General Belief that
Brigade Will Be Back in State for Christmas…Anxious to Leave Border…News Is
Circulating in Camp that Boys Will Be On Way Home By December 15…No Provision
for Winter and Getting Cold
Camp Stewart, El Paso, Texas—For some reason or reasons
unknown the boys have got it into their heads of late that they are going home
soon. You hear it everywhere and the officers are talking it just as strongly
as the enlisted men. Several efforts have been made to run down the rumors but
none get very close to high authority. They were telling that an officer of the
Second Regiment got it directly from an officer of the Third, who, in turn, got
it straight from one of Major General Clement’s aides that lumber for
entraining the North Carolina troops have been ordered and that we would be on
our way home not later than December 15. Countless other stores are in
circulation but there is nothing definite on which to build a hope. This much,
however, is true: No move has been made toward preparing the Tar Heel troops to
withstand the rigors of the winter that is upon them. Their tents are not
floored or walled. The Second and Third regiments still lack stoves and nothing
looks like going into winter quarters except the new bath houses with their hot
water tanks.
If something is not done for the North Carolina outfit soon
there is going to be real suffering. Monday night the thermometer dropped to a
scant 17 degrees above zero and the cold was so intense that hundreds of men
never slept during the night. Conditions such as these will case
dissatisfaction and there will be trouble. If there were need for the suffering
the men would bear it cheerfully, for they have an abundance of Tar Heel grit
but if Uncle Sam wants them to stay here and watch the border through the bleak
months that are coming they would appreciate a few of the comforts of life
while they are doing it.
The Second regiment underwent another rigid inspection at
the hands of General Young preparatory to a second inspection by the division
commander. General Young was greatly pleased with the improvement shown and
expects the Second to redeem itself handsomely.
The boys on the border are soon to see the new army tractor
trucks of the caterpillar type made famous recently in the attacks on the
German front. They were introduced by the British over there and for want of a
better name called “tanks.” They are tremendous steel structures mounted on
tractors of 75 horsepower. These tractors lay their own track as they go along
and nothing short of a mountain cliff seems to be able to stop them. They go
straight across ordinary trenches and never even hesitate. Barbed wire entanglements
mean nothing to these fighting monster and trees and houses are torn down if
they get in the way.
These tractors are expected to prove very useful in this
trackless country because they do not need roads. Their average speed is four
miles an hour and they make that without roads just as well as with them. Each
tractor will haul four trailers, each trailer will have a carrying capacity of
30,000 pounds, or as much as the average freight car. One of these monsters,
armored sufficient to withstand small arm fire and immune to all sorts of
attacks short of heavy artillery, can carry a sufficient force to protect the
train and more than 100,000 pounds of cargo. One of them will do as much as 30
trucks of the ton-and-a-half type now in use in the army.
Leave of absence for 15 days was grated to Lieut. B.J.
Durham, dental corps, third regiment. He left last Friday for his home at
Asheville.
The North Carolina calvary left with the remainder of the
provisional calvary regiment of the Tenth Division for a 15-day hike. They
carry only such equipment as the regulations provide for war strength
regiments. The hike is for the purpose of finding out if the equipment and
rations provided by the regulations are sufficient for 15 days. The weather
continues cold, but the Tar Heel calvarymen left in best of spirits.
Extremely cold weather continues. Every effort is being made
to secure additional equipment needed for the men and flooring for tents.
Tar Heel troops are in confinement for arrests during the
month of October. The First Regiment will be confined six days, the Second
eight and the Third four. The Third is very proud of its record for the month
of October. It appears now that none of the regiments will be confined to camp
next month as there have been very few arrests in November. The boys learned
the first month that they could not drink El Paso dry and have been doing much
better. Corporal Frederick Fagg Malloy, Troop B Calvary, leaves for his home in
Asheville on 30 days furlough.
Uncle Sam is a very fine old gentleman to be associated with
in any sort of undertaking, but there is no denying the fact that he could
improve on his business methods. For example, the North Carolina Brigade has
three perfectly good dental surgeons—Lieut. B.F. Hall of Asheville, assigned to
the First Regiment; Lieut. Adolphus E. Worsham of Spencer, assigned to the
Second; and Lieut. B.J. Durham of Ashville, assigned to the Third. They have
been in the service since early in the summer and drawing their pay--$2,000 per
year each. Up to the present writing they have not done any work at all and the
fault is not with them. They have not been furnished dental equipment and for
four months enlisted men have been suffering for lack of attention. They put in
requisition for equipment in July but they have not yet received it and there
is no indication that they will receive it any time soon.
A.K. Bishop of Mount Gilead, N.C., is here with his camera
taking pictures of the North Carolina boys and occasionally “mugging” a
Pennsylvanian. He was with Mrs. Byron Wooten at Camp Glenn last summer and did
practically all of her finishing Mrs. Wooten is the official photographer of
the brigade and she is one of the most tireless workers in the world. She had
planned to come to Texas with the troops but she was about worked down when
moving orders came. Something of the volume of her work at camp last summer
maybe realized from the statement made recently by Mr. Bishop that he finished
for her 75,000 prints last summer. Mr. Bishop has found plenty of work to do so
far and is much pleased with El Paso.
The Second Regiment was inspected by Major General Clement,
division commander. The regiment passed a fine inspection and was highly
complimented by the General.
Sixteen recruits from Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., arrived here.
Eight were assigned to the First Regiment, giving that regiment even 1,000
enlisted men; four to Engineers; one to Troop B, Calvary; one to the Third
Regiment and one to the Second.
The Third Regiment tendered Colonel and Mrs. S.W. Minor a
review by way of celebrating at officers’ mess of the Third. The whole affair
was a big surprise to Colonel and Mrs. Minor and was planned by Capt. Don Scott
and other officers of the Third.
Orders have been issued for the two North Carolina calvary
troops to go on border patrol duty December first.
A bunch of likely recruits, 24 in number, came in and were
brought out to camp. They had been assembled at Fort Ogelthorpe, Ga., and there
outfitted and given some training. They were allowed to choose the branch of
service they wanted to enter, but except to companies nearest their home
stations. They had been at Fort Oglethorpe for varying periods, some having
been there a month, while others had only recently been sent there. Their names
and home towns are:
John R. Edwards, Goldsboro; Frank A. Williams, Wilson; Davis
Carter, Old Fort; Roland Hayes, Lakeview, S.C.; Perry R. Gardner, Dunn; West
Presnell, Marion; Lane Price, Marion; Claude Oates, Charlotte; Garland
Smotherly, Raleigh; Coy Sanders, Rockingham; Gales Blackwood, Raleigh; William
Bell, Marion; George C. Davis, High Point; Percy Ferris, Greensboro; Robert
Jones, Hickory; Gad Nelson, Hayesville; John A. Roberts, Concord; Charles F.
Lane, Winston-Salem; Boss Cothran, Hayesville; Sam D. Whitaker, Kannapolis; Hiram
Hanvey, Birmingham, Ala.; Ralph M. Dowd, Dunn; James W. Lovin, Rockingham;
William A. Hanley, Belmont.
The first regimental football team played the strong team of
the Eighth field artillery to a nothing to nothing standstill here this
afternoon. The Tar Heels lacked team work and made frequent costly fumbles, but
their line work was so good thqat the regulars never made a first down. The
features of the game were two 35-yard runs by Bob Young and good all-round work
of Fullback Britt.
D.C. Culbreth of Thomasville, member of Company L, Third
regiment, was operated on at the base hospital for appendicitis. He stood the
operation well and will recover.
Capt. Frederick Rutledge, troop B, North Carolina cavalry,
was the victim of a sneak thief. Someone entered his tent and stole his
government automatic pistol, another pistol equally valuable, a pair of
leggings and a safety razor, the whole being valued at $58.
First Lieutenant Hinson of troop A, with a detachment of 16
men, a pack train of 20 mules and full field equipment has been sent on a
seven-day hike to Las Cruces, N.M. His mission is to recover the horses lost by
the Massachusetts outfit on their recent hike to Las Cruces.
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