september - october - Fort Sill

THE FIELD ARTILLERY JOURNAL
As soon as they obscured the sun, there came a chill. Following this, the
heavens wept. The sides of the mountain streamed with water and
became slippery as if soaped. Uncertain footing became precarious. The
men could stand up only by clinging to some support. When they
moved about, their feet slipped from under them and they sat down
heavily in the slime. Resentment showed in their expressions. This was
the dry season. The mountain was violating the rules of warfare. They
had the outraged attitude of troops who have been subjected to poisoned
gas.
After a while they went down the mountain in search of shelter. They
marched sulkily into camp in the rain and changed drenched clothes for
merely damp ones. At this moment the heavens opened. Rain fell in sheets
and all landmarks were blotted out.
The officers were trying to eat under a tent fly by the light of two
candles. In a few moments they were aware of steady trickles of water on
the table, down their necks, into the food. These trickles came through little
holes which mildew had eaten in the canvas. They asked the sergeant, who
was hastily covering up his supplies, why he had brought such a worthless
fly. The sergeant informed them that the inspector had declared the tent fit
for field service and had declined to condemn it. The officers wished to
God that the inspector was under it now. They vied with one another in
casting aspersions upon him. They then concluded to extend their
aspersions to all inspectors. In the meantime they grew wetter and more
dismal.
The rain beat down so that they had to shout to be heard. Soon they
noticed that the level, sandy soil underfoot was unable to carry off the
deluge. They began to be apprehensive about their own tents. They hung
about under the fly until finally their apprehensions overcame their dislike
of a drenching and they dashed out in the rain, to find most of their
possessions sitting in pools of water. One of them lived in an abode which
his comrades dubbed "The Boar's Nest." This was because he kept his
possessions chiefly on the ground. They were now all afloat. This delighted
the others. They intimated that, if it took a typhoon to teach him neatness,
they were glad the typhoon had come.
Some typhoons last a week but this blew itself out in the night. The men
resumed their labors on the mountain where the rain continued. A cold
gale, whipping around the shoulder of the mountain, caused them to shiver
in their thin cotton clothes. The long hempen ropes with which they hoisted
the guns, lost their flexibility; became stiff, harsh and unfriendly. As the
men slipped and slid, the guns became treacherous masters. They
displayed a fiendish desire to crush the limbs of their servants. The men
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