Sidney D. Light's WWI Diary, Postcards & Letters, 329th Battery Book Accounts

Another distinction that Battery B can claim is that we were the battery chosen from the 160th F. A. Brigade to represent the artillery of the 85th Division in the Third Liberty Loan parade at Detroit, April 6th, 1918.

Early in February we began working on our horses–grooming and exercising them–and as soon as the fields were dry enough for mounted drill we got them in fine shape and were able to make a first-rate showing. We were drilled every day then and after the aforementioned reviews were picked as the best drilled battery and the one for the Detroit parade. We were all pleased to get the trip for though it meant a lot of work, it would give our friends in Detroit a chance to see just what sort of organization Battery B was.

By the evening of April 5th the harness, equipment and material had all been cleaned and polished up to army standard and was loaded on the cars near the corral. The horses had been groomed almost steadily that day and couldn’t be made to look better. Everyone was interested and wanted things to look their very best.

We got up at 3:00 o’clock the morning of April 6th, ate breakfast and went to the stables where our horses were rarin’ to go. We took them to the remount loading platform and soon were ready to go. We occupied seven cars–three for the stock, two flat cars for material, one baggage care for harness, etc., and one passenger coach for the men.

We left Camp Custer at 6:00 a.m. and arrived in Detroit by 12:00. By 1:00 o’clock we had unloaded, harnessed, hitched in and were on our way to Grindley Field where the units were to assemble. At 2:30 p.m. the parade moved out. Well forward the 310th Trench Mortar Company had a mortar mounted on a truck from which they fired bombs, bursting them in mid-air. Our horses were quite nervous from being in the cars and in a strange place and the bursting bombs put the acme of pep into them. As our turn came to move out (we had to pass through a rather narrow opening to the street) a carriage of the second section collided with a trolley pole, delaying the following carriages long enough to lose perhaps two hundred yards, and when we were free to close up we made a dash down Woodward Avenue to beat any fire department. The sight of galloping horses, carriages bumping over the pavement and street car rails was enough to satisfy any expectations of the crowd which lined the streets.

At Grand Circus Park we were reviewed by Major General Kennedy and "shot" by the movie cameras which were everywhere. The parade went south on Woodward Avenue to Jefferson Avenue and came to a halt at the Third Street railroad yards. Here we unhitched and made ready to go "home." Major Lothrop gave the order that as soon as everything was loaded for the return trip we could be dismissed until 8:30 p.m. We unloaded all the materiel and made it fast to the cars in eighteen minutes which time was a record breaker we were told. We won our dismissal all right and as the greater part of the boys lived in Detroit they had the opportunity to eat dinner and spend a few hours at home. (Some of them didn’t spend all their time at home apparently.) We started back at 9:00 o’clock, arriving in Camp Custer at 2:00 a.m. Before we could sleep we had to unload and care for the horses, so were a tired lot of men when we were dismissed at the barracks.

There wasn’t a blunder made during the whole trip and we were complimented by several of the brigade officers for the snap and military bearing which the men displayed.