duties took me (on foot, by touring-car, by
truck, and by ammunition wagon) from the "rail-head" six miles behind
the trenches where our boys went "over the top" on that first historic
day of the Argonne drive, up to within a half mile of the day's
farthest advance.

I saw artillery pieces and heavy cannon emplacements everywhere back
of the line. I saw these guns after their first terrific bombardment,
unlimbered and moved up to their new positions. The heaviest guns,
including the big naval guns, were especially well concealed in woods,
in orchards, and well camouflaged in fields. So well hidden were they
that I passed within a few rods of multitudes of them, as I traveled
the roads, without detecting their presence until I would either hear
the discharge of their shells or see them as they were being
unlimbered. To move a heavy gun in mud is no small task. For more than
an hour one day I was held up in a truck and watched a dozen experts,
with block and tackle and "caterpillar tractor" move a twelve-inch
monster from its hidden foundation up a slight incline toward the
roadway. It was an hour well spent, for it gave me an object lesson
concerning the difficulty with which great field pieces are moved
under unfavorable conditions.

By way of contrast, I watched at another time a crew of eight men
unlimber an eight-inch gun and move it about fifteen feet from its
foundation beside a railroad track to a flat car, which could carry it
at express speed to some other point of vantage. This told the great
value of railroad spurs leading up toward the enemy lines.

At one place our boys told me of one of our "mysterious" guns, mounted
on a specially prepared flat car, which made nightly trips out to
different points of vantage for firing on some enemy position,
returning again under cover of the darkness to its secret hiding
place.

Having seen the battlefields and behind the lines of both the Allied
and the German forces; and having noted the military efficiency of the
German preparation and their care in carrying out even the minutest
details; and having observed the skill in preparation and the accuracy
in use, especially of the French artillery; and having been thrilled
and pleased by the quick and ingenious adaptation of our American
army to the best and most efficient use of every type of weapon, I am
thoroughly convinced that an intelligent army, governed by Christian
ideals, is an invincible army, no matter what