MONTREAL
October 28th, 1917
Orders at last. They came in for the 1st Battalion October 25th. They slipped out quietly by night. I went with them to Montreal, travelling with Companies B and D. The men were in gleeful spirits, glad to have the wait over and to be off on the Long Trail. Edward Connelly and I sat up chatting most of the night. One remark of his struck me. His father was Captain of Company B in the 69th during the Civil War. “Some people say to me, ‘With your two boys I don’t see how you can afford to go to war.’ With my two boys I can’t see how I can afford not to go to war.”
The two soldiers who appealed to me most aboard the train were Supply Sergeant Billy McLaughlin and Lieutenant Bootz. They stayed up all night to look after our needs, and they showed a combination of efficiency and cheerfulness—a very model of soldierly spirit.
I saw them all onto the Tunisia on their way to Liverpool. God speed them.