First Lieutenant Willis S. Bryant, several other officers and 150 enlisted men, comprising Battery D Fifth Field Artillery, camped in Concord last night en route from Charlotte to Salisbury, left this morning about 9 o’clock for the Rowan metropolis where they will spend the afternoon and night.
The Battery came to Concord from Charlotte, where it took part in the Made in Carolinas Exposition. It is en route to Greensboro to attend the Guilford County Fair, and later will visit Raleigh, where it will be one of the attractions at the State Fair.
The battery members were delayed in reaching Concord due to several accidents on the road. One large truck ran off a 20-foot embankment; a trailer on another truck broke loose; and a motorcycle sergeant, engaged in directing the convoy, was badly injured when rammed by a civilian car.
Lieut. Bryant stated that the sergeant was injured when someone crowded him on that part of the road on which the concrete sidewalls have been laid but which has no middle surface. The motorcycle was completely wrecked and the rider suffered a number of painful injuries.
The band which accompanied the Battery gave a concert last evening at the Y.M.C.A. The musicians were heard by a large crowd and lived up to their reputation of composing one of the best bands in the army. The musicians were under the command of Lieut. Lacock. After the concert, Lieut. Lacock stated that he has places in the band for any young men who want to join the army and who have had know3ledge of musical instruments.
In discussing the trip from Charlotte to Concord, Lieut. Bryant issued a warning to motorists to give the army column at least half of the road. “People seem to regard the large trucks we use as ordinary autos,” Lieut. Bryant stated. “In this they are wrong. These trucks cannot be halted within a space of five feet or even 50 feet. One of our trucks and trailers weighs 13 ½ tons. When people dash wildly up to it and expect the driver to give them all the road, they are acting very foolishly. We do not want but half of the road, but we want our half. Autos striking the trucks do not worry up so far as we and our equipment are concerned. The autos cannot hurt the trucks, but we do want to mangle people and ruin their cars.”
Lieut. Bryant added further that between Concord and Charlotte, a number of auto drivers flirted with death by driving so close to the trucks and seemingly trying to crowd the trucks from the road.
Some of the latest fighting machinery used by the artillery branch of the service is carried by Battery D. The guns were inspected with much interest by a large crowd which visited the camp of the soldiers, and unusual interest was also manifested in other equipment carried by the battery.
The men pitched camp on the baseball field of the Locke Cotton Mill.
From the front page of The Concord Times, Oct. 8, 1923
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