Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1917-05-01
HOW AMERICANS
DIED IN FRANCE

Correspondent of the U. P: Ask any
canadian about the Americans in
the ranks and the chances are he will
mention two names, Major Stewart
and Captain Stanley Woods, both
from the United States army, and
Iboth killed about the same time in
the fight for recovery of Observatory
Ridge, in June 1916.
Stanley Woods comes from well
known family in Kansas City, and
was on the staff of General Leonard
Wood. His father fought for the
North and his uncles for the south in
the Civil War. He resigned his U. S.
Commission, against the urgent rep
Presentations Of old army friends, and
enlisted at Toronto as a private. He
he unhesitatingly tackled the Min
lister of Militia himself. Sam Hughes
finally turned on him, gave him the
rough side of his tongue, and told
him that he was worrying him more
than dozen battalions put togeth-
err. "But l like you," he wound up,
''and you can 60" It was Lieutenant
Woods who soon after Joined the
cavalry at Canterbury.
He came to the Canadians at the
front early in the summer of 1915.
| He was wounded soon after, hurried
back as soon as possible, and was
killed in the following June. In those
months he earned a reputation which
still make his old comrades voices
ltremble as they tell of "Old Woody"
He was to start with first class SOL
| der, whose men would follow him
anywhere. "He was the most pop
|ular officer in the army says one.
|"We thought the world and all of
him." says another He was a
champion baseball player. His spirits
were ineXhaustible, and the worse
the time the merrier he was. I'm
cold and scared. want to die hap
ply. Send me something to drink"
was typical note to a chum, when
| he was out on the front lines.
He always said if he had to be
killed, he wanted to die leading his
men in charge. He had his wish.
When, in June, 1916, the Germans
| by a tremendous sudden attack sue
ceeded in taking the line of Mount
Sorrel, dominating Ypres, his Divis-
ion was called upon to recover it.
He commanded his company in the
great charge and reached the last
ridge. Then shell caught him.
Major Stewart, who ranks in the
army's esteem with Woods, was for
twelve years in the U. S. Cavalry.
He was by universal admission one of
the finest cavalry officers in the army
and an ideal soldier, father to his
subs and men, and hungry to be in
the front of the firing line.
On the day of the Observatory
Ridge fight, Stewart learned that one
battalion, close to his own, was
short of officers. He asked to join
it, and was granted permission, with
the stipulation that he must remain
in the front, trenches and not go
forward.
Everyone knew that few might re-
turn from that charge. When the
word came to go over the top, Stew
art, despite the orders, was first out
of the trench. He was smoking a
cigar, apparently unconscious of the,
tremendous German machine gun
and shell fire. Come on boys" he
called. He had not gone far when a
bullet caught him in the leg. He was
carried back to the trench, and while
his wound was being dressed, shell
fell between his legs, and exploded.
They buried him in the big cemetery
facing the old railway line in the
Ypres Salient, the final home of
many brave men.
Lieutenant Gibson, formerly Cap
tain in the U. S. Army, was at the.
time the war began, "a broker in
Prince Rupert. Although beyond the
usual age limit, he enlisted as pri-
vate. He won his commission by his
| fighting qualities. His ancestors were
the fighting Mac Donalds. His men
recall how at the same Mount Sorrel
charge, he waved his sword, sholting,
Come on boys. Come on. This is
a great day for Canadai" He fell
wounded, still urging them on. Not
that they needed urging. The hill
was again in their hands,
Gibbon is the only man in the Can
adian army entitled to wear beard,
special permission having ben given
him on account of wound in his