Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-12-04
.GASSED DURING
DRIVE IS WORD
ts. r CoWden. Former Rock Is
land Youth. confined in Base
Hospital in Franco.
COW RECOVERING RAPIDLY
yos Seriously Overcome He Writes
His Division Wins Nine Miles
Before stopping.


- although fortunately not Sc
-s,rslv. hy the poison vapors Of the
tj,r on French hatuefelds.
Asa &. Covdeu. son Of Mr.. and
Ne John r Cowden. formerly of
Ne ritv. fell a victim 10 German
vhiIe il action Oct. 10. accord
TO 4 letter received by a sister,
MS. Henry Carlson. MS Four
| .-,-,h street. Moline. COwden en-
,t.,a8. following two reflections, in
| - infantry nearly a year ago. His
/ ls.-sr. an interesting one, in part
S as follows
-ova 50 much during the last two
-onths that I can only remember
| .n-ss different occasions when we
vs-e told thai We could send Qua
mail ..-
At present I have coolies Of time
s. I'm located in a hospital. Moth
| i,g serious. however. Was gassed
, couple Of weeks ago. on Oct. 10,
~ he exact, and have been only
ssr;1g and sleeping sleeping be
| +vaen nice white sheets. think Of j..
Am feeling better now. although
IN verv weak still and my lungs
are sore vet. but rest and fresh air
Till mt them in shape. A few
| 5svs after being Eassed my eyes
re-a on the blink. couldn't see out
| ~ them. but they have become
Stronger and I can see alright now.
Have not had such a bad touch OF
4 and believe me, I'm thankful for
hat
4 Tn TO the time 7 was sent here
mr. company had been on the hike
verv near all of the time. We hik-
II. rode on trains and auto trucks,
and then got back again to hiking.
after leaving the town where
"a had been CHARTERED. we began
Journey 10 the front which con-
gumed one week. We lay in dug
outs for five days and thought that
Il was terrible. Left them and
| moved I'd to the front line trenches
ari remained five days there. II
vss worse there than the dugOuts.
hut We stuck it out Stood guard
turing the night and slept in the
1svtime. On the morning we were
rslie7ei the Huns sent over a hot
/ she'll fire. This was about 3 O'Clock
N the morning and our company
| vas lined up waiting to have hot
coffee served TO US before leaving.
/ Half Of US had been served when
lte 'vhiZ-bauES' began to drop
| around Us. Laid out under the
/ he!ling for about thirty minutes
and it sure was shaky business. We
finally. managed to get back 70 our
4 iugouts where we waited for two
B hours for the baTrage 70 stop
. When We came out I found that
10 shells had struck on the spot
| Ehere I had lain q few hours be-
5re. No one was hurt, but several
we're frightened pretty badly.
| We were finally ordered 10 move
a1t that evening. and mixed back
10 a woods near the first dugOuts
We were in. Pitched tents and re
NAMED several days when our divi-
sion received orders that we were
going over the top.
"EvrybOdv was given reserve IA
tons. ammunition, hand gTenades,
rife greuaGes. signal rockets and,
q course. a great many orders.
Moved out under cover Of darkness
4 and marched three or four miles
70 the edge Of a woods at the front.
Remained there the rest Of the night
and started our drive at ; O'Clock
line next morning. the zero hour.
Our artillery was located in the
woods to our rear and part Of it