Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1918-12-20


gas did me a great deal of damage
and gives me dizzy spells often to this
day. do not know what happened
during the rest of the engagement, as
l did not regain consciousness until
three days later at sea. But | heard
in the hospital that the French super
dreadnaught Jeanne dare and the
light cruiser Normandy were in it as
well as ourselves, though not at the
time | was wounded, and that we had
all been pretty well battered. The
Cassard lost SO men in the engage
ment and had 48 wounded. Some of
our turrets were twisted into all man
ner of shapes and part Of our bow
was carried away. One of our lieu
tenants was killed in the engagement.
was told that both the VERT and
the Kaiserliche Marine were sunk in
this engagement. / have seen pictures
of sailors from the VERT who were
prisoners at interment camps.
When we arrived at Brest the
wounded were taken from the ship in
stretchers and after we had been rest
ed for about fifteen minutes on the
dock put into ambulances and rushed
to the hospital. On the way those who
could leaned out of the ambulance and
had great time with the people along
the streets, many Of whom they knew,
for the Cassard was Brest ship. And
of r1hf16rn11
yelled, "Vive la France!" and were
glad to see the boys again, even
though they were badly done up.
Some of our men were bandaged
all over the face and head and it was
funny when they had to tell their
names to old friends Of theirs, who
did not recognize them. AS soon as
one of the Brest people recognized a
friend off he would go to get cigarettes
and other things for him and some Of
them almost beat us to the hospital.
do not know, of course, just what
the surgeons did to me, but heard
that they had my eyeball out on my
cheek for almost two hours. AT any
rate they saved it. The thigh wounds
were not dangerous in themselves and
If it had not been for the rough treat
ment they got later on they would be
quite healed by this time, am sure.
really think / got little extra at
tention in the hospital in many ways,
for the French were at all times anx-
ious to show their friendliness to
America. Every time my meals were
served there was little American
flag on the platter and always large
American flag draped over the bed.
had everything wanted given to me
at once and when / was able to- all
the cigarettes / could smoke. which
were not many.
While / was still in bed in the hos
pital / received the Croix de Guerre.
which 1 had won at the Dardanelles.
The presentation was made by Lieu
tenant Barley. He pinned an Ameri-
can flag on my breast, a French flag
beneath it and beneath that the war
cross. He kissed me on both cheeks,
of course, which was taking advantage
of a cripple But it is the usual thing
with the French, as you know mean
the kissing, not the meanness to
cripples.
When he had pinned the medal on
he said he thanked me from the bot
tom of his heart for the French people,
and also thanked all the Americans
who had come over from their own
land to help country with which
most of them were not connected. He
said it was war in which many ma
lions were taking part, but in which
there were just two ideas, freedom
and despotism, and lot more things
that cannot remember. He finished
by saying that he wished he could dec
crate all of us.
Of course it was great stuff for me
and I thought was the real thing
sure enough, but / could not help
thinking of the remark / have heard
here in the States-"I thank you and
the whole family thanks you" And it
was hard not to laugh. Also it seemed
funny to me, because I did not rightly
know just what they were giving me