From The Indianapolis Star, Monday, June 29, 1916: Crowds numbering into the hundreds waited far into the night and early morning at Union Station watching train load after train load of national guardsmen from eastern states – New York’s crack Seventh Regiment; Ambulance Co No. 1 from Boston – pass through Indianapolis on the way to El Paso. Many of the coaches were covered with inscriptions and legends telling of things that would happen to Carranza when they arrived. “We are out to get Carranza’s goat,’ read one. The soldiers sang and cheered the flag along with the crowd. More than twenty-one sections will have passed through the city by early today. Exact movements of the trains were veiled in secrecy and every railroad man said he had received instructions from “the higher ups” to refrain from discussing any train movements.
From The Indianapolis Star, Friday, July 7, 1916: They’re on their way to Mexico! With a band playing “The Girl I Left Behind Me” and inspiring cheers from their comrades, Gov. Ralston bid a “God Bless You” to the 500 Hoosier soldiers of the First Field Artillery Battalion as they departed from Camp Ralston at Ft. Benjamin Harrison last evening for the Mexican border. Mothers clung to the necks of their boys and kissed them frantically; sweethearts stood sadly arm in arm with their soldier boy, fighting to keep back tears. The Third Infantry will board a train today and other Indiana Guard units will follow from day to day until all 4,300 officers and men are on their way to the border. The expected destination of the Indiana Brigade is Brownsville, Texas where it will go into camp.