Perth Amboy evening news., 1918-12-26

ley of Sewaren, whose interesting let
tiers have been published from time to
time by the EVENING NEWS, has
written his parents a letter describe
ing his movements in France since
the arrival of his regiment there. His
letter Is highly Interesting and has
been loaned to the EVENING NEWS
for publication. 1t follows;
THE last time 1 wrote you / said
that my next letter might be written
from somewhere in Germany. / have
not gotten that far yet, but expect TO
arrive there in the near future. Our
outfit is included in the army of oc-
cupation n 1 consider myself mighty
lucky. over 100000 men have ar
rived in France and have had a chance
to see the country, but only about n
out of every twenty will have The op-
p~ortunity to see Germany or part of Il
at east. That is why l consider my
self lucky.
"Since tho armistice was signed the
censorship regulations lave been mod
flied and we are allowed to write
about things hat were forbidden
heretofore. so l am going to take the
opportunity to give you a short &C
count OF my happenings in France.
w left the u. s. on the night OF
August Z, 1917. and the last thing /
saw was the light of Coney Island.
It took US thirteen days to make the
trip and we had fine sailing. On the
! morning of August 20, we sighted land
| and also submarines, with which we
had quite a battle. starting about
$3.50 inc lasting to about 10:46.
I'VE landed al the docks of st.
Wazam about 2 in the afternoon n
J received a great reception from the
people. We disembarked the next day
and wen into environments about a
mile from the town. We were then
put into box cars and had a two days
trip across France and arrived at q
! little town called Lougroux, at which
place we stayed about eight days and
then hiked to q little town called Quo
rasal, where we lived In tents and IL
rained most OF the time. We went in
training with the French engineers
and had six weeks of 1t. We construct
ed a system of tracks, put up barbed
wire entanglements, were instructed
In bayonet fighting and grenade
throwing and other lines of warfare.
| After our six weeks were up we
moved to Greducourt on about No
vember /. This place was about the
same size as South Amboy. but the
girls in G~reducourt did not appeal to
me like the girls in South did. IL had
a railroad station n few cafes and a
4 III llAtl JUST n ophNhs
while 1 was in Greducourt I Sc
cured a pass to visit Toul. which is
| where / wrote about the Cathedral.
| We had a more or less uneventful life
in Greducourt and tho weather was
surely disagreeable. On December 10
we left for the front for h first
time and were quartered In a little
town called Valley and used to spend
much OF our time repairing trenches
behind the lines.
ION December % we started work
on q firing trench nearby tho French
front line and did most of the work at
night. On December 23 we went out
to finish up the job. The Heines let
J us work for about an hour and then
let the shells come flying. Believe
me / was never so scared in all my
life. II being the first time under
fire / tried to crawl into my ~overooat
pocket, but falling in this / put a
shovel over my head. A man Is m
thing like an ostrich-as lon as his
head Is covered he feels safe. Half
( of the company was sent in after the
Smelling, but was unlucky enough 10
be in the half that wasn't sent in and
had to stay until about 10 o'clock. The
next day every second man and his
brother had fished a Bible from some
where and was busy getting acquaint-
ed with It.. On Christmas morning
we buried the boy that was killed on
the 23d. We were relieved on jan
uary Z and came back to Greucourt
On January IL we moved to Abain-
Vile and q week later were on our
way to the front.
"Our division took W. the sector
! known to,you people as the northwest
of foul. We were relieved from there
in the latter part of March. You re
member reading about when the Ger
man offensive started that Genera
Pershing offered all he had Ia thu
French-well we were the ones Sc
lected. They called us he "Gyps!
Division and we represented TIT
United States in the battle of Nations
We left the Lorraine sector on East
err Sunday morning and started on GU
way to Picardy.
I'VE went into position there il
about the middle of April n on
battalion was stationed In a town call
ed Broyes. bhout the Riddle of Ma
the second brigade relieved us AM
we went n little way back In tn
woods md lived in shelter tents. Tn
latter part of May our division too
Cantigny and then we were relieve
from the Picardy sector about Jul
1c and were rushed up TO Chatea'
Thieriy We went over the top OF
July IS, and fighting and marchin
continually until we were relieved b
the Scotch on July 20. pulle'
through 1t all o. X. until h las