The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1919-04-18


: Our reglmental area waa a virgin
forest OF pine, with considerable UNI
dergrowth of various kinds of shrub
berry. Most Of the men were at home
in the forests, having lived a great
err part of their lives in a country
that, as an industry, logging was one
of the principle ones The work was
started by taking out trees by the roots
AN unusual way of telling trees. but in
this case it was the only suitable way,
as the stumps would have been as UNI
desirable as the trees themselves. This
was no small undertaking, when one
considers that the average trees were
from three to four feet at the base,
and grew to height of from forty to
seyenty-five feet
By the afternoon Of the first day,
VIC had accomplished wonders with
our forest. The general line of the
battery street had been established and
tents erected to house the men for the
coming night. The next morning tte
work OF telling trees was continuH,
and for months afterwards only fini3h
ing and never being entirely compl$t
ed, until the following spring. e3
The drill field and parade ground
contained about one hundred acres,
and when cleared off, made an ideal
drill field 1t was especially adapted
for our mounted drills that were cpnt
Quoted with our horses and material
these We're not issued until late in
November. Until We were fully equip
ed the movements were gone through
with on foot, This proved to be very
satisfactory, for it was in that we cbn-
quered the different arm signals, and
| learned to turn in the right direction.
Now we come to an important part
of the batterys history, that Raft
where we first learned the different
duties Of artillerymen. All OF our
training heretofore had been mostly
artillery work, and the first Formation
Of the battery as a battery OF artillery,
was confusing to officers and men, a.
like. Z
Nm inc ~ a. tnan CHH
Lieut.. John l.. Lewis, assigned SepS
! IA, 1917 having received his coplinls
sion at Fl Myers, Va, with the great
er part of his time spent with an old
artillery unit, the 3rd., Field Artillery
u. s. Regulars. The work proved
more interesting than any we had yet
undertaken, for we had enlisted as
artillerymen, and the infantry WORK
did not appeal to any of the men, Of
ficers included.
Sept, II, 1917, the regimental des
fignation was changed, upon ofders
4 from the War Dept, from the First
4 Tennessee Field Artillery, to that OF
the Hath F. A. 1t was assigned tt
| the 55th., F. A., Brigade, commanded
| by Brigadier.Gener G. G.. Galley, thu
/ brigade being assigned to the 10th Di
vision, commanded by Major-Genera
John F. Morrison. This was the frst
regiment from Tennessee to receivs
the numerical designation.
The battery was divided into sec
tions, section chiefs were appointed
gunners assigned to the four gui
squads, and drills begun upon impre
vised guns and caissons. The guns
were of our own construction made OF
i small timbers, that had once beer
! part of tree. Wheels were made b,
simply mailing together two peices OF
right size and length to form a large
x The two of these We're fastened
axles, then the trails and next the
tube or barrel Our first drills were
conducted on these, but they served
/ for on those we learned the different
posts of duties of cannoneers. We
were getting along famously when we
happened to a little bad luck that OF
being quarantined.
On the night of Sept, 20, 1917, the
entire battery was put under quaran
tine for spinal meningitis, by division
surgeon, Col Whaley. One of the
members of the organization having
been sent to the Base Hospital with
the disease, This necessitated the
clearing of more ground, for we were
completely isolated from the rest of
the regiment, and put further back in
the woods. The work was really nee
essary for later when it became nee
essary to build stables for the horses,
we did not have So very much clearing
to 90 as the line of Stables ran
through cur old quarantine battery
street.
The work in quarantine after the
work was completed, was carried out
without stop, still using our wooden