the first hitches, were out next
day on another search. When they were on their way to the battery
position, a great rainstorm burst. A high wind swept from the woods
where the enemy had been dropping gas shells during the day. Alarms came
so frequently that the order was given to put on masks. To follow a road
in utter darkness amid beating rain with gas masks on was next to
impossible. And that the caissons reached the position without accident
seemed a miracle, for which the drivers can not be given too much
credit. The gas alerte passed. But the rain was still pouring down so
heavily and the sky was so black that the caissons had to be unloaded by
lightning flashes. A few stray steps might pitch one headlong in the
deep trench. With this intermittent illumination, unloading four
caissons was a slow job. When it had been finished, everyone was, in
spite of slickers and gas suits, so drenched that water could be wrung
out of every garment. The storm passed across the front lines towards
the enemy. As it cleared on our side, the silence, interrupted only by
peals of thunder before, was broken by a heavy cannonading from the
Allies' guns.

A hot sun next day dried out clothes and blankets. The quiet of the days
before the battle returned. Exciting aeroplane battles, or an occasional
balloon sent down in flames, were all the evidence of warfare. Captain
Robbins read the communiques of the preceding days, and told of the
mighty repulse the enemy had suffered.

A projectile with an I. A. L. fuse, the most delicate of those we used,
had stuck in the bore of the Third Section piece on the evening of the
17th. Since all efforts of the battery mechanics were unavailing, the
piece was taken to the divisional repair shop at about dawn on the 19th
and another gun sent from the shop to replace it.

Though there were losses in other batteries of the regiment, Battery E
went through the engagement without a casualty. The death of Lieutenant
Cowan, who had enlisted in the battery as a private, gone with it to the
Mexican border, and been commissioned an officer of it before leaving
Fort Sheridan, in August, 1917, came as a heavy blow to the men of
Battery E because he was so generally and thoroughly well liked by
them. His transfer to Headquarters Company had merely removed him from
their eyes but not their hearts. As liaison officer, he was in the
forward trenches during the engagement, and there a shell fragment
struck him on t