Republican farmer., 1919-01-31
Battery [ 56 Regt.
 Fired Last Shot In
 War Says u. GarIiCk
Bridgeport Officer Tells of Heroism of Connecticut National Guardsmen At Chateau Thierry, Verdun, ill tie Argonne and on Other Famous Battle Fields.

Tt is the fears and thrills of the roar of the cannon, and the excite ment of battle that brought us through the greatest war in the his tory of the world.'' said Iieutenant George B. Garlick, son of Dr. and Mrs. George Garlick of Etate street, who arrived in this country with the 56th Artillery on Saturday night from Brest France Lieut.. Garlick is now on a 24-hour furIouFh and is all on thusiasm in telling of the marvellous work the Yankee boys did with a gen utne Yankee spirit that never failed them until the last shot was fired.
 Battery c of the 56th regiment is credited with having fired the last shot from the fbig guns at the cessa- ] tion of hostilitles on the day the ar mistice was signed, and Lieut.. Gar lick relates how one section of the regiment comprising 235 men were so excited over the news that each one of them wanted to put the finishing touches to the war by firing the last shot. The regiment consisted of 1,7S5 men, all from Connecticut cities, and they had taken active part on the bat | tie front ever cince they reached | France nine months ago
 The regiment was continuously uiI- 1 der shell fire, but they suffered only | per cent. casualties Very few had 1 been wounded and a few killed. The boys are mostly from the National 1 Guard of Connecticut and practi-
 cally all are volunteers.
 'The boys of the 56th Regiment
 deserve all the praise in the world" 1 stated Lieut.. Garlick, "ands> they l earned the highest praise from all with whom they came in contact over
 there for their great persistency in | overcoming the greatest difficulties. At Chateau Thierry, they had
 some task in firing on the bridges so
 that the Germans might be prevented from crossing them. On crossing the
 Vesle river, the boys of our regiment
 were ahead of the big six inch guns.
 and right in the midst of the first line
 trenches. At times they were under machine gun Are and after that drive
 we got up to the Verdun sector to
 prepare for that terrific Argonne bat
 tle- Here, a short distance from | Verdun, we were making ardent p-e- 1 parations for the biggest battle ever
 heard of, and it followed up until the signing of the aTmistice.
 We were still actively engaged in
 that fight when the news came. Can you imagine how those poor over
 worked boys felt? We'll, they were
 just 'dawggone' tired and exhausted,
 and were glad the thing was over" Of course the German prisoners
 could not understand what made our bOVS 6uCh great fighters T,bay
 thought that only military training
 could be victorious. But you see our
 boys had the stimulation of d great
 cause as a background and they had with that came to the rescue, and ! they worked as hard as they could Our regiment had to carry those huge guns all the time, and the fellows would march along in the dead of
 night in the darkness, the mud anu get through into the forests where the guns would be camoufiaged and
 ready for work the next day. A. times we fired 40 shells in an hour. D
 We are glad to get back, glad the l war is finished, glad the Germans have been beaten, and glad that right has won the day. But we
 must not let the Germans get off too
 easy now"
 Lieutenant Garlick, although he had slept in the dugouts, marched in the mud and was engaged in the thickest of battle, has not been
 wounded, and says that the experience
 is something which he cannot de
 scribe. It was a terrible, exciting experience