It was
a wonderful joyous time—that peace demonstration in Charlotte.
It was
the more joyous because of the fact that not a single outrage was reported when
the 10,000 soldiers who had been quarantined in Camp Greene for five weeks and
who were filled with the elation of a national crisis passed mingled with the
citizenry of 50,000 “peace wild” people of the city.
That
glad occasion branded the lie that American soldiers did not know why they
fought against Prussianism. It showed that the men in the khaki of Democracy’s
army were not slacking a desire to destroy nor were they seeking the right to
domineer or bully.
“To
defend our principles of Justice and Liberty,” we said, when we formed our
battle hosts and on that eventful Monday of the peace demonstration we soldiers
of Camp Greene showed that we understood the full meaning of American
liberty—that of freedom within the law. We maintain that the whole hearted and
yet peaceful show of joy by the soldiers on November 11 was an honor to the
triumph of Democracy.
We
preserve with pride the following message from the mayor of Charlotte to
Colonel A.C. Macomb, commanding officer of Camp Greene:
“I
cannot retrain from expressing to you my gratification over the fact that,
during our recent celebration of Peace, when all of the boys at Camp Greene,
both white and colored, were turned loose for the first time after a quarantine
of five weeks, they behaved so well and in such soldier-like manner that not an
infraction of the law or order was observed by me or reported by anyone to our
Police Department. This conduct on the part of your men is to me remarkable and
a testimony to you as their commanding officer.
“I want
also to express our very sincere and hearty appreciation of your active
participation and cooperation in our Victory parade and I have heard many
comments from our people on the splendid military feature of this parade.
Yours
very truly,
F.R.
McNinch, Mayor of Charlotte
We also
honor the following memorandum which the camp commander has issued to the men of
the camp:
“The
Commanding Officer desires to compliment the members of this command upon their
excellent conduct in the town of Charlotte following their release from a
tiresome but necessary quarantine to camp of over a month.
“That
some 10,000 men on liberty in town, especially at this time of jubilation
following the collapse of Germany, should so conduct themselves as not to cause
a single complaint nor give cause for a single arrest, speaks well for the
discipline of the command.”
To this
we add the statement of Lieut.-Colonel George A. Renn, commanding officer of
the U.S. Army Base Hospital, Camp Greene:
“I was
indeed proud of the way the Base Hospital men conducted themselves on that glad
day but I had not expected that they would do otherwise.”
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