The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-10-31

a letter received by Mr. and Mrs
William Stephenson Of Jamaica from
their son, Private Robert Stephenson
of Company L, 1881 infantry, in France,
dated Sept IS, reads as follows:
Dear Mother aud Dad
Received your letter Of August . /,
also one from Aunt Kate dated the 23d
of August. As long as have tire will
try % write Il letter about what / have
been through since | wrote on the 9th.
We moved up into the lines the night
Of the and the next morning we
went cover the top and after the
Bochc Our artillery gave ms quite Il
little assistance i'm the form of seven.
hour harrugc so that when we started
over quite lot OF them were ON their
way home in a hurry. OF course they
had TO leave some behind To cover their
retreat and we took care Of them, the
most part being taken prisoners
We had very few men hit AT all and
most Of them were not very badly
wounded for one carried my usual
luck with me and came out all whole.
When we ended up on our drive the fol
lowing afternoon wc had covered what
ground we were supposed 20 be seven
DAYS doing, but we had them 50 scared
on the start that the rest was easy. We
stayed over night i'm the town where
We finished our drive and came back
here the next day, where we have been
in reserve ever since.
do not know yet what we are going
90 do next. but thought / would write
while was sure Of Il chance. This
ground that we took has been held by
The Buche for exactly four years till the
day wc took it back. II was some day
for the few people that remained i'm the
towns where they had been nothing
more than prisoners for four years. W,
were the first Americans they had ever
seen aud / guess they were glad TO Sc,
us from what they said anG the way
they acted
/ wish / could think of what / want
to say aud make a real letter out oI
this, but / cannot do so. You will hay,
10 consider yourselves lucky TO get thi'
much Also YOU better save this let
ter for souvenir rs this paper and tn,
pencil / am writing with are some
found in storchouSc where on
'.rricnds" have been living the las
four years There are lots Of things VI
didu t find as they burned most OF wha
they were forced to leave. But VI
found plenty Of things TO eat both 70
men and horses, a. large quantity of to
bacco and some real German beer. / !
bet they hated to leave all that they die
but they left in too much Of a hurry t.
do otherwise. | forgot TO mention abon
all the cannon and machine guns a
we'll as lots of ammunition that W
captured.
/ presume you have already see
quite "a lot in the papers about thl
drive and all the prisoners and every
thing that was taken, but whe
YOU read about ii YOU did not kno'
that | was there with my little Spring
field oh, but it is great sport for fly
or six men 10 capture q machine ~
and take from eight 20 10 prisoners an
not get a scratch out Of IL. ann gla
was not i'm the hospital this time whc
my outfit went over, the same as ! wa
i'm July, when they made that otht
drive which proved little disastrous
them.
Well / do not know but we may 9
over once more before ! write agar
hut if we do you can trust that ] WI
lake care of myself and not run mi
needless danger, only ! shall do u
duty the same as | have in the past. X
CARDS to all Your loving son,
ROBERT.
+. s. | had letter from Harry NJ
COON this afternoon. He is all .. Is. !
Is u Company a, ID engineers.