Battery D was filled to full war-strength during the first week of July, just before departure, when the outfit received a quota of 150 men who came to the regiment from the Depot Brigade. Five hundred and forty came to the regiment from Camp Upton, N. Y., and Camp Dix, N. J., and fifty from the signal corps in Florida.
In the front door and out of the back of 019 the battery passed in alphabetical line in rehearsal of the manner in which the gang plank of the ship was to be trod. Departure instruction likewise included hikes to the electric rail siding to practice boarding the cars with equipment.
The last few days in camp were marked by daily medical inspections, also daily inspections of equipment. Everybody had to drag all their equipment outside for inspection. The men were fully and newly equipped with clothing and supplies upon leaving. Two new wool uniforms, two pairs of field shoes, new underwear, socks, shirts, towels, toilet articles, and a score of other soldier necessities, were issued before leaving. All old clothing and equipment was turned in.
Each man was allotted a barrack-bag as cargo. The barrack-bag was made of heavy blue denim with about a seventy-five pound capacity, which weight was cited as the limit a soldier could obtain storage for in the ship's baggage compartments.
Although seventy-five pounds was the order, all the boys resorted to some fine packing. There were not many under the limit. Most of the boys had their knitted garments in the bag, also a plentiful supply of soap, because rumor had struck the outfit that soap was a scarce article in France. Milk chocolate and smokes were also well stocked in.
Besides the barrack-bag each soldier was provided with a haversack and pack-carrier, in which were carried--on the back--two O. D. blankets, toilet articles, extra socks, clothing, and the various articles that would be needed on the voyage across.
Saturday, July 13th, 1918, was the memorable day of departure from Camp Meade. Battery D furnished the last guard detail of the regiment at Meade. The 13th, as luck would have it, dawned in a heavy shower of rain. Reveille sounded at 5:15 a. m., after which, those who had not done so the night previous, hiked out in the rain and emptied the straw from their bed-ticks; completed the packing of their bags and packs and loaded the bags on trucks while the rain came down in torrents.