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Battery C was reorganized and mustered in in 1910.

Camps of instruction were attended in 1910, '11, '12, '13 and '15. In 1914, instead of camp, a march from New Orleans to Baton Rouge was undertaken, 120 miles.

In 1912 nine officers attended the Artillery School at Fort Riley, and of these six were certified to attend the School of Fire at Fort Sill. In 1913 four officers attended the School of Fire and were graduated, and twelve officers attended the Artillery School at Tobyhouma, Pa. In 1915, ten officers attended the Tobyhouma School and one the School of Fire at Fort Sill.

During the Spring of 1916, conditions on the Mexican border became so strained that on June 18th President Wilson ordered the mobilization of the whole National Guard of the country. The order was received and the whole command assembled at the armory on the morning of the 19th, and on June 24th the Battalion entrained for Camp Stafford, Alexandria, and was mustered into Federal service by Captain Chas. S. Blakely, U. S. F. A., as follows:

Battery C, 5 officers, 149 men, June 27th.
Battery B, 5 officers, 132 men, June 28th.
Battery A, 5 officers, 159 men, June 28th.
Field and Staff, 3 officers, 4 men, June 28th.

On July 18th the Battalion entrained from Donna, Texas, arriving and making camp on July 20th, 1916, as part of the 13th Provisional Division, with headquarters at Llano Grande, under the jurisdiction of the Brownsville District, commanded by Brigadier General James Parker.

The course of training included marches aggregating 358.4. miles, as far as from New Orleans to Memphis, and two sightsetting contests, in which all the batteries of National Guard artillery in the Brownsville District took part. Battery C won both tests.

Target practice was held at Loma Alta, the site of the battle of Palo Alto, and in competition with all the National Guard batteries of the district, and three test problems given with the following results:

Block House Shell Problem:

Battery B-First place; 4 hits in 52 seconds.

Battery A-Second place; 7 hits, destroying the block house.

In the morning target problem, Battery C won first place, making 365 shrapnell ball hits, several case hits and destroying half the target.

The Battalion was part of the White Army in the manoeuvres extending over an area from Harlengen to Brownsville from November 16th to 29th, participating in five engagements, two at Harlengen, San Benito, Olinito, and Loma Alta, and a review by General Parker of the 23,000 trained troops of his district on the field of Resaca de la Palma and a curtain of fire problem directed by Major Fox Conner at Palo Alto, in which all the artillery of the district took part. Battery A made 39 hits, Battery B made 2 hits and Battery C made 14 hits.

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On Jackson's Day, January 8th, 1917, the officers gave a very brilliant ball to officers of the 13th Division, and the next day broke camp and marched to McAllen, going into camp on the site of the camp of the 2nd N. Y. F. A., under Brigadier General McNair.

On February 3rd, diplomatic relations with Germany were severed. On February 18th, 1917, the command entrained for home, arriving on Mardi Gras Day, and got a rousing reception, being mustered out of Federal service on the 28th, having been in service eight months in the same region where the command had seen service in 1845 and '46, bringing back the entire personnel without the loss of a single man.

On March 28th, the command, after 28 days of rest, was again mobilized, this time by the state to guard the docks, wharves and public utilities.

On April 2nd, the President addressed Congress, and on the 3rd the Senate declared war on Germany.

On April 10th, the command was again ordered federalized and reported for duty on the morning of the 11th, remaining on guard duty on the levees.

On April 19th, the command was again mustered into the United States service by Captain Chas. S. Blakely, as follows: Field and Staff, 3 officers.

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Headquarters Company, 12 men.

Supply Company, 1 officer and 3 men.

Battery A, 5 officers and 188 men.

Battery B, 5 officers and 168 men.

Battery C, 5 officers and 188 men.

The command went into camp at the City Park race track on April 20th and 21st.

On May 8th, three new batteries, D, E and F, were inspected by Captain Blakely, and they were recognized by the War Department on May 9th, thereby constituting the Washington Artillery a regiment, with one battalion federalized and one in the National Guard of the state. It is now encamped at Camp Nicholls, City Park, awaiting orders to go to the front.

During its years of peace service it has repeatedly done riot duty both in New Orleans and at various points in Louisiana. In 1912 it was called to conduct refugee camps for flood sufferers along the Mississippi River located at Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, Milliken's Bend and other points.

During the days of interstate competitive drills, the Washington Artillery, under Captain Eugene May, took first prize at Dubuque in 1884, Mobile and Philadelphia in 1885, Galveston in 1886, and Austin in 1888. It took second place at New Orleans in 1885 and third place at New Orleans and Nashville in 1883. The following works have been published upon its history: "A Soldier's Story of the War," by Corporal Napier Bartlett, of the Third Company. Published in 1874.

"In Camp and Battle with the Washington Artillery," by Colonel William Miller Owen, 1885.

"Washington Artillery Souvenir," by Lieutenant-Colonel John B. Richardson; 1894.

"A. Reminiscent Story of the Great Civil War," by Major H. H. Baker, of the Fourth Company; 1913.

All of the present officers have attended the Artillery Schools, either at Fort Riley or Tobyhanna, and four have attended the School of Fire at Fort Sill and have been graduated.

OLD GLORY-FLAG OF PROPHECY.
By T. P. THOMPSON.

On June 14th, 1777, by Act of Congress, it was

"Resolved, That the Flag of the Thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the "union" be thirteen stars on a blue field, etc."

Thus was designed by our infant country, within twelve months from the Declaration of Independence, the banner of our democracy, Old Glory, under which we are engaged to-day, completing a destiny imposed and made logical by the Spirit of '76.

"Alternate red and white," reads the law; that meant there should be first a red stripe-the Revolutionary War for Independence; also there being altogether thirteen, six white bars and seven stripes of red-seven Wars!

The prophecy of the flag is clearly indicated by the above laying out of colors, if we may assume that red is time of war and white is time of peace.

We have now completed seven score (140) years of flaglife, and we are already entered into the period of our seventh and last war; so, if the sign does not fail, we are to-day in the course of completing our destiny, "carrying liberty and freedom to all the peoples of the world.'

No more wars can ever be chronicled on our liberty banner, and it would seem by all rules of mysticism and heraldry that the consummation is at hand. The "Spirit of '76,"now full grown into a NATION of free citizens, governed under a Constitution, with the people's rights held sacred, is ready to go forth, as did the knights of old, to succor our less fortunate brother nations to bring them into the outer light of democracy away from their. ancient enemy despotism, as represented to-day in the maddened war lords of Central Europe, who have inherited and practiced, even in this enlightened twentieth century, the effete autocracy and feudalism of the Middle Ages..

So with our flag of prophecy flying, our sturdy youth shall go forth in this one hundred and fortieth year and show to the eyes of the Kaiser-ridden Hun his first glimpse of Old Glory, with the promise it contains, even to him, and to his children, of freedom from peonage to self-constituted War Gods, who for the ambition of the few are sacrificing to their Moloch the youth and beauty of a great and wonderful race of people.

To the end that the above may be better understood, we will cite the six epochal American wars that have gone before six in which we were completing our destiny and carrying forward the service of our country to the final peace pact which is to include all the peoples of the world in a world's republic of democracies that will band together all humanity and start the millenium of preparation; God's final haven to his sin-torn children, as promised in the Scriptures.

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THE FIRST RED STRIPE ON LIBERTY'S BANNER.

The Battle of Lexington began the struggle for freedom. 'A blow was struck which severed the fated chain, whose every link was bolted by act of Parliament, and bound us to the wake of Europe," said Edward Everett, and he continued in his prophetic speech:

"The brave bark of our youthful fortune was destined henceforth to ride the waves alone. The consequences of that blow are to be felt by ourselves, and the family of nations, till the seventh seal is broken from the apocalyptic volume of the history of empires.'

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Thus was the first red stripe drawn on our banner for democracy, and, the Revolutionary War, vindicating the Spirit of '76 passed into history.

THE SECOND STRIPE OF RED.

A sullen peace now prevailed for eighteen years, with unrest on the seas. At last it became the duty, as our country saw it, to suppress for good, piracy, flagrantly practiced then by the Barbary powers. For four years, between 1801 and 1805, we were intermittently engaged in war with Tripoli and the neighboring North African States. Quoting the words of Pope Pius the Seventh, "Americans have in this war done more good for Christendom against the pirates than all of Europe combined." Again we were rested and the second zone of white was recorded.

THE THIRD STRIPE OF RED.

The war of 1812, known also as the "Second War of Independence," had to be fought with England. The right of American vessels to sail unmolested from port to port had to be forced from the Mistress of Seas. This final acknowledgment of American independence was sealed with the Battle of New Orleans, after two years and eight months of conflict on land and water. We had then completed another chapter in our destiny, as recorded in the third red stripe on the flag of prophecy and its story of Freedom.

THE FOURTH STRIPE OF RED.

Mexico, our neighbor to the south, with her traditions brought from feudal Spain, had next to be dealt with. Our border people had to be freed from molestation; Texas, California, Arizona

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