The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1918-12-05
Clark Nesbit
Writes Letter
From France

----- tt -
Mr.. and Mrs. r. 6. Nesbit of 500
College avenue received an interesting
letter from their son. Clark Nesbit,
woh is member OF Company B. Fif-
ty-eighth division, with the expedi
tionary forces In France. The letter,
which has been handed to The Daily
Record for publication. follows in its
entirely:
Somewhere in France. Oct. 81.
Dear Folks at Home-I will start a
letter tonight and probably finish a
day or two later. Have received sew
eral letters from you lately. The last
one was dated October .. The mail
clerk told me tonight to call for two
more letters in the morning.
So Johnny has good Job as an in
spector at port. Glad OF it, hope
he can get all of his service in over in
the states. That is the best place to be.
The Fourth division. of which we
are a part, has now seen service on
four fronts. and in as many big bat
ties. The last time up was the hot
test of all. Our division with several
other American divisions, opened the
drive against the Hun ON the morning
of September 26. Our position wes
several miles northwest of verdun.
One of the regiments Of our division
chased the Huns about seven and one
half miles in the first three days. The
59th followed in support OF those three
days. and the Huns ran SO fast i:
kept us winded to follow them. On
the morning of September 20 the seth
relieved the 47th regiment in the front
line. We were sent in to chase the
Huns farther We took the lines at
an extremely difficult place A short
mile to the left of the Meuse river
near the village of Bruelles. Our
job was to chase the Germans across
the river. But we ran up against very
stiff opposition. We ran up against
a line of machine gun defense such as
we have not seen in our war expert
ence over here The Hun had been
running for three days, but back of
this flight was this strong line Of de-
fense waiting for us. And our regi-
ment was put In Just In time to catch
it. We started the advance about in
the morning. We had not gone go
yards until we drew heavy fire not
only from the machine guns. but also
from big artillery across the river
Our men continued the advance. go
ing about 500 yards farther. and then
dug in. We could advance no farther.
One company lost about half Of its
men that day. Ny company,, B. lost
not less than one-third a. its men.
Companies C and d did fot lose 80
heavily. OF course the majority OF
casualties were wounds. Most of
them slight, but too many were other
than slight. The Huns at this place
were firing on us from front. right and
left. We were pushing ahead OF tho
Americans on our right and left and
were exposed. We continued In this
sector until October 3, late at night,
but did not advance farther
We were drawn out that night only
to be thrown in support of another
regiment early the next morning on
the sector juts to the left of the one
we had just Withdrawn from. We
stayed in support till October II. max
ing short advances twice.
On October IL we were again put In
the front line and we carried on for
two days in a woods which was bat
tered and In places wrecked BY shell
fire. In the two days we advanced
about a half a mile over hotly-con-
tested ground. Only one instance Of
hand-to-hand fighting. but the shell
fire was certainly turned. LOOSE. In
94et on Cetoberl A21z1asWcres "a wonsII
dering how 1t would ever be possible
to come out Of that woods alive. Some
didn't. Most of us did. That day I
pulled from my shoe a sharp piece OF
shrapnel which took liking to me.
There were many close calls AS
our officer remarked: God seemed to
be with our American boys. The
Germans threw enough shells in there
to mop US out two or three times over.
On the morning Of October lS I was
instructed to act as special guide for
B company and help them out OF the
woods. We were relieved. and 1t was
happy day for us.
Most Of my time on the front was
spent in work at the observation post
The intelligence section does the