Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-08-07
MINISTER WENT
OVER THET0P
WlTHSOLDlERS
Corporal Sheriff Describes
Stirring Incidents at
Front.

Corporal Aaron r. Sheriff, for
merly a farmer. and hog breeder liv-
ing near this city, has written a let
ter to M. g. Bachelor giving a vivid
picture of life at the battle front and
also describing the bravery displayed
by a Baptist minister who went over
the top with the rest Of the soldiers
without fearing machine, gun fire and
shrapnel the least bit.
Corporal Sherritt's home Is at
Blanchard. N. D., and for a time he
was in the dairy business with Rich
ards Brothers on their farm nearlthe
university. For several years he ex-
hibited Yorkshire hogs at the fairs
in this city. 4E.
1T was rumored lately that Corporal
Sheriff. was wounded in action at
Cantigny where. the American ma
rines received their baptismal of fire.
Following Is his letter which is dat
ed July g..
Il have written you several times;
but L don't think l ever got any of
them started. We always moved and
the censor quit work just as I was
going to mail them. 1 carried one in
my gas mask for a month or a month
and a half on one of the most ia
nous fronts in France, but it was so
quiet that we got the first rest we
had in months. 1 finally choked
myself on a practice drill and took
them out and put them in my pack,
or rather, wrote another and put it in
my pack and. left the pack at my lit
tie dugout after we got on the lines.
Said dugout was Is inches wide
and two. feet deep and just long
enough to lie down in. I lived in it
about ten hours then some said,
over the top in IS minutes'-my
pack is still there as far as I know.
Believe me its exciting for a few min
utes at least. but Sherman didn't do it
Justice or else he didn't know what
modern warfare is like. I got a
peach of a rest out Of mine. I am
using a ane now.
Il wish you could be with us but
it's no place for a married man. You
certainly would make a crackerjack
of a Y. NJ. c. A. man. We need some
rough and ready business men who
can get quick results and hit the pace
we do. It's a bigger job to get
smokes to us than to ruiz a State
Fair and takes the same kind of man.
agement. You can't do it by rules
because one time We are in a place
where everything is cut and dried
the next time we are where every
thing Is changing.
II met one old "Y" man out in
the front line passing cigarettes the
day I left. I was coming back help
ing to carry a stretcher. He is a
Baptist preacher about 60 years old
and has a wife and family back in
Arizona. That didn't stop him from
praying for cigarettes to give to the
boys who were broke. You don't
meet a man in a thousand like him.
He went over the top with us that
night and carried stretchers through
machine gun fire and under shrapnel.
What do you think of var over
there? How long will it take to lick
Fritz? He has US guessing. 1t would
be fun to see Grand Forks now. Our
company has eight D. S. o. medals to
its credit but they don't know it.
There were ONE fine men in the
bunch and Fritz has paid dearly and
will pay some more if 1 know any
thing about it.
Did they shoot as much hot air in
the states as they did over here
about the Marines? A lot of it is true
but the engineers and Doughboys in
the outfit fought like h too and
deserve just as much credit. In fact
Americans are pretty much alike if
they are we'll trained"