Battery E in France Part 8

In comparison with the voyage on the "President Lincoln," this was a pleasure trip. The greater deck s.p.a.ce, the freedom of movement, the sense of security from the dangers that threatened our pa.s.sage over, the clear weather and the quiet sea, and, above all, the elation at the prospect of seeing home soon, made the week pa.s.s in swift happiness.

Battery E minded not the two-meals-a-day plan, for we were on commissary detail, working where food was plentiful, and our badges gave us the run of the cooks' galleys, where we could cook impromptu meals for ourselves.

About noon, Friday, April 25, land came in sight. In an hour or two, welcome boats appeared to greet us, and played about our ship like terriers around a great Dane. Then the Statue of Liberty brought a cheer from the crowded deck, and the "Leviathan" entered the Hudson River with bands playing fore and aft, drowned by the whistles that hailed us from boats and from sh.o.r.e. The office buildings of lower Manhattan blossomed with waving handkerchiefs, and pa.s.sing ferryboats seemed a ma.s.s of fluttering humanity. But their welcome was not more heartfelt than the intense, though quiet, satisfaction and joy of the boys at being home once more.

As they transferred from the ship to the ferry boat at the adjoining dock, the boys received apples, candy, chocolate and other food, none of which was so welcome as a quarter of a juicy American apple pie, truly a token of home. After a short ride up the river, we boarded a train of American pa.s.senger cars, a great change from our previous mode of railway transportation. A driving snow and a chilly wind reminded us that we were in a new climate, much different from the mild weather of the winter we had just pa.s.sed. It was nearly midnight, after a hike of several miles to Camp Merritt with full packs, when we at last found our barracks, but the place buzzed in sleepless excitement long afterward.

After going through the required sanitary processes next day and moving to new barracks, there followed several days of basking in the warmth of the New Jersey spring sun, trips to New York quite without regard to the limited number of pa.s.ses allowed the battery, and details that bothered no one save perhaps some conscientious corporal.

But everyone awaited impatiently to entrain for Chicago. May 6 was a joyful day. Indeed, no days were otherwise for the rest of the week.

Leaving, at Dumont, at 3 Tuesday afternoon, the Second Battalion train reached the outskirts of Chicago early Thursday morning. The bedlam of engine blasts as we pa.s.sed the train yards was deafening. From then on, there was a continuous accompaniment of whistles and bells. All along the I. C. tracks, flags and pennants and handkerchiefs waved welcome.

n.o.body seemed to notice the light rain that fell. The way out of the Park Row station was so blocked by relatives and friends that it took over an hour to cover the three blocks to the Coliseum. As each soldier emerged, a joyful cry marked his discovery by those who hastened to fling themselves upon him. There is doubt whether there was a girl in Lagrange who failed to kiss d.i.c.k Barron. n.o.body much cared about the formation of the columns; before long there wasn't any. Just happy soldiers walking along, each in the midst of his own joyous group. At the Coliseum were more relatives and friends, who made the next hour pa.s.s like a fraction of a minute.

With steel helmets, gas masks and gun-belts, the regiment paraded between cheering crowds, north on Michigan boulevard, south on State, north on Clark and south on La Salle, and everywhere in the Loop a throng packed the streets waiting for the boys to march by. Tired and wet, but very happy, they dined at the Congress hotel, and then sped on to Camp Grant late in the afternoon.

Next day they entered the discharge mill, and Sat.u.r.day noon, May 10, 1919, Battery E was a chapter of history, an extinct military organization, but still a living bond of memory among the men of its roster and among their relatives and friends who had worked so steadfastly for them when Battery E was in France.