The American spirit

Front matter

Iflsppi? Mien fSinturn

Class _HLi20L Book „

Gopy#tl\ -

Chapter II Life In An Officers Training Camp

Every one of the two thousand and more men, admitted to the training camp at Fort Harrison knew he had been selected over three or four other applicants for no substantial reason, and that every one of those others was eager to take his place. The lucky ones were constantly reminded of this situation, and were on edge to make good. In a course of three months they were expected to absorb the four years of military instruction given at West Point ! As I look back now I am amazed at how near we did it ; of the amount of ground covered, and the correctness, and thoroughness of the instruction.

Of course, many details developed at the front by the new conditions of warfare had to be learned afterwards, but the principles of maneuver, of musketry, of target designation, control of fire, and use of the rifle, so essential to success in war, were correct. More than once in the great army training camps of the United States and in France, when some important newly-issued bulletin was handed us, or we were detailed for a post-graduate course to a specialist school, we were surprised to find how little new there was over that which we had gone over at Harrison.

I say "gone over" advisedly, for our rate of travel was too fast for an exhaustive study ; but it came back to help, just as an early study in school of the French language was a great help in the rapid acquirement of a working knowledge of that language when our boys landed in France.

To us candidates the training camp seemed more of an elimination race than a place of learning. How much humiliating

Q

TRAINING FOR AN ARMY OFFICER work, such as sweeping and mopping the floors, cleaning of cuspidors, "policing" of grounds which means picking up cigar butts, cigarette fragments, fruit pits and banana skins, matches, sticks and paper, — in fact everything visible to the naked eye not fastened to the ground outside the barracks ; how much hiking and double-timing and lighting express instruction we would stand for or could endure from reveille at 5 145 a. m. to taps at 10 p. m. We were stunned with the vastness and variety of the science of war. Infantry drill regulations, previously supposed by us to contain all of the essentials, was found to be only a primer on the rudiments. To read Shakespeare, a knowledge of the alphabet is important in about the same way that one must know his I. D. R. to practice military science.

The first officers' training camps were largely experimental, from the nature of things ; but the good work done, with so little lost motion and waste of time, bespeaks an intelligent supervision and loyal co-operation which signalized the work of the army throughout the war.

I shall not attempt a diarv of this period, but a glimpse may not be over-tedious: Our first trouble was in getting blankets and equipment and clothes to fit. Eor the first night in camp newspapers were my mattress and I found a blanket on top did not keep out the cold from below. For many days, without previous acquaintance, we swopped hats and blouses with each other. and in my own case I traded breeches twice with men I met on the sidewalk — going inside, of course, to make the transfer — before I got a pair small enough around the waist and long enough in the legs. But so far as my observation went, nobody traded socks or shoes. Much care was paid here, and always in the army, to the comfort of the feet; not so much from humanitarian motives as because an army cannot march with bad feet: and unless it can march long and far as well as often, it is a poor army. Socks with wrinkles or holes, though they be darned holes, are apt to cause uneven pressure and raise a blister. We were taught to change often, and to throw the socks away when worn through. My wife wondered why I had sixteen pairs of good socks when I came out of the service. Many a soldier who raised corns and bunions all his civil life has quit for good. He has learned to wear an ample shoe since his sergeant made him shoulder a heavy

GETTING UNIFORMED

SWOPPING CLOTHES AT F

■SAJ1

RT HARRISON sack of sand to settle him down in the toes when he tried on his first army pair.

At first I was in C company at Hanson, Captain Fickle, commanding. He was one of the most likeable men I have served under; a strict disciplinarian, but capable, and ready to explain why, and as a result, meeting with willing obedience. It was a source of never-ending regret to a number of us who were transferred out of his company, and when matters commenced to go wrong we got such consolation as we could by telling each other how different it would have been "if we'd only staid in C."

On my first Sunday in camp there was an order to C company for a squad of its largest men to report for special duty at B barracks. I was on the detail and we were looking for some marked honor. We found it in the hard and conspicuous labor of unloading heavy crates of quartermaster supplies from trucks, and carrying them to the barracks across a front sidewalk, crowded with Indianapolis sight-seers. We overheard one pretty girl ask her companion what she supposed those prisoners, meaning us, had been guilty of, and more than one of my Indianapolis acquaintances stared in a bewildered way at me. They couldn't believe their eyes. I was getting early action on my patriotism. Morris Levi, city editor of an Evansville daily, and a young newspaper man from Greensburg, were on the same detail with me, and we all worked like — I was going to say deck-hands, but I think candidates for office would be stronger and more appropriate. In the middle of the afternoon, when we were so tired our feet were dragging, Durham, a candidate like ourselves, but with previous experience which put him in command, and we thought he was a "regular" asked me how I happened to be there. Evidently he supposed I was too old, and I made up my mind that my gray mustache must come off without delay. I related my story briefly ; and in the hearing of the rest of the detail he said :

"You've worked enough today — you can go."

I thanked him for the crowd and told the bovs to follow me, II that we'd been relieved. We all started off when Dm ham halted the rest with, "No! no! not you fellows — just dad here!" "Dad" was mean enough to desert his comrades in this first episode of the great war.

I remember the above incident because it is the only time I recall any consideration being paid to me on account of age, and also from the fact that the nickname of "Dad" stuck to me at Harrison and followed me to France and back.

Several men with long State Guard and other military experience came ready-commissioned to the camp as assistant instructors and candidates for promotion. A few days after the above Sunday incident the top sergeant — always an important man, detailed me to take a pushcart and transfer the personal baggage of a young one of those officers to C barracks orderly room where he was to sleep. This second lieuey showed me where to get his trunk and bed-roll, and followed at a discreet distance to indicate where to put them, but did not condescend to lend a hand. He looked as sheepish as I felt later in Paris, where I followed a woman who wheeled my baggage on a hand-truck from the station to a taxi.

We were required to march with full packs — fifty minutes' hike and ten minutes' rest per hour according to the army rule, and to do all manner of hard and menial work that we might know from experience how to sympathize as officers later on with the common soldiers under us. The great difference was that we took our training seriously and did not "soldier" on the job as the real soldiers do.

As soon as practicable the men who had expressed a preference for a particular line of service, as aviation, light or heavy artillery, coast defense, machine gunnery, engineers, cavalry and the like, were segregated, questioned a little, and sent to special organizations or other camps. I thought I preferred the engineers and responded to an invitation to meet Colonel Huffman at headquarters at 7 o'clock one night. When I reached the place there was a line a city block long waiting to get in, and after standing my turn I allowed myself to be bluffed out of the idea by the colonel's suggestion that I could not pass a rigid engineering examination. I had graduated at college thirty-five years before in civil engineering and chemistry, but had been practicing patent law most of the time since. I seemed to be setting; alone: all right

RIGID PHYSICAL EXAMINATION

where I was in C and the fear of losing out by some turn of fortune made me decide to let well enough alone. I learned afterward that there was no special examination and the sequel shows that I was best fitted for service with the engineers. I was soon to be transferred out of C company and later discharged for over-age ; but the future is not known to us.

May and June of 191 7 were unusually cold and wet. About every other hour of the day we had lectures and recitations on our military studies, called "conferences," which were held outside unless it was actually raining at the time. The class sat on the ground in a circle around the instructor and as the ground was invariably wet and cold I early contracted a disorder resulting in abscesses in the ears. Afraid to go to the hospital lest any complaint would direct attention to me and perhaps be used against me on account of my years, I bore the excruciating ear-aches until one night I thought I would have to give up. I lay with the left ear, which was the worse, on my canteen filled with hot water when the abscess broke and gave me relief ; then I took treatments every time I got town-leave, from Dr. Barnhill, and at his suggestion carried a rubber cloth to sit on. Dr. Paul Coble, his associate, gave me a few treatments ; then entered the army, and was stationed at Fort Harrison in time to examine my ears when the great physical round-up occurred there. That was the middle of June, and a general weeding-out of defective candidates resulted. The examinations occurred in one of the brick barracks below the canteen. Our company was lined up alphabetically on the front sidewalk, entered the stoop by the north steps, advanced and climbed a middle dividing rail by twos. Then each pair was halted twenty feet from a wall at right angles, on which a chart with words in rows of downwardly diminishing sizes was posted.

The doctor who halted me immediately asked my age. I was getting tired of the question and replied that I would rather not tell. "But you'll have to, won't you?" "All right then," I replied, "I'm fifty-six." "Well, that's no disgrace, is it? I'm fiftyfour." He wrote "20 — 20" eye-test on my examination card.

adding "You've remarkable sight for a man of your age !"

That was encouraging. "Inside, first door to the left — strip to the waist," was the next order. There a specialist plugged in at all points of our lungs with a long distance telephone and listened for trouble ; made us expand, cough and say "ough," lean forward, backward and sideways ; took our lung-dimensions before and after inflation, and thumped us like wise ones sound a watermelon. After that, a heart specialist listened to see if we had leaky valves, tried us for hardened arteries and pumped up an apparatus on our arms with a dial attachment for recording blood pressure. Next, we were directed across the hall to a room where we took off the rest of our raiment. We were inspected for surface blemishes and a dentist saw if we had the war-requirement of sound teeth. We were stood on our toes, and our hands

and toes, and were made to stoop, to spraddle, to kneel, to hop and to twist until stiff joints, ruptures and flat feet were all sure to be exposed. Dr. (Major) Coble on throat and nose was next, and after that came the test for hearing, about which I was most solicitous ; but my ears were so nearly well that I passed the ••how old are you?" tests w jthout any trouble. Still

naked, we submitted our full examination cards to a medical officer in charge. "How old are you?" he insisted. Then he said my card was "fair for a boy," joked me on my age and volunteered the assurance that he would not order me before the Camp Board if I wanted to remain in the service. That made me feel much easier, as it removed a haunting fear of discharge for disability, which hovered over everybody until they had passed the ordeal, and was greater in my case for obvious reasons.

About when we were getting organized and well enough acquainted with each other's failings to use them effectively in taking the conceit out of one another, the commandant ordered a separation on geographical lines. Ohio men were removed to the new East barracks, and those from Kentucky and West Virginia were segregated into barracks of their own. Those remaining in the old brick barracks were Indianians, and transfers were made to fill up the gaps in their ranks. Some fifty or more of us — the A to M's — were transferred to A company, where we found its old members so well organized and entrenched against invad-

H

SOME SOLDIERS AT FT. HARRISON

ers that we never quite got on terms of equality with candidates or instructors.

Lieutenant Lockwood, born in the army and educated at West Point, was the commander. He was very tall, very, very slender, and as conscientious and narrow as his physique. He read a lecture once to the assembled candidates of the camp on the superiority of military over civil law and justice that caused me many disappointments since, trying to find those Utopian army conditions in practice. The developments of the World war will necessitate a reversal of opinion on the part of that lecturer. It was not known that Lieutenant Lockwood could smile. He kept his milk of human kindness hermetically sealed, but a remark he dropped when the board handed down a decision against me, and a nice letter that he gave when I was discharged while in his company, make me believe that he has loveable qualities only needing to be uncovered. He was letter-perfect in his I. D. R., and a believer in German "iron rigid discipline."

Major Kennedy, late from civil life, was the first assistant instructor. He often got excited, which made him stutter. He was always easily approached and because he did not have that West Point pedestal to stand on, was the more popular. Lieutenant Miller, second assistant, was chiefly remembered as agent for the Infantry Journal, the circulation of which he ever had at heart, and as the chief disturber of our slumbers at the evening study-hour when we had to lie on our bunks for lack of chairs, and were too "dog-tired" after each perfect day to keep our eyes open, How memory goes back to those days when a comrade would swat you with a pillow and tell you to "wake up, the study hour is over !"

Butler, with the red hair of a born fighter, and frame of a Hercules, Levi, with the refined mind and blinking eyes, and I, were quartered together at A. In the same room was my first good friend, Durham ; Cadeau, a jovial French boy, on whom we relied to lead the singing which lightened our hikes ; "Dusty" Rhodes, a chiropractor in civil life, who always came off best in repartee and burned with an ambition to be captain of a truckcompany in France ; Davis, of Evansville, with fine ability as a drill-master, and the figure of an Apollo, except that he juked his head in spite of constant reminders by his many frank and always out-spoken friends. He was under-age, and destined to be tried for that offense when I was tried for the opposite. Then there was "Doc" Howe, a graduate of Plattsburg, who prided himself on the completeness of his equipment, including medicines which he prescribed so freely that he got the above nickname He had books on every military subject, and was so crazy over machine-guns that he fired on the enemy in his sleep, kept us awake with the horrors of his nightmares, and then disturbed our morning naps by rising an hour before reveille that he might not be rushed in dressing for roll-call ! I could almost touch Bob Kennington from my bed. He who was sent out one day in our training maneuvres with a flag to mark the position of the enemy upon whom the rest of us were to advance without him seeing us.

He was to waive his flag when he did see us, but got mad because a detail slipped t» around behind and J captured him. He ?i was a fine fellow, a good soldier, and the life of the barracks.

A feature of the camp were addresses by prominent men — Taft, Bryan, Watson, New, the State governors and others, and so many of the orators addressed the candidates as "My young heroes, etc.," that the phrase became a by-word. Bob was fond of "sounding off" with it, and as the fellows laughed then they little realized that he was to be among the first to die for his country. He was killed in action at Chauteau-Thierry. Our bunks were so crowded that we had to get in from the end. Morris Levi touched me on the right. He often declared he did not expect to come out of the war alive, and was one of nine selected from each company at the end of the first camp, to go at once to Erance. My, how excited he was when the order was published. His thoughts were for his mother and folks at home. I heard he was wounded at the front, and while I have constantly inquired, have learned none of the particulars, nor whether his premonition came true.* Jameson, of Irvington, rubbed bl?nkets with me on the left. He aspired to

'MY YOUNG HEROES!

; Fate fooled him bv bringing him back alive and well.

THE SOLDIER EARLY ENCOURAGED TO SING

literature and was ever practicing by writing long letters to friends which profited the rest of us in that he received many boxes from them filled with delicious cake, fruit and other good things, which the generous "Jamie" lavishly ''put out" to his comrades. Gunn, a veteran of the Spanish-American war, with fifteen battles credited to him on his discharge, was the boon companion and closest rival in marksmanship of John Leggett, of Winchester. Leggett was a born forager, and won my lasting admiration and gratitude by introducing me to a can of cold buttermilk that first Sunday when I got back from rustling quartermaster crates. DeBruiler was the comedian of the company, and spared none, from commandant clown, in his impersonations. He was among the nine who went at once to France, as also were Cadeau, Pirtle Hereod, Jr., and Menzies. The latter was reported killed in action, but I have not been able to verify it. Bob Shidler and Reed were the handsomest "big men" in our company, and Blake only lacked a few years of being in my class — the oldest. But space will not permit even the names here of the hundreds of splendid comrades — picked men, indeed — of that first officers' training camp.

Ohio was numerically stronger in the camp than Indiana, and a friendly rivalry developed after the separation by States. This manifested itself in various ways, but most frequently when the candidates were all brought together to listen to some noted speaker or to a lecture of general military interest.

Singing was encouraged and was made a feature at these meetings. Each State had its own song. "Indiana" is high-grade, but more difficult to sing than the others. "Ohio" is light and easy, enabling the candidates from that State to get under way quickly and keep a-going :

Ohio ! Ohio ! we'll make the Germans fly, We're bound to do or die !

Ohio ! Ohio ! we'll win the war or know the reason why. And when we win the war, We'll buy a keg of booze, And we'll drink to old Ohio Till we wobble in our shoes !

Ohio ! Ohio ! we'll win the war or know the reason why ! When they would run down, Indiana essayed to follow :

Back home again, in Indiana,

And it seems that I can see

The gleaming candle light still shining bright

Through the sycamores for me ;

The new mown hay sends all its fragrance

From the fields I used to roam

When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash,

Then I long for my Indiana home.

But before her men got the swing of the music some enthusiastic Buckeyes would start "West Virginia.'' I can't recall the words, but the chorus expressed love for her "wooded hills, her rocks and running rills," and was altogether more dignified than

Ohio's son?. West

Virginia and Ohio seemed to have a good working agreement musically, and together these eastern compatriots of ours would try to sing us down. Then supreme discord would reign until the soothing strains of "My Old Kentucky Home" were sent into the fray like a flag of truce, and we were all reminded that we were not yet fighting the Huns on the fields of France. After "My Old Kentucky Home," everybody rose to the occasion and sang "Indiana" and if there was yet time to spare, sang the Fort Harrison battle hymn, "Here's to Uncle Sammy, Faithful and True," and "Long Boy," or some of the many new war songs. We had rival athletics on the Fourth of July at the State Fair Grounds which ended with a tug-of-war by picked teams — green in my memory because I was awaiting decision by the board on a charge of being too old for the army, and was picked by my comrades as one out of 2.200 to pull on this team, and did pull on it!

PULL ON A TUG-OF-WAR TEAM. — THE MAN OVER THE HOLE

COURT MARTIALED FOR OVER-AGE

Chapter III My First Honorable Discharge

A young man by the name of Armstrong was a member of A company. He was fresh from Culver Military Academy, and showed special aptitude at Harrison, but as he would lack a few weeks of being twenty-one when the camp was scheduled to close, August 15, he grew nervous as the time approached and finally took the matter up with Lieutenant Lockwood. The latter said the question would have to be answered by the Camp Board, comprising Colonel (now General) Glenn and Majors Bell and Darrah. Lockwood asked if there were any others in A company who would not be eligible for commission when the camp closed, and Armstrong gave him Davis as one who would be under the minimum of twenty-one, and Minturn, who would be over the maximum of forty-four.

The above I learned afterward, but when handed sealed orders one day in the last week of June for the three of us to report to the commanding officer at the hospital, this history was unknown. We delivered our orders and were told to report back in the morning. I was uneasy when the commanding officer there next day pushed some papers toward me with a request that I sign where he indicated. He noticed my hesitation, and in explanation I remarked, "If you belong to the order of Knights of Pythias you'll appreciate my reluctance to sign papers I know nothing about." "O, that's it — well, read them over first if you want to," he offered. "May I ask what it all means?" I questioned. "I don't know further than that I am required to report on your present physical condition, and you are to take my report with the papers you brought here, to the camp adjutant." "I was given to understand that I passed the rigid physical examination you doctors gave all candidates of the camp recently — what's the matter now ?" I asked. "Don't know," he declared, "you can see I'm reporting you O. K."

After the camp adjutant had looked the papers over he inquired, "Well, what are the charges?"

"Charges for what? I'm simply acting as messenger-boy or courier, sir," I answered.

"These papers," he explained, "ask for an order for candidate Joseph A. Minturn to appear before the board, but do not state why. Take them back to Lieutenant Lock wood, and tell him to insert the charges — then return them -to me."

The lieutenant entered the charge, "Over the maximum age limit," and when I returned them to the adjutant, the latter informed me that I would be sent for when the board was ready to try my case. That unlucky moment occurred on the morning of July 4. Court was convened in one of the temporary wooden buildings in the Ohio camp. The stern figures of its personnel were grouped back of a plain kitchen table and the accused, after saluting at attention, was told to sit on a box in front.

"The charge was read and question put if it were true ?"

"Yes sir," was the answer, "I was fifty-six years old the twentieth of last month."

"What previous military training have you had?" This was answered as to the military school.

"Were you in the Spanish-American war?"

"No sir/'

"State Guard ?'*

"No sir."

"What was your business in civil life?"

"Patent lawyer, sir."

"Are you an athlete ?"

"I make no special claim, sir."

"Play football, baseball, golf or practice athletics of any kind?"

"Perhaps not in the sense you mean. I walk a great deal and prefer to spend my spare time with a pencil and brush sketching than with a ball bat."

"Have you anything to say in this case in your own behalf?"

"Yes sir, if I may be allowed to speak freely."

"This is your opportunity."

The accused arose and said :

"As the board has kindly permitted me to speak without reserve, I will say that this charge comes as a surprise and a very disagreeable one too at this time. It might even be inferred from

I PLEAD MY OWN CASE the limited proceedings so far that I was initially admitted to this camp on a false representation of my age. But that, sirs, is not true. You have the original application for admission before you, on which the date of my birth — June 20, 1861 — is written and sworn to, and across the face of this paper in bold letters in red ink is a warning of over-age written there by Captain Coppock, the recruiting officer who first examined me.

"You gentlemen are the agents of the Government, sworn to do impartial justice. The accused does not deny the right of the Government to have excluded him from this training camp in the beginning, or to have promptly discharged him when this record was immediately added to by numerous qualification cards which have invariably stated his correct age ; then, too, his gray hairs and over-size have made it impossible for him to hide, and he has been conscious more than once, in the past sixty days, of inspection by the members of this board.

"As to his physical fitness the accused successfully passed the rigid examination given to all of the candidates a fortnight or so ago, and has since been declared sound and well by the medical staff of this camp with special reference to the charge to which I am now speaking. The accused believes himself to be perfectly well and sound. He has not missed a single formation or tour of duty at Fort Harrison, including trench digging,

long marches with heavy packs, and police and guard duty including the gathering of trash and cigar-butts around the barracks-grounds, scrubbing the floors, washing the spittoons and guarding the latrine ! The records of this camp will show that there are hundreds of younger men who have not been able to stand the grill, but against whom no charges have been, nor, I venture to say, will be preferred, for physical disability. The mentality of the accused needs no further argument than I am now making, and the board will recognize that no hard and fast age limit can fairly measure all people either physically or mentally.

COURT MARTIALED FOR BEING OVER-AGE

"As to the law in the case by which this board may feel bound, it is the spirit of all of our courts more and more to do justice and equity and not to be bound to the strict letter of the law. It is not equitable and right to subject any man to the rigid, and I will say, humiliating requirements of this camp for two months, to the great disarrangement of private affairs in this case, and on the promise of a commission if the candidate proves mentally and physically fit, and then discharge him near the end of the training period for the sole reason that he was over a forty-four year maximum — a temporary limit which we all expect will soon be raised.