The Mankato free press., 1918-07-05
LETTERS FROM BOYS
IN THE ARMY CAMPS

following letter from her son, Grant Will
| lard who is in France:
France, Sunday, June 2, 1918.-Dear
Mother: am sitting on a blanket with
a shade tree as a back and protection
agains hot sun. 1t is in a garden full
of fragrant flowers in full bloom Qilacs,
honey suckle, daffodils and many Others
which, ! cannot call by name) and a mil.
lion little bugs all very curious at my
present occupation. All of this is our
back yard. These are our new quarters
To be sure we sleep in a room over the
| stables but this garden is where we live
Next door is the church and cemetery
At present there are four big bells going
full tilt in the belfry and / can look
across and see venerable old priest up
| there urging the bells on to more rack
et 1t sounds like my Ford making a
rough road at thirty per.
| We have only changed our headquar.
ters. We are still operating in the sector
where we have been for the last month
/ and half We have many new posts
| due to the shifting and interchanging
of the American and French forces
| This change takes me away from Boots
| W1edemann, but gives us a much bet
| ter place to live. We work out of here
| on seven day shifts. I could get fai
| here If l could stay here about two
/ weeks.
The last two weeks have indeed been
/ strenuous ones. due TO two or three of the
cars being laid up for repairs and thre
of the drivers beng in the hospital with
| a fever which seems to be going >the
| rounds 1T has been necessary for some
| of us to work overtime. This is our
| first visit to our base for three weeks
Then the ambulance company to which
| we are attached has had their Fords re.
placed by GMCs which they consider to
be too big for use for front work.
| think they will find their mistake be.
/ fore long, however. They are a much
| more practical car for rough roads ane
a ord T NH icJ
| we had them.
About those cablegrams 1 sent to you
| gave them to boy who went in to
| Paris and he was to send them for me
| He returned this week and had forgotten
| all about them. You will have my lettc
| telling you about my "slight wound b~
| fore a cablegram sent now would reach
| you, so L can only hope and pray that
my name has not been posted. Lest
| that letter be lost / will repeat my mes
| sage in this.
On April 10 I was sent to a hospital
with Kendrick, Risley, McCrackin, Swain,
Dunlap, Gaynor and McEnnis Gall CAT
| mem, for slight attack Cf gas (,nust-
| ardD. We were only there for three
days and are perfectly all right again
now. 1t was SO trivial that would have
said nothing about it had Jack Kendrick
/ not been reported in the state as ''seri-
ously wounded and nearly driven his
mother frantic. On hearing of this we all
| cabled but had to send them into Par
IS as there is no way of cabling from
| here. Mine never got off, as 1 have al
| ready explained. 1 hope you never saw
my nam and haven't been worrying
| You see the boche made a raid and fed
! us gas for five hours. One shell hit
| our house and exploded in the hay direct
| ly over the room in which we were liv-
| ing (the gas was so bad in the cellar
| that we didn't dare stay there even with
| our masks on). At daylight we started
working in our masks. We found it al
/ ir,1n hi <lrixv
on and perhaps we took them off too
| soon. Perhaps we got gassed during
| the afternoon while running back and
| forth to, our room while we evacuated
the dressing station there. The gas
| from that one shell which pierced our
! roof hung there for days. My dose prob
ABLY came from a gas shell which ex-
| ploded in the road over which / was
driving. about 100 yards ahead of me-
thought it was a seventy-seven high
explosive from the dust it blew up and
! didn't stop TO put on my mask The
| dust proved to be fumes of a new gas
which they call fruit gas" (smelling
| like decayed fruit) We weren't vast.
ing any time ON the road SO we hardly
got whiff of the stuff, but it made us
sick to our stomachs and caused the
tears to flow in streams making it diff
ncult to drive My aide got it much
| worse than l did, apparently, for he is
! still suffering. Nobody seems to know
when they were gassed because we all
wore masks most of that day. Some got
| 1t In the lungs causing them to cough for
weeks. I'm talking about the eight of
us now). Some merely had trouble with
| their eyes for about week or ten days
Some of us got body burns from the
mustard gas. Jack Hendricks had a
combination of all three and suffered
| considera bly,. The body burns didn't de-
velop until about ten days after the ex-
| posure. We were all released from the
hospital long before we should have been
but our work being SO closely allied with
| the hospitals we were able to get treat
ment while we worked.-Grant Willard
w. G. Costley received the following
letter from Lieutenant James H. Dolan:
May %, 191S.-On the Front Dear Mr.
Costley: Just finishing my first three
months at the front. This has been 6.
great three months to me. We have
met the Huns on numerous occasions
but think that we "shot them out" each
/ time. Our biggest affair was March
5 and we surely came out on the top. I'm
doubtedly. you have heard all about our
snow on that date. Our men surely have
showed real spirit and we officers have
been proud of the way they conducted
themselves. Our division ranks second
to none in France.
Mr.. Costley, Mrs Costley and Ella? Hone
jyou are all WELL I have felt very well
| since arriving in France. 1 am now eli
lgible to wear my first gold stripe on my
Iservice in France. think it will near
four or five more stripes before 1 see
broadway again.
This warm spring weather gives me the
old familiar baseball feeling but our
game with the boche is sufficient to take
all our time.
Now we are in support of the first Iine
Jour men are quartered In the cellars of
/ the ruins of a small city. We officers
i live in one of the few houses that have
Escaped the demolition of the Huns. This
4 place is perhaps klometer back of first
| times of peace. The civilians have long
since departed. They will hardly recog-
nize their city when they return.
/ The last time was on front line
held the most difficult position on our
sector. 1t was situated at the bottom of
huge hill in a gully Boche held top
lof hill $50 yards away. But 1 didn't
i have any serious trouble with exception
iof a little shelling occasionally. But four
DAYS after the lieutenant who took over
this position relieving me one dark black
might was killed by big six incher in
our headquarters of that sector. The
lgcod Lord surely was with me.
The boche are massing enormous bod
les OF troops back of the front lines and
/ soon something will break We are ex-
lpecting any minute to jump into the
big Show when 1t comes off. Don't
/ think the boche can pierce the line again
to any great depth although the on
Iattempt We are all getting ready for the
1 Yes, Mr.. Costley. we're going to whip
Them. 1t may take years. billions of dol
liars and millions of our lines to do it.
lbut win we must and Will.