Share your discoveries

Please help us spread the word about Record Hunter and the thousands of FREE historical and genealogical records we provide...Use the social media buttons on every page that interests you.

Search Historica

Visit Historica to search over 100 indexes to 1 Million+ birth, death, marriage, obituary, estate, naturalization and military service records. Searching is free, we offer digital copies of the indexed documents for $10 and items are usually delivered within 24 hours.

BEING THE NARRATIVE OF BATTERY A OF THE 101st FIELD ARTILLERY

Page 212

Get this book on Kindle - FREE for Kindle Unlimited

home, but it is a failure, and the party soon breaks up. "There ain't no word bad enough to express it." And gloomily we take up the old routine again. Then came an order to entrain on January 22, and, a trifle distrustfully, we started preparations to move again. A pleasing feature of the new order was that we en­ train at Vitry, a good 30 kilometers from Varennes, instead of at La Ferte, only seventeen. So we swore and waited.

                Our move from Varennes marked a new epoch in the "Great Trek" of the Battery. For the first time in many long months, we knew where we were going, knew that we were bound for Mayet, in the Ecommoy district of the "Le Mans Area." The length of our stay in Mayet was unknown, but rumors placed it anywhere from ten days to a month, and we, credulous as ever, looked for a speedy embarkation.

                All the afternoon there was a great commotion in Varennes, trucks coming and going, motorcyclists and runners dashing feverishly about. Shortly after two o'clock, the first units of the Regiment left the town, while the Battery sat on the newly-rolled packs and waited—the afternoon waned, and still we sat. Suddenly, at 5.30, our whistle shrilled in the street and we tumbled out, shrugging and hunching our­ selves into our packs, to wait another half hour, and wonder what it was all about. Six o'clock, we swung into column and started off on our long grind.

                Then followed the most touching tribute that the Battery ever received in all its long penance in France, a tribute to the consideration, the decency, the good fellowship of our men. As we formed our

 

Previous / Next

CONTENTS
INDEX