_BY E. ALEXANDER POWELL_ THE ARMY BEHIND THE ARMY THE LAST FRONTIER GENTLEMEN ROVERS THE END OF THE TRAIL FIGHTING IN FLANDERS THE ROAD TO GLORY VIVE LA FRANCE! ITALY AT WAR _CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS_ THE ARMY BEHIND THE ARMY [Illustration: THE BURNING OF AN OBSERVATION BALLOON AT FORT SILL, OKLAHOMA.] THE ARMY BEHIND THE ARMY BY MAJOR E. ALEXANDER POWELL U. S. A. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 1919 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS Published September, 1919 [Illustration] TO FIVE FRIENDS OF THE A. E. F. LIEUT.-COL. N. J. WILEY MAJOR HUGH B. ROWLAND MAJOR HAMILTON FISH, JR. LIEUT. WILFORD S. CONROW LIEUT. KINGDON GOULD IN MEMORY OF THE DAYS WE SPENT TOGETHER ON THE BANKS OF THE MARNE AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT For the interest they have shown and the assistance they have given me in the preparation of this book, I am indebted to many persons. Each chapter was written with the co-operation of the chief and subchiefs of the branch of the army with which it deals, and upon its completion it was by them carefully read and revised. The statements and figures are as nearly accurate, therefore, as extreme care can make them. The Honorable Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, authorized the writing of the book and issued orders that every facility was to be afforded me for obtaining the necessary material, and the Honorable Benedict Crowell, Assistant Secretary of War, who from the beginning took a lively personal interest in the work, placed at my disposal the great mass of material which he had collected for his Official Report. To Major-General William S. Seibert, Director of the Chemical Warfare Service, to Colonel William S. Walker, in command of Edgewood Arsenal, and to Colonel Bradley Dewey, in command of the Gas Defense Division, I am particularly indebted, as it was due to their efforts that I was able to undertake the writing of the book. Major-General William M. Black, Chief of Engineers, Lieutenant-Colonel Chenoweth, and Major Evarts Tracy of the Corps of Engineers; Major-General C. T. Menoher, Director of Military Aeronautics, Colonel S. M. Davis, Lieutenant-Colonel H. B. Hersey, and Major H. M. Hickam of the Air Service; Colonel James L. Walsh, to whose generosity I am indebted for much of the material relating to Army Ordnance, Colonel E. M.