The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1919-02-28
Just Home From France.

Die. L enlisted IN the army az Hen
derson, KY, Sept. 6, 1917, and was
sent from there to Fort Thomas
where l took the oath Sept. 7, 1917.
After staying there thirty days l was
sent to Gettysburg, Penn, where
was placed in the 61st Infantry.
From there we went to Camp Greene,
N. c., where we remained for six
months, then started on our trip to
France. We boarded the ship at
Hoboken and sailed at two o'clock in
the morning. For thirteen days we
sailed and on April 2S we landed at
Brest, France. Then We hiked thir-
teen miles and after travelling sew
eral hundred miles by means of Hob
Nails, Frog Trucks and Toy Trains,
we finally landed a few miles behind
the front line trenches. After hav-
ing made three or four bitches in the
trenches we were ordered to St.
Mihiel front. The 9th Brigade,
which is my brigade, reached the
front line just as the barrage was
starting Then it was that we fully
realized the fact that the whole
world was at war 1t seemed that
even the earth on which we walked
was unfriendly.
While on our march there was
monster cannon fired down in cave
by the roadside, which sounded as
if the whole world might have ex-
ploded This frightened the boys so
badly (me included) that we left
the road entirely, thinking it was a
German shell that had exploded. 1t
seemed as though the entire heavens
were aglow with the light of the
guns, and words couldn't express the
unearthly noise they were making.
1t was then that tho Huns came
across too. They said there was
nothing on earth that could have
lived under that barrage. l don't
know why it was, but it seemed that
the Germans started running there
that day and didn't stop till they
reached Berlin. However, we reach
ed the place were the 9th Brigade of
the 5th Division was to remain in
reserve. About 10 o'clock the fol-
lowing morning we were ordered to
follow after the fighting men. 1t
was a sight to see the troops in re-
serve moving after the fighting men
and to see the dead and wounded.
1t seemed too as If all the supplies
Uncle Sam ever had were scattered
over the battlefield whore the first
fighting had taken place. Every two
or three hundred yards we would
meet someone coming in with 500 or
900 prisoners.
About eight days later we occupied
driven the ferries. There you could
find anything you would expect to
find on a battlefield from a hand
grenade up to cigar. AS l can best
remember, we were there about one
day and night, then received a rush
call to the front where VIC had quite
a little fun.
l will endcavor to tell a little of
my experience as runner while in the
trenches. A runner, or relay agent
as they term it, is to carry messages
from commanding officers in the
front line trenches to the COM
manders behind the lines. There
are times when it is not very pleas
ant for the relay man, as bullets
from machine guns and stokes motors
are very numerous, and, of course,
we do not exactly like them. I well
remember one night the Huns started
a serenade of this character and Il
had to take a message and trot down
and hand it to the captain, as he
wanted to know what was going on
but didn't have the nerve to come out |
and see for himself He handed me
a return message saying: STEADY |
your nerve sergeant, and investigate |
machine gun fire." And so he was,
back in his coy little dugout An
other instance / we'll remember while |
in the trenches: l had q message |
from platoon commander to deliver |
to duty sergeant in G. G. w and, as
it happened, l had to pass thru 100 |
yards or more of vacated trenches. !
was slipping along just as easy as
| could, though with all precaution
it seemed that l could not get along
easy, as the trenches were fioored |
and, as you know, they have gates
made of barbed wire with cans,
buckets, bells and anything else that |
would make noise tied to them. So
you see, was getting along just as
easy as / could and suddenly there
opened up machine gun just over
the parapet and-maybe l didn't hug
that bank. / am quite safe in saying
that did-and then some. l knew
standing here wouldn't do, so l eased
away and made it okeh to the SER
geant to whom the message was to