Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1916-12-06
WITH THE BOYS +
ON THE BORDER
Ralph Powell Writes an Interesting
). Letter to his Father Telling
s* OF Army Life.

II. got your letter in camp few
days ago. We left Llano Grande a
week ago yesterday for the big sham
battle. I was with the supply train,
they began leaving camp at A. M,
Nov. 18th, but we didn't all get away
until noon. We went as far as La
feria where we went into camp just
\ north of town in a swampy hay
X meadow. We were joined by the
North Dakota Infantry at Mercedes.
There were about 10000 of us in
this camp. There was an irrigation
canal running near our camp and in
the night they tried to let some of
! the water into camp so they could
water the horses and in some way it
got away from them and before they
could shut it off it had flooded al
most the entire camp and our
tents we're in about four inches of
water in the morning. Everyone got
wet and muddy. We left Laferia
about 6 o'clock and got to Harlingen
for the night. Our artillery chased
the browns out Of Harlingen and
they retreated to San Benito. The
26th infantry regulars joined US at
I1dIlHlScll dIlu We lClU
about noon Monday and our infantry
had a skirmish with the browns at
San Benito but were unable to take
( the town away from them so we
went into camp about two miles
north of the town. The South Da-
kota and Oklahoma infantry joined
MS d here We took the town early
1ssday morning and chased them on
aastggtowards Brownsville. We camp
sl about 8 miles east of San Benito
ueslay night and Wednesday we
went On about 10 miles farther east
untI We were only about 9 miles
northeast Of Brownsville. We had
about $4,000 in our army by this
time. The whole procession was
about 18 miles long, the supply wag
ons made a string about six miles
long. We camped just under long
hill. On the other side of the hill
was salt lake about two miles long
and two wide where we could water
all the horses and take good swim.
:. There were thousands Of ducks in
g'this lake, some going and some COM
ing all the time. It made a fine
sight from the top Of this hill to see
a big army camped on one side and
lake full of ducks on the other side.
The dough boys had to go out and
dig trenchs until after IL o'clock that
night after carrying rs pounds on
their backs all day. This was
sWampy country this lake and looks
a good deal like the country out
!, southeast of Warren. They got us
up at o'clock the next morning and
.sathe supply train all went off about
four miles and our army went the
other way to attack the browns
They fought all day and neither side
was able to. gain any advantage. We
came back and camped in the same
place that night as we had the night
before. We got UP next morning be-
fore daylight. and about sunrise I
counted 27 focks of ducks flying into
this salt lake and some other sloughs
around it. Some of those Warren
hunters would find Texas a paradise
for hunting alright. only saw one
party of hunters around the lake.
This was Friday morning and the
brown army had taken a position
. around an old sugar mill about 5
miles north of Brownsville. They,
..had,7 miles Of trenches dug about 81
feet deep. The trenches were in a
half circle and there were two rows
of. them running parallel about so
yards apart with connecting trenches
44at intervals of about 200 yards
They had barb wire entanglements in
front of the first line trenches. Our
artillery was supposed to have knock
ed all this away so that when our
KY lfantry went in they would have
Near sailing. Our artillery however
was too slow in getting into action
SO that when our infantry made their
charge for the trenches they were
under a, heavy fire from machine
!. guns and from couple regiments of
Virginia infantry who occupied the
trenches. There was wagon road
cutting thru the trenches about in
I the middle and bunch of Iowa in
fantry were on the east side of this
road in the trenches. Our army
was victorious on this east wing but
! on the west wing they were cut down
like grass or would have been of
course il it had been real war. The
browns retreated into Brownsville
Sshat night and the battle was over,
the browns claiming they won and
the whites claiming they won. We
went into camp Friday night on the
battle field near the sugar mill. I
didn't wait for supper and as soon
sas we got the supply wagons I'M
loaded, a few other fellows from our
battery and /, jumped on Packard
truck and rode into Brownsville,
where we could get something to eat
besides hard tack and red horse. It
seemed good to get into small city
again and see street cars running.
.sTheS town was full Of soldiers, both
Friday and Saturday nights one
could scarcely walk on the sidewalks.
Several Of the restaurants had to
lock their doors and let just a few
lin at time, when they were fed
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