First authentic signs of departure from Camp Meade came during the month of June when the boys witnessed the departure of the infantry regiments of the division.
Void of demonstrative sendoff, regiment after regiment, fully and newly equipped, was departing on schedule; thousands and thousands of sturdy Americans, ready to risk all for the ideals of liberty and freedom.
It was with no unsteady step they marched through the streets of the military city that had sheltered, trained, tanned, and improved them aright for the momentous task which was before them.
The scene, as they marched, is one that will live in memory of the boys of Battery D. It was no dress parade such as the march of like thousands in a civilian city would occasion. Battery D men and others were spectators, it is true, and the departing ones were sent off, as was later the case with Battery D, with cheers of encouragement and words of God-speed--the spirit breathed being of hearty, thoughtful patriotism such as can come only from a soldier who is bidding adieu to a comrade in arms, whom he will meet again in a common cause.
Wonderful days of activity within Battery D foretold the news of departure. The regiment was in first class shape to look forward to service overseas, despite the fact that range-practice was a negligible factor. During the latter part of May, firing, to a limited extent, was practiced from the three-inch field pieces directed over the Remount station, but the experience thus gained was too light to be important. About this time a French type of 75 mm. field piece was shipped to the regiment. Major David A. Reed became the instructor on this gun, when it became known that the outfit would likely be given French equipment upon arrival overseas. One gun for the regiment, however, and especially when received only several weeks in advance of the departure for overseas, afforded but little opportunity for general instruction on the mechanism of the new field piece.
France, moreover, was the goal and the real range practice was left as a matter of course for over there.
All activity centered on getting ready to depart. The battery carpenters and painters were kept busy making boxes and labelling them properly for the "American E. F." Harness was being cleaned and packed. The time came for the horses to be returned to the Remount station. Supply sergeants were busy as bees supplying everybody with foreign service equipment. It proved a common occurrence to be routed out of bed at midnight to try on a pair of field shoes. All articles of clothing and equipment had to be stamped, the clothing being stamped with rubber stamps, while the metal equipment was stamped with a punch initial. Each soldier got a battery number which was stamped on his individual equipment.
On June 28th, Joseph Loskill, of Hazleton, Penna., and William F. Brennan, of Hazleton and Philadelphia, Penna., were assigned to accompany the advance detail of the regiment. Lieut. Arthur H. McGill was the Battery D officer to accompany the advance detail, which left Camp Meade about 7 p. m., proceeding to Camp Merritt, N. J., for embarkation. The advance guard arrived at Jersey City the following morning at 6 o'clock, where they detrained and marched to the Ferry to get to Hoboken. There the detachment was divided, the officers boarding the S. S. Mongolia, the enlisted men the S. S. Duc d'Abruzzi. The ships left Hoboken at 10:30 a. m., May 30th, bound for Brest.
Battery D was filled to full war-strength during the first week of July, just before departure, when the outfit received a quota of 150 men who came to the regiment from the Depot Brigade. Five hundred and forty came to the regiment from Camp Upton, N. Y., and Camp Dix, N. J., and fifty from the signal corps in Florida.
In the front door and out of the back of 019 the battery passed in alphabetical line in rehearsal of the manner in which the gang plank of the ship was to be trod. Departure instruction likewise included hikes to the electric rail siding to practice boarding the cars with equipment.