Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1918-04-26
AMERICAN TROOPS, WHILE UNDER
CONSTANT FIRE, HIGH SPIRITED
Nobody Who Has Not Been in the Front Line Trenches
Trenches Can Possibly Know the Horror and the
Misery of War, or Appreciate the Heroism of Our
Fighters, Soldier Writes Mother

right, for It Is peace mt any pricc.
even If tho price Is life, and wo arc
going to pay millions Of lives before
we get it.
Hero have written few pages you
may never receive, and in thinking
over what 1 havo written l have said
nothing that can give you any real
clear idea of what this war is like.
1t Is mado up Of thousand little
details and the master Of nll is
Courage and Work.
Work from morning to tho ncxt
morning, and work SO hard you don't
know when morning actually comes.
1 suppose 1t Is In my blood, for all of
our ancestors fought, and l like it in
spite OF tho hell Of noise, and sudden
death, and lingering death, and awful
work. and no water. and lice, and raped
women and manglcd children, and
towns that were, and friends that were,
and tho glorious lifc to go back to
after war. Some way it NIL seems rs if
l had been through It before.
remember tho last letter I started
to writo you about two weeks ago, in
n dugout nearly forty feet dccp, and
almost Mt tho start n shell hit the
| top, mado an awful noise, put my
candle out, and made me think I had
bcttcr inspect our trenches and talk
little to my men, for l felt litlto
in need OF cheering. So didn't wrto
any moro, but started to inspect our
position, woke up again in my dug
out with n little bit of ovcrcoat left,
a very small and shallow hole in my
shoulder, few gravel in my face
and tho hatc of hell In my heart for
tho man who fired tho shot.
Tho Trenches.
So It goes. You walk through
trenches so black you skin your fncc
against the walls of it, curse the twist
cd shape of it, and wish to God you
could see something real to shoot at.
Sixteen long hours of blackncss and
then twilight twisted in fog and
malformcd by hidden sun. Then tho
Same thing over and over again. Moth
ing happens in the day, hell pops
loose at darkness. When / left tho
trenches l was really beginning to be
able to sec in the dark.
Mother, when you get this letter
will be back in the limo. When you
are asleep l am awake (for night is
the time things happcn) and when you
are awake so am ], large part of tho
time. Everything works fast here, life,
death, men, artillery, all are at con-
cert pitch and going faster than you
can imagine; so il the Boche is lucky
and one OF his shells happen to hit
mo and 1 take the long. long sleep,
you must not worry n little bit.
chose this profession and it is thc only
ono Of the mall. If don't come back
when peace is sounded, just rcmcm-
Der that I met it smiling and tried
and did do all you would want me to
do.
I have been so fortunate in my an
cestors and their fighting abilities,
that perhaps it is little easier on me
than some of the rest. So help them
all you can and know that am happy
somewhere.
This, I know, from my old rcmcm-
brances of things sounded n little like
mush, but it isn't. it is exactly what
mean and feel. It is not easy to
write, but if | could talk to You for
few minutes you would understand,
You always understood.
And now, dearest mother, good night.
1t is Christmas and hope this letter
will reach you. / am still wrctcllcd
that when VIC were together you were
not rs happy rs You should have been.
but perhaps this helps n little.
Again good night and God bless you.
Your loving son.