Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-12-23
CAPTAIN REHEY
TELLS OF FINAL
BATTLEOFW WAR
Wounded. Harrisburg Cap
tain Lay Helpless on Bat
tlefield For Eight Hours


Sprayed with gas. paralyzed for
weeks from the force of an exploded
she'll, left lying for hours on the
battlefield, transported in supply
trucks, swaying boxcars, sent, from
one hospital to another In an effort
to give him the use OF mis- legs and
voice.-all these are but few of
the experiences of Captain James
McKendree Kelley. Company C,
S11th Machine Gun Battalion of the
18th Division, who after four months
of overseas service is in Harrisburg
again.
Captain Reiley's story is q tale of
spraying machine gunfire, rolling
barrages. heroic advances in the face
of opposition from myriads OF ma
into the storm of heavy artillery and
into the sotrm of heavy artillery and
gas shell fire. 1t is a story we'll
worth the telling. hut Cap'a N
Kelley wont tell it. Ask him about
the privates in hts company, and he
will wax eulogistic and eloquent over
their achievements. Ask him about
his exploits and his experiences un-
der fire, and you ere talking tc a
taciturn man. It is the way with
the returning soldie- hero. and Cap
tain Kelley lives up TO the Army's
traditions.
On January 8. Captain Reiiey will
return to the General Hospital at
Fort McHenry, Baltimore. where he
first recovered the use of mis- legs
after n month of paralysis. caused
by hemmorhage of the spinal cord,
developed by an exploding shell
which landed too close to him.
1t all took place in the Argonne-
Americans pushed on from early in
the Hunsigned the armistice After
the capture of Monifaucon. which
Captain Reiley helped to effect, he
got his" He was directing the fire
of his machine guHners. who occu-
pied q ridge behind he advancing
Infantry. Tho German shell ex-
ploded. and that was al lhte Cap
tain knew for eight hours.
His orderly got him to n dress
ing station in the rear. There fol-
lowed an anxious period of trans
fer from dressing station to evacua-
ton hospital to base hospital. to
cn,barkation hospital. and via Amer
lean transport to a debarkation
hospital at Hampton. Va. and fin
ally to the General Hospital at Bal
timore, where miracles of modern
medical skill enabled him to walk
again, and in time will remove all
traces of stiffness rom his limbs
and hoarseness from lis throat
where the gas effects still are ap-
Larent.
Showing how small the world
really is when nearly all it's popu-
lation is engaged in Il great cause
Captain Kelley told how ut the base
hospital in Mars-sur- Allier, France
his Red Cross nurse was Miss Meese
of Palmyra; and on the transport
his physician, the transport surgeon
was DIR. Smith, formerly of North
Sixth street. One of his lieutenants
was George Kunkel, son of Presi-
dent Judge Kunkel. and two Harris
burg boys were in his company.
Captain Reilly is well known here
having been graduated from the
Central High school. where he was
manager of the football team In
1914. He was n junior at Cornell
University when he enlisted. May
II, 1917. and went to the officers
training camp at Fort Niagara
where he obtained his captains
commission August 10. 1917. August
20, he was assigned to duty at Camp
Meade. with his machine gun COM
pany, and send to France last, July
landing at Brest July II, 1918.