The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-03-14
M1RSHFIELD
Letters from France and Camp Greene,
Written By Local Boys, OF Much
Interest.

4
l. somewhere else In France now, as fol
lows,
Somewhere in France. Feb II, 1918.
Dear Folks nj Home; just a line To lei
Won know | am q. N. aud enjoying life
! We are somewhere else in France now
Moved here a number Of days ago and
have not had minute In which 10 write
since. | left before the main body did
with some of the other boys, n guard
ON the train that carried our freight, and
We certainly had u tine time, although
we did see France from n freight cal
door.
The part of France where we were was
the = and the country and people
of the class. We passed through
some beautiful country and some fine
towns. | think, though, that the best
part of il all was when we went through
one town and were met az the station by
some Red Cross girls (the real American
brand, too with hot coffee and sand
witches, and had fine talk with them
/ believe they were the finest looking
girls ever saw, but maybe that was be-
cause they were the first American girls
had talked with for nearly six months
The town where we are situated is a
little peach. Nice, clean, wide streets
and the people are great. There are ten
of us that have IA place downstreet in a
private family, where we go nearly every
night and get supper. They treat us
like princes and are helping us with our
French, while we return the compliment
by teaching them English.
We are in barracks and the feed the
best since we came into the army, so you
can imagine what that is. Doughnuts
for breakfast tomorrow morning.
Carroll is fine, but | have not seen
Lewis vet. He has been on detached
service for two months. There are small
hills here so il is more like home and a
fellow does not get so homesick.
Got some dandy letters from Profs.
Davis and Maiden, one from you and one
fine one from Edna McNaughton just be-
fore leaving our old camp. Bill Maiden
was more than enthusiastic over this
years team. Gee | would liked to have
ripped them up. | only played one game
this year My team won, % to Is, but |
got two black eyes and all my clothes
pulled Off, Army and school football are
entirely different.
Prof. Davis sent bunch of snaps OF
vet? win write gramp as soon as | find
time. Do you realize that tomorrow
your little son will be - years oldg Al
most old enough to know my own mind.
Am afraid | shall miss that cream cake.
Did Arthur get his French flag o. n!
We are not much nearer the firing line
than before, so don't worry. Have made
an allotment OF $40 a month to you.
You may place it in the bank or use 1t
otherwise The farmers with sugar or
chards will make good this year. Do you
know. / believe | would almost be con
tented to settle down on a farm now
myself This army life is curbing my
desire for adventure. Me for home when
| get back. Write often. Elery.
The following letter was received a
few days ago by G. l.. Dwinell from his
son. James, who enlisted recently and is
now stationed at Camp Greene:
Camp Greene, Feb. rs, 1918.
Dear Father: j received your letter
Tuesday night and was glad to hear
from you, and will try and answer it to-
night. They keep us busy every minute
of the time, drilling and putting up tents
and moving tents from one place to an
other. Talk about man working that
il not in the army, they don't know
what work is until they join the ''regu-
lars" especially in wartime. | did not
know what work was, believe me. We
have got our full outfit now-rlfle, bay
onet, belts, knapsacks, pack carriers,
three blankets, folding bed, straw ticks,
barrack bags, three pairs OF shoes, two
of dress and one pair of field shoes with
hobnails and heel irons, to wear in France
only, three full sets of underclothes, five
pairs socks, two pairs p nts, two wooden
shirts, one coat, one hat, one pair legglns,
one raincoat and one wooden overcoat Ia
good heavy one). / tell you all that
stuff makes good load to carry, and
besides we each have to carry one-half
of tent made to sleep in when on the
field flor two persons to sleep in. The
whole thing weighs about s4 pounds
/ wrote Lee Sunday. ! am glad he is
getting along well. We will be over
there before long, the officers say. We
will get only AS hours notice when we
get orders TO go, and that is liable to be
ANYTIME now, but they also say we are
going to Syracuse, n ", in about three
weeks. That is where the 47th infan-
try's barracks are. If we do go up there
/ will be home for an hour or two prob
ably.
We have got some very good officers
here. They are all younger than ! am,
They say we are learning our drill the
best of any bunch of men they ever had
here. SO YOU see we are putting some
work into this new business. The first
call comes at 5: 45 and at o'clock every
body must be dressed and outside for
reveille and half hour physical eXer-
cisps. then 90 to Chow" as we call
breakfast. then come back and clean up
tents and put them up like an umbrella
and be ready for drill at o'clock sharp
and drill till 80, then dinner, drill
again at | o'clock until 1870, then supper,
retreat at $3.50, then we take bath or
wash our clothes, change your clothes
all through every other day, so you see
we don't have any time to play. We
have not drilled with our guns yet. They
are having a sham battle about half
mile from here tonight. There was one
last night too. 1t is about o'clock now,
so YOU see we will get night work little
later.
The weather here is fine now, warm
and nice day time, but cold nights. The
soil is red clay here. 1t is the worst
stuff YOU ever saw. Ii it rains 10 min
,ltes the mud is six inches deep and there
ia no floor in the tents. All the people
we see here are negroes and soldiers.
There are 5000 acres of grounds in the
and $4,000 men here; $4,000
mules and horses, mostly mules. and any
amount of auto trucks, some outfit. Have
80, cont for that wrist watch vet 3 If