The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-13
FIRST REGIMENT FOUND THRILLS
 AT THE BORDER
Mantle, Nogales and Hua- chuca Stand Out in Four
 Months of Memories.


 outpost duty with Mexicans of uncer-
 tain inclinatiOns a few yards away,
 thunder storms and floods, hikes and
 who-knows-what-not have kept the life of the men of the First Con- necticut infantry as busy as a movie
 thriller during the past three months land more.
 As matter of fact it has been
 nearer four months, for it was on
 Monday, June IS, that the mobiliza-
 ton orders were issued in response to the call for troops. In Hartford,
 not to mention New Britain, Bristol, Manchester, Middletown and the rest,
 armories hustled as armories had not
 hustled before in IS years. War
 strength" was the aim not only of
 each company of the First, but of
 every branch of the Connecticut Ma tional Guard. Recruits came in
 quickly though not quite fast enough
 to suit the desires of the leaders. They were examined (also quickly) and the rockies" began to drill. Order and system appeared out of the hustle and, on June 23. Troop B, the Signal com
 pany and the Ambulance company we're ready to move. In Troop B the lack of horses had been more serious than the need of men and Hartford will not soon forget the patriotic ac- l ton of Morgan G. Bplkeley, who gave the troop horses valued at more than $13,O00.
 | The first organization to start was the Signal corps, which left on the morning of June 22 by train, while l Troop B set out by horse for Mantle i the same morning, after parading | through the city. The Signal corps was in Mantle by noon that day and Troop B after spending the night in Colchester reached Camp Holcomb the | following day. On the night of June 22, all the Hartford troops, except those which had left for Mantle pa raded through the city, the uniformed ranks being followed by lines of rock ies who had not yet received their uniforms, in an effort to stimulate re- cruiting. Early on the morning of Saturday, June 24, throngs poured out to bid farewell to the departing regi- ment, which set out to join the other state troops at Mantle
 Into Atlantic And Out.
 The regiment had not spent day in camp when orders came to move the troops to the border as soon as possible. Many had visited the camp on Sunday in spite of the drenching rains, and more flocKed to Mantle Monday for a final word. Troops were hurriedly sworn into the fed. eral service, a turmoil of packing and preparing. and then the first shd one of the big hardships, the al1-night wait | lxr,ifh olx nd froi hal could not be found. Troop B and the the next morning, the first to leave the state for Arizona, the ambulance and field hospital companies early in the afternoon, and then the three battal- ions of the First regiment. the last leaving about 9:30 p. m.
 Cheers, crowds, lunches and other attentions greeted the troop trains on their way across the country to Chicago, then Kansas City, and then continuing south to Ell Paso, where the boys got a bitter taste of border tenn peratures. Thence they headed for Nogales, Arizona, where two battalions arrived on July 3, while the last bat ta1ion appeared at 3 o'clock the next morning, Independence Day.
 Tents were pitched, the camp was established and, side by side with the regulars, the Connecticut men began on the actual service of the. United States. Honor came to Company c, the Middletown contingent, in the form of the first assignment to regular monotony duty, and from then on guard duties of various kind broke up the drills. On July 1, Troop B and the Signal corps reached Nogales and went into camp and Company M, of Winsted which had been way 4aid by measles scare and marched partway across the state to get to Mi antic, caught up with the rest of the company at Nogales.
 All this time the rockies, staying behind at Mantle, had been learning things about themselves and about army life that they never suspected before. On July II, they, too, set out for Nogales, and Mantle was de- serted Soon after their arrival the physical examinations, repeated be- cause the papers had been lost, cut swaths through the ranks of the regi- ment, and after the doctors finished plumbing, sounding and /analyzing, there were about 150 to cofne back to Connecticut, lack of required weight and other causes retiring them from the service.
 Private North Gets Shock.
 By this time the regiment was set tied in it's new camp, on a plateau about 700 yards from the border..The original camp had developed unex- pected peculiarities when the rainy season set in. First would come shower, when the heavens let loose oceans of water. Next that water gathered in torrents in the arroyos, and in mass formation that trenches could not baffle, attacked the camp and swept everything about in a most unsoldierly fashion. In a thunder shower. accompanied by a gale of wind, on the evening of July 26, Pri- vate Charles North of Company A, while reaching out of his tent with shovel to deepen the trench received a shock which came near to proving fatal. After six hours of persistent work by Dr. Heating it was deqided that he had a chance<of living. Private North gradually re-acquired ability to walk, hear and talk and was finally sent to his home in Rockville.
 Troop B, after acquiring laurels and honors, and being mistaken sometimes for regular cavalry was sent to Arivaca, fifty-two miles from Nogales, for patrol duty. The troop