The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1918-10-25
FIGHTING THE
LEAST T|RES0ME
PART OF WAR
CAPT. REESE n. .sAMls. DIES.
cRlHEs GREAT DRIVE TO.
WARD HUNLAND.
Vivid Description of the Tremendous
Artillery Preparation, One Battery
Being Placed Every Thirty.seven
Yards.

One of the most interesting letters
from the front is that received by
the editor of The Herald from Cap
tain Reese T. Amis formerly city
editor of The Herald.
1t gives pretty vivid description
of battle in which the Huns were
driven towards Hunland."
The letter follows:
Headquarters Battery &C." ia F. A.
Somewhere in France.
10 September, 1918.
My Dear Mr.. Finney:-
have intended for some time to
answer the letter from you that
came some weeks ago, but time has
| moved very swiftly and things have
happened even more so. For one
thing, | have had one of these social
ed baptisms of fire and survived it
without scratch either to myself or
men 1t was quite interesting on the
whole and ! am now ready for anoth-
er. My wish will soon be gratified,
think, for we appear to be on the
way to a certain French fortress
which has been most frequently men
toned in the war. In fact, we are
resting today within sound of its
guns.
The curious thing about this war
business, according to my limited OBJ.
servation, is that the fighting is the
least boresome, least tiresome part
Of it, AT least, it is the only part Of
lit that get much pleasure from.
But it constitutes only about five per
cent of the whole. The rest of the
time is spent in the tiresome, weary
ing task of hauling ammunition, NOV
ing long distances by night, usually
from about Z O'Clock at night to 6 or
Z O'Clock the next morning, grooming
and taking care of 1875 or $50 of these
brittle French horses, cleaning guns
disciplining men, and doing ten thou
sand other things that come up in the
course of day or night. Sometimes
we get six or eight hours of sleep,
again we do well to get two or three
hours. My trench coat is bedding
roll, blankets, bath robe, and bed
When a halt comes, simply lie down
in it by the side OF the road. not in
frequently in the middle of it, and
grab off nap of few minutes.
l started to tell you of the drive
in which my battery took part. You
will have little difficulty in guessing
where it was, as we were a part of
the American army which made the
spirited dash toward Hunland recent.
ly. Really, it was very easy vic
tory and cheaply bought in manpow.
er, for our artillery simply overwhelm-
ed the Huns. They put up a slight
machine guns for while and then
beat it on back toward Deutschland
according to previously made plans
The bag of prisoners was very good
around 10000 or 1900, while the 200
guns which were captured will be
used to good advantage. The notable
thing about the prisoners that nearly
all of them were either very young
boys or old men. Men from rs to 40
were few and far between. But let
me tell you what / can Of the artillery
preparation. You cannot conceive Of
anything so immense of terrible. il
am not stretching the blanket" very
much when tell you that there were
more guns in 'gas hollow" a long
ravine in which we were located, than
there were in the American army be-
fore the war started. learned from
a very reliable source that there was
a battery of hight artillery every 81
yards on our part of the front. When
the normal front Of battery is Sol
yards, you may gain some idea of how
much chance the Huns had to with.
stand such an attack
The drive began shortly before
o'clock in the morning. Rain had been