Mayor of Charlotte Praises 10,000 Soldiers Who Joined Local Citizens in Peace Celebration, Nov. 23, 1918

From the editorial page of The Caduceus, Camp Greene, Charlotte, N.C., Nov. 23, 1918.

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.”