day. At that time the battery had no horses, and all its
schedule was devoted to learning how to handle the French "75." This gun
was in so many ways different from the American 3-inch piece, which the
regiment had used at home, that all the men, recruits and veterans of
the Mexican border alike, were novices. From 7:30 to 11:30 each morning,
and 1 to 4 in the afternoon, the battery drilled on the guns.

For a day or two the non-commissioned officers and two picked gun squads
of privates received intensive instruction on the four guns assigned to
the battery. A French sergeant conducted the drill at first. Later two
corporals from the First Division of the United States Army replaced
him. From the simple exercise of taking post, the drill advanced day by
day to the simulated firing of the battery according to problems like
those of artillery in action. The men not working on gun squads stood
back by the limbers and "took data," their attention to the proceedings
being gauged by one of the drill corporals when he pounced on some one
for the result of his figures. Interest was quite likely to wander when
one was more concerned with shuffling his feet to warm them a bit, or
with searching for a dry spot--comparatively speaking--so that his wet
feet would not become wetter.

In November this routine was broken by two events, one a day of sorrow,
when Corporal Stevens died, the other a day of rejoicing, Thanksgiving.
Following a severe attack of pleural pneumonia. Corporal Stanley S.
Stevens died in the hospital at Camp Coetquidan on the evening of
November 21. Having been in the battery since September, 1915, he was
very well known in the regiment and had many friends in the
organization. Even those who had not been intimate with him, were
saddened by the loss of so fine a comrade and so excellent a
soldier--the first loss of the regiment on the soil of France. The
funeral is as beautiful a memory to the members of the battery as one
could hope to have. At noon, November 23, the coffin was carried from
the hospital, placed upon a caisson, and draped with a large American
flag. The band led the procession, followed by an honorary firing squad
of twenty-one French soldiers. Next came the fourteen members of Battery
E who formed the firing squad. Behind the caisson were General Summeral,
commanding the 67th Artillery Brigade, Colonel Reilly and officers of
the 149th Field Artillery. Next marched Battery E, and behind it, the