Page:The history and achievements of the Fort Sheridan officers' training camps.djvu/374

 372 THE FORT SHERIDAN ASSOCIATION

These men, with others from Lake Forest, Highland Park and surround- ing towns were not merely casual visitors but backed up every effort that needed help from outside the Camp to make it successful.

The Commanding Officer and all the students at Fort Sheridan will re- member the splendid paper published by Mr. Lew Merrill and his partners under the name of the Reveille. This paper appeared weekly and was full of good illustrations, fine selections of material and attractive articles which invariably added to the interest and training of the men. There were never enough to supply the big demand and eagerness to get the paper increased as the Camp went on. Mr. Merrill preserved a great many of the records of the Camp in the Reveille which have been largely used in this article.

In the eighth w^eek the rookies repeated their war game in the trenches. The question as to which army was finally victorious will probably be a subject for student argument as long as the Camp is remembered.

The following account appeared in the Reveille:

Exact battle conditions, as they exist on the Western Front, have been reproduced as faithfully as possible and the rifle fire, coupled with the salvos of the batteries d,elivering their barrage fire, has kept up con- tinuously night and day.

Each company was in the trenches for thirty-six hours at a stretch, eating, sleeping and living exactly as they expect to live later on in the European battlefields.

At 1 I o'clock every night, G. M. Martin and his staff of Y. M. C. A. w^orkers, carried cans of steaming coffee and sandwiches through the winding communicating trenches to the dugouts and shelters and were welcomed w^ith subdued shouts of joy by the men who had been so val- iantly defending their respective positions.

There was little chance for sleep during the thirty-six hour periods that the men were in the trenches. Amid the crash and roar of artillery and the fusillade of rifle shots every man was on the alert. The w^ide expanse of No Man's Land at night was lit up by the fitful radiance of the flares and the red and w^hite rockets which w^ere signals for barrage fire to break up attacking raids.

In conformity w^ith the plans of Colonel Ryan, Major Cromwell Stacey, senior instructor, who personally spent the nights in observation, no detail w^as omitted to make it a real w^ar game for the candidate officers.

The grim determination of the m,en and their alertness in the face of driving rains and raw night winds excited the admiration of their commanders.

"The work this w^eek w^as marked by steady improvement," said " Colonel Ryan yesterday. "The first night the men w^ere not so keen, but there w^as steady progress noted throughout the succeeding days. The failure of the attacks to reach the first line Wednesday night was due to the keenness of the sentinels, the excellent work of standing patrols and the perfect system of communicating signals which enabled a barrage fire to be delivered in one minute and reinforcements to be supplied im- mediately.

"The earnestness of the men, shown in carrying out the work in the trenches is another manifestation of the z;eal and determination w^hich permeates this Second Officers' Training Camp. The show^ing that the men made during the w^eek proved very gratifying to me. "

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