River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-12-05
Letters From Our
Soldier Boys
From Lieut.. A. C. Deneen
New Richmond News)

Mrs. w. Il. D0ar OF this CIV ant
the son of Postmaster Deneen of
Hammond, is with the 128th Infan-
try. the regiment in which Com
pany G of Hudson is now unit, OF
the 32d Division that has been cited
on more than one occasion by Gen.
Pershing in General Orders. On
Oct. 25th he wrote:
Il could write you reams and
reams of interesting things that
would probably cause you many
nights Of bad dreams, but | cannot
In fairness to the censors and no
one would be the happier for it.. l
have been over the top and faced
both machine gun fire and high ex-
plosives. | had charge Of our COM
pany, as our captain was injured
several days before we actually
went over.
"How did l act in battle? Just
as in football, and was not scared,
in fact, not any after getting start
ed. However, slept very little, if
any, the night before going over, as
l felt the real responsibility of a
captains job pretty heavy. am
sure my time had not come-your
prayers all helped and convinced
myself everything would be 0. K,
and as a consequence | wasn't as
disturbed as many far drawer than
|.
1.-The Smelling one undergoes IS
terrific. | can best describe
breaking she'll of sharpnel or high
explosive by asking you to imagine
a sufficient power to break a ten
story building as one would a bag
of wind over your ear. This would
furnish the noise, then add the fly
ing missiles, dirt, etc., and seeing
the results, hole sometimes deep
enough to hold several men, injured
and dead, if any were SO unfortu
nate as to be ia it's path, and many
thousands have been that unfortu-
nate-and there is not only one such
shell put hundreds of them coming
so fast you could scarcely keep
count.
l got machine gun bullet thru
my coat sleeve and even thru my
Shirt left three holes somehow,
but didn't even scratch my skin.
"Our preparations for the show
were par excellent and we are fast
learning when to advance, how far
to go and at what rate. We are es-
pecially proud of our record as
divisor and if we can get a rest, l
think we will be able to repeat
again when we are called on.
Il am feeling quite we'll consider
ing everything, but have coolies"
and that makes me miserable. l
haven't had my boots off to sleep in
twenty days. Your letters are
worth more than our whole medical
corps
In a letter written late In Septem-
Der; Lieut.. Deneen says:
Il am mighty fortunate in being
with this division for it has been
cited three times for the wonderful
fighting il has done. We may be
doing more soon but one never
knows; then, too, we can profit by
the experiences of those who have
been in the thick of it.
"They tell me the farmer boys are
making the very best kind of fight
ers in this open warfare and all
have covered themselves with glory.
From all accounts Germany is
being hit hard for man-power and
every prisoner taken seems 10 be
very happy to be captured which
would indicate their heart is not in
their work. Ihey also say the Ger
man Infantry is thru-all in-in
other words, outside of the artillery
and machine guns Germany is done.
"The machine gun is the hardest
nut for our men to crack, but they
are gradually learning how to con-
serve their lives and yet accomplish
the taking of their objective. Whe
you stop to recall the wonderful
things the men have done and often
without the aid of our varied
sources of strength, such as avia-
ton, artillery, etc., you can we'll
picture what Germany knows will
be in store for her sometime next