The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1918-12-19
WIN. MARSH TELLS OF
CO. DIS TRIP ACROSS
Minot Boys Had Great Trip Over on
the Fatherland - Tells About
Their Christmas in Europe.

luciI SuTlslUluS Ill TLuTUvc.
Corp. VIM. Marsh, son of the late
E. A. Marsh, has written an unusual
ly interesting letter from France. 1t
will be read with unusual interest be-
cause the censorship now being lifted,
Mr.. Marsh was able to tell many
things hitherto forbidden. He wrote
the letter on Nov. "a, to his father,
the late E. A. Marsh, not knowing at
the time that his father was dead. A
cablegram had been sent to. William
and George Marsh in France, but evil
IDENTIFY, William had not received the
sad news. The George referred to
in the letter is his brother, George.
The letter follows:
Amexforce, France, Nov. "a, 1918.
Dear Dad
Well, this is the letter you have
a pretty good one because now that
eliminated can tell you of the things
that we have done and where we have
gone. am going to start in at Camp
Mills and tell you the. whole thing.
We left Camp Mills at about six in
the morning on the sixth day of De-
cember, 1917. We did not know
where we were going or how. long we
would be on the trip but apparently
it was going to be a short one be-
cause we had only day coaches and
no rations. After little trip thru
and under New York we we're put on
board ferry-boat. l do not know
in what direction we went or whefe
we stopped but we had another short
ride OH the train and landed at a
small station on the outskirts O. which
is Camp Merritt, New Jersey. Z
Camp Merritt is wonderful camp
and you might say with all the con-
veniences of home We had spring
cots and ticks and plenty of heat in
the. barracks. There was hot and
cold water for baths and fine wash
room and toilet. Everything was up
to date and modern and it sure was
change after the existence at Camp
Mills. The barracks were two stor-
les and there were four of them to
A. company. They were just as COM
Portable as anything could be. But
for all of that when we got out of
there you can bet your sweet life that
1--we were plenty glad, because for us
boys in the office it was just one con-
tinual round of hard labor. First,
there was the finishing up of the In
surance and allotments for the whole
company and then there was the en-
barkation roll. One who has never
seen one of those things or made ore
can not appreciate what job it is To-
get one out for two hundred and fifty
odd men. 81 Everything has to be just
exactly ;soSandaif there is as much as
oneslettersoutaof the way or an erase
ure on the sheet the whole thing has!
to be made over again. Jimmie and
and Lieut.. Hayes stayed up all night;
for three nights straight getting it
out and finally it was all finished and.
ready for the boat. We knew then
that we were going for sure hut We
were bound not to tell anyone and
we were also told that our mail would
be censored there so that there was
no use in trying to get anything thru.
| OF course we did not know just at
what moment we were leaving bat we
knew all the time that it was only
matter of hours. At last or the
morning Of the 14th of December we
fell in just at daybreak with full packs
and hiked to the station. Have YOU
sever tried to walk through brand new
|kneedeep snow with about forty or.
fifty pounds tied to your back and
with an overcoat on? Well, if you
have you can imagine the time we
had marching to the station and keep
ing the ranks closed up so that i.
would be something Of an army in
stealkof just a mob. We'll, when we
reached the station we had to wait
| about two hours before we got a train.
do not remember just when it was
that we reached Hoboken but = was
not such long ride. The train took
us right down to what we thought
were the docks because we could see
ships and sails and warehouses all
around us. But nothing like that
for US. We then had to hike clear
across the city Of Hoboken with iull
packs and an empty stomach. We
marched to the docks of the Hamburg
American line and embarked on that
ship of all ships the Fatherland OF the
Leviathan as it is now called. J
know that it was about two o'clock
when we started to go on board. When
my name was called I stepped for"
ward and walked up the gang-plank
as big as life and was just stepping off
the plank into the boat when I slipped
and fell. My gun went one way, my
pack another and l lit hard on the
deck. A couple of sailors came for
ward to pick me up and Charlie Hall
who was right behind me asked,
"What's the matter, Bill? Did you
fall?" said, "No, you damned
fool. That's the way / always get
on boat" do not know what
made me say it except that had to
do something to give the sailors some
thing to laugh about besides the fact
that I had fallen. Well, we were
given what is called bunk-checks, with
the number of the bunk and the deck
to which we were assigned. Mine,
think was Fac and it was away in
the stern of the ship and down five
decks. do not know how many decks
there are on that boat but do know
that there were three or four below