The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-09-17
Marched Over Historical
Pennsylvania Avenue In
Washington Today
TRIBUTE
TO WHOLE ARMY
Great Display of War Weapons
Sixth Field Artillery, Who Fired
Line-Record of the First Division.

| tlrSt SnotS at Germans, were In
Line-Record of the First Division.
| WASHINGTON, Sept 17-Over histor.
c Pennsylvania avenue, the American
| Way to Victory marked out more than
so years ago by the returning blue-clad
legions of the army of the Potomac, the
| first division, American eXpeditionary
force, marched today. 1t was Washing.
tons first great parade of the war and it
was conceived and carried out as the ma
tons tribute not alone to the veteran
| fighting men who marched, but to the
whole great army the nation created to
dreams of world conquest
| Marching in mass formation and
equipped with all the guns, gas throwers
and countless other death dealing devices
| of front line service, the first division,
fresh home from France, moved along the
broad avenue, living tide of sunburned
| fighting manhood that filled the street
| from curb to curb. In their khaki and
| olive drab uniforms, the men swung by as
| resistlessly as the spring floods of the
| Mississippi.
There was nothing lacking to make the
| parade an epitome of the whole vast
| army American skill and indomitable will
had created to meet and beat the enemy
at his own game There were guns Of all
the types used in France that could be
| moved through the streets. Machine
| guns, big and little, bristled among the
| ritiemen; squat mortars to hurl bombs
from the trenches; high mounted rifles
which peered skyward as though still in
search of enemy flyers Some of the guns
were horse-drawn, some trundled behind
painting motor trucks or tractors The
show was as complete as the ingenuity of
the war department could make it, a cross
section of the American expeditionary
forces.
But it was to the lines of khaki-clad,
bfown-faced men themselves that first in
terest ofErthes threnging crowds all. along
the wide avenue turned Tie home com
ing of this first unit of American man
power to cross the submarine infested seas
was in marked contrast to its silent, mys-
FERROUS, mreported departure, and the
| men and women along the way seemed
| to feel the significance of the spectacle
1
awaited in wordless anxiety to hear that
these same smiling, free-striding boys had
| come safely to a French harbor those
| other days when the first word filtered
back that the boys had begun to prove
their courage in action and the slow com
ing lists that carried the names of the
men who sleep forever in France.
To one regiment of long, trim ''75's"
l IN rnnGnal honor
field artillery was placed between the two
infantry brigades instead of marching
with the rest of the artillery brigade be-
hind the infantry, for it was battery
If the sixth which fired the first shot at
the Germans on Oct 90, 1917 A stand
ard told the onlookers that at last they
saw the very guns whose thunder had
carried that first message of defeat into
the enemy ranks.
Up the avenue at the head of the di-
vision rode Major General Edward F.
McGlachlin, commanding, and with him
rode two former commanders of the di-
vision the first to go and the last of the
divisions to come home. They were Ma
or General William l.. Sibert, WI took
it to France, and Lieutenant General
Robert l.. Billiard, who took it INTO ac-
lake a higher post Marching ahead of
he formations, also, came host of Of
ticers and men who saw their first service
With the first division in France. later
o go to other units as instructors
| At various points in the divisional line
md before the wallowing tanks hammered
nd Gathered in an appearing conclusion
o the five-hour spectacle, all manner OF
additional units, not part of the division
tself. were inserted These included
earchfight trucks, ordnance machine
hops. units on motor trucks, sound rang
ng devices for detecting the position OF
hidden guns, sound rangers for sporting
.ir raiders at night and much other me
:hanical equipment that has played a con
| SANITY growing part in the war
| So far as the first division itself is con
,erned, the official record of it's activi
lies during the war recently published by
he war department speaks for itself. Il
stood SO days in active sectors of the front
against l23 in quiet parts of the line; il
fought its way over 81 kilometers O
sharply contested grounds; it captured
| 1853 German officers and 1904 German
men; it captured also lI9 German guns
Y trench mortars and Alb machine guns
It lists All officers and men killed o.
lied of wounds and had l7,2OI mel
wounded or gassed in the days it spent a
he front and lost only l52 of its ow,
| personnel as prisoners to the enemy 1t
| "eplacements were greater than its oricj
1 al strength, 30,206 and 1856 of its mem
hers won distinguished service crosses TO
| onspicuous ga,lantry in action