The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1918-12-17

tenQanCS. AS SOoH DIS VIC "Sle Sohi-
fortably settled an orderly came a.
round with tray of whiskeys. A lit
tie later he came along with tea ard
crackers. Eventually we reached our
destination, a tremendous British
Hospital where we were again classi-
fed and the slightly wounded took
the journey again. This time to the
sea coast. The hospitals near the
lir.a are cleare! as fast as the patti
ents recover sufficiently to travel in
order to make room for emergencies.
You cannot realize the horror Of
war until you stay day in a Casu-
atty Clearing Station and see the
physical wrecks come in. In one
station I know of nine hundred Am
orleans who PASSED through in twen-
ty-six hours. These stations are To-
Gated in trios. One receives a day
evacuates the next-then tides up
and gets in shape again the next
but during our push they were all
forced to work almost continuously.
The slightly wounded are put to
work at once caring for their more
unlucky brothers.
The most remarkable thing I no
ticed was the fact that no one lost
consciousness, and some of them
were horribly mangled. One poor
fellow Ia Germany had both legs and
one arm broken and a gaping wound
in his side but he was still able to
'Kamerad." Thirty minutes later
he was dead. I don't understand it.
We, of course have to care for
German wounded as much as posi-
BILE, also. During the scrap at one
place I had collected a bunch of
German wounded and placed them in
a cellar out of danger. AS fast as
we could put our hands on prisoners
we sent them to the rear. I had eva
cuated all but ten when orders came
for me to 90 forward again and I
had to leave them. Three days Ia
ter, when the battle was over, / pass
ed through this village and thought
of my wounded prisoners. / went
to the cellar and found them "all
dead" I have never had such a
sensation in all my life-but of
course it was unavoidable on my
part. Such is war.
There is another subject which
few people like to discuss but its one
we can't overlook over here, and
that is the care of the dead. In
trench warfare it's simple. The bod
les are sent to the rear at night and
entered in cemeteries chosen at
leisure and generally beautiful spots.
Permanent details care for them and
they are admirably kept. A small
wooden cross with the name, rank,
and date of death marks the resting
>! place. Then when the regiment
comes out of the line day is set
apart and one service is held for all.
1t is very impressive. In drive like
the past six weeks this cannot be
! lone. Burial parties are formed and
these follow the advance about twen-
ty four hours behind. Sites are Sc
lected near cross roads or some spot
easily described on the map and all
bodies in the immediate vicinity are
collected and buried there. Where
crosses can be obtained they are used
but generally steel helmet on
! bayonet with a small identification
disc is the only record but very
appropriate one I think. All these
are later exhumed and removed to
one of the larger cemeteries.
We have suffered heavily in the
past few weeks, but we have won a
reputation which won't be forgotten
soon.
I don't know how the Abbeville
boys came out and I won't be able
to hear until I return to the COM
pany. Any way you will have the
casualty list long before you re-
ceive this.
Some parts of this are bit black
and not what you could call "choice
literature" but its all facts, and I