The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1919-02-22

the steel deck, but was able to crawl
on to the turret door. Just as was
about to enter the gun was fred. That
particular charge happened to be de-
fective. The she'll split and caused
back fire and the cordite, fire and gas
came through the breech, which the
explosion had opened.
1t must have been a piece of cordite
which did it, but whatever it was, it
hit me in the right eye and blinded it.
The ball of the eye was saved by the
French surgeons and looks normal, but
it pains me greatly sometimes and
they tell me it will always be sight
less.
was unconscious Immediately from
the blow and fron the quantity Of gas
which l must have swallowed. This
gas did me a great deal of damage
and gives me dizzy spells often to this
day. l do not know what happened
during the rest of the engagement, as
| did not regain consciousness until
three days later at sea. But l heard
in the hospital that the French super
dreadnaught Jeanne dare and the
light cruiser Normandy were in 1t as
well as ourselves, though not at the
time l was wounded, and that we had
all been pretty well battered. The
Cassard lost SO men in the engage
ment and had 49 wounded. Some of
our turretS were twisted into all man.
ner of shapes and part of our bow
was carried away. One of our lieu
tenants was killed in the engagement
was told that both the VERT and
the Kaiserliche Marine were sunk in
this engagement. l have seen pictures
of sailors from the VERT who were
prisoners at interment camps.
When we arrived at Brest the
wounded were taken from the ship in
Stretchers and after we had been rest
ed for about fifteen minutes on the
dock put into ambulances and rushed
, to the hospital. On the way those who
, could leaned out of the ambulance anC
had great time with the people along
the streets, many of whom they knew
, for the Cassard was Brest ship. Ant
, OF course the women and children
yelled, give la France!" and were
glad to see the boys again, ever
though they were badly done up.
Some of our men were bandage(
: all over the face and head and it wa!
l funny when they had to tell theiI
names to old friends Of theirs, VIII,
} dld not recognize them. AS soon a,
= one Of the Srest people recognized ,
g friend of he would go to get cigarette,
4 and other things for him and some O.
a them almost beat us to the hospital.
9 do not know, of course, Just wha
the surgeons did to me, but hearc
i that they had my eyeball out on m,
]. cheek for almost two hours. At an,
= rate they saved it. The thigh wound
e were not dangerous in themselves an,
r II 1t had not been for the rough treat
3 ment they got later on they would b.
quite healed by this time, am sure
a l really think l got little extra at
r tentlon in the hospital in many WAYS
!, for the French were at all times anx
t ious to show their friendliness L
t America. Every time my meals wer
!, served there was little American
S flag on the platter and always a larg
n American flag draped over the bed.
d had everything I wanted given to M
s at once and when / was able to, al
: the cigarettes I could smoke, whicl
were not many.
While ! was still in bed in the hos
r pital / received the Croix de Guerre
+ which I had won at the Dardanelles
+ The presentation was made by Lien