MEMORIES OF BATTERY "A"

     Battery "A", the first battery of the 314th F. A. to be 
organized, consisted at its birth of Capt. J. Howard Eager and eight 
lieutenants, whose names appear in the Resume. Several days later the 
enlisted personnel came into being by the assignment of Sergeant 
Nourse. Then came the first ten per cent, the flower of the draft, 
and they were all assigned to "A". A battery of decidedly second-hand 
three-inch pieces arrived at about the same time. This was promptly 
appropriated by our Regiment and the flower of the draft had this 
care added to their already numerous ones.
     Drawing clothes, drilling, moving, policing, road building, gun 
cleaning and guard duty kept the battery occupied until one day 
realized that instead of being practically the whole regiment, they 
were only a small part of the First Battalion which was commanded by 
Capt. J. Howard Eager while the battery was entrusted to the tender 
mercies of Lieut. Leisenring.
     In December of 1917, Lieut. Lott succeeded Lieut. Leisenring in 
command of the battery. He started the regime of hard training which 
was later to stand the organization in such good stead. It was in 
January that a number of the non-coms were sent to the Third 0. T. C. 
at Camp Lee.
     As soon as the weather cleared somewhat we began our real 
artillery drill with guns and horses. We had the misfortune to have 
charge of the three-inch guns, of which there were still only four in 
the brigade, and also of the horses of the battalion, some fifty in 
number.
     Battery "A" lived up to its reputation as a hard working outfit 
in caring for the horses and material, and everafter, if assistance 
was needed in repairing guns or riding unmanageable horses, recourse 
would be had to Mechs. Spedder and Barnes, or to our notorious Stable 
Sgt. Saleno, or our Tough rider, Meadows.
     Saleno had a happy faculty for picking up property of various 
sorts. He was the terror of all the other battery commanders who were 
constantly missing things from saddles and horses to feed-bags and 
stable brooms. In fact, Colonel Ferris, on the eve of our departure 
for Newport News, caused considerable excitement by making us open 
all our boxes of horse equipment as he was short a feed bag and he 
suspected Saleno of appropriating it. But the feed-bag was too well 
concealed.  Saleno still holds it as one of his most cherished 
souvenirs.
     In April, Lieut. Lott, later Major Lott, left for Ft. Sill, and 
Lieut. McLaughlin assumed command of the battery. He is remembered 
with great respect and admiration by the whole battery and we were 
all greatly shocked when we learned of his death in action near 
Nantillois in October, 1918. Under his able leadership we went for 
target practise to Dutch Gap and there had our first experience with 
tents and train and mud; the two last we were to meet later in great 
abundance, but happily we were ignorant of that, or else it is 
rumored, our roll would have shown a number of AWOL's before leaving 
for France.
     It should be stated in passing, that we had the honor of firing 
the first shot in target- practice on the Rifle Range at Camp Lee.
     Lieut. Melnicker returned to us in April from Ft. Sill and he 
seemed to have assimilated everything taught there.
     The month of May was chiefly spent in turning in equipment, 
drawing new clothes, etc., and in constructing, painting and marking 
packing boxes for our trip overseas, and in circulating rumors as to 
the date of our probable departure, which was the universal 
occupation of all from 1st Sergt. to the humble K. P.
     Few will forget the last days at Camp Lee, the departure for 
Newport News early in the morning before sunrise and the wait on 
board the America for the start of our trip. The trip over was an 
experience in every sense of the word. Mingled with thoughts of 
rabbit meat are those of the ocean, sea-sickness and long vigils on 
deck at sunrise and sunset when we were in the submarine zone. 
Although one night out from Brest we had a submarine scare, none were 
actually sighted, and we were all delighted to see the beautiful 
country, which looked very good after a fourteen days' voyage on a 
crowded ship.
     After tossing pennies to our heart's content to the crew of a 
French tug and getting much amusement from their resulting scrambles, 
we landed at Brest and marched for what seemed miles up to Pontanazen 
Barracks. Here, although we were much confined, we had our first 
experience with French money, strawberries, and last, but not least, 
French wash-women. We were all glad to get away from Pontanazen, and 
when we arrived at Redon, although billeted in an open field for the 
first night, we thought we had reached a paradise, comparatively 
speaking.
     Battery "A" shared with part of "B" Battery, a large old 
"Chateau" about a mile and a half from the town, and for this reason, 
missed many of the social opportunities enjoyed by the rest of the 
regiment, although certain of our members, it is is rumored, were not 
lacking in friends and they were able to make an average for the 
Battery which compared favorably with that of the other 
organizations. Our work was hard here.
     We got the French Soixante Quinze, and also horses of the same 
species; the less said of them the better. We had gun drill and 
equitation, and after a time, manoeuvres, and in July were ready to 
leave for Meucon for our firing instruction.  No story of our stay at 
Redon would be complete without mention of the party Captain Lott 
tendered to the Battery. From every viewpoint, it was a great 
success.
     Our hike to Meucon was interesting and a taste of what we were 
to get later under actual campaign conditions. At Meucon we fired a 
great deal and perfected the working of the Battery as a unit and 
before we realized it, in the middle of September were ready to leave 
for the front. We were the last Battery of the Regiment to leave, 
and, clue to a change in plans, landed just beyond Souilly, near 
Verdun, where we were in reserve for the St. Mihiel operation. Our 
services were not needed here, so we moved to the Bois-de-Ville, just 
to the West of Verdun; we got ammunition and moved forward to Le Mort 
Homme on the line, prepared for the starting of the offensive on 
September 26th. We registered on the 24th, being the first Battery to 
fire upon the enemy, and on the 26th early in the morning, fired our 
barrage to support the Infantry attack. We were with our own division 
here.
     That same afternoon we moved up to Hill No. 281, where we stayed 
several days. In coming up to this position our limbers were fired 
upon by machine guns from Boche planes, several of our horses being 
wounded. Next we moved to the Bois-d'en-De'la, where we did 
considerable firing and from which position we supported the 33rd 
Division Infantry, our own having been relieved.
     Our next move was to Septsarges, where we stayed a week and then 
went on to Nantillois. All of us will remember this position as the 
most uncomfortable we occupied. There it was that Capt. McLoughlin 
and Lieut. Ober were killed, although our Battery was fortunate in 
escaping any fatal casualties. We were at Nantillois two weeks and 
the good work of the echelon in keeping the battery supplied with 
ammunition and food must be mentioned.
     After a Thanksgiving dinner of "gold-fish" we were able to leave 
the war zone, and embarking at Hunsur-Meuse, finally landed at Ancy 
le Franc and marched to Lezinnes and thence to Argentenay, which was 
to be our home for the winter.  Here we settled down to a rest, which 
was somewhat marred by the arrival of some ninety horses to care for 
during the winter.
     During this period, and in fact until we sailed in May, the only 
topic of interest was "When do we sail for home?"
     In April we moved to the Le Mans, being billeted in Chateau du 
Loire, quite a good sized town, according to French standards. In May 
we left for Brest and after a memorable ride, our last in the 40 
hommes, 8 che vaux, box cars, duly arrived at Pontanazen again.
     We embarked on the "Zeppelin," arrived at Newport News on the 
28th of May, spent a few days at Camp Stuart and then proceeded to 
Camp Lee, up the James in a steamboat to City Point and then to camp 
by rail. The few days at Lee were notable for a fare-well dinner with 
much ice cream, and a great deal of paper work connected with our 
discharges. In this, practically half of the Battery were drafted for 
clerical assistance, and at last it was finished.
     We now were ready to go our own ways again without the Army's 
guidance, and although not wishing to repeat our experience again in 
the near future, we were all agreed it would be a fine thing to look 
back again and think over.
     Let us hope we can have a reunion of the Battery in a few years 
so we can see how, civil life has changed us, and also give us an 
opportunity to talk over the exploits of Battery "A".

(Typed by LINDA FLUHARTY.)