The Parisian. (Paris, Tenn.) 1907-1962, 1918-10-25
LETTER FROM DR..
N. c. WIGGINS
DR.. Wiggins Receives Slight
Wound in Shoulder. Tells
Horrors of War
Extracts from letters by Lieut.. M.
C. Virgins, serving with the Ameri-
an forces in France.
Somewhere in France.
Sept. 25, 1918.

Sept. %, 1918.
II is, now nearly midnight and
am in a surgical dressing station sit
uated the very thickest of one O.
the greatest battles fought since thu
beginning of the war. We are loca
ted on spot that once was a beauti
full chateau but nowhere is nothing
left to mark the spot except a few
stones and the remains of the shat
tered marble pillars that marked tbs
entrance to the driveway.
The country was all in the hands of
the enemy this time last week. We
have just driven them back. All the
stories that have been told of how the
enemy plant mines, traps, and all
kinds of explosive devices over ter
ritory when they evacuate it are true,
only the half has not been told.
Words cant express the many things
they do that are cowardly and wick
ed.
We are rushed day and night and
/ anl almost dead, / have gotten so
that guns, large explosive shells and
bombs don't bother me any more.
/ don't have time to think about them
for there is constant stream OF
nded coming in all the time.
Lieut. Johnson is relieving me at
present. / lay down a few minutes
last night to get nap and had co
stuff cotton in my ears to get to
sleep, for the big guns were contin.
ually pounding away and every shot
was almost aeafening, as well as the
reports from. the bursting of large
shells and bombs. The Boche drop
ped about a hundred bombs right
near us in succession and it seemed
that heswhole world was going to ex
plode.
We came up to this area on busses.
There were about five hundred auto
mobile buses in our convoy and thes
formed line long enough to reach
from Paris to Cottage Grove. We
rode all night over about fifty miles
of country, that has been taken from
the enemy in the last six weeks. Ali
the signboa,ds along the roads and
at the railroad crossings are still
written in German, and there az i,
large German cemeteries all over the
country. In many places the deac
are unburied. Night before last we
rode all night long on the busses ana
then, about day break, started walk
ing the remaining ten or twelve miles
to our present location. Got here
yesterday afternoon about one o'clock
and were all nearly dead. Hadn't bad
any sleep all that night and nothing
to eat since the day before at four
p. M, and had to take over the main
surgical post at once. We haven't
had any let up since then. The en-
durance we have is inconceivable
Three months ago | would have sim
ply thought it impossible to stand the
things | have to go through with now,
but | am not having more hardships
than anyone else in this great drive.
l can hardly write for every few
minutes one Of our big guns goes off
and it almost jars me off the box
/ am using for a stool, and
everything is in such mad rush and
confusion | don't know what day of
the week or month it is and | don't
remember what date / wrote you last,
but they say it is Monday, September
3Oth Tie big drive started yester-
day morning but | have been work
ing day and night now for about a
week We used eight operating teams
all day yesterday. r was relieved
last night and got one good nights
rest, but Il Ge been working all day.
We had ahumber of casualties in
our company yesterday. l received
a slight sht kwound in the shoulder
night before last which laid me out
for a while. The Boche were shell
ling our sdvance surgical post SO
heavily that we officers started fol
the Colonel's dug-out. Just as ! wa,
going down the steps into the due
out large piece Of shell got me
just over the right shoulder. Com
pletely tore my coat, shirt, sweater