BX May 11, 1917

Journey East of the 215th Told Interestingly – Pte. Arthur Earl Moran Gives Detailed Story of Trip of Brants to Halifax – Quebeckers Are Cold

An interesting account of the journey of the 215th Brant Battalion from Brantford to Halifax is given in a letter from Pte. A.E Moran to his mother, Mrs. J.E. Moran, 111 Eagle Avenue. The letter apparently was held up by the post office authorities until after the arrival of the battalion had been announced in England. A very cold reception on their journey is reported, not more than a dozen people coming out of their homes to see them pass through. Another letter was received from Pte. Moran, writing on birch bark taken from a tree in the Appalachian mountains, through which they traveled. His letter follows:

Have arrived safely here at Windsor Junction, N.S., just a few miles from Halifax. I expect we will wait until night to go on to the coast. After leaving Brantford on Tuesday we went right through to Toronto, arriving there about 4 o’clock. We waited at the Exhibition Grounds for nearly an hour for another troop train to pull out from there, and followed it out. We got into Bellville about 8 o’clock, and had about one half hour there. They gave us a fine send-off all along the line until we got into Quebec. We arrived at Montreal before 6 o’clock Wednesday morning, and were there for over an hour. We did not go through the centre of the city, but just along the side. We crossed the river just after we left Montreal. The bridge there was about three times as long as the one at Bridgeburg. There was still a lot of ice in the river and all the way through Quebec it was cold and the ground was still covered with snow. The people were just as cold as the climate, and I don’t think that there were more than a dozen people on the way through the province that bothered to come to their doors to see us go through. It certainly seemed queer after having such a fine send-off in Ontario, where everyone came out and cheered and waved flags. Even the school children were let out to see us. 

We arrived at Chaudière Junction about five o’clock that afternoon and changed engines there. We saw the Chaudière Falls and went down to the town and bought some food and left again about six o’clock. All the way through Quebec everything was in French, even to the signs of the railway crossings, which were written “Traverse de Chemin de fer.”  In English it means “The crossing of the iron road.”  Most of the farmers were old-fashioned and all the buildings were white washed and we saw a couple with straw thatched roofs. All the farmers’ cars were funny old two-wheeled carts. It was a pretty trip through the mountains. Of course it was all new to me and I enjoyed it fine. We made two or three stops at some of the villages for water. Nearly all the names began with St., such as Saint Hilaire, St. Cecilia, and St. Hyacinthe. We stopped at one town by the name of Amgui and had some time there. There were some old farmers’ wagons and the fellows drove around in them. Then they got hold of a plough that was on the station platform and started plowing up the ground around the platform.

Thursday noon, we crossed the river into New Brunswick and after another hour’s ride we stopped at Campbellton, N.B. It is there that the time changes one hour later or Eastern Time. We had an hour there. The band got out and played and we had a game of soft ball near the station. It was quite a nice town, about the size of Eagle Place, and they had a good crowd at the station. It was a great relief to get into civilization again after going through Quebec, where they seemed to be all pro-German. 

The next stop we made was at Newcastle, which is a small place. They have a large wireless station there, guarded by soldiers. There was another pretty town across the river from Newcastle but I forget the name of it. We left there about 6.30 and went right through to Moncton, arriving there about ten o’clock last night. Moncton is about half the size of Brantford. We had an hour there so we went to an ice cream parlor and had some eats. This was the first chance I had had since we left Brantford to get any ice cream. They changed engines again and we pulled out a little after eleven o’clock. There was a big crowd at the station there too, with the town band, and they gave us a fine farewell. This morning, (Friday) we passed Truro and New Glasgow and at 11 o’clock we came into Windsor Junction. Have been here ever since. This is not much of a village, and all the food in the store is cleaned out except some canned pork and beans, and biscuits, so I hope we will pull out soon. It is now six o’clock and we have just finished supper which consisted of stew, cheese, jam, bread and butter and coffee. We have had some good meals all the way and the sleeping accommodation is not at all bad. Our coaches are the regular day coaches but there is another train here with some of the old colonist cars, with wood slat seats. There are six trains just ahead of us, probably at Halifax now, and two trains on the siding here with troops. A train of nurses passed us yesterday, so you see there are a lot more troops on the move besides ours. I expect we will put in Halifax some time during the night and go right on board the transport. I will let you know when we are sailing but I suppose you will not get the mail from Halifax until we land in England.