The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1919-01-07
Morgan Ciitian In Midst Of
Argonne Drive Witness
Adventures AS Shells
Whizz Overhead
Dimes With Young Captain from
New Orleans in Charge
of G.. A. C..
By E. E. Ditch. X. G. Secretary
with the coIors Over There

We encamped in the Hesse Forest
in pup tents from Sunday, Sept. q,
to Wednesday evening, Sept. 25th.,
awaiting orders to go to the attack.
We were under constant lombard
ment of both shrapnel and gas shells.
On the evening of Tuesday we were
compelled to dig in, not knowing just
at what moment orders would come.
About three miles below and west of
us, were several batteries Of large
naval guns of the c. A. c., and cap
tanned by Louisianian, Capt. Wo-
gan of lew Orleans. a son of Mr.
Wop"r, the noted sugar and syrup
manufacturer. He was moving his
guns, cars and all from the railroad
tracks to camouflaged emplacement.
prepared for them. l had the pleas
ure of meeting Capt. Wogan and
dined with him at his mess He was
a fine specimen of American man
hood; credit to the service and to
our state. This was at the French
village of Recicourt.
On two successive nights we were
compelled to use our gas masks sew
eral times, and on Tuesday night
had to take cover in our improvised
dugouts account of the heavy she'll
ing.
There was no Catholic Chaplain in
our regiment, but my pup tent was
shared by Chaplain Stanley P. Haz-
card of New York, a Baptist and a
prince. On the eve of the oath. sew
eral of our soldiers, a captain includ-
ed, put it up to me to see that we
would have a priest to hear confess
sions and give Holy Communion be-
fore going into the drive, knowing it
would be hot fight and that many
would fail to return. There was
French artillery unit near us. and
luckily there was young French
priest (whose church was in Rouen)
with the military rank of Corporal
who could speak English a little. I
had him to understand that we were
very much in need of his services,
and he very willingly agreed to be at
my tent at 6 a. m. the next morning;
he came little sooner Chaplain
Hazard assisted me at the fist peep
of day to go amongst the numerous
pup tents, arousing the boys and let
ting the Catholics now there was
chance to prepare themselves for pos
sible contingencies. By eleven
o'clock, more than 800 had confessed,
through the, aid of French-Englisf
confessional cards thoughtfully fur
nished me by the K. C. Overseas
Commission.
At II 20 we had open-air mass,
which was attended by both Protes-
tants and Catholics alike. 1t was
glorious sight that will never be eff
faced from my memory. Think of
SO large number of soldiers prepar-
ing to meet their Maker-under con-
slant shell-fire from the hated Huns,
and under the canopy of the heav-
ems. ....
1t was while I was on a trip to
Recicourt on the afternoon of We'd
nesday, Sept. 18th. that orders were
received to break camp and be in
marching order by five o'clock. On
my return at 4:30, my pup tent was
down and packed. my goods boxed,
my few clothing and blankets in my
bedding roll. OF course, everything
was to be left behind in the Hesse
Forest, and no man was 70 take more
than his reserve rations, which con-
sisted of two cans of corn-wil1y and