The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-09-17
FIRST DIVISION
IN BIC PARADE.
IN WASHINGTON
Vanguard of Fighting Force Is
Welcomed at Capital
VETS" ON VICTORY WAY
Young Fighters Follow Route Made
Famous by Army Of Potomac
More Than so Years Ago


Pennsylvania avenue the American
Way of Victory marked out more than
fifty years ago by the returning mule
clad legions Of the Army of the Po-
tomac the First Division, American
Expeditionary Forces, marched today.
1t was Washington's first great par
ade of the war and it was conceived
and carried out as the Nations tri-
butte not alone to the veteran fighting
men who marched, but to the whole
great army the Nation created to
make certain the utter defeat of Ger
man dreams of world conquest
Marching in mass formation and
equipped with all the guns, gas throw
erss and countless other death-dealing
devices of front line service, the First
Division, fresh home from France.
moved along the broad avenue, liv-
ing tide of sunburned fighting man
hood that filled the street from curb
to curb. In their khaki and olive drab
uniforms, the men swung by as re-
sistlessly as the spring floods of the
Mississippi. Above each solid block
OF infantry, rose the grim line of bay
onets, the blued steel glinting duly
as it caught the light, Farther back
came the long lines of field guns,
French use" to which French officers
have said France. owes her salvation
and, after all the trains and wagons
had rumbled by, came battalion of
tanks. streaked and yellowed with
paint 10 conceal them from enemy eyes
but now growing and clanking their
way behind the troops in noisy res
ponse to the cheers that greeted them.
There was nothing lacking to make
the parade an euitome of the whole
vast army American skill and indomi-
table 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 riflemen;
squat mortars to hurl bombs from
the trenches; high mounted rifles
which peered skyward as though still
in search of enemy flyers. Some CT the
guns were horse-drawn. some trundl-
ed behind painting motor trucks or
tractors. The show was as complete
as the ingenuity of the War Depart
ment could make it. cross section of
the American EXpedtionary Forces.
But ii was the lines of khaki-clad
brown faced men themselves that first
interest of the thronging crowds all
along the fide avenue turned. The
home coming cf this first unit of
American man power to cross the sub
marine infested seas was in marked
contrast to its silent, mysterious, un-
reported departure, and the men and
women along the way seemed to feel
the Significance of the spectacle. They
recalled the days when the nation wait
ed in wordless anxiety to hear that
these same smiling. free-striding boys
had come safely to a French harbor,
those other days when their courage
in action and the slow coming lists
that carried the names of the men who
sleep forever in France.
To one regiment OF long, trim '75's"
an unusual honor was accorded. The
Sixth Field Artillery was placed be-
tween the two infantry brigades in
stead of marching with the rest of
the artillery brigade behind the in
fantry, for it was battery of the
Sixth which fired the first shot at the
Germans on October 23, 1917 A stan
dard told the onlookers that at last
they saw the very guns whose thun-
der had carried that first message of
defeat into the enemy ranks
Throughout the long line markers
were frequent telling what the strange
| imp ements of war over which they
\ floated were used for. Among the
watchers were thousands upon thous-
ands of government clerks who have
dealt fer months with endless streams
of papers talking of bombs and guns
and mortars, of motor machine shops,
pontoon bridges machine guns, gas
throwers, flame projectors and all the
other complicated war equipment of
the troops. Never before have these
workers at home seen all these tools
of warfare in their own warlike set
ting, however and the parade was an
education for them.
Up the avenue at the head of the
division rode Major General Edward
r. McGlachlin, commanding, and with
him rode two former commanders of
the division the first to go and the
last Of the divisions to come home.
They were Major General William l..
Sibert, who took it to France and
Lieutenant General Robert l. Blu lard,
who took it into action and surrend-
cred command only to take a higher
post. Marching ahead of the form
alton, also, came host of officers and
men who saw their first service with
the First Division in France, later to
go to other units as instructors.
Then came the First Infantry Bri-
gade, marching in the French mass
formation, twenty-four men abreast
across the avenue, led by the 9rd Ma
chine Gun Battalion with its motor