The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1918-12-02
A LETTER FROM SIBERIA
Sept. 9Th, 1918.

oillSC WEUtS yOuA last lSbISE.
We got an order that night to leave
at once. We were on the train
about 36 hours, and have been hiking
hard for the last six days, One day
we hiked all day in the rain, and the
mud was sometimes to our knees.
We had a pack that weighed some
thing over so lbs. We have begun to
find out now what real hardships are.
| had a pretty bad cold when | first
came up here, but have gotten rid Of
it on this hike and am now feeling
fine.
am not complaining, for / think
this is what we should have had from
the very beginning. Manila was
paradise along side of this but /
much prefer this place-when the
war is over they can't call us Coffee
Colored.' Well, we have seen some
of the effects of the war already.
We have been advancing just in the
rear of where the Japs, English and
French have been fighting the en-
envy On the second day of the hike
we saw dead men piled up as high as
six in pile along the road, some of
them having been dead for at least
four days.
Almost half of the men fell out on
the first four days Of the hike, and
they would overtake us at night.
haven't had to fall out yet but have
felt like it number of times.
We are quite a ways from Vladi-
yostok now, in a small place that the
railroad runs through, for few days
rest. / got into a Y. M. C. A. car
and got this writing material. The
car was so crowded that / couldn't
write there, so Pm writing in my
mess pan lid. The tent is so small
that | can hardly sit up in it. 1t is
what we call pup tent" Each
soldier carries half of one in his pack
and they pitch tent together and live
together. They are pretty small but
come in rather handy on rainy
night. We keep war enough at
night as we carry two blankets and
a rubber poncho in our pack.
Mother, | guess they all think the
boys in France have so many hard
ships, but | don't think they will find |
it much harder than we are having,
and have been having for the last six
days. | guess they don't have much
warm weather up here. We got wa
ter out of well one morning that
still had ice in it that hadn't melted
out since winter. The ice wasn't
more than twenty feet below the sur
face of the ground. What do you
think of that for September?
Guess you have heard of "hard
tack" / have been eating it on this
trip until it tastes like cake to me
now.
Well, | don't know just how far
hey are fighting from here. The
laps just sent out four airplanes with
guns on them. / don't know
you know who we are fight
ng or not. You know Russia had
OF of prisoners when they quit fight
ng which they freed. Now they (the
and a lot of other people
ire fighting the allies. There are
lbout 100000 in all, but they are all
catered and disorganized. They call
themselves Bolsheviki's. They are
'acked up by Germany and have
Mostly German officers. What Rus
ia needs nov is a COVER lment, and
he allies are sending troops here to
elp them. They are in terrible
Well, have you heard from Garland
or while? guess he is in France
" now. haven't heard from him.
lay, mother, are you still knitting
weaters for the soldiers? If You
re could use one mighty well over
ere. ! never see anything like that
yer here in the stores. / will send
omething home when / get paid if ]
m near enough to a town where !
an.
Well, mother | will close for this
ime, as we haven't any electric lights
n our pup tents" and it is raining
nd most dark. With love to all.
Your loving son,
WILLIAM M. ROYSTER.
Co. A. 9th Init. A. E. F.
Vladivistok, Siberia.
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