On July 26, 1907, members of Battery C, Fifth Field Artillery marched into Maryville late at night as part of a 200+ mile march from Fort Leavenworth to Des Moines after overnights that included Lake Contrary in St. Joseph and Savannah. In August, the Army marched back to Fort Leavenworth through Maryville.
The unity brought caissons (the two-wheeled cart designed to support the trail of an artillery piece). In 1908, Edmund Gruber, commander of the unit and later commandant of Fort Leavenworth, wrote: “The Caissons Go Rolling Along.” Those lyrics differ from the current official version. Gruber’s version was transformed into a march by John Philip Sousa in 1917 and renamed the “U.S. Field Artillery March.”
The unit camped at McJimsey Park Pond (just north of the Alice Beal property –Beal Park today– across the Wabash tracks)
Battery C had supposedly won the Army baseball title the year before and Maryville showed its hospitality by beating the team 2-0. The Army stayed longer on the retrun march and lost two more games. The games were probably played at Carl Riffe Field (named for a deputy sheriff), which was at the corner of East Halsey and South Charles (and is still a field today). It was two blocks from St. Mary’s Church (now St. Gregory Barbargio). This field was used by several ball teams, including the high school team, and was discontinued around 1915 when the college built its field.
The Comets were a semipro team, and this item challenges the printed history of the team, which says it got its name because Haley’s Comet was present during a game. The Comet was in 1910, and this predates that.
