Major-General Wm. S. McNair THE 151st FIELD ARTILLERY BRIGADE BY RICHARD M. RUSSELL THE CORNHILL COMPANY BOSTON Copyright, 1919, by The Cornhill Company...

If you find in the pages that follow anything to amuse or interest you and yours, thank Mrs. William S. McNair, Major Swift, Captain Converse and Lieutenant Clement, to whom the author is indebted for the information herein contained. R. M. R. Boston, April 25, 1919. THE 151st FIELD ARTILLERY BRIGADE The 151st Field Artillery Brigade...

In writing this brief sketch of the Brigade from its inception to its final mustering out of the service, it has not been my aim to account in any way for all the days and nights which have elapsed during that period. Memories fond or hateful to some of us would not be very interesting to the rest. Looking backward from the point of view of the Brigade as a unit, many of those days were so monotonously alike that an attempt to account for all would lead to idle repetition. Well I realize that ev

In April, 1917, the United States declared war against Germany. It was no surprise, but what did it mean? For it is one thing to declare war and another to wage it. We had no army and no ships and three thousand miles of ocean lay between the Yankee and the Hun. We would of course lend money to our allies. Would we give them our men? The answer, thank God, was the draft law which put into being the greatest democratic institution of our country,—the National Army. Early in the fall of 1917, men

Of that last journey from Devens to Boston on July 15th there is nothing to chronicle. We were again for that brief period of time individuals. Thought and not action crowded the hour. And what a curious collection of thoughts they were. Each was absorbed with the things nearest and dearest, soon to be far away. But there were other, exciting thoughts. We were on our way! What boats were to carry us? The sea! What were we going to accomplish? And that far-away France,—what was it like? And war,

It was while our problem was in progress that General Davis and part of his staff left for the front, October 11th. A few days later, on October 17th, he was followed by the rest of his staff. So the regiments polished and oiled their materiel and entrained at the camp for God-knows-where. One thing was certain and that was we were going forward and not back, for from Bordeaux it takes a boat to go in the latter direction. It was at this time that we knew definitely that the 301st was to leave t

A resume of the history of the 151st Field Artillery Brigade during its short term at the front shows a great variety of services and connections. Originally constituting a part of the Artillery of the Second Army, the Brigade was attached on its arrival in the zone of advance to the Second Colonial Corps of the French army in the Troyon sector, where it served under General Blondlat, Corps commander and General Jaquet, Chief of Artillery. The Second Colonial Corps was relieved by the 17th Frenc

On December 20th the order to prepare arrived. Prepare for what? The United States of America. My God was it possible? Where were they? But it was so, and a better Christmas present would have been hard to find. This was our second Christmas in the army, and apparently it was to be our last. Cheers! The occasion however recalled a remark attributed to General Pershing in August as follows: “Hell, Heaven or Hoboken by Christmas.” He was right, and we got seats at the first show on his list. On Ja

FOOTNOTES: [A] Kitchen Police. [B] The 346th and 347th regiments were temporarily brigaded with us for administrative purposes. [C] Poste de Commande [D] The Eiffel Tower was known among the operators as “Ethel”....