Bogalusa enterprise and American. (Bogalusa, La.) 1918-19??, 1919-09-25
Tells How Arnold
Met His Death

The following letter has been re-
GelVed by Mr.. and Mrs. Arnold, of
Fleasant Hlll from Marine who
was the companion of their son who
was drowned last May, giving the
particulars of the accident. The re-
mains were shipped to Bogalusa and
inferred at the Bogalusa cemetery,
ne being the only boy who died in
service to be buried here.
Clarinda, Iowa, Sept. 16, 1919.
Mr.. and Mrs. Arnold.
1t IS with regret that I write to
you this evening in regard to your
sons death while being in The West
indies. feel it my duty as an in
innate friend to o. z. las we al
ways called him), to give you the
information / know, of lust how he
came to bis death. / had known him
Tor several months while in the sery-.
Ice as ne was transferred from Fiji
ty-fourtb Company to Sixtv-fifth
Company of which was attached.
We made several long hikes together
and we always liked to be together.
Inc first long hike we were on was
when we left Cape Haitien, Haiti,
Tor Gonl2ves, Haiti, shortly after he
was transferred to our company
(65th). From then on we were
either bunklng together or close
together. He would read nv papers
and would read his. He never
seemed to be blue, no difference how
long the hikes or how hard the duty
ana was always in good health while
knew him. He always liked to
chew tobacco, but ! don't remember
OF ever seeing him smoke. | never
used it and so we gave our cigar
cites to other friends.
The morning he was drowned, we
were coming in to Mirebalaes. Haiti.
an inland village. We had been
bunkIng together as usual and O. z.
had been cooking for US while we
were out to Boucan Care. another
inland village. There were. I he
lIeve, fourteen of us in the detail.
We had been out there two or three
times and he had cooked the last two.
It was about seven miles out from
Mlrebalaes very short hike to what
we were used to. We came to the |
Artbanette river about 1890 a. m.
lie and were sitting together on |
the ferry boat when it began to dip |
from one side to the other, both be- |
ing on the right side. When about |
one-thlrd of the way across we could |
see that it was going down. The |
lieutenant in charge of us. Mr..
Plumer, told those who could swin11
to jump off and see if thew could /
get to shore. We had several ma
cotes on the ferry boat, which we
used on the pack mules that morn |
ing, and when the boat went down |
| think they knocked several of the
boys off, so they had to try and
SWIM. be and had been in bathing
several times and he could always
swim better than l. There were sew
en- OF us on the boat when it went
down. Two others beside him came
almost giving up before they were
rescued. He surely swan quite a
sIsse!aee ae he sVess seeF1 eevgTsII times L
and 1t was thought that he was go
ng out all right. He had heb-nail
shoes on, a field belt with one hun
1red rounds of ammunition and
'lfie when it went down. was
Taught la the railing when we went
iown, so therefore kept me from
getting away from the boat, which
vas the treason l did not leave thel
BOAT. 1t was fastened to a wire ca
de which did not give away and held
part of the boat above water. The
.ellow in charge of it and myself
we're the only two which did not try
o swim out. Mr.. Arnold was not
ound until the second day after he
vent down, about 9 a. m. He was
,iven the best attention possible un-
Ter conditions. He had $50 I am
Iuite sure of the morning we start
ng was practically all torn from him
rom the results of the rocks and
rush in the river.
If any other information of i'm
ortance you think I could send you,
would be glad to do so upon re-
uest.
Respectfully,
o. B. WINTER.
n 1