In spite of the casualties the Company had suffered and the number of men it had lost through transfers, but few replacements had been received. With but three officers in the command, one of whom had been but recently attached, Lieutenant Paton was authorized to appoint three sergeants as acting lieutenants. Curtiss, Rogers and A. H. Viebranz were selected and Tom Reilly was again added to the roster after an absence of four months, most of which he had spent at home in the interests of the Third Liberty Loan campaign. Moving out on the morning of August 29, the Company accomplished the journey to Latrecey, the entraining point, in two days, and bivouacked there until the morning of the following day, because a derailed engine prevented train movements. After riding all day toward the north, the trains were unloaded at Nancois-Trouville in the department of the Meuse. It was during this trip that "Ted" Lewis, cited for gallant work during the advance from the Marne, fell from the train and was severely injured. Hiking to Longville, about seven kilometers distant, shelter tents were pitched and mess served. The march was again taken up after a two hour rest and the Battalion hiked ten kilometers in a typical French drizzle to shelter in the Bois Jenvoi on the right of the road to Erize. With orders to make all movements at night and keep in the shelter of woods during the day, the Battalion marched during the night of September 1 to woods on the road between Courouvre and Neuville en Verdunnois, where it camped until the fifth. Twenty-nine men were received from replacement camps at this place. Two more days of hiking took the men to barracks at Camp Nivolette in the Ravin de la Vignotte, northeast of Rupt en Wœvre, about six kilometers from the "line" in the heights of the Meuse on the western side of the St. Mihiel salient. French soldiers, always well informed concerning impending movements, told of "beaucoup, beaucoup" artillery being put into position every night. Thus the fact became generally known that the Division was to take an active part in driving the Hun from the salient he made in 1914 when he attempted to isolate the fortress of Verdun, force him to abandon the great defensive works he had erected during his four years' occupation of the line in that region and crush his forces in a turning movement which would prevent their withdrawal. Assembling the Battalion Sunday morning, September 8, Major Murphy read the orders from Divisional Headquarters citing many of the officers and men for their work during the Chateau Thierry offensive. Dr. Johnson, the Battalion's Y. M. C. A. secretary, read President Wilson's Fourth of July speech and gave a short address. The men sang the first verse of "America" and the services were concluded with the Lord's Prayer.