Page:History of the 305th field artillery (IA historyof305thfi01camp).pdf/43

Rh Officers and men received a fortunate impression of permanence. As long as we remained in Upton we would have our own home. Things, we felt in our ignorance, were going well. Even a band had been collected, and could play one or two pieces in public with comparative safety. During the latter part of October and the first part of November the officers were brought a little closer to their mission. They were conducted by twos and threes to Sandy Hook to watch the practical working of projectiles and fuses; and forty attended a six-day artillery course in New Haven under the experienced instruction of Captain Dupont, of the French Army, and Captains Bland and Massey, of the Canadian artillery.

It was on these trips that most of the officers saw for the first time the famous soixante-quinze. They admired it as a piece of artillery perfection without being able to guess that it would be their companion for many months, a thing nearly as animate as the men who served it.

What we actually got at Upton at this time was a single battery of venerable three-inch guns, relics of the 51st Field Artillery Brigade, New England National Guard. Lieutenant Colonel Stimson shared this for us, together with much other useful equipment which aroused the envy of less fortunate organizations who didn't have a former secretary of war. Certainly one battery among six was better than none.

When the guns arrived on November 10th the regiment gathered around them, patted them fondly, examined their mechanism, peered down their throats.

Pride leaped.

"God help Jerry when we show him these!"

But Jerry never saw them. Perhaps one day in the dust of some ordnance museum they may be observed by all the world—precious relics of the extended battle of the 305th at Camp Upton.