River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-10-31
From Wilbur Ensign
Sept. 22nd, 1918.

1t mas De6n over Two Weeks now
since | wrote you, but it has Ger.
tainly not been that long since !
thought of you. 1t has only been
lack of time and facilities that have
prevented my writing you. On the
day that mailed my last letter to
you, we received orders to leave the
town where we were then stationed,
for somewhere else in France.
Again we were loaded on freight
cars and travelled for about three
days; that is we stayed on the train
for that length of time, although a
good deal of the travelling was done
in a stationery position. We finally
| detrained late one afternoon and
liked ten or twelve miles to wood
where this regiment was encamped.
| The following a. m. our company
was broken up and the men assign
ed to various companies of this reg
iment. AS you will notice by the
heading on this page, was assign
ed to the 45th company. The same
night we moved up nearer to the
scene of real action. For the fol-
lowing four days we were in the
danger zone, although it was only
on the last day that we actually
moved into the front lines. The
rest of the time we were simply fol-
lowing up the first line Of attack as
sort of reserve force. We did
practically no fighting and had only
one or two wounded men out of the
entire company. The experience
was very interesting, however, even
if it was not thrilling. After we
were relieved at the end of four
days, we liked back to a woods
quite Always from the front and
camped there several days. Now
we are still further in the rear and
billeted in little village. l am
sleeping in the left Of an old French
barn which is certainly we'll venti-
lated, for the roof looks like a sieve
and what windows there are, have
a shortage of glass. But these ac-
commodations are luxuries compar-
ed with some | have known recent
ly, so am we'll satisfied with my
lot. l was fortunate enough the
other day to meet Little and several
other fellows who were with me in
Galveston. Little is in a machine
gun comp any In this regiment SO we
will probably meet often when the
whole regiment is together back Of
the lines. Perry also is in the 5th,
but as yet l haven't been able to see
him, for we have had to stay pretty
closely within the confines of our
own company camp.
On the railroad trip up here we
had a refreshing sample of the work
which the Red Cross is doing. AT
one of the important cities along
the way, we were served with cup
of hot American coffee and big
slice of tread. 1t certainly was g
deeply appreciated hand-out, for il
touched just the right spot after E
long tiresome trip such as we haC
been through. The Y. M. c.. A. is
also looking after our comfort here
and serves chocolate, etc.. to US
whenever possible. Naturally their
work can not be so very extensive
up here near the front lines, fol
they cannot get the supplies
through fast enough. On our frs
days march back from the front, we
saw couple of American girl Y
w. c. A. workers going toward the
trenches in a Ford truck. They
were evidently keen to be on the
job where there was something do
ing. This war game is a bigger
proposition than it is possible fol
us to realize when we are not on the
spot. And even then do not thinl
we can begin to realize the vastnes:
of the operations which a war like
calls forth. 1t is great thing tt
have an active part in such a his
tory making conflict, even if we DE-
have to sacrifice some of our Gus
tomary comforts in life. The bunch
that Little came over with in June
has seen some pretty hard 6ghtins
although as yet there have been few
3 casualties among the number.
This kind of life is not a flesh
. producer, for nearly all of thoss
who came over at that time arr