The Commanding General of the 6th Army Corps expresses his deepest gratitude to the 42nd Division for its precious collaboration; he

## particularly thanks the distinguished Commander of this Division,

General Menoher, the Officers under his orders and his Staff so brilliantly directed by Colonel MacArthur.

It is with a sincere regret that the entire 6th Army Corps sees the 42nd Division depart. But the bonds of affectionate comradeship which have been formed here will not be broken; for us, in faithful memory, are united the living and the dead of the Rainbow Division, those who are leaving for hard combats and those who, after having nobly sacrificed their lives on this Eastern Border, now rest there, guarded over piously by France.

These sentiments of warm esteem will be still more deeply affirmed, during the impending struggles where the fate of Free Peoples is to be decided.

May our units, side by side, contribute valiantly to the triumph of Justice and Right:

GENERAL DUPORT.

June 18, 1918.

To: Colonel McCoy, Commanding 165th Inf. Rgt.

My Dear Colonel McCoy:

I greatly appreciate the kind thought you had in sending me your order No. 10 relating the numerous citations that have been granted to the 165th.

The old New York regiment has a great past of glory. I am sure it will be famous on the battlefields of France as it has been in America.

I also want to thank you for the kind farewell you gave Captain Mercier. I know this Officer feels sad in leaving your regiment. He will keep a precious recollection of the six months he spent with his gallant Irish comrades.

With the expression of my personal appreciation of your kindness and my best compliments,

I am, Sincerely yours, J. CORBABON, Major, Liaison Officer, 42nd Division.

4th ARMY H. Q. July 16, 1918.

SOLDIERS OF THE 4TH ARMY

During the day of July 15th, you broke the effort of fifteen German divisions, supported by ten others.

They were expected according to their orders to reach the Marne in the evening: You stopped their advance clearly at the point where we desired to engage in and win the battle.

You have the right to be proud, heroic infantrymen and machine gunners of the advance posts who met the attack and broke it up, aviators who flew over it, battalions and batteries which broke it, staffs which so minutely prepared the battlefield.

It is a hard blow for the enemy. It is a grand day for FRANCE.

I count on you that it may always be the same every time he dares to attack you; and with all my heart of a soldier, I thank you.

GOURAUD.

21ST ARMY CORPS, July 17, 1918. 170TH DIVISION,

General BERNARD, Commanding par interim the 170th Division.

To the Commanding General of the 42nd U. S. Inf. Division.

The Commanding General of the 170th Infantry Division desires to express to the Commanding General of the 42nd U. S. Infantry Division his keen admiration for the courage and bravery of which the American Battalions of the 83rd Brigade have given proof in the course of the hard fighting of the 15th and 16th of July, 1918, as also for the effectiveness of the artillery fire of the 42nd U. S. Infantry Division.

In these two days the troops of the United States by their tenacity, largely aided their French comrades in breaking the repeated assaults of the 7th Reserve Division, the 1st Infantry Division and the Dismounted Cavalry Guard Division of the Germans: these latter two divisions are among the best of Germany.

According to the order captured on the German officers made prisoner, their Staff wished to take Chalon-sur-Marne on the evening of July 16th, but it had reckoned without the valor of the American and French combatants, who told them with machine gun, rifle and cannon shots that they would not pass.

The Commanding General of the 170th Infantry Division is therefore

## particularly proud to observe that in mingling their blood

gloriously on the Battlefield of Champagne, the Americans and the French of today are continuing the magnificent traditions established a century and a half ago by Washington and Lafayette; it is with this sentiment that he salutes the Noble Flag of the United States in thinking of the final Victory.

BERNARD.

21ST ARMY CORPS Hq., July 19, 1918.

GENERAL ORDER

At the moment when the 42nd American Division is on the point of leaving the 21st Army Corps, I desire to express my keen satisfaction and my sincere thanks for the service which it has rendered under all conditions.

By its valor, ardor and spirit, it has very particularly distinguished itself on July 15th and 16th in the course of the great battle where the 4th Army broke the German offensive on the CHAMPAGNE front.

I am proud to have had it under my orders during this period; my prayers accompany it in the great struggle engaged in for the Liberty of the World.

GENERAL NAULIN, Commanding the 21st Army Corps.

6TH ARMY P. C., July 26, 1918.

NOTE.

The PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC, in the course of a visit to the 6th Army, expressed his satisfaction over the results obtained, as well as for the qualities of valor and perseverance manifested by all units of the Army.

The Commanding General of the 6th Army, is happy to transmit to the troops of his Army the felicitations of the PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC.

Signed: GENERAL DEGOUTTE.

July 28, 1918.

From: Commanding General, 1st Army Corps, Am. E. F.

To: Commanding General, 42nd Division, Am. E. F.

Subject: Congratulations:

1. The return of the 42nd Division to the 1st Army Corps was a matter of self-congratulation for the Corps Commander, not only because of previous relations with the Division, but also because of the crisis which existed at the time of its arrival.

2. The standard of efficient performance of duty which is demanded by the Commander-in-Chief, American E. F., is a high one, involving as it does on an occasion such as the present complete self-sacrifice on the part of the entire personnel, and a willingness to accept cheerfully every demand even to the limit of endurance of the individual for the sake of the Cause for which we are in France.

3. The taking over of the front of the 1st Army Corps under the conditions of relief and advance, together with the attendant difficulties incident to widening the front, was in itself no small undertaking, and there is added to this your advance in the face of the enemy to a depth of five or more kilometers, all under cover of darkness, to the objective laid down by higher authority to be attained, which objective you were holding, regardless of the efforts of the enemy to dislodge you. The Corps Commander is pleased to inform you that the 42nd Division has fully measured up to the high standard above referred to, and he reiterates his self-congratulation that you and your organization are again a part of the 1st Army Corps., Am. E. F.

(Signed) H. LIGGETT, Major General, U. S. A.

6TH ARMY P. C. August 9, 1918.

GENERAL ORDER.

Before the great offensive of the 18th of July, the American troops forming part of the 6th French Army distinguished themselves in capturing from the enemy the Bois de la Brigade De Marine and the village of VAUX, in stopping his offensive on the MARNE and at FOSSOY.

Since then, they have taken the most glorious part in a second battle of the MARNE, rivaling in order and in valiance the French troops. They have, in twenty days of incessant combat, liberated numerous French villages and realized across a difficult country an advance of forty kilometers, which has carried them beyond the VESLES.

Their glorious marches are marked by names which will illustrate in the future, the military history of the United States:

TORCY, BELLEAU, Plateau d’ENREPILLY, EPIEDS, Le CHARMEL, l’OURCQ, SERINGES et NESLES, SERGY, La VESLE and FISMES.

The new divisions who were under fire for the first time showed themselves worthy of the old war-like traditions of the Regular Army. They have had the same ardent desire to fight the Boche, the same discipline by which an order given by the Chief is always executed, whatever be the difficulties to overcome and the sacrifices to undergo.

The magnificent results obtained are due to the energy and skill of the Chiefs, to the bravery of the soldiers.

I am proud to have commanded such troops.

The General Commanding the 6th Army, DEGOUTTE.

Headquarters, 42nd Division,

AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, FRANCE,

August 13, 1918.

TO THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE 42ND DIVISION:

A year has elapsed since the formation of your organization. It is, therefore, fitting to consider what you have accomplished as a combat division and what you should prepare to accomplish in the Future.

Your first elements entered the trenches in Lorraine on February 21st. You served on that front for 110 days. You were the first American division to hold a divisional sector and when you left the sector June 21st, you had served continuously as a division in the trenches for a longer time than any other American division. Although you entered the sector without experience in actual warfare, you so conducted yourselves as to win the respect and affection of the French veterans with whom you fought. Under gas and bombardment, in raids, in patrols, in the heat of hand-to-hand combat, and in the long, dull hours of trench routine so trying to a soldier’s spirit, you bore yourselves in a manner worthy of the traditions of our country.

You were withdrawn from Lorraine and moved immediately to the Champagne front, where, during the critical days from July 14th to July 18th, you had the honor of being the only American division to fight in General Gouraud’s Army, which so gloriously obeyed his order: “We will stand or die,” and by its iron defense crushed the German assaults and made possible the offensive of July 18th to the west of Reims.

From Champagne you were called to take part in exploiting the success north of the Marne. Fresh from the battle front before Chalons, you were thrown against the picked troops of Germany. For eight consecutive days, you attacked skillfully prepared positions. You captured great stores of arms and munitions. You forced the crossings of the Ourcq. You took Hill 212, Sergy, Meurcy Farm and Seringes by assault. You drove the enemy, including an Imperial Guard Division, before you for a depth of fifteen kilometers. When your infantry was relieved, it was in full pursuit of the retreating Germans, and your artillery continued to progress and support another American division in the advance to the Vesle.

For your services in Lorraine, your division was formally commended in General Orders by the French Army Corps under which you served. For your services in Champagne, your assembled officers received the personal thanks and commendation of General Gouraud himself. For your service on the Ourcq, your division was officially complimented in a letter from the Commanding General, 1st Army Corps, of July 28th, 1918.

To your success, all ranks and all services have contributed, and I desire to express to every man in the command my appreciation of his devoted and courageous effort.

However, our position places a burden of responsibility upon us which we must strive to bear steadily forward without faltering. To our comrades who have fallen, we owe the sacred obligation of maintaining the reputation which they died to establish. The influence of our performance on our Allies and on our enemies can not be over estimated, for we were one of the first divisions sent from our country to France to show the world that Americans can fight.

Hard battles and long campaigns lie before us. Only by ceaseless vigilance and tireless preparation can we fit ourselves for them. I urge you, therefore, to approach the future with confidence, but above all, with firm determination that so far as it is in your power you will spare no effort, whether in training or in combat, to maintain the record of our division and the honor of our country.

CHARLES T. MENOHER, Major General, U. S. Army.

Headquarters 42nd Division.

SUMMARY OF INTELLIGENCE.

October, 1918.

On October 18, 1917, one year ago today, the Headquarters and certain of the elements of the 42nd Division sailed for France....

The Division is now engaged in the most difficult task to which it has yet been set: The piercing at its apex of the “Kriemhilde Stellung,” upon the defense of which position the German line from METZ to CHAMPAGNE depends.

During its service in France, Division Headquarters has had its Post of Command at 23 different points in towns, woods and dugouts. The Division has captured prisoners from 23 enemy divisions, including three Guard and one Austro-Hungarian divisions.

CHARLES T. MENOHER, Major General, U. S. Army.

HEADQUARTERS 42d DIVISION.

American Expeditionary Forces. France.

November 11th, 1918.

To the Officers and Men of the 42nd Division:

On the 13th of August I addressed you a letter summarizing the record of your achievements in Lorraine, before Chalons and on the Ourcq. On the occasion of my leaving the Division I wish to recall to you your services since that time and to express to you my appreciation of the unfailing spirit of courage and cheerfulness with which you have met and overcome the difficult tasks which have confronted you.

After leaving the region of Chateau Thierry you had scarcely been assembled in your new area when you were ordered to advance by hard night marches to participate in the attack of the St. Mihiel Salient. In this first great operation of the American Army you were instructed to attack in the center of the Fourth Army Corps and to deliver the main blow in the direction of the heights overlooking the Madine River. In the battle that followed you took every objective in accordance with the plan of the Army Commander. You advanced fourteen kilometers in twenty-eight hours. You pushed forward advance elements five kilometers further, or nineteen kilometers beyond your original starting point. You took more than one thousand prisoners from nine enemy divisions. You captured seven villages and forty-two square kilometers of territory. You seized large supplies of food, clothing, ammunition, guns and engineering material.

Worn though you were by ceaseless campaigning since February, you then moved to the Verdun region to participate in the great blow which your country’s armies have struck west of the Meuse. You took Hill 283, La Tuilerie Farm and the Cote de Chatillon and broke squarely across the powerful Kriemhilde Stellung, clearing the way for the advance beyond St. Georges and Landres et St. Georges. Marching and fighting day and night you thrust through the advancing lines of the forward troops of the First Army. You drove the enemy across the Meuse. You captured the heights dominating the River before Sedan and reached in the enemy lines the farthest points attained by any American troops.

Since September 12th you have taken over twelve hundred prisoners; you have freed twenty-five French villages; you have recovered over one hundred and fifty square kilometers of French territory and you have captured great supplies of enemy munitions and material.

Whatever may come in the future, the men of this Division will have the proud consciousness that they have thus far fought wherever the American flag has flown most gloriously in this war. In the determining battle before Chalons, in the bloody drive from Chateau Thierry to the Vesle, in the blotting out of the St. Mihiel Salient, and in the advance to Sedan you have played a splendid and a leading part.

I know that you will give the same unfailing support to whoever may succeed me as your Commander, and that you will continue to bear forward without faltering the colors of the Rainbow Division. I leave you with deep and affectionate regret, and I thank you again for your loyalty to me and your services to your country. You have struck a vital blow in the greatest war in history. You have proved to the world in no mean measure that our country can defend its own.

CHARLES T. MENOHER, Major General, U. S. Army.

AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES,

Office of the Commander-in-Chief.

France, March 22, 1919.

Major General Clement A. F. Flagler, Commanding 42nd Division, American E. F., Ahrweiler, Germany.

My Dear General Flagler:

It afforded me great satisfaction to inspect the 42nd Division at Remagen on March 16th, during my trip through the Third Army, and to extend at that time to the officers and men my appreciation of their splendid record while in France.

The share which the 42nd Division has had in the success of our Armies should arouse pride in its achievements among all ranks. Arriving as it did on November 1, 1917, it was one of the first of our combat divisions to participate in active operations. After a period of training which lasted through the middle of February, 1918, it entered the Lunéville sector in Lorraine, and shortly afterwards took up a position in that part of the line near Baccarat. In July it magnificently showed its fighting ability in the Champagne-Marne defensive, at which time units from the 42nd Division aided the French in completely repulsing the German attack. Following this, on July 25th, the Division relieved the 28th in the Aisne-Marne offensive, and in the course of their

## action there captured La Croix Rouge Farme, Sergy, and established

themselves on the northern side of the Ourcq. In the St. Mihiel offensive the division made a rapid advance of 19 kilometers, capturing seven villages. Later, during the Meuse-Argonne battle, it was twice put in the line, first under the 5th Corps and second under the 1st Corps, at which later time it drove back the enemy until it arrived opposite Sedan on November 7th.

Since the signing of the armistice, the 42nd Division has had the honor of being one of those composing the Army of Occupation, and I have only words of praise for their splendid conduct and demeanor during this time. I want each man to realize the part he has played in bringing glory to American arms and to understand both my pride and the pride of their fellows throughout the American Expeditionary Forces in their record. My good wishes accompany your command on its return to the United States, and my interest will remain with its members in their future careers.

Sincerely yours, (Signed) JOHN J. PERSHING.

OFFICERS WHO SERVED IN THE 165TH INFANTRY

_Colonels_

Barker, John W. (Promoted to Brigadier General) Donovan, William J. (Promoted from Major) Hine, Charles D. Howland, Charles R. McCoy, Frank R. (Promoted to Brigadier General) Mitchell, Harry D. (Promoted from Lieut.-Colonel)

_Lieut.-Colonels_

Anderson, Alexander E. (Promoted from Captain) Dravo, Charles A. Moynahan, Timothy J. (Promoted from Major) Reed, Latham R.

_Majors_

Bootz, Henry A. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Doyle, William T. (Promoted from Captain) Guggenheim, Robert M. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Kelly, Michael A. (Promoted from Captain) Lawrence, George J. McAdie, George (Promoted from Captain) McKenna, James A.[7] (Promoted from Captain) Mangan, John J. (Promoted from Captain) Meaney, Martin H. (Promoted from Captain) Merle-Smith, Van S. (Promoted from Captain) Powers, Walter E. (Promoted from Captain) Reilley, Thomas T. (Promoted from Captain) Stacom, William B. Kennelly, William (Promoted from Captain) Watson, James Zorn, Jay

_Captains_

Archer, James (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Allen, Richard J. (Promoted from 2nd Lieut.) Baker, Chas. D.[10] (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Becker, Beverly H. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Behrends, Jerome B. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Billings, Forest E. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Burns, Coleman (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Buck, Oscar L. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Cavanaugh, William P. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Cooke, William C. (Promoted from 2nd Lieut.) Cassidy, Henry K. (Promoted from 2nd Lieut.) Conners, John F. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Connelly, Edmond J. (Promoted from 2nd Lieut.) Clifford, John J. (Promoted from 2nd Lieut.) Cooper, Jackson S. Dudley, Gerry B. DeLacour, R. B. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Elmer, Basil B. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Finn, James G. Foley, James L. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Given, William B. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Green, John A. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Graham, Walter R. Hurley, John P. Hudson, William E. Houghton, James T. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Grose, Howard (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Josselyn, Ralph R. Kinney, Thomas A. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Landrigan, Alfred W. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Lyttle, John D. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Lawrence, Austin L. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) O’Brien, Joseph F. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) McKenna, William F. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) McNamara, Francis J. (Promoted from 2nd Lieut.) McDermott, Thomas B. (Promoted from 2nd Lieut.) Mangan, James M. (Promoted from 2nd Lieut.) Martin, Arthur H. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Marsh, Frank (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Smith, Samuel A. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Seibert, Kenneth C. Stout, Louis A. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Riggs, Francis P. Ryan, Richard J. Ogle, Kenneth (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Prout, John T. (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Gillespie, Francis H. Walsh, Michael J.[10] (Promoted from 1st Lieut.) Rowley, John F. (Promoted from 2nd Lieut.)

_First Lieutenants_

Allen, Harold L. Arnold, Howard W.[10] Bell, Ernest L. Board, Walter Benz, George A. Byrne, Bernard E. Baldwin, William W.[10] Boag, Joseph J. Burns, William J. Burke, John J. Brownstone, Michael Betty, Harold J. Carroll, Joseph V. Carson, Allen G. Cowett, Max P. Collier, James Crandall, H. W. Crawford, Henry E. Doris, Roscoe Damico, Joseph G. Dowling, Patrick J.[10] Everett, Eugene F. Force, Russell Fechheimer, John H. Friedlander, William M. Furbershaw, Arthur W. Goodell, Guy F. Guignon, Emile S. Hanley, James M. Howe, Paul D. Henry, John T. Heller, Abraham I. Horak, Frank Hutchinson, Warren B. Heinel, John P. Hurt, Paul A. Holmes, Merril J. Irving, Lawrence Johnson, Clarence E. Knowles, Ralph S. King, George I. Kirkland, John Kilcourse, John J. Ketcham, Ralph C. Kane, Bothwell B.[10] Keveny, John Korst, Donald F. Kelly, Henry E. Kirschner, William J. Lawrence, Andrew W. Leslie, J. Langdon Light, Wesley W. Leaper, Robert B. Levine, A. A. McNamara, Joseph D. McIntyre, James B. McCartney, A. R. McCormick, Charles A. McCormick, Edward J. McKeon, Andrew J. Martin, Thomas C. P. Martin, Reune Norman, John[10] O’Donohue, Joseph J. Orgle, Samuel Z. O’Sullivan, John F. Otto, George F. Patton, William H. Pierce, Charles H. Platt, Sherman T. Poore, John G. Perry, Donald A. Powers, Robert E. Robertson, Allen D. Stevens, Floyd L. Stone, Thomas F. Spencer, William M. Sims, Anthony J. Springer, Franklin H. Seidelmann, Joseph H. Smith, Francis Smith, Herman H.[10] Surber, Paul Stokes, Horace W. Schwinn, John M. Terry, Alvah L. Tarr, Marshall A. Trotter, L. S. Williams, Harry V. Williams, Allen R. Williams, John J. Wheeler, William D. Warren, George H. Young, Thomas H.[10]

_Second Lieutenants_

Ames, Oliver[10] Ahern, David H. Alexander, John M. Arenholz, William J. Beach, Clayton W.[10] Bocard, Fred J. Burns, Zenas T. Burns, James S. D.[10] Burns, Edwin J. Boone, Philip T. Bunnell, A. L. Bonner, Robert Brocard, Frank Brosnan, John J. Bracken, Benjamin Burke, John H. Cunningham, Arthur W. Carten, James E. Carleton, Howard C. Callahan, Andrew J. Crane, William D. Collier, James Crimmins, Clarence Crandall, Harold M. Carter, Franklin W. Daly, Edwin A.[10] Daly, Ewing P. Devine, Thomas J. Davis, Henry W.[10] DeAguerro, Miguel E. Ellett, Andrew L.[10] Elliott, Don Finn, William Flynn, Daniel K. Field, Eugene B. Graham, William H. Greff, Lester M. Goodwin, Schuyler Hutchinson, Roderick Hawes, Lincoln Hervey, Frank Henry, J. F. Huelser, Charles A. Johnston, Frank Johnson, Cortland Johnson, Clarence E. Jewell, William A.[10] Jackson, Thomas J. Kotz, George I. Kelly, William T. Koenig, Paul S. Katch, Joseph J. Laughlin, James C. Levenberg, Lawrence F. Lacy, Philip S. Larkin, John J. Lawson, Alexander Larney, Leo Lenoir, Frank Levy, Morris R. Lisiezki, Stanley K. Lanette, Kenneth McKnight, John McMullin, James C. McNulty, William McMullin, Frank Metcalfe, George T. Metcalfe, Earl K. McCarthy, Thomas J. Meyer, John L. Mixon, Robert Morthurst, Aloysius F. Mela, Alvin S. Monohan, John J. Monohan, Humphery J. Murphy, Frank M. Neary, Patrick Newton, Raymond Norris, Elton R. O’Connor, William L.[10] Orr, John P.[10] Parker, Charles Peace, Walter Philbin, Ewing Reynolds, Arthur W. Richardson, D. M. Rupe, Forest D. Rowe, Lester G. Shultes, Clarence L. Searles, William Sasser, Frank M. Scheffler, Edward S. Swift, Samuel S. Sherrell, William J. Stott, Gerald R.[10] Slayter, Russell B. Samuels, Charles G. Sears, Stephen C. Smith, McRae Smoot, Walter E. Shanley, Bernard Sharp, James W. Stovern, Gotfred Sleep, Leroy Strang, Albert L. Sasnett, Lucien Sipma, Edward Self, Frank M. Sebert, G. A. Sasser, F. Sense, W. J. Sipp, Paul Silliman, Harper Schert, Gustavious A. Temple, Francis C. Tucker, Milton H. Todd, Fred L. Tuttle, Malcolm W. Underhill, Charles A. Urban, Paul J. Vance, Vernon Vandiver, Basil A. Van Alstine, Frank Veach, Columbus H. Williams, Henry C. Winans, Chester B. Weller, Reginald Warner, Hunt Watkins, George F.[8] Worsley, Thomas H. Wallace, Williamson N. Wilkerson, Marcus E.

ROSTER OF SERGEANTS[9]

_Sergeants—Co. A._

John J. O’Leary, 1st Sgt.—KIA. James J. Hughes, Sgt. Major, 83rd Brig. Joseph S. Higginson Martin V. Cook—Com. Charles Lanzner—KIA. Charles Schmidt Daniel O’Connell—Com. John F. O’Sullivan—Com. Michael J. Walsh Stephen L. Purtell Timothy J. Monohan, Sgt. Major Frank H. Squire Thomas J. Sweeney, 1st Sgt. William G. Moore—Com. C. Donald Matthews—A.C.S. Bernard J. White—Sgt. Major Spencer Rossell—A.C.S. Charles A. Underhill—Com. John F. Scully Patrick Ames—KIA. Hugh J. McPadden John H. Dennelly Clancy VanArsdale Lester Hanley—KIA. Frank J. Fisher William M. Walsh—KIA. Patrick J. Doolan—KIA. John A. McDonald—KIA. Edward J. Mooney Clyde G. Evans James J. Duff—KIA. William F. Ogilvie Frederick R. Stenson—KIA. George V. Armstrong Harold J. Henderson Michael Morley Joseph C. Pettit William Mehl Albert Kiley, Co. Clk. Harry Blaustein Edward P. Wylie

_Sergeants, Co. B._

John O’Neill, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S., KIA. Michael C. Horgan James Taylor James Brogan—KIA. Ole J. Olsen Harry Ashworth John A. Donovan Speros Thomas John A. Sullivan Alexander Whalen Francis J. Lynch Henry J. Kiernan—KIA. William G. Braniff Patrick Kelly Edward J. Kelly Preston D. Travis Joseph Gilgar James J. Cullinan Thomas F. Brady William Thornton William S. Gilbert Vincent P. Mulholland, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S. James Donnelly—KIA. John J. Mahoney—KIA. Joseph D. Graham James E. Coyne Lawrence Steppello James Langan Matthew J. Brennan Martin Naughton Frederick Coyne, Co. Clk. Herbert P. McClymont Alfredo Menicocci John A. Donovan Frank A. Frederick—A.C.S. James Gilhooley Edward Kraemer—KIA. William F. Mallin, Bn. Sgt.-Major, A.C.S. Hugh E. Stengel John A. Sullivan Joseph Gilgar

_Sergeants, Co. C._

William Hatton, 1st Sgt., Sgt.-Major, H. Q., 42nd Div. R. S. Powell, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S. Eugene B. Halpin, 1st Sgt., U. S. A. as instructor Thomas P. O’Hagan, 1st Sgt. John D. Crittenden—A.C.S. Thomas Halpin—A.C.S. James J. Grace Edward J. O’Connell James F. Nelson James Barry Joseph W. Burns James T. Burns Denis Cahill J. H. Casey Edward P. Clowe—KIA. Frank W. Colyer Walter S. Coon Nathaniel B. Crittenden Frank L. Curtis Daniel J. Davern John P. Duffy Frank L. Drivdahl Daniel S. Garvey—KIA. Herman Hillig Harry E. Horgan—KIA. Edward J. Kearin—KIA. Peter Keller John W. Knight John E. McAuliffe Eugene A. McNiff Hugo E. Noack Thomas O’Kelly George E. Richter Bernard Ryan—KIA. Matthew Synott—Com. Louis J. Torrey—KIA. Arthur C. Totten John F. Vermaelen—KIA. Anthony Gallagher Joseph Hennessey Michael Cooney Louis C. Dedecker Frederick R. Garrison Thomas P. McPherson Joseph Peisel Archibald F. Reilly Michael Ruane

_Sergeants, Co. D._

Thomas H. Sullivan, 1st Sgt.—Com. Thomas W. Brown Colton C. Bingham, U. S. A., as Instructor John Cahill Martin E. Carroll Stephen J. Crotty Thomas J. Curtin, 1st Sgt.—KIA. John Curtin, Color Sgt. John Daly Harold J. Dibblee—Com. Edward J. Geaney, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S. John J. Gribbon—A.C.S. Patrick Grogan Joseph W. Halper, Co. Clk. Patrick J. Heaney John F. Ingram—KIA. Stanley W. Jones Thomas F. Keyes George H. Krick Joseph J. Lynch Denis McAuliffe Patrick J. McDonough Edward A. McIntee Martin McMahon John McNamara—KIA. John P. Mohr John F. Moran George R. Morton Lester J. Moriarty Hubert V. Murray, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S. Denis Murphy Denis O’Brien Denis O’Connor Daniel B. J. O’Connell, Reg. Sgt.-Major Thomas M. O’Malley Richard W. O’Neill Daniel J. O’Neill William J. Maloney—Com. Edward B. Smith Arthur C. Strang—Com. Joseph P. Tracy James S. Whitty Joseph L. Sheehan, 1st Sgt. James O’Brien Herbert DeWilde Dalton Smith Edgar T. Farrell Michael J. McAuliffe Martin J. Hurst Robert K. Niddrie

_Sergeants, Co. E._

William L. Bailey, 1st Sgt.—U. S. A., as Instructor Thomas A. Carney—Com. Charles F. Finnerty—Com. William Lippincott—Com. William T. Kelly—Com. Andrew Callahan—Com. Frank Johnston, 1st Sgt.—Com. William Maloney Archibald Skeats Douglas McKenzie Frank E. Donnelly, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S. Bernard J. Kelly Hugh McKiernan John F. Riordan John A. Wilde William J. Foley James Moran Daniel Donohue Harold J. Carmody Michael Lynch—KIA. Lester Lenhart—KIA. William A. Halligan—Co. Clk. Leon Hodges John Schluter—A.C.S. Alban A. Delaney—A.C.S. James Hyland Carl Kahn Edward P. Scanlon, Reg. Sup. Sgt. Edward J. Vahey Alexander Smeltzer John Burke Michael Darcy Arthur J. Lefrancois James McCready Augustus Morgan Thomas J. Reidy Thomas Gaffney Alfred S. Helmer George S. Malloy Edward J. Rickert John J. Horan, Co. Clk.

_Sergeants, Co. F._

Joseph V. Blake, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S. Timothy J. McCrohan, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S. James J. McGuinn Philip Gargan John J. Keane—Com. William F. Hanifin—Com. Herbert L. Doyle—Com. Joseph A. Wynne Michael J. Bowler, Bri. Sgt. Major—A.C.S. Edward A. Ginna Charles B. Echeverria—KIA. Joseph H. Trueman—A.C.S. Eugene Cunningham—A.C.S. Philip T. Boone—Com. Raymond A. Long William E. Boone John P. Mahon—Com. Thomas Leddy—A.C.S. Thomas J. Erb—KIA. Charles E. Denon—KIA. Michael Douglas—A.C.S. Patrick J. Wynne Malcolm F. Joy William Boland James J. McCormack John R. Butler Theodore H. Hagen Lawrence J. Whalen—KIA. Cornelius Behan James W. Brennan, 1st Sgt. James J. Bevan Leo J. McLaughlin John J. Gill Louis D. Edwards William Gracely Albert E. Curtis Maurice Fine Harold E. Dahl, Co. Clk. Timothy Keane

_Sergeants, Co. G._

John H. Burke, 1st Sgt.—Com. John Meaney, 1st Sgt.—U. S. A. as Instructor Charles B. Grundy, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S. Frank W. Bull, 1st Sgt.—Com. Alfred H. Taylor, 1st Sgt. John McNamara, 1st Sgt. Charles J. Meagher, 1st Sgt. Charles Sulzberger—Com. Joseph McCourt John W. Farrell William Farrell Patrick Donohue Leroy T. Wells—Com. William Durk James P. Robinson—KIA. Denis Downing—KIA. Thomas Slevin John J. Conroy James Murray—Col. Sgt. James D. Coffey Edward McNamara Thomas T. Williamson Martin Shalley Denis O’Connor Denis Corcoran Thomas W. Ferguson—A.C.S. Martin Murphy Ralph Holmes Michael Hogan Denis Roe Carl G. Kemp—A.C.S. Kenneth B. Morford Irving Framan Roy L. Bull John W. Brogan Frank Malloy Patrick Regan Hugh Lee John J. McMahon Howard B. Gregory, Sgt.-Major, 42nd Div. John Ryan, Co. Clk. Franklyn Dorman, Co. Clk. Maurice Dwyer James J. Elliott James Regan Patrick Keane

_Sergeants, Co. H._

Joseph E. Nash, 1st Sgt.—Com. Bernard Finnerty—KIA. Patrick F. Craig—Com. Robert V. Frye—Com. James J. Hamilton—KIA. Joseph Mattiello Patrick Neary—Com. Daniel J. O’Neill, 1st Sgt.—KIA. Jerome F. O’Neill, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S. George G. Ashe—Com. Daniel L. Dayton—Com. Reginald Mitchell—Com. John F. Tully—A.C.S. John F. O’Connor, 1st Sgt. Frank S. Condit James A. Dooley Miles V. Dowling John P. Furey Charles J. Gavin Bruno Gunther Martin J. Higgins James Hogan John Lynch Andrew Murray William J. Murray, Co. Clk. James F. O’Brien William O’Neill, 1st Sgt.—KIA. William Smythe James Todd Patrick Travers Michael Treacey Dudley M. Winthrop Frank A. Mader John J. Ryan William J. Fleming Patrick J. Dwyer John J. Walker Joseph O’Rourke—KIA. Eugene J. Sweeney

_Sergeants, Co. I._

Henry K. Adikes William T. Beyer—Batt. Sgt.-Major Charles A. Connolly—KIA. Charles R. Cooper Patrick Collins—KIA. Martin Durkin William G. Dynan Otto Fritz Patrick Flynn Charles J. Ford—KIA. Alfred F. Georgi—Co. Clk. Charles H. Garrett Michael J. Jordan—A.C.S. William Harrison—KIA. James J. Hennessey—A.C.S. Edward P. Joyce—Batt. Sgt.-Major, A.C.S. John F. Joyce—Com. William Lyle William F. Lyons Leo Larney—Com. William McLaughlin—KIA. Richard McLaughlin John C. McDermott Hugh McFadden Patrick T. McMeniman, 1st Sgt.—U. S. A., as Instructor Frank McMorrow, 1st Sgt. Frank Mulligan Harold J. Murphy Wilfred Fee Joseph F. Neil Thomas P. O’Brien James Quilty William Reutlinger Patrick Rogan John J. Sheehan Edward Shanahan, 1st Sgt. Charles B. Stone—KIA. James Sullivan George Strenk James Warnock

_Sergeants, Co. K._

Timothy J. Sullivan, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S. Francis Meade—A.C.S. James J. Mullen Claude Da Costa—A.C.S. John H. Embree—KIA. Frank Doughney—KIA. John L. Ross—KIA. John Gavaghan—KIA. Peter J. Crotty—KIA. Bernard J. McElroy—KIA. John J. McLoughlin William B. Montross John J. Gibbons James J. Sullivan Herbert F. McKenna—A.C.S. Patrick Boland Bernard Leavy Joseph M. Farrell—Com. Leo G. Bonnard—A.C.S. Wilfred T. Van Yorx—A.C.S. Herbert J. Kelly—A.C.S. Harold A. Benham John T. Vogel George F. Meyer George C. Sicklick Edward K. Rooney James F. Kelly Patrick J. Ryan Max Puttlitz Michael Costello, Co. Clk. Francis Caraher William P. McKessy John Naughton Cornelius Rooney Philip Hellriegel Oliver Atkinson Robert L. Crawford James J. Dalton James W. Daly Thomas M. Gleason Augustus F. Hughes

_Sergeants, Co. L._

Eugene F. Gannon, 1st Sgt.—U. S. A., as Instructor John J. Ahearn Joseph Beliveau Christian F. Bezold Richard Blood Thomas F. Collins—Com., KIA. Raymond Convey—KIA. John J. Donoghue—A.C.S., KIA. Frank J. Duffy, Sgt.-Major, 42nd Div. Thomas E. Dunn Michael Fitzpatrick Lewis M. French Joseph A. Grace Thomas A. Heffernan, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S. George S. Kerr—KIA. Thomas Kiernan—A.C.S. Nicholas A. Landzert—KIA. John J. Larkin—Com. Patrick McCarthy Eugene McCue, 1st Sgt. Harry McDermott Hugh McGriskin John B. McHugh Arthur McKenny Thomas McLoughlin William E. Malinka—A.C.S. John J. Mulvey John E. Mullen James J. Murphy William J. Murphy George V. Murphy John J. Murphy Daniel O’Brien Thomas P. O’Donovan—KIA. Charles Peacox David Redmond—A.C.S. Valentine Roesel William Sheahan, Col. Sgt.—KIA. Charles Siedler—A.C.S. Walter F. Watson Fred G. Wittlinger, 1st Sgt. Bernard Woods John Southworth Patrick McCarthy Leo Mullin

_Sergeants, Co. M._

John J. Kenny, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S. Joseph E. Jerue—A.C.S. Ambrose Sutcliff Francis Eustace, 1st Sgt. Denis McCarthy Richard J. McCarthy—A.C.S. Peter Cooney—KIA. Sydney A. DaCosta—A.C.S. David G. Morrison—Com. Charles Pfeiffer—Com. Howard D. Emerson, 1st Sgt.—A.C.S. James McGarvey, 1st Sgt.—Com. Frank J. Rogers—Com. William J. Francis—KIA. Patrick B. Hayes Herman H. VonGlahn—Com. Henry S. Fisher—A.C.S. James J. Hughes—A.C.S. Harry Messmer Frank May John Barrow James M. Major Patrick J. Clark Joseph A. Moran Fernand C. Thomas Edward F. Flanagan Francis X. McNamara John J. McLoughlin Thomas Courtney John O’Connor John B. Manson John J. Feeley James F. Shanahan Eddie I. Stevens—Co. Clk. Denis Donovan Daniel Flynn

_Sergeants, Supply Co._

Joseph F. Flannery, Reg. Supply Sgt. Edward P. Scanlon, Reg. Supply Sgt. John J. Kennedy, Reg. Supply Sgt. Joseph Comiskey, 1st Sgt. Roland Ferdinando, 1st Sgt. James W. Henry Charles Feick James J. Heffernan William Nicholson James Murphy Walter Bishop Robert Goss Thomas S. Lacey—Com. William G. Fagan Harry Mallen Charles Larson James McMahon William J. Drennan—A.C.S. Robert Stanton—Co. Clk. Edward L. Callahan Bernard Lowe Arthur B. Nulty Frank Nelson—Co. Clk.

_Sergeants, Headquarters Co._

Donald P. Adair William J. Arenholz—Com. Pendleton Beall—A.C.S. Abram Blaustein—Com. Leonard J. Beck Robert A. Blackford John F. Boyle Herbert E. Clarke Robert L. Clarke Stewart S. Clinton Gustav Cosgrove Richard J. Cray Fred W. Cudmore Ronald O. Dietz Robert Donnelly Francis Driscoll, U. S. A., as Instructor Lemist Esler, U. S. A., as Instructor William Evers—Band Alfred H. Fawkner—Com. William E. Fernie Thomas E. Fitzsimmons Lawrence J. Flynn—Band Jerome Goldstein Leonard P. Grant—Com. Constantine J. Harvey Gerald L. Harvey George D. Heilman Diedrich Heins Edward J. Hussey—KIA. Arthur C. Jaeger John V. Kerrigan Joyce Kilmer—KIA. Russell Klages George D. Kramer Robert N. Lee Charles Leister James Lynch—Band Thomas E. Lynch Thomas J. McCarthy, 1st Sgt.—Com. Samuel G. McConaughy Leonard Monzert—A.C.S. Thomas Mullady John J. Mullins, Sgt. Bugler William P. Murray—Band Frank Miller—Band Erwin L. Meisel William P. Neacy—A.C.S. James O’Brien Francis A. O’Connell, Col. Sgt.—Com. Denis O’Shea, 1st Sgt.—Com. Medary A. Prentiss—Com. Theodore C. Ranscht Michael Rendini Leslie B. Reynolds Kenneth G. Russell—Com. John J. Ryan, 1st Sgt. Walter T. Ryan William F. Shannon William J. Sieger James V. Smith Ambrose M. Steinert, Reg. Sgt.-Major Patrick Stokes—Band Albert L. Strang, Batt. Sgt.-Major—Com. Miles Sweeney—Band Thomas J. Taylor Walter F. Thompson—Co. Clk. Robert Taggart Harrison J. Uhl, Col. Sgt.—Com. George W. Utermehle Emmett S. Watson Roy A. West Marcus E. Wilkinson—Com. Charles F. Willermin Frederick T. Young Howard R. Young Henry E. Zitzmann—Band Leader Edward H. Jeffries—Com.

_Sergeants, Machine-Gun Co._

A. Andrews Gerald Beekman Harry P. Bruhn—KIA. Thomas J. Berkley—Com. J. T. Brooks—KIA. Anthony J. Daly Thomas J. Devine—Com. Thomas F. Doherty William A. Drake—KIA. Victor M. Denis Maurice Dunn E. O. Ericksson—Com. Paul R. Fay John H. Flint Frank Gardella—KIA. J. J. Hagerty—Com. Peter Gillespie C. F. Hunt J. R. Keller L. Kerrigan Ralph C. Ketchum—Com. John Kilgannon James E. Ledwith Allen J. McBride—Com. John J. McBride, 1st Sgt. Harry J. McKelvey—Co. Clk. John T. Malvey T. J. Meredith K. F. Morey John Mulstein Maurice M. O’Keefe William Patterson Sidney F. Ryan William A. Sheppard, U. S. A., as Instructor John J. Spillane Joseph McCourt, 1st Sgt. Frank Stevens

_Sergeants, San. Det._

Warren W. Lokker, Sgt. 1st Class William Helgers, Sgt. 1st Class Victor L. Eichorn Arthur Firman William F. Hayes William J. Maher Daniel McConlogue William K. McGrath Thomas V. Boland—Co. Clk.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] After the Champagne fight, by request of the French military authorities, a number of officers and men were recommended for decoration, including Major Anderson for the Legion of Honor. The lists were lost while going through the French Army channels, but it is still hoped that the honors will be granted.

[7] Deceased

[8] Deceased

[9] Abbreviations: KIA (Killed in action or died of wounds); A.C.S. (sent to Army Candidates’ school); Com. (commissioned).

[10] Deceased

APPENDIX

IRISH NAMES

Since returning home I have read with great interest the unique historical study of Mr. Michael J. O’Brien on the part played by the Irish in the early history of the Colonies and particularly in the Revolutionary War, founded on an exhaustive examination of Irish names inscribed in army rosters and other records of the period. In order to avoid the suspicion of over-playing his hand, Mr. O’Brien had to confine himself to names like his own, which undeniably indicate Irish birth or descent. He must have passed over many names which are common in every group of Irish throughout the world.

If we take only the names which have become prominent in the recent endeavors to establish the independence of Ireland—De Valera and Marcoviecz do not sound particularly Irish (even the militant lady’s maiden name of Gore-Booth does not much improve the matter); and while Kelly, Ryan, Dunn and Duffy are to the manner born, there was a time when Walsh, Pearse, and Plunkett were foreign names, Norman or Danish; and Kent, McNeil and Griffiths might very well be respectively English, Scotch or Welsh.

In the Regiment we had some good men of Scottish descent, but we had a number who volunteered for the Regiment drawn by Irish race feeling, bearing the names of Johnston, Cowie, Wilson, Bailey, Armstrong, Saunders, Campbell, Thompson, Chambers, Gordon, Ross, Scott, Watson, Stewart, Christy, Finlay, Grimson, Hamilton, Barr, Graham, Gillespie, Black, Walker, Catterson, Robinson, Holmes, Grant, Dunbar, Fraser, Kirk, Patterson, Gould, Wylie, Robinson, Roberts, Donaldson, Ferguson, McMillan, McDonald, McGregor, McPherson, Ogilvie, Craig, Cameron, McAndrews, McLean, McKay, MacIntosh, not forgetting our Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Anderson.

We had three or four score Jews in the Regiment that went abroad but there was a Coen, a Leavy and a Jacobs who were Irish.

Other regimental names that do not sound Irish to the ears of the uninitiate but are familiar in every Irish group are Clifford, Duane, Clark, Freeman, Winters, Phillips, Williams, Cunningham, Curtis, Johnson, Gough, Harrison, Grace, Jones, Loftus, Medler, Matthews, Morrison, Newman, King, Crawford, Biggar, Bambrick, Ring, Rice, Blythe, Gray, Judge, Morgan, Caulfield, Gilbert, Gilgar, Campion, Booth, Humphreys, Cook, Hill, Parks, Hunt, Garland, Gill, Warren, Reed, Hurst, Jenkins, Rogers, Grimes, Summers, Smith, Green, Brown, White, Martin, Mason, Lowe, Roe, Wade, Woods, Goodman, Fleming, French, English, Holland, Thornton, Wall, Travis, Travers, Morgan, Fletcher, Clinton, Richards, Jennings, Lynn, Taylor, Reynolds, Grundy, Stanley, Turner, Edwards, Dean, Meade, Conville, Ward, Clayton, Eustace, Lavelle, Clyne, Battle, Nelson, Wynne, Coppinger, Morton, Oakes, Fullam, Lynott, Lynar, Lysaght, Long, Fennell, Tuers, Birmingham, Hetherington, Temple, Whitty, Granville, Howard, Bealin, Stanley, Vaughan, Adams, Nash, Coneys, Mylott, Brickley, Mitchell, Diamond, De Witt, Hopkins, Quigg, Igo, Taylor, Ferris, Ledwith, Forrestal, Lever, Hoey, Fox, Russell, Sutcliffe, Hillery, Fisher, Kent, Boyce, Bevan, Rothwell, Adkins, Courtney, Mannix, Orr, Harris, Farnan, Hackett, Hopkins, Gaynor, Gunn, Broe, Bush, Goss, Wilde, Cox, Seagriff, Marshall, Davis, Bergen, Singleton, Rankin, Webb, Small. Not all of the possessors of these names in the Regiment were bearers of the Irish racial tradition, but the great majority of them were.

Sometimes the English sounding name was imported directly from Ireland, and the man’s nationality was never in doubt after one heard him speak, as in the case of Mansfield, Bugler, Maddock, Elwood, and others. Sometimes all doubt was removed by the Christian name, as in the cases of Patrick Ames, Patrick Stokes, Patrick Thynne, Patrick Porteous, Patrick Carlisle, Patrick Benson, Patrick Travers, Patrick Fawcett, Patrick Gorham, Patrick Masterson, or Michael Goodman, Michael Douglas, Michael Bowler, Michael Gettings, Denis Richardson, Bernard Clinton, Robert Emmett Mitchell, Bernard Granville, Francis X. Goodwin, John J. Booth.

The future historian who writes of the part played by the Irish element in this war will have a good deal of trouble collecting his data, partly on account of the tendency to bestow on children what our grandparents would call “fancy” names, and partly through the intermarriage of women with Irish names to men whose names indicate a different racial descent. Especially when the religion is the same, the children are very definitely Irish in race feeling. All of the following had the Irish kind of religion, and most of them claim to be of Irish descent; George Lawrence, James Archer, Wilton Wharton, Colton Bingham, Sherwood Orr, Melvin King, Earl Withrow, Lester Lenhart, Archibald Skeats, Dudley Winthrop, Warren Dearborn, Hurlburt McCallum, Harold Yockers, Dallas Springer, Joyce Kilmer, Clifford Wiltshire, Pelham Hall, Elmore Becker, Everett Guion, Lester Snyder; while others in the same category bore names such as Dayton, Lovett, Lappin, Trayer, Shepherd, Harndon, Harnwell, Ashworth, Bradbury, Everett, Adikes, Keyes, Boone, Bibby, Beverly, Aspery, Cornell, Morthurst, Battersby, Dawson, Chamberlain, Cousens, Hasting, Blackburne, Griswold, Bagley, Forman, Myers, Nye, Firman, Weaver, Irons, Garrett, Kyle, Forms, Kear, Alnwick, Boomer, Dobbins, Ogden, Dresser, Frear, Bennett, Cooper, Gracely, Schofield, Fredericks, Walters, Voorhis, Chatterton, Kolodgy, Law, Vail, Field, Throop, Menrose, Hawk, Waddell, Drake, Flint, Elworth, Maryold, Knott, Hagger, Espy, Cuffe, Peel, Stiles, Willett, Leaper, Gauthier and Denair.

A number of volunteers were drawn to the old Irish Regiment by the bonds of a common faith. And in the course of two years spent amongst them it was an easier matter while performing my office as Chaplain to get a line on their personal beliefs than on their racial descent. We had for example Guignon, Bonnard, Pierre, Viens, and Pepin; Mendes, Echeverria, Rodriguez and Garcia; Gardella, Brangaccio, Georgi, Lorelli, Guida, Menicocci, Tricarico, Depietro and Speranza; Romanuk, Ragninny, Hovance, Sypoula, Puttlitz and Ivanowski, with plenty of names like Arenholz, Schmidt, Stumpf, Dietrich, Weick, Schmedlein, Schluter, Leudesdorf and Kahn. Some with names sounding just like these last ones were Irish on the distaff side, such as Almendinger, Winestock, Schwartz, Ettinger, Schroppel, Mehl, Rohrig, Peisel, Hans, Landzert, Clauberg, Ritz, Steinert, Messmer, Zimmerman, Finger, Richter, Herold, Schick, Buechner, Sauer, Beyer, Haerting, Meyer, Roesel, Willermin, Miller, Dryer, Hugo, Wilker, Fisher, Staber, Augustine, Dierenger, Morschhauser, Ritter, Haspel, Becker, and Grauer.

Two small groups of “Irish” struck my fancy—one with Scandinavian names like Drivdahl, Malmquist, and Larsen; and a few of the Vans; Van Pelt, Vanderdonck, Van Wye and Van Benschoten.

One way of estimating the character of the regiment would be to examine the lists of the dead, to find what names preponderate in them. In those lists we find _seven_ men named Kelly; _five_ McCarthy; _four_ O’Neill, O’Brien, and Brennan; _three_ Baker, Brown, Campbell, Cook, Cronin, Daly, Kane, Lynch, McDonald, McKeon, McLoughlin, Martin, Murphy, O’Connor, O’Rourke, Scanlan, Smith, Sullivan and Wynne; _two_ Adkins, Allen, Ames, Boyle, Byrnes, Collins, Coneys, Connelly, Conway, Curtin, Dolan, Dunnigan, Donovan, Dougherty, Farrell, Fitzpatrick, Ford, Gavin, Geary, Gordon, Gray, Gunnell, Hamilton, Hart, Higgins, Johnson, Lane, Leonard McMillan, McKay, McKenna, McSherry, Mahoney, Minogue, Mitchell, Morrissey, Naughton, Peterson, Philips, Quinn, Reilly, Riordon, Robinson, Rooney, Ryan, Scott, Slattery, Thomson, Williams and Walsh.

OFFICERS OF THE NEW YORK CHAPTER RAINBOW DIVISION VETERANS

President, William J. Donovan. 1st Vice Pres., George J. Lawrence, 2nd Vice Pres., T. W. Ferguson, 3rd Vice Pres., John Farrell, Secretary, Daniel B. J. O’Connell, Treasurer, Timothy J. Moynahan, Financial Secretary, John McNamara, Historian, Francis P. Duffy, Chaplain, James M. Hanley.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE 165TH INFANTRY

Morgan J. O’Brien, Chairman, (former Presiding Justice of the appellate division.) Daniel M. Brady, Vice Chairman, (President of Brady Brass Co.) John Whelan, Treasurer, (former Corporation Counsel) Joseph P. Grace, (President W. R. Grace & Co.) Victor J. Dowling, (Supreme Court Justice) John D. Ryan, (Chairman Anaconda Copper Co.) James A. Farrell, (President U. S. Steel Corp.) Thomas E. Murray, (1st V.P. New York Edison Co.) James A. McKenna, (Public Accountant) George McDonald, (Contractor) Major Thomas T. Reilley, (165th Inf.) Nicholas F. Brady, (Chairman Brooklyn Rapid Tr. Co.) Clarence H. Mackay, (Pres. Postal Telegraph Co.) John J. O’Keefe, (H. L. Horton & Co.) Louis D. Conley, (former Col. old 69th) Bryan L. Kennelly, (Real Estate Operator)

WOMEN’S AUXILIARY TO 165TH INFANTRY

U. S. A. Inc.

President. Mrs. George R. Leslie Vice Pres. Miss Catherine A. Archer Rec. Sec. Miss Elizabeth M. Hughes Cor. Sec. Miss Louise Reilley Fin. Sec. Miss Margaret Casey Treas. Miss Nora A. Thynne

_Trustees_ Mrs. Theresa Hughes Mrs. William J. Grady Miss May A. O’Neill Miss Mary Duffy Mrs. V. Merle-Smith

[Illustration:

THE ENTRY INTO BELGIUM ]

[Illustration:

HEADQUARTERS AT REMAGEN GROUP OF RECIPIENTS OF D. S. C. ]

[Illustration:

COLONEL DONOVAN AND STAFF REVIEWING PARADE AT 110TH STREET ]

[Illustration:

RECEPTION AT CITY HALL ]

Transcriber’s Notes

pg 65 Changed: Chicagoan of Polish decent to: Chicagoan of Polish descent

pg 117 Changed: The old gentlemen gave a dazed to: The old gentleman gave a dazed

pg 132 Changed: Around P. C. Anderson there was plently to: Around P. C. Anderson there was plenty

pg 181 Changed: neat job of infilitration to: neat job of infiltration

pg 202 Changed: the night of July 29th the bowld Jim to: the night of July 29th the bold Jim

pg 204 Changed: they were very much harrassed to: they were very much harassed

pg 208 Changed: their persistance were the famous to: their persistence were the famous

pg 222 Changed: do something to get out Major back to: do something to get our Major back

pg 248 Changed: still occupying the postions to our right to: still occupying the positions to our right

pg 264 Changed: hill just ouside of Exermont to: hill just outside of Exermont

pg 278 Changed: prepared and strongely wired position to: prepared and strongly wired position

pg 312 Changed: they do not depise him either to: they do not despise him either

pg 329 Changed: stars of gold commemmorated to: stars of gold commemorated

pg 337 Changed: Many of the soldeirs received to: Many of the soldiers received

pg 342 Changed: likely to be rembered to: likely to be remembered

pg 362 Changed: but it had reconed without to: but it had reckoned without