Back From the Front, Officers to Train Recruits, 1918

From the Raleigh News and Observer, as reprinted in the Daily Times, Wilson, N.C., Sept. 11, 1918

Washington, Sept. 11—“We are going over the top and giving them hell,” was the vigorous phrase employed by Lieutenant Donald MacRae, who was in Washington yesterday fresh from the fighting front on Belgian soil.

“I think the war will end in 1919,” declared Lieutenant MacRae, who has been in the thick of the fighting in Flanders for the past three months. “America has started the offensive in a rush. The entrance of American troops into the war has instilled a fine spirit of optimism in both soldier and civilian of the Allied troops,” said the former Thomasville citizen.

Lieutenant MacRae is a member of a group of North Carolina soldiers detailed to cantonments in the United States as army instructors. He was here yesterday visiting his brother, Lawrence MacRae, of the United States Shipping Board. Lieutenant MacRae suggested the name Old Hickory division for the troops from North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, which appellation was officially sanctioned by the War Department.

He stated today that the Old Hickory division, which was recently identified by General March, was the first division of American troops to invade Belgian soil in its onrush against the German army.

The North Carolina soldiers detailed for service as army instructors are:

Lieutenant Powell of Durham, Capt. C.H. Newby of Thomasville. Lieut. Ben Gray, son of E.E. Gray of Winston-Salem, Lieut. I.H. Stegall of Oxford, and Lieut. Dunn of Wilson. Lieut. Powell accompanied Donald MacRae to Washington while other members of the party went to their various homes in the State.

After a brief respite from military service these Tar Heel soldiers will report to the commanding officer at Camp Dix, N.J. They will be assigned to various divisions as army instructors. Each will be promoted as grade A officers.