at Charlotte, South Carolina, but instead that we would probably go overseas very shortly. Our ranks were being filled up by Coast Artillerymen from the forts around Boston, Providence, and Portland; our equipment was kept limited; huge crates for harness and excess paraphanalia were being knocked together and adorned with strange hieroglyphics in red paint that meant "Overseas" to us. We were advised to send home all personal property of bulk or question­ able necessity, to be exceedingly careful to whom we talked, to disclaim any knowledge of our destination, and even to refrain from conjecture as to same. The prospect of going at once to France put even greater vigor and enthusiasm into our daily routine. We even actually enjoyed the long tedious lay-out inspections that took place before our departure. We painted our three-inch guns a beautiful battleship gray and saw them for the last time as they rattled down the road on their way to the Watertown Arsenal. The harness was soaped and oiled, and finally packed into crates. The freshly painted collars were packed with the horse blankets, and gradually almost everything else either followed the guns down the road or was swallowed up in the packing cases for shipment abroad. The night of September 6 found us loading our equipment into freight cars by the light of huge bonfires of papers and trash scattered through the regimental area. When the job was finished nothing remained but our tents, sleeping cots, haversacks, and blanket rolls. At eleven o'clock on September 7 every tent in the Regiment was being held erect only by four men at the corner guy-ropes.

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