Tag Archives: 6th Artillery

Meet Bridget, she like long walks, and taking shots at the Kaiser’s men across No Man’s Land

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The gun that fired the first American shot at Sommerville, near Nancy Oct 23 1917

The 75mm artillery piece that cranked out the first U.S. shot on the Western Front in World War I a century ago last week is still in the Army’s custody.

The M1897 gun, a French-made field gun named “Bridget” is on display today in the Large Weapons Gallery at the U.S. Army Military Academy Museum at West Point but on Oct. 23, 1917, it fired the first shot across “No Man’s Land” by American forces in France.

This map purports to illustrate America’s first artillery salvo of the war, fired on October 23, 1917, by guns in the American 1st Division. Sergeant Alexander Arch barked the order “fire” to the crew manning the 75mm field gun. U.S. Army. First Sector Occupied by Americans 1917, inscribed: “First shot in the war Oct. 23, 1917 6:30 am. . . .” U.S. Army base map, 1918. Printed map annotated in color. Hines Collection, Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress (195.00.00)

The gun was sent back to the states in 1918 and is at West Point today, still with the names of the “First Shot” crew who fired it 100 years ago last week.

More in my column at Guns.com

The long walk back from Chihuahua

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US infantrymen in Mexico during the hunt for Pancho Villa. January, 1917. Image via The Great War 1914-1918

US infantrymen in Mexico during the hunt for Pancho Villa. January 1917. Image via The Great War 1914-1918

100 years ago today, the end of the Punitive Expedition:

In the image above, a column of 6th and 16th Infantry regiments, are shown en route back to the States, between Corralitos Rancho and Ojo Federico, Jan 29th, 1917. Co. A, 16th Inf. in the foreground. Note the “Montana” campaign hats and Springfield 1903s.

This was the longest hike of the return march, 28 miles.

The longest “march” in one day on the way down was actually a lighting fast ride of the made by the artillery of the “Flying Column” consisting of Battery B of the 6th (horse-drawn) Field Artillery, who covered 145 miles in hours over March 15-16, 1916 including a blistering 88 on the first day alone.

As noted by Col. Frank Tompkins, who rode as a Major with the 13th Cav on the Expedition and later penned an excellent work on the subject, that rate of travel was unmatched by any artillery unit anywhere in prior military history.