THE 151st FIELD ARTILLERY BRIGADE [Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WM. S. MCNAIR] THE 151st FIELD ARTILLERY BRIGADE BY RICHARD M. RUSSELL [Illustration] THE CORNHILL COMPANY BOSTON Copyright, 1919, by THE CORNHILL COMPANY TO MY OLD COMRADES If you find in the pages that follow anything to amuse or interest you and yours, thank Mrs. William S. McNair, Major Swift, Captain Converse and Lieutenant Clement, to whom the author is indebted for the information herein contained. R. M. R. _Boston, April 25, 1919._ THE 151st FIELD ARTILLERY BRIGADE The 151st Field Artillery Brigade INTRODUCTION In writing this brief sketch of the Brigade from its inception to its final mustering out of the service, it has not been my aim to account in any way for all the days and nights which have elapsed during that period. Memories fond or hateful to some of us would not be very interesting to the rest. Looking backward from the point of view of the Brigade as a unit, many of those days were so monotonously alike that an attempt to account for all would lead to idle repetition. Well I realize that every one of them stands for something important in the career of some one man; perhaps his first tour of guard duty, or his first ride, a close call, a bawling out, something accomplished, something learnt. But I have not time, space nor knowledge to write these details. If, however, by my generalities I can so picture our life at Devens and after that this little book will recall to its readers those things I have omitted, it will have served its purpose. THE 151st BRIGADE I. CAMP DEVENS In April, 1917, the United States declared war against Germany. It was no surprise, but what did it mean? For it is one thing to declare war and another to wage it. We had no army and no ships and three thousand miles of ocean lay between the Yankee and the Hun. We would of course lend money to our allies. Would we give them our men? The answer, thank God, was the draft law which put into being the greatest democratic institution of our country,--the National Army. Early in the fall of 1917, men from every walk of life, from every corner of every state, thronged to the huge, ugly, but business-like cantonments which had grown up, like the mushroom over night. These men, scientifically chosen, for their physique, mentality, character and patriotism, were as diversified in their civil life and occupations as men can be, but they had one thing in common: ignorance of the military. This and the single purpose that brought them there, welded them together. If Germany scorned our declaration of war, she must have sung another tune as she watched us prepare to wage it. Camp Devens, Massachusetts, was the rendez-vous for New England’s Yankees. They were the personnel of the first of the National Army Divisions, the Seventy-Sixth.