Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 204, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1916 — HOOSIERS WILL DO RIVER GUARD DUTY [ARTICLE]

HOOSIERS WILL DO RIVER GUARD DUTY

Companies A and B, of Second Regiment, Will Be Stationed at Santa Maria and Mercedes. Mercedes, Texas, August 23.—Unless heavy rains prevents, the Indiana troops will go on river guard duty Thursday morning. The troops detailed for that service are Companies A and B, cf the Second regiment, and Major Dreisbach, of Fort Wayne, will be in command, while Captain Holland, of the Second infantry, will be chief medical officer. The troops, in detachments, will be stationed at San Benita pump, Rabb’s ranch near Santa Maria and at Mercedes pump, while the headquarters will be at Harlingen. The troops will be transported in army trucks, twenty-five soldiers to a truck, and the officers will go in automobiles. The supplies will be transported by truck also. Captain Holland will be required, as chief medical officer, to visit each detachment every day and that means a ride on horseback of twenty miles and a fair target for any Mexican across the river who feels like sniping an American soldier. The soldiers have orders to return any fire if they are shot at, and they may see real life before they get back to Llano Grande. Anyhow, they will have some real soldier life for they will have no shower baths, no ditches and drains, no shelter tents to sleep in and will have to drink river water and eat the army field rations, of which hardtack is a prominent part and cold boiled potatoes, carried in a haversack as desert.

Captain Holland has issued orders that the water they use must be boiled. Major Dreisbach has announced that none of the soldiers when they go swimming must forget and land on the Mexican side. To relieve the monotony, the troops have been supplied with fishing lines , and some of them have small target rifles with which to kill the small game that abounds in this locality. This is the beginning of the guard duty the Indiana troops will do along 4 the border. Each outfit sent will remain two weeks and in time after ail have been hardened to the service, it is expected that the soldiers from Indiana will be placed along the river for at least 100 miles. Some of the officers say that when the river guards get back to Llano Grande they will think the camp a paradise compared with what they will have along the river.

Mercedes and Llano Grande still are outside the line of telegraph communication, and it is said that the wires will not be in working order for at least a week. Many telegrams for Indiana soldiers came here from San Antonio and Houston by delayed mail, and the only way a telegram may be sent from this district is to use a courier and the mail to some telegraph station. Of course, this causes a great deal of annoyance and -not a little anxiety, but the telegraph and railroad companies have an army of men at work trying to open a line of communication with the north.

The Indianapolis ambulance company members are contemplating the printing of a weekly paper, to be called the Cook Shack Gazette, for the purpose of publishing all the rumors that are heard about the camp. Sergeant Baker, of the band, has been suggested as editor, prviate Mntthewson assistant editor, and private Frank Jackson as city editor and reporter. The feeling exists that Baker, Matthewson and Jackson can gather more rumors in ten minutes than the ordinary denizen of Llano Grande can pick up ilf a day’s busy activity. Lieutenant Sidney Miller, of Battery A, did not apply for a commission in the regular army, as had been reported. He is perfectly satisfied with army life as he finds it in the outfit to which he belongs. Private Ferdinand A. Brown, of Battery C, of Lafayette, has been discharged from the national guard under the dependent relative order and will leave today for his home. Geo. Peterson, a mechanic, of Battery C, Lafayette, worked in his bare feet while building a mess shack. The sun burned his feet so he can not get his shoes on and he is laid up for repairs.