The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-03
LIEUT.. DABNEY IS
 FAST RECOVERING
 FROM HIS WOUNDS
Letter to Mrs. Dabney Gives Some Interesting Details of His Regiments
 Advance

| ar interesting letter from her husband. Dr. Malcolm Dabney, who is with the l67th infantry. in which he describes the regiments advance in August and tells 1 SC mething about how he received his own wounds. He writes;
 IF am trying to write you a letter and 1 I think l can As I can give no news from here I might as well try to tell you of our advance. l wish l could give dates and places.
 '.We started an advance the last of July, as you saw in the papers One afternoon as we were camped in the woods the battalion adJutant came and told me to pI epare for an attack and l thought he meant from the boche. We got ready and then were notified to fol- ! low Company =. We strung out and started through the woods and then hell broke Huge trees and earth would spring into the air and fall in splinters Through out the night we applied first aid to our boys and early the next morning we found the boches had retreated several kilometres and left large numbers of dead and wounded. Most of the dead were lying with hands over their heads, showing that their last words were kan erad.' Some, or a great part of them were not more than r or IS years old. Some were very old men and looked starved. They had machine guns and were piled with dead around them in large numbers.
 We entrenched there, and advanced tn ho az in ing the boche. Occasionally they would send a shell over toward us, but as their 1 infantry was so near us the artillery would not take chance on shelling us too much
 They again retreated during the night and our boys went to the edge of the wood and found that the enemy had retreated to another wood and to get to them required a charge across half mile of wheat field. and then was wit messed as brave a charge as ever Ameri- cans made. No detailed description here, but when I return after the war
 We were busy in the dressing station until the next morning when it was de- cided that the best way was for the reg mental medical department to keep UT with the advance, so we all went up to the first line except two surgeons and
 
 We caught up with the advance col umn and were sitting along a shallow ditch at the roadside while some of the boys were advancing on the village of --. They entered the town after a stiff resistance and set fire to it as the boche were smelling it and the boys could not hold 1t at that time.
 They then started smelling us and were only blowing dirt on us while we were singing songs in the best of humor and were impatiently awaiting the order to advance around and past the town We cheered when we saw the town in flames and were not discouraged when we saw our small storming band retreating from it as we knew that it could be entered again.
 While discussing this I was conscious of an explosion near me and a sudden dull pain below my knee. I removed my logging and brooches leg and applied first aid to myself. As we needed men would not use litter, but had one of the boys to help me to the aid station. On our way to the rear, about a kilo down the road another shell came and wounded me in the other leg (the left one) and also got my assistant in the thigh. I was placed upon an ambulance at the dressing station and sat upon the seat with the driver It was just dark and I did not feel uncomfortable. After
 
 chateau which had been converted into an ambulance clearing station. Here we were injected with anti-tetanus serum and were also given some hot tea. After knocking around there for about an hour (about midnighD I was assigned to an- other ambulance and renewed my jour- ney q thought to Pars), but not so. finally came to another ambulance sta ton and by this time I was very cold and so~was my orderly. In the darkness officers and men looked alike, but the major in command accidentally shot his Everready or Daylo on me and recognlz- ing a medic he asked me if 1 wanted anything I told him that my orderly and I were tired and asked 60 be al- lowed to remain at the station for a while. This was absolutely against or ders and there were no hunks, but he allowed it just the same. The enlisted men of the ambulance company felt a brotherly interest in my orderly, also 2 member of the hospital corps. They gave Ius several blankets each and two filters land also tobacco, of which we--had had none in several days. We slept well until almost daylight and were earned to Q field hospital laid up while and then to another field hospital, which occu- pied several beautiful chateaux gwen by the owners for hospital work Here l hal my scrap iron removed and was put in a comfortable cot and slept until night when I was removed to Red Cross tram and 24 hours later found myself in the base hospital where l am now am feeling fine, and am going to be able to use crltches in a few days
 "Just before l went under ether for my operations q captain came to my litter and exclaimed, Where did you ge. tLat name?' I had never seen him In my life, but in a fraction of second | answered, From Virginia, the same as you He saw my regimental number and asked if I were related to Dr. J. D. Dad ney of Birmingham. He was Capt Rob ert Dabney and on the Vanderbilt staff. l He was exceedingly kind to me. l weN' Innder ether about II a. m, and his voice awakened me about 4:30 p. m.
 i q will try to write you every day if I am not too nervous.
 LIEUT.. MALCOLM c. DABNEY. |, Since this letter was written Mrs. Dab- ney has received another letter from Lieutenant Dabney saying that he is still