Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-11-26
EVERY ONE AGREES
WITH GEN. SHERMAN
ON WHAT WAR IS LIKE
Sergeant Arthur Med. Carter
Writes Home From Front
Line Trenches
THE ALLIES WALLOP f
A FEW HELL HOUNDS"
Annapolis Boy Gives Vivid De-
scription Of Fighting At
The Front


Writing under date of Novembe: 2.
1918, Sergeant Arthur Mcdowell Car
ter, of this city, of the Machine Gun
Company, 115th Infantry. has the fol-
lowing to say in an interesting letter
to his father, Mr.. Arthur b. Carter,
Chief Clerk at the Annapolis postofice.
I'VE are now in a rest area, just
back from the front, where we made
an advance of about five miles. and
then occupied the line for twenty two
days. And they were days full of ex-
citement, to say nothing of the nights.
u believe ] mentioned everything
worth while i'm a letter / just wrote
Anna, which happened TO be the first
chance | could get to write for nearly
month. You can try to imagine
what ii is like to advance over ground
that has been held by the Hun for over
four years. They tried to destroy all
they could as they were driven back.
and our artillery helped them wonder
fully along those lines and TO top
things Off, after we had driven them
the job. For about three miles we
went over an open ground, passing
about two lines of trenches which
were not of the wonderful variety you
see pictured in the papers, but they
seemed to answer their purpose for
awhile at least. We then came to a
woods, where we were held up for a
short while by machine gun fire. After
we had advanced though it we found
out what the trouble was. All through
/ the woods they had machine gun nests
built up in the trees. platforms fifty
| feet from the ground with winding
stairways reaching to them, and just
beneath them dugouts twenty feet be-
meath the ground By the looks of
things they evidently expected to
spend a few more years in this region,
but in this they were sadly mistaken.
We were, as you no doubt now know.
operating on the west of the Meuse.
just north of Verdun, which / had the
opportunity of visiting on our way to
the front. At present ii is only de-
serted city, occupied mostly by rats.
Most of the houses show evidence of
shell fire, as ! understand there has
not day passed since the beginning
of the war that some shells have not
fallen in the city. The soldiers sta
toned there live in the citadel which
is covered with about fifty feet of dirt.
logs, etc. You can be sure they had a
perfectly safe place as some of them
have been there for the duration of the
war and are not at all anxious to
leave.
THE cathedral was the most in
teresting place we found II is very
badly damaged, the entire roofing in
places having broken in. IT must have
been a very beautiful place in years
gone. by. To return to our coupe
about T. p. IN. on the 7th of October
we left Dead Mans HILL five miles
west of Verdun, where we had been
about ten miles, reaching the place
for three days, and hiked all night,
from which we began the attack at
$50 a. m, on the 8th of October /
think ! could write a book that would
have Empey beat mile, but | do not
think you would find the two stories
alike in many respects. In fact / won
der where he got his line. 1t was sure
a great sight to see our boys going up
over the hill, one which | shall re-
member for the rest of my days, and
it was not very long before prisoners
were travelling to our rear, and they
sure seemed to be glad that the war
was inis.' las the frogs say for them.
They were given hot coffee and soup
right off the bat, something most of US
would have enjoyed immensely that
morning. We had our first meal for
the day, consisting Of canned corned
J beef, canned beans, bread and water.
which we had carried with as, about
O'Clock in the evening. after we had
advanced well into the woods, and |
think we all enjoyed it very much, at
| least ] know / did. To make matters
, worse it drizzled the best part of the
/ day, and Anne Arundel clay has moth
ing on this soil for sickness. To
wards the close of the day it seemed
. as though my feet weighed about
twenty pounds, but perhaps it was be-
cause we were brewing weary. After
/, we had taken our objective the lines
were strengthened, outposts placed
and everyone sat tight There were
, any number Of dugouts which the
Huns had kindly built for our benefit.
! though / do not think they knew it at
| the time. Anyhow, we made good use
, Of them, as they afforded our chaps
fine protection from the 'barrack bags.
q. l. Cans and high explosives the
Huns threw over to us, and they
seemd to have plenty TO spare. The
first day we entered the woods it look
ed very respectable. when we left
three weeks later It looked as though a