The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-05
A CHRONICLE OF SOCIET '

I1fI HE following letter is one of an
 interesting series which pr. AL
 win Beden, first lieutenant of the medical corps, ambulance company. 35oth sanitary train sl5, 9Oth division, has written to his mother. Mrs. s. Beiden, Jr.. in this city. The letter is as follows and describes the St. Mihiel drive in detail:
 St. Mihiel drive in France,
 Monday, September 30. 1918. Letter No. l:
 Dearest Mother: At last I seem to have few hours or perhaps until night all to myself. Ii is the first time since September Il. Since then have been on high tension eternally. up all night and day at times and under all sorts of circumstances. may be interrupted. but have come in from all my stations; and for the afternoon things can run au- tomatically.
 l viii cover the entire st. Mihiel drive as far as personal participation goes.
 We were told that our department was to have two hours notice before the drive, but were not notified. We heard the barrage and when Lieut.. Lossden and went up to see what happened " hen we reached there, we found the 350th aid station crowded with patients. The sta tion was the side of a mountain With fierce road leading up to it.
 It had one advantage, the ambulances were able to come right up to its doors. There had been a heavy rain all night, and the dugout which served as an aid station was filled with slush about eight ioches deep, about 20 patients could De accommodated and there were about 4oo bey I were pulled out and placed along the road. On account of narrowness of road ambulances were slow in coming. TO cap the climax a heavy rain began to fall but out of seeming impossibilities the Lord answered my urgent prayers and by late afternoon it was clear and beautiful. You understand. on account of enemy airplanes no lights are allowed wherever their giean can be seen. Yet out of seeming chaos moonlight aided us, thanks to our Heavenly Father, and about ? a. m. ' managed to reach my billet and rested until a. m.
 The day following was not very event full, it was merely general cleaning up day Many cases which were wounded and had been lying in trenches were lo- cated and given attention, but so far no fire from the enemy had caused us worry. We learned later to appreciate its absence. The Germans beat coward Iy retreat before our men. The French had tried for years to capture this sec tor but failed. It is very much like Red mountain, with the Germans on the hilltop. The forests around for miles are mere aggregations of stumps, and 1 call it The Valley of Sorrow. ln it lies the bones of 160,o0O French patriots, mort aux patrial. However, the Germans left many snipers behind and machine gunners. The later were in iron boxes one inch thick buried in the hillsides. They played havoc with our men. Strange to say, they mained for two or more days as the place was cancerous with tunnels, in trenchments and really not a yard or ground existed without barbed wire. For several days the snipers would pluck us off One was just across from the dress ing station and made several successful shotS. One was most peculiar A heu- tenant came to me and said: 'i am sure someone fired at, me a. came np the road: he turned back to retrace his steps He had oply gone l'o yards when he feu wounded in the chest patrol was sent to scout the woods and they located the sniper, and, as usual. he held up his hands and called "kamerad .s and; as usual, our kind hearted boys took him prisoner. However, subsequent hap penings will end this prisoner game, No one knows what dirty skunks the Ger