The north Mississippi herald., 1919-06-20
New York, N. Y, June 6, 10


After a little more than nine
months service in France, the 140th
Field Artillery landed in America to-
France, May 22d.
The regiment will go into quarters
here for a very few hours and at the
completion of the necessary compila-
ton of records will pass through the
process of rehabilitation. If the
usual schedule is followed the troops
will be separated here and sent to de-
tachments to the various camps clos
est to their homes and from which
they will be given their discharges
from the army and returned to civil.
ian life.
The 140th Field Artillery was thss
only Mississippi organization retain
I ing its identity as such in France and
was the only regiment in the A. F.. F.
representing the Magnolia State; it
returned today under the command
of the same colonel under which it
sailed, with the same enlisted person
mel and with practically the same
officers who answered roll call the
morning of September /, 1917, when
the regiment was modified in Jack
son.
While the regiment was not for
tunate enough to play part in any
of the various engagements of the
American campaigns in France, 1t
has, nevertheless written record of
which it may well be proud and re-
turns recognized as one of the best
artillery organizations in the Army.
It is very probable that no regiment
in the United States Army has fired
as many rounds of ammunition as the
14Oth and it is certain that its Off
GERS are as highly skilled in artillery
firing as could be found in the entire
A. E. F.
For six months past the regiment
was stationed at Camp du Valdihon,
France, where it fred for various ar
| tillery classes as well as making meth
ods of transportation.
This work was by no means easy
Most of the members of the regiment
hail from the land of sunshine and
| flowers, from climate exactly the
opposite of that prevailing in the
mountains of Valdihon where, on
May of this year, the snow was APP
proximately three feet deep, and
where the batteries have been COM
PEELED to fire day after day in snow
| fall that was binding.
Always a motorized regiment at
Valdihon the second battalion and
headquarters company were given
horses to care for and with which to
haul their guns. Any soldier knows
that the care of the army horse is in
itself science; but, inexperienced,
as they were, the men and officers of
this regiment more than made good.
After a winter of hard work the hors-
es were turned back in May in far
superior condition than received; in
spite of the fact they had been sub
jected to day after day of exposure,
only six out of six hundred had died
and this, notwithstanding some of the
annals had suffered on the front and
were not in condition to work when
received.
The automobile department of the
regiment was busy the entire time of
the school. The 140th was known
as the "Test Regiment No. / for
General Headquarters" and frequent
| ly was called upon to test the SER
viceability of various tractor equip
ment On one occasion extensive
demonstrations of the utility of the
tractor in handling artillery were
made for representative S of the
British and French governments.
The result of the various tests
made by the regiment were carefully
watched and compiled by army au-
thorities and very probably will have
a far reaching effect in shaping the
future policy of the mobile artillery
of the United States army. ! have
frequently discussed the tests with
Colonel w. c. O'Ferrall who has
commanded the regiment while In
France and from letters he has shown
me know that the work of the regi-
ment was especially valuable and was