The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-12-20
MARSHFIELD
Letter to S. A. Swerdfeger, Written By
Pvt. Edward 7. Ward.


Pvt. Edward 7. Ward.
Pvt. Edward T. Ward, in a letter writ.
ten from Bourges, France, Nov. %, tc
S. A. Swerdfeger, tells many interesting
things concerning his doings since he
landed in France over a year ago. He is
now acting corporal at Pershings head
quarters. The letter follows:
Tomorrow is day set aside as ia.
theirs day, same as May ii was set aside
as mothers day, and as / have no father
now | am going to assume that you are
my real father and so | will try and
write you few little things that know
will interest you. This being my first
letter to you, | hardly know how to be.
gin it, but at any rate | am going to
make stab at it. We are now allowed
to tell you what front we fought on and
all about it, so prepare yourself for a
long and severe attack.
perhaps it would be interesting to
you to start the story as far back as the
time that we landed here in France over
year ago After leaving Southampton
England, we took boat across the chan
mel for this land of madness, and after
about six hours ride on dark, very
crowded boat, we landed in La Havre, a
very large and important seaport in
France. After we got off the boat we
were loaded in box cars what we call
soldiers Pullman cars and rode in this
way for two days and two nights; and
take it from me, / was all in and that is
only putting it very lightly. OF course
you have not forgotten that | had not
been out of the hospital a great while at
that time, but got through it much bet
ter than some of the other fellows did
There were none that died, though some
were very sick and had to go to the hos
pital.
"After we had arrived at our destina-
tion, or had better put it as far as the
train went, we had to hike the rest of
the way and / thought that would new
er live to get there. ! kept stiff upper
lip and somehow that seemed to help me
a good deal. | made the vow that
would not fall out whatever happened
and after hiking for about six hours we
finally landed in a small place by the
name of Bazoilles, and take it from me
Dad, it was the worst place that | have
ever been in since in France. was glad
TO think that | was not long for that
place, for had an order that | should go
back to my own organization as soon as /
should reach France Well, the first
thing that ! wanted and wanted most
was a place to sleep, All there was for
us to sleep on was boards but take it
from me they looked good and one of
the fellows that / called pal of mine
Che is dead now unrolled our packs and
made a real coy place and in very
short time | was sound asleep. ! shall
never forget how disagreeable the wealth
er was here all that month. The mud
was so deep that it was almost an i'm
possible thing to walk at all.
II hope you will not mistake me and
think that am finding fault or anything
of the kind, for | only mean to relate to
you the experiences that / have been
through.
well, to go on with my story, did
not stay there at this place very long be-
fore | got word where my outfit was and
so one day they undertook to make me
dig bitches. had an order in my pocket
that / should do no work whatever, but
instead of showing it to the sergeant as |
should have done, frankly told him that
] was not going to work for anyone other
than my own company. ] guess that if
had stayed there much longer | would
have been in the guardhouse. Well, in
stead of going to work at | o'clock, as ]
should have done, / and another fellow
from Vermont started out to find our old
company and after we had walked only
about two hours we found it and | tell
you that the boys were some glad to see
us and really it seemed like getting bach,
home once again. / told my captain of
my experiences and he laughed and said
that / did the right thing.
"When / found Co. G, l03d infantry,
they were stationed in little town not
far from Chaumont on the road from
Chaumont to Neuf Chateau, but never.
theless it was nice little place and we
all hated to leave it to 60 TO the trenches.
We had to drill very hard there and, talk
about hiking, well you never saw the
like of it. We would walk about nine
miles, then work until it seemed as
though we could never live to get back to
our billets and then we would have to
walk all the way home. We used to
pass through little villages on our way
back home and | used to take look in
one of the windows and see the family
gathered around the fire in the fireplace,
and it used to make me some hOmesick.
This often happened at night after we
had drilled all day. guess it was what
they called fitting us for the trenches. ]
surely was as tough as a bear. Next /
must tell you of the little place that five
of us boys had while we were going
through all this. We hired a stove and a
room from one of the old French women
Of this place and we fixed it up all nice
and had it real coy, All Of us five boys
were from Vermont. One of them was
killed in action on July 20, Just think
that we used to plan so much on what
we were to do after we did get back
home. Probably you will know who ]
mean if | tell you that he was a cousin
of Mrs. j. w. Mears. His name was Per-
ley +. Greaves from Walden, Vermont
He was fine fellow, and fine looking.
We'll, all was going well until we
heard that we were to leave for the
trenches the first of February. We all
gort of dreaded it, as we had heard so much
Of it and the weather was very cold and
! knew the trenches were full of mud
but it did not do bit of good to worry
so on Feb, 2, 1918, we left LifTol- Lee
Grande for the front.
"The front that we went to first was