History of the 151st field artillery, Rainbow Division, by Louis L. Collins, lieutenant governor of Minnesota. Edited by Wayne E. Stevens, PH. D. Pub. by the Minnesota War records commission.

32 HISTORY OF THE 151ST FIELD ARTILLERY

series of maneuvers which were not too carefully watched by officers, to procure at least enough hay to take the edge off the air
drafts which penetrated the French carpentry of the car floors.
The first section, carrying the Headquarters Company, left Guer
at noon and other sections, carrying the six batteries, followed.
The destination, of which the men themselves were ignorant at the
time of their departure, was the Baccarat subsector of the Luneville sector3 in French Lorraine, almost due west of Strassburg,
once the French capital of Lorraine but since 1871 a German stronghold. Here the front line had been practically stationary since the
German retreat following the first Battle of the Marne in 1914.
An uncomfortable journey, occupying two days and two nights,
faced the regiment; the weather was cold and the food consisted
almost entirely of "tin" rations of cold tomatoes, salmon, and
"bully beef," with French hard-tack on the side. When it comes
to a question of qualities of endurance, the 151st will back that
French hard-tack against any surviving hard-tack of the Civil War.
In two or three of the cities along the way French Red Cross
women won the gratitude of the men by serving hot coffee, and on
one or two of the train sections ambitious cooks improvised kitchens
and made coffee, but hot drink and hot food were not the rule on
that trip nor on any which followed. Luxury had been left behind
at Coetquidan.
The route to Lorraine lay south of Paris - through Versailles,
Fontainebleau, Troyes, Chaumont, where were located the general
headquarters of the A. E. F., and Neufchateau. The unfamiliarity
of the country through which they were passing and the certainty
that their outfit was at last " going in " combined to make this first
journey to the front more of a lark to the men than those which
followed. Not a man was downhearted at least not one would
admit it. In each car much of the talk turned on the imminence
of death, but its general tone was hardly characteristic of the usual
discussion of this serious subject. " I'll give you just a week to live "
and " A month from now you'll be thirty days dead " were remarks
3The term "sector" is often rather loosely used and in general means
simply a portion of the battle line. The Baccarat sector, or subsector, as it
was sometimes called, was that portion of the Luneville sector, some sixteen
kilometers in width, lying in front of the town of Baccarat.