Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1919-09-24
CAPITAL WELCOMES
THE FIRST DIVISION
Showers All Its Pent-Up Patriot
ism on Veterans.
GENERAL PERSHNG IN LEAD
Men March in Mass Formation
Tanks, Guns and Mechanical War
Equipment Are Shown in Pa
rade That Lasts Five Hours.

Washington, Sept. 1S-Tears and
cheers greeted the returned First divi-
sion, led by General Pershing, when
they marched down Pennsylvania ave-
nue. over the American Way of Victory
laid out more than so years ago.
1t was Washington's first great pa
rade of the war and the crowds show
cred all their pent-up patriotism on
these sun-bronzed veterans, the first
to go to France More than half
million people saw the parade.
1t was conceived and carried out as
the nations tribute not alone to the
veteran fighting men who marched, but
to the whole great army the nation
created to make certain the utter de-
feat of Germany.
March in Mass Formation.
Marching in mass formation and
equipped with all the guns, gas-throW-
ers and other death-dealing devices
of the front line service, the First divi-
sion, fresh home from France, moved
along the broad avenue, a living tide
of fighting manhood that filled the
street from curb to curb.
Above each solid block of infantry
rose the grim line of bayOnets, the
blue steel glinting duly as it caught
the light. Farther back came long
lines of field guns, French "75's," to
which French officers have said France
owes her salvation and, after all the
trains and wagons had rumbled by,
came a battalion of tanks, streaked
and yellOwed with paint to conceal
them from enemy eyes, but now clank-
ing behind the troops in noisy response
to the cheers that greeted them.
Nothing Lacking.
There was nothing lacking to make
the parade an epitome of the whole
vast army American skill and in
domitable will had created to 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 Stlll IN
search of enemy flyers.
Some of the guns were horse-drawn,
some trundled behind painting motor
trucks or tractors. The show was com
plete as the ingenuity of the war de-
partment could make it, cross section
of the American eXpeditiOnary forces.
Up the avenue at the head of the di-
vision rode Maj. Gen. Edward +. Nc
Glachin, 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
Mai. Gen William L. Siebert, who took
it to France, and Lieut.. Gen. Robert l..
Billiard, who took it into action and
surrendered command only to take
higher post.
The Sixteenth infantry, veterans of
the bitter fighting of Cantigny, where
France learned in what fashion Amer
lea could and would fight and breathed
again after months of strain, led the
way.
At various points in the divisional
line and before the wallowing tanks
hammered and clattered in an uproar-
ing conclusion to the ive-hour spec
itacle, all manner of additional units,
not part of the division itself, were in
herted.