The other half of the battery was directed to a barn structure about a block distant from the first battery abode. Clean-up activities of similar nature were instituted in the barn.
About 3 o'clock that afternoon the barrack bags of the regiment were received and distributed to the soldiers. The bags had been in transit ever since leaving Camp Meade.
Arrangements were made with several French farmers to bring a quantity of straw to the public square, where the soldiers, later in the afternoon, filled their bed ticks. It was on a tick of straw, thrown on the floor of the old dilapidated, vacated house, that one hundred of the battery spent their nights of sleep in Montmorillon while the other half occupied similar beds on the upper-lofts of the barn.
There were no formations the morning after arrival. The battery men spent most of the time about town. It was strange to observe the peasantry hobbling along in their wooden shoes, the flopping of the loose footwear at the heels beating a rhythmic clap, clap on the cobblestone pave.
Each day brought new scenes of peasant life. Quaintly and slowly oxen under yoke were used on the streets to haul the farmers' grain to the large public square, where, under the scorching sun the farmer and his helpers toiled with hand flailers, thrashing the grain. Strange looking carts, drawn by donkeys with large ears, vied with the ox-carts for supremacy of traffic.
Along the river's edge were located public places for clothes-washing. The peasant whose house adjoined the river had a private place at the water's-edge where the family washing was done. The river served as a huge tub for the entire community, the women carrying their wash to the river, where, kneeling at special devised wash-boards, garments were rubbed and paddled until they shown immaculate.
Washing was greatly increased at the river when the 311th came to town. The hundreds of soldiers sought out washer-women. The peasant women welcomed the opportunity of earning a few francs doing American washing. The more active of the washer-women spent entire days washing at the river for the soldiers. At first one franc was a standard price for having a week's laundry done, but as days passed and business became brisker, rates went up to two, five and in some instances higher.
To the Americans the town of Montmorillon, as was the case of most of the ancient towns visited in France, presented an impression of isolation. Houses built during the 12th century with their high walls surrounding and barricaded entrances, were greatly in evidence; houses of such nature, history records, as furnishing protection in the days when feudalism fought at spear-points. The stages and wages of war advanced with the centuries, but not so with the ancient French town; where the peasants live content with no sewerage or drainage system; content to pursue the antiquated customs. To be thrown in the midst of this 12th century environment was productive of lasting impressions on the part of the American troops who were suddenly transplanted from a land of 20th century civilization and advancement, to an old and foreign soil.
The first night the 311th was in Montmorillon fire broke out in "The Baines," an ornate and modern French homestead near the Cafe du Commerce. Several officers of the 311th regiment had secured quarters in the Baines. They were forced to vacate by the fire. Bucket brigades was the only fire protection the prefecture afforded its citizenry. The fire drew a large crowd of the new soldiers, a score of whom took active charge of fighting the blaze; giving the Frenchmen a real exhibition in the art of bucket-brigade fire extinction.
Time, however, was not to view French scenery. Training activity was the official topic of interest. It was decreed that instruction in the school of the soldier should begin immediately. Fifty per cent of the regiment comprised new recruits, who had been assigned to the outfit previous to departure from Camp Meade. It was necessary to begin the training at the beginning.