Norwich bulletin., 1918-09-13
STORIES OF THE WAR
TRIBUTE TO THE 1o2ND.

High tribute to the 102nd United
 States Infantry made up of the old
 First and Second Regiments Cannecti-
 cut Naional Guard. is paid by Hamilton
 Holt, Yale '94 in an article entitled
 "A Visit to the Yale Mobile Hospital" "
 printed in the summer supplement of
 the Yale Alumni Weekly" Because
 this article deals so intimately with
 Connecticut boys now fighting in
 France, it is reprinted herewith:
 Il gladly comply with your request
 to tell briefly of my impressions of the
 Yale Mobile Hospital Unit which 1 recently visited in France. It was six o'clock Sunday afternoon May IF ex- actly three weeks after the 1a2d Con- nectieut boys had won the battle of Seicheprey, the first battle that Amer ica had fought in France. General Clarence Edwards had just taken Judge William H. Wadifams. '96. and l myself over to see these boys who 1 tock part in it-mostly from New Haven, Hartford and Waterbury-and 1 to hear from their own lips the story l of their victory.
 Tt will interest all Yale men to have me repeat here the story Colonel Dowell told ne o the part Lieut. Charles E. Lockhart, 'G9, S. played in I the battle When the Germans made 1 their great attack on that fatefui night said Colonel Dowell. Lockhart 1 was isolated with a command of thirty seven men when we had to fall back After two days of fighting when we Ifegained our trenches and threw the Germans back, killing and wounding over sixty per cent. of them, went tc i Colonel Parker in command of the 102d and suggested that he and I gC
 out and look for Lockhart and hi. | boys. Just as we left the trenches w
 met Loekhart coming back. The frs
 he did was to draw himself up ant
 salute. apologizing for his two days growth Of beard and his dishevelleC appearance. In response to our re , quests as to how he had fared, he re
 piled: I am glad to report, sir, tha
 we have eight still alive; the othe
 twenty nine are dead in the trenches sir
 Think what this means! Here wa ,, the first fight in which America too part in the Great War. The honor 0
 representing America fell to regi , ment of Connecticut boys, When tn , order was given to retreat one littl , band in command of a modern Natha . Hale held their ground for two day . though entirely surrounded by tn a GeFiIlthS. Anu lnSA NH0n they WSE , finally relieved there they were. ever . single man of them, dead or alive, 6 , his post Our histories tell us tha America never produced a braver sol
 dier than old Israel Putnam. I car : not help feeling that were the ol . General alive today he would not | !. ashamed Of these boys from his natiV
 state.
 . When Colonel Dowell had inishe a his story. which 1 wish every Va T man could have heard as he told i < a message was brought to us invitin e us to dine at the Yale Mobile Hospit; ;. Unit not far away. So we said good d bye to General Edwards and received r hearty cheer from the home boys N khaki and soon found ourselves on |, little hill where a number of oblon - unpainted buildings had been recent 3 erected in field of mud We wake f over the duck boards, and entered or f of the huts, where we met Major Flil f of the Tale M Medical school in conmar n of the unit. And what a welcome V = got from the fifteen Yale physician A and the eighty Yale boys under the d and even the fifteen Connecticut trail I ed nurses! There, right within ranf a of the German guns, we had an O n home week for about an hour that W; # worth going all the way to France al if braving the perils of thousand sul s marines to take part in. o "Of course, we were given a re V American supper and of course ? l. were shown all over the unit-whif a while comparatively small-it has on h 300 beds-was as finely squipped n any I saw in Europe. Of course u st Yale Chaplain asked Judge Wadhan :. and myself to take part in the VeSn g services anu prlLs tnehi all tAe late