Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1918 — REAL TROOPS AT CAMP TAYLOR [ARTICLE]

REAL TROOPS AT CAMP TAYLOR

Jasper County Boys in Good Health and Well Cared For. The Democrat editor and wife visited their son, D. J. Babcpck, at Louisville Friday. Practically all the Jasper county boys still at Camp Taylor are in Co. B, 309th Engineers, and Friday being a holiday, the engineers, after gun inspection in the forenoon, were allowed to go their way for the rest of the day. As the engineers had been out on rifle range practice for the two or three days previous they were excused from taking part in the Washington’s birthday parade in Louisville and were scattered over camp and city, so that we did not meet anv„pf the Jasper county boys other than Delevan and Louis Misch. The parade of the soldiers in Louisville was certainly an inspiring sight. It was led by the large military band of iperhaps 150 pieces and there were three smaller army bands scattered along in the line. There were 6,000 khaki clad soldiers in the parade; they marched four abreast and so closely together that they would have stepped on each other’s heels almost had not perfect step been kept. The higher officers were mounted on saddle horses and led each column of troops. All the men wore their oyercoats, carried guns and wore the gray knit gloves issued by the government. 4-11 were clean shaven, and yrere the finest specimens of physical manhood we ever saw, a fact that wap reparsed on all of the crowded and packed streets along the line of parade.

The nien borQ themselves in a §oldieriy planner, and marched like veterans, not seeming to mind the iong hike in the least. ft took some thirty-five minutes for the parade to pass the reviewing Stand, erected in front of the court house, and the boys were stepping it off quite lively, too. It was the largest parade of soldiers ever seen in Louisville, and relatives and friends of the boys were there from all parts of the country, all the hotels being crowded. All the Jasper county boys were well, so far as we could learn, and they are looking fine and feeling good. Art Battleday now has charge of all the automobiles and motorcycles in the 309th Engineers, and is in line for promotion to sergeant of transportation, which he will likely get, as. he is an expert auto mechanic. This position pays something like SBO per month. His present position pays about S4B, we believe. Several of the boys of the 309t1i have been ordered to Camp Dix, New Jersey, but Carl Leatherman is the only Jasper county boy included in this number that we learned of. He was still at Camp Taylor and did not know just when he would be eent away. These boys go to fill up other organizations of engineers, it is understood, and it is probable will soon be sent to France. One is certainly astonished at the immensity of Camp Taylor, which is a large city in itself, with hundreds —perhaps thousands —of large bulld-

ings—all frame, tar-paper roofed and unpainted as yet—and when one considers that only a few months ago this large tract of ground was simply farm lands he can scarcely believe that so much could possibly be accomplished in this short time.* More buildings are being erected all the time, and of course the improvements for the care of the boys are likewise being bettered right along. But the boys are all comfortably quartered, well clothed and well fed, and a more husky, healthful lot of young men can not be found any place than are these soldier boys. The rifle range, where the engineers are now engaged in practice—they will have some two weeks practice now—is located some eight or nine miles from the main camp, and the boys march out to the field in the morning and back in the evening, and Thursday evening the Co. B boys passed all the other companies but one in coming in, making the entire distance is something like one hour and nineteen minutes. A little hike like this is not minded In the least, and the way they step off distance would “lay out’’ a civilian in a very few minutes. Rumor has* It that the engineers will go on a hike to Fort Benjamin Harrison in the early spring, camping out en route, building bridges In spanning streams, etc., thus getting real practice in what lies ahead of them when they have entered actual service. The distance to Fort Harrison is approximately 125 miles.