Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-03-08
THE ELECTRIC CHAIR

A Edrdrd Nelcton sends as copy Of
q monStrOusly eTciting letter he has just
received from Jack Kenderdine, Of this
city. and tre are happy 10 be able to print
portions Of it. Jack is a Harerjord man,
OF that uproorious class once knoiCn on
the college campus as "The Dragons
Blood and after being com mmissioned a
shdretdil loot at PldttsburOh ,cus sent
operseas trith the 3Ojth Infantry. Jach;
says:
UNHY REGIMENT was fighting. with an
A'A occasional interval o. a few days,
from the 1st of August until the signing Of
the armstice. Previous to August we were
in a training sector with the French. This
seemed a. the time like real war, but it was
nothing compared to what followed. After
the famous American drive at Chateau
Thierry, when those few splendid divisions
hattened out the German salient. we re-
lieved the Fourth Division on the Vesle
River shall never forget the night of
the relief-my first real dose Of war. l
was battalion adjutant there. Our head
quarters was ordered to a little town in
the valley of the river. During the march
up in the night ! became separated from
my battalion to straighten out some trou-
BILE. I followed after and came to the
heights overlooking the river just as dawn
was breaking. Both sides had opened up
with their batteries and the valley was
hell hole of smoke and flame The boches
were extravagant with their artillery at
the time and would swipe individuals If the
opportunity were good. No sooner did I
start down the hill than they began u fire
at me with a 75 lodged behind a ruined
farmhouse with anything but a quiet mind
and stumbled over a dead American soldier.
partly buried under the ruins and looking
very CHASTITY in the pale dawn. I confess
that l nearly lost my nerve. The thing
that saved me was finding four men of the
military police who had been ordered into
the town, but who had lost courage and
we're going to the rear. They shamed me
into ordering them about and leading them
down myself--that town was one of the
nastiest places we were in curing the war.
"The boches kept Smelling it continually;
! they had perfect observation of our move
| ments from their post. Every fifteen min
| utes during the. day they would throw over
tnTee shells, ldhlllS tle tOWI Dll ny Dit'
! When any one appeared on the, street they
| gave us a little extra. although I must
| say they let our ambuances alone except
| when they thought we were using them
| for covering some tactical move. Our
| headquarters was in the cellar of a former
| French residence. ] was no sooner inside
| than they shot away the wall in front
| and a couple of hours later they took of
| the corner of the building. They were
| giving us a liberal dose of gas all he while
it was very uncomfortable sitting packed
tight in this cellar with our gas masks on
! studying maps. writing T. essages and try.
| ing to get an answer over the phone. The
| gas seemed to linger more than we had
Of what we thought was gas was the fra =
| GRANGE of six dead Americans in the yard
next door. Poor devils! the shelling had
| been so hot that nobody had had a chance
to bury them. Toward noon we had our
FIRST casualty. Lieutenant Cloher with two
runners came from his company headquar
ters TO report their position to the major
The boches dropped a shell beside him and
tore off part of his face and killed one OF
his runners Cloher came staggering into
our little cellar and we patched him uI
crudely with our flrst-aid packets Then
! ventured out with him 10 the frstaid
station and he was evacuated that after
noon. qIe came back to the regiment later