The Largest Train Ever Leaves Walla Walla
A historic troop deployment brings the grim realities of the Great War to the Inland Northwest.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Amid the tears and cheers of thousands of friends and relatives, the First Battalion of Washington Field Artillery, said to be the finest military organization ever raised in the state, boarded their special train at the O-W. depot in Walla Walla about 5:30 Tuesday evening. The battalion, consisting of 18 coaches and three engines, carried the men to Camp Greene, North Carolina, for preliminary training before being sent to France. The battery, in command of Captain Fred Weil and Lieutenants Frank Harrison and Walter Tuesley, included many recruits from Benton and Yakima counties. The farewell was a somber one, marking the reality of war for the community.
“The farewell was a sad one, nearly every eye being dimmed with tears, and it was evident that the departure of the Battalion had awakened the people to the grim realities of war.”
In 1917, Kennewick and surrounding towns mobilized their young men into the First Battalion for the First World War. This mass departure highlights the profound transition from a local agricultural society to a nation fully committed to a global conflict, echoing the ways small communities today process the departure of their youth for distant military deployments.
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