The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-18
Kansas Regiment Fired
1870 Shells atEnemy
Durin g War Against
Central PoUers.
BY SAN FARRELL

ID 0AlN JAbhEAh
Copyright, 1920, by Byrne Features)
At2::30 o'clock on the morn
ing of September &c, 1918, a
memorable date in modern his
tory, great guns-thousands
of them, almost hub to hub
belched forth with. a thunder I
that shook Vauquois Hill from
its granite summit down to its
seemingly impregnable base.
The reverberation rocked the
barren slopes as shell after
shell shrieked its way thru the
darkness to wreak havoc and
destruction within the German
lines. The most terrible classic
of He'll had begun, an inferno
of bowling, crashing things
that spelled a merciless death
to those placed by destiny in
this jeopardy.
The curtain of time slips back
year and a half and the scene shifts
from 'Barrage Hill to the office of
Charles I. Martin, adjutant general of
Kansas, at Topeka. Word had just
been received from the War Depart
ment authorizing the state to raise
among other units, a complete regi-
ment of field artillery. The general
had called in some military men and
plans were devised with which to carry
out the instructions from washington.
Battery A was the outgrowth of a
military organization formed as Bat
terry B in January, 1880. Its charter
officers were Capt. Thomas e. Irvine,
Dieutenants Charles Chase, A. A. Saun-
ders, II. 5. Reynolds and Ben NJ. Cur
It's Topeka was it's birthplace. In
1900 the organization was converted
into Battery A, under the command of
Capt. w. A. Pattison. The unit served
on the Mexican border in 1916 under
Capt. John Marshall Hite and at the
beginning of the war in 1917 was COM
Inanded by Capt. William z. MacLean.
This was the nucleus around which
General Martin built his new regiment.
Officers were commissioned and or
dered to raise batteries in other cities.
The war had just been declared
against the imperial German govern
ment and recruiting enthusiasm was
. at high pitch.
Battery B of the First Kansas field
artillery, later called the 130th field
artillery, was organized at Lawrence
and commanded by Capt. John Amick
Its enlisted personnel included several
scores Of Indians, students of Haskell
Institute. Batteries c, Capt. James c.
Hughes. and d, Capt. william H.
Brady, were raised at Pittsburg. Kan
sas City furnished Battery E. Capt.
Phil Hoyt, and Wichita. Battery F.,
commanded by Capt. Birdie E. Sewers
Arthur NJ. Mills, then a major in the
Quartermaster Corps, resigned that
position in order to go on the firing
line. He was commissioned a captain
and organized headquarters company
in Topeka. DR.. T. S. Morrison re
cruited the band in Topeka, and the
medical detachment, Major Jones. and
supply company, Capt. Thomas A.
Mayhem, enlisted in the capital city.
General Morrison EnIists.
Doctor Morrison possessed an en-
Viable military record when the war
began. He had risen from the grade
of private to the rank of brigadiei
general in tho Kansas National Guard
and had retired some years before
Despite the fact that he was no longer
"A stripping, the doctor re-enlisted al
the outbreak of hostilities as a private
Z organized the band and served in the
enlisted ranks thruout the war as band
leader. A week before he sailed fol
home, Doctor Morrison received hi,
commission as a second lieutenant.
The original regiment was com
manded by Col Hugh Means, of Law
renee. with Lieut.. Col. Bruce Griffith
OF Wichita, second in command. Maj
w. A. Pattison, OF Topeka, commanded
the First and Mai. Roy +. Waring, o.
Lawrence, the Second battalion.
third battalion was formed later. Capt
r. Il. Porter, Of Topeka, was regi
mental adjutant. The Rev. Earl A
Blackman, of Chanute was chaplain
Turnout the spring and summer o.
1917, the recruiting was spirited anC
an effort was made to get only thu
highest type of men into the. organiza
ton. In the enlisted personnel wert
lawyers. bankers, engineers, biologists
architects, editors. oil operators, sue
cessful farmers and business men and
in two or three instances, ministers o
the gospel.
The Missouri and Kansas nationa
guard units were called into fedora
service on August 5, 1917, and the or
CARNATIONS went into encampments n
their home stations. Here they wer
put thru the usual routine of typhoi,
prophylaXis. vaccination and element
airy drilling and gradually change
their apparel from the cool summe
garb of the Kansas civilian to tn
olive drab of the soldier.
ON October ?, 1917, the regimen
moved to Camp Doniphan. Fort Sill