The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1918-11-14

The Republican has on file a num-
Der OF highly interesting letters from
Garrett county soldiers in France, all
the letters. of course, having been writ
ten several weeks ago and at a time
when the American forces were engag-
ed in the thick of the hardest fighting
of the four years war. Now, since the
cessation of hostilities. they will soon
come marching home. and when that
happy hour arrives all will hear with re-
newed and never-Iagging interest from
the lips of the boys themselves, &C.
counts of their narrowing experiences
in the trenches, of their first going over
the top, their dash into No Mans Land,
where they met in deadly. hand to hand
combat with the enemy; mayhap their
forced retirement, and then the Cruel
ing advance again in the face of a MUIR
derous, concentrated fire from the enc
my; how their comrades, struck down
by their side, waved and cheered them
onward to victory, for it must be re-
membered that the American forces,
once in possession of territory in the
war zone, were never forced back. All
these things will be r, counted by the
boys who return.
But what of the others? They each
occupy hallowed spot in France where
the mounds covering them will be kept
strewn with flowers by the French peo-
pie as token for the help afforded that
nation in her darkest hours by the brave
and liberty-loving sons of America.
They were loved at home; their memory
will be revered in France.
The subjoined letter, under date of
October 81 was written by Private Ed
ward Chance of the American Engi-
neers, to his sister Miss Louise Chance,
at Mountain Lake Park:
81 am now back in D Company, which
brings me over to the land of the flying
shrapnel. Most of it is flying over to
the Boche, however, so we are getting
along grand. We are working hard,
though, building and repairing roads
and we are kept at it from daylight I'M
til dark; in fact we keep few men on
the job all night to repair bad places.
81 would love so much to tell you of
my trip back to the company and lots of
happenings since, but paper is scarce
and it is almost impossible to find time
to write. We can't have lights at night
on account of the enemy planes and we
must work all day.
"Oct. 11-Sorry to keep you waiting
for letter. but am really doing my
best. Our platoon has today off, which
is the first for a long time. We have
all washed our clothes and will spend
the rest of the day writing.
II saw Frank Maxwell the other day.
He's an ambulance driver. He said
mine was the first familiar face he had
seen since he came over.
I'VE put in a hard day yesterday. In
the morning we did regular road work
then our company commander ordered
the fourth platoon to gather up our
tools ana follow him. We liked about
FIVE miles toward German territory and
as we went forward conditions became
more and more warlike. We were soon
beyond where traffic dared to 90, and
shells began to land uncomfortably
close. Many dead horses We're strewn
on both sides of the roads and in the
fields. On the streets of town thru
which we passed lay several dead Amer
lean troopers. The whole scene bore
evidence of hard and recent fighting. 1t
was a sector that had been in the pos
session of the Germans since the early
stage of the war and had been taken
from them by our boys in the past day
or two.
Our job was to put in bridge where
the enemy, in retreatlng, had blown up
| the old one. The Germans were per-
haps mile from US and hidden from US
by hill which rose between their lines
and US. We were in large open sec
ton of country and all along the ridge
in the rear of US lay infantrymen who
were in support of those then IN the
front line. Just as we started our job
the infantry began to advance and then
the Germans increased their Smelling.
Of course we had also been spotted by
the enemy observers and before we had
been at work five minutes one man had
been wounded. A part of the Smelling
had been concentrated on US which
made it impossible for US to continue
work and we were ordered to take
cover Our commander showed Won
derful nerve in the care of his men. He
saw to it that every man had some sort
of protection before he took to cover
himself. A shallow ditch in the road
side or hind stone was all the cover
obtainable. The infantry continued its
advance in noble fashion. The men
showed the real stuff. Keeping about
ten feet apart they continued steadily
on and soon they were abreast of US on
our right and left. They continued to
advance and after reaching their objec-