Secretary, added to my joy by
venturing opinion, that the "Seventh" was about to sail! He also
generously equipped me financially--"Just a little pin money for you,"
as he charmingly expressed it.

What magnificent men these priests of St. Stephen's and the Ordinariate!
How worthy to be associated with the Bishop who so kindly, so wisely,
and so well cared for the Chaplains in the National service.

Reporting at once to Camp Merritt I entered upon my Army duties.

CHAPTER III

CAMP MERRITT--LEVIATHAN--AT SEA

The gallant Seventh Division, destined to render a service well worthy of
Old Glory, was then commanded by Brigadier General Baarth with Col. W. W.
Taylor, Jr., Chief of Staff, and Col. John Alton Degan, Adjutant.

It comprised the 34th, 55th, 56th and 64th Regiments of Infantry; the
6th and 7th Regiments of Field Artillery; 19th, 20th and 21st Machine
Gun Battalions, 10th Field Signal Battalion and Divisional Sanitary and
Supply Trains, with a complete field equipment of 32,000 men.

The Chaplain's Corps of the Seventh comprised Rev. Fathers Martin and
Trainor, and Rev. Messrs. Cohee, Rixey, Hockman and Evans. Fathers Gwyer
and LeMay joined in France. All these Chaplains rendered a brave and
excellent service, meriting the respect and confidence of officers and
men alike.

Departure of that mighty fighting force from Camp Merritt was deeply
impressive. At the midnight hour of the First Friday in August, Mass was
said for the last time, and hundreds of the boys received Holy
Communion. Within an hour all were on the march, under full pack, along
the country road, leading to the Palisades of the Hudson.

The night was densely dark, and grimly each soldier trudged along,
guided only by the bobbing pack of the comrade in front of him. Chill
gray dawn saw the head of the column emerge from the hills at a secluded
point on the Jersey shore, where waiting ferry boats were boarded, which
conveyed us to the wharf of the Leviathan at Hoboken.

How thrilled we were to find this giant of all the seven assigned to
carry us "Over There!" Nine hundred feet long, one hundred feet wide,
thirty-six feet draft and nine stories deep! Like some fabled monster of
the sea, which well her weird camouflaged sides suggested, she opened
her cavernous jaws and received as but a morsel thirteen thousand men.

Here was our first contact with the gallant Navy--here did the mighty
tide of khaki gold merge with the deep sea bl