e entire ceremony of dignity had
to be executed a second time. Close order drill then came into its
own. The following day, November 22nd, the battalion again hiked to
Clairvaux, where another review was staged and the regiment kept at
battalion close-order drill until 4 o'clock.

Sunday, November 24th, reveille sounded at 6 o'clock. Orders were
given to make rolls preparatory to moving. When the soldiers were
ready to move the order was changed. It was discovered that the motor
trucks would not arrive until the following day.

The motor transportation squad was expected to arrive early on Monday
morning. It was 9 o'clock at night when they arrived. Departure was
delayed until next morning, but this did not keep back an order that
called the battery out in detail during a heavy rain at 9:30 Monday
night to pull the guns and caissons through the mud, from the field
where they had been parked to the road, so that they could be attached
to the motor trucks. There was a great tendency to "duck detail" that
night.

Ville sous La Ferte was finally left in the distance, Tuesday,
November 26th, at 10 o'clock. The soldiers and their packs had to pile
in the few motor trucks that were furnished. A few of the boys rode
the materiel attached to the trucks and had a wild ride. The rolling
kitchen of the battery, with ovens blazing away, covered the roads at
a fine clip behind a motor truck, with George Musial having his hands
full trying to manipulate the brake.

The trip continued through Maranville and Bricon. Chaumont was circled
about 4 o'clock and stop was made about twenty-one kilometers from
A. E. F. Headquarters, at a sleepy little hamlet of about fifty houses
and barns, called Blancheville.

[Illustration: A BATTERY D KITCHEN CREW
Photo Taken at Mess Tent at Camp La Courtine, France.]

[Illustration: GROUP OF BATTERY D SERGEANTS
Capts. Clarke, Smith, and Hall in foreground.]

CHAPTER XVIII.

MUD AND BLANCHEVILLE.

Blancheville, mud and mules are associated in memory of the holiday
season of 1918-19 that Battery D spent in France.

It was Thanksgiving week when Battery D arrived in Blancheville. The
auto convoy deposited the battery paraphernalia in the vicinity of the
old stone church and graveyard that stood along the main highway as
the landmark and chief building of the village. Nearby stood the only
other building of import--a stone structure that housed a pool of
water in the manner of the ancient