Carthage courier. (Carthage, Tenn.) 1913-current, 1919-03-06

W. L. Grisham of Elmwood was in
Carthage Monday, and handed in the
following interesting letter from his
son, w. w. Grisham:
Bourges, Cher. France.
January %, 1919.
Dear Dady:-Received your letter
and paper today and they both were
certainly beyond a doubt appreciated
more than / can begin to tell you. /
am well and feeling fine. Hope you
and Mama and brother and sisters are
ali well and enjoying life as 1 am.
Am glad to see that our dear old
County of Smith is still playing her
part in this great crisis and to that
they are helping to care for the poor
war orphans over here. / have seen
so many of them, in fact the old lady
who does my laundry for me is a Bel
gian refugee. / have many interest
ing talks with her some afternoons
when | carry my laundry down to her
home which was under shell fire for
several months. 1t being located in
No Mans Land in the month of Sept.
but we are glad to say the "Yanks"
(as we are called over here) did not
allow it to stay there very long be-
cause they had FritZie lodging "moth
halls" so fast he could not stay there.
When / say we, / include myself al
though / never went over the top but
for some purpose the General eileen
saw fit for me to remain in the SOS.
with the S3rd Div. which was station
ed at LIE Mans and help fix up boys
to replace the divisions on the front.
After landing at Brest, on August
1st, we stayed there for days and
then moved to lie Mans, and there /
was taken from the Company (and by
the way have not seen a one of them
since) and sent to the 83rd Div. Inf.
school. There / remained hard at
work until October Is when | passed
the examination with the second best
grade in the school. Then / was sent
TO the 329 Inf. Co. A. to instruct in
such work as / might be permitted to
tell until called for by the General. |
worked faithful at such work as hand
grenade and rife instruction each day
until Nov. %, Thanksgiving day on
which date was selected to come to
Bourges, to the Central Record Offices
of General Headquarters and here /
have been since. We are working
faithful both day and night trying to
get things fixed up and an early re-
turn of the boys to the u. S. A. the
home of Goods People" | worked in
the Hospital sec. of the Master Card
Div. and have charge of the filing. 1t
is very interesting work, as you see
who was wounded, killed or sick.
We have a complete record of every
soldier in the A. E. F. As long as
was in my old company | was Supt.
SGT. but since then (the Company
Clerk having failed to fix up my re-
cord correctly l have been having tc
pass as an ordinary Pvt. of the Intel
Sect. but | now have assurance from
the Comd. Officer that my record will
at once be looked into and fixed cor
rectly as it should be. All the Com.
Officers here are fine men and by the
way most of them are from the south.
have seen the greatest portion of
France as you can see by the map
sent you and one time was close
enough to the front to hear the roar
of the big Berthas and ISIS could also
see an air raid and had to carry my
gas mask in the alert position. 1t was
all very thrilling and exciting as all
nv army life has been. / don't have
the least idea when we will be coming
home as you can get all kinds of ru-
mors, but / am hoping it viii be very
soon. And believe me when l get
back across the Frog Pond, and plant
nv feet on terra firm again l think
/ will be satisfied for awhile without
further adventure. l sleep every day
from six o'clock a. m. until p. m.
if | wish, you can see why most OF
your letters are read in bed.
There are more interesting things
of my army life | could tell you but
for fear the Censor will get tired be-
fore he gets through with this and
go to sleep, guess l had better stop.
But before / do l must tell you that
you can Judge for yourself whether
this is a beautiful place or not by the
scenery cards which l sent you.
Hoping to hear from you and see
you soon.
Your affectionate son,
WILLIAM.