Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1917-11-16

In the latter part of October, 1915, l
decided that the United States ought
to be fighting along with England and
France on account of the way Belgium
had been treated, If for no other reason.
AS there seemed 10 be considerable
division of opinionson this point among
the people at home, came to the con-
clusion that any man who was free,
white and twenty-one and felt as I did
ought to go over and get into 1t single
handed on the side where his convic-
lions led him If there wasn't some par
ticular reason why he couldn't. There
fore / said goodby to my parents and
friends In Lexington and started for
New York with the idea Of sailing for
France and joined the Foreign legion
Of the French army.
Decides to Go to Canada.
A couple of nights after | got to New
York / fell into conversation in the
Knickerbocker bar with chap who
was In the reinforcement company of
Princess Pats regiment of the Cana
dian forces. After my talk with him
l decided to go up to Canada and look
thinks over. / arrived at the Windsor
hotel, in Montreal, at 8 o'clock in the
morning a couple of days later, and at
10 o'clock that morning j was sworn
in as private in the Canadian Grena-
der guards, Eighty-seventh overseas
battalion, Lieutenant Colonel +. S.
NfaiobtaD commemorative Thav ,vora i,1ct
getting under way, making soldiers out
of the troops enlisted with, and dis
cipline was quite lax.
They at once gave me weeks leave
to come down to New York and settle
up some personal affairs, and over
stayed it five days. All that my com
pany commander said to me when l
got back was that 1 seemed to have
picked up Canadian habits very quick
ly. At a review one day in our train
ing camp heard a major say:
Boys, for Gods sake don't call me
Harry or spit in the ranks. Here comes
the general!"
We found out eventually that there
was reason for the slackness Of dis
cipline. The trouble was that men
would enlist to get $1.10 day with
out working for it and would desert
as soon as any one made it unpleasant
for them. Our officers knew what they
were about. Conditions changed in
stantly we went on shipboard. Disci-
pline frightened up on us like tie rope
on q colt.
We trained in a sort of casual, easy
way in Canada from Nov. 4 to the fol
lowing April. We had a good deal of
trouble keeping our battalion up to
strength, and / was sent out several
times with other ''noncoms" on a re-
cruiting detail. While we were in the
training camp at st. Johns made the
acquaintance of young Canadian who
became my "pal." He was Campbell
Mcfarland, nephew of George McFar-
land, the actor, who is so well known
on the American musical stage. He
was q sergeant. When l first knew
him he was one of the most delightful
and amusing young fellows you could
imagine.
The war changed him entirely. He
became extremely quiet and seemed to
be borne down with the sense of the
terrible things which he saw. He new
er lost the good fellowship which was
inherent in him and was always ready
to do anything to oblige me, but he
formed the habit of sitting, alone and
silent, for hours at time, just think
ing. 1t seemed as If he had a Fremont
ton about himself, though he never
showed fear and never spoke of the
dangers we were going into, as the
other fellows did. He was killed in
the Somme action in which / was
wounded.
/ also had been made sergeant on
account of the fact that had been
at school in the Virginia Military in
stitute-that is, was an acting SER
geant. 1t was explained to me that
my appointment would have to be
confirmed in England and then recon
firmed after three months service In
France. Under the regulations of the
u
officer, after final confirmation in his
grade, can be reduced to the ranks
only by general courtmartial, though
he can escape a courtmartial, when
confirmed with charges, by reverting
to the ranks at his own request.
Forty-two hundred Of us sailed for
England on the Empress of Britain,
sister ship to the Empress of Ireland,
which was sunk in the st. Lawrence
river. The steamer was, of course,
very crowded and uncomfortable. and
the eight-day trip across was most un-
pleasant. We had tripe to eat until
we were sick of the sight of it. A
sergeant reported one morning, Eight
men and twenty-five breakfasts alb
sent" There were two other troop
ships in our convoy, the Baltic and the
Metagama. A British cruiser escorted
US until we were 400 miles of the coast