Vaccination and inoculation, those terrors of all early experiences in the army, held the stage on the afternoon of August 21, with the usual accompaniment of blanched faces and shaky knees. It was at this particularly unfavorable time the announcement was made by Captain Wolf that the ranks were to be brought up to the strength required by the addition of a number of men from the 1st Vermont regiment of infantry. This organization had been split up to complete units forming the 26th Division.
Leaving the impression that he had been called to attend an officers' school, Lieutenant Condren left the following day, and the end of his journey found him in France, one of the first National Guard officers to reach his goal. Within a few days Lieutenant Nelson arrived with the Vermont contingent, and Lieutenants Carroll and Bacharach were assigned to duty with the Company by Major Howard, so that nearly a full complement of officers was available for duties mainly of an ornamental nature.
Having been duly welcomed as "Green Mountain Boys," and, in the manner of the Company, christened "Apple Knockers," the Vermont men were received into the fellowship of the organization. Upon their arrival the newcomers occupied a company street of their own, the work of erecting it having been conferred upon A Company, as many similar and equally arduous honors were conferred upon that unit while it remained a member of the 101st Machine Gun Battalion. The apportionment of the men to the different companies completed, forty-six of the Vermonters came to A Company, most of whom held non-commissioned officers' warrants or had attained the dignity accompanying the rank of private first class.
Since the edict had gone forth that an old cavalry organization was to become a "doughboy" outfit, and the yellow hat cord of gallant memory was to be replaced by the blue of the lowly infantry "with the dirt behind their ears," the order had been more or less completely ignored, so that drills had the appearance of a disciplinary formation at a large army post where both arms of the service were represented. This brought out an order which caused all cords to change magically to the endorsed blue color, at least until the men reached a safe distance from camp, where the change could be effected without danger of apprehension, for who would dare return to New Haven wearing the colors he had frowned upon in happier times? Leather leggins were threatened, but the blow never descended and the "doughboys" from Yale Field continued to salute the brilliantly polished puttees of the men from Niantic as they strutted down Church Street.
Manifestations of grief at the passing of the yellow hat cords took the form of a funeral procession on the evening of August 30, when, preceded by Corporal Curtiss and Guerrant rendering portions of the "Dead March" on bugle and harmonica, the men as mourners marched with measured tread to the parade ground. They followed a plank which served as a bier for a representative of the deposed cords, and, after a dance symbolical of their grief, the pallbearers laid it to rest, while Shemitz, with the powers characteristic of his race, paid a glowing tribute to the deceased. After hymns had been sung the crowd broke up to hide its tears and console itself in the various ways which have become common to mankind, or were common before prohibition placed its clammy hand on the vitals of the universal consoler.
Muster on the afternoon of August 31 was followed a week later by pay day with a trip to New Haven that night for most of the men and a ride back to camp on the 2:20. This train made several unscheduled stops near the Niantic station because the conductor was adamant toward pleas from the men and would have carried them to New London had they not taken the matter into their own hands and opened the air valves when close to Niantic.
Bill Bell's famous and much maligned whistle made its appearance during this period, for First Sergeant McGeer had departed for the Officers' Training Camp at Plattsburg, and the one long and one short signal was in order for any time of the day or night. Because it was rumored that McGeer would return to the Company if unsuccessful in his quest for a commission, he received the best wishes of all the men and was treated to a shower bath in his bunk the night before he left—an honor accorded to but few men in the Company.
Straw ticks had been issued and they were filled and put to use now to replace the cots, which, in various stages of demolition, had been turned in and, according to the best information, sent to Camp Devens to accommodate the first men of the selective draft to arrive at that cantonment.
Fall weather, with its snappy morning air and delightful days, gradually replaced the warmer days of late summer, enthroning football in the place baseball had occupied. The first game was a heart-breaking affair in which neither A Company nor B Company was able to score, the second was also a tie in which C Company scored seven points equally with A Company, and the third was disastrous for the finances of the old Company, for D Company, formerly M Troop, scored four touchdowns to one for A.