Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1919-07-23
: THE FAKE WAR HISTORIES
DIR. Porter Warns Against Frauds
and Incomplete Accounts

1870 @.t~O@tt F@~~~ 1N~OAnAc
The War Department has issued
warning against solicitors of socalled
historical books and publications of no
historic value published solely for COM
mercial purposes. Agents are calling
upon parents of soldiers offering to
publish for varying sums photographs
and service records of soldiers in
books covering single county or city.
Most of these books have been found
to possess no value" Several months
ago a young man from a Milwaukee
publishing house called upon me for
list of soldiers names for Vernon
county. ] gave him the names of some
200 boys whose postoffice address is
Viroqua, and the names of soldiers
whose address is Westby. That was
all he waited. In the compiling of a
county war history that list is of hard
ly any value and if a book agent
comes along with a war history of
Vernon county, be sure to turn him
down cold. Berlie Moore gave me
list of 1863 names of boys who had
been indicted into service at Viroqua
and other places. A few of those boys
had enlisted elsewhere, but most of
them were drafted here. From coun-
ty papers and citizens | obtained
names of enlisted men, Vernon county
boys a few drafted in Montana and
elsewhere so that the list gives a total
Of 1900 names. The County History
Commission is working to perfect that
list, and it hopes that every soldier
will send his discharge at once to the
Register of Deeds, Viroqua, and have
1t recorded free. MIR. Paulsen is doing
the work of recording in a beautiful
manner and that record will be worth
It's weight in gold in the long distant
future.
The County History Commission is
finding lot of enlisted men in Yer
non county of whom the draft board
and no one else has any record.
found the discharge of one soldier in
the registers book, boy from over
seas who was unknown to any of us
here. DIR. Chambers writes me after
had sent him the names of the sixty
soldiers whose postoffice was LaFarge
Il have the names of over 80 of the
boys from this vicinity, enlisted men
that you have not got at ALL" That
is the case all over the county. La
Fargo is to have a big reception for
the soldiers July "a and Rev. Smeby
promises me that if he can go, we will
go to LaFarge and write the boys up
as we did on the 4th at Viroqua. /
believe the ladies' who obtained the
histories of the two or three hundred
soldiers on the fourth had the red let
ter days of their lives. 1t was won
derfully interesting, the stories those
veterans told. One splendid fellow
was with the "Lost Battalion" and
he heard Major Whitaker tell the
Heines to go to hell; another wore the
ID. S. c. and like all of them was as
modest as could be when telling his
story; another had been terribly gas
sed, and Tenny E. Hanson marked as
dead declared he was very much alive.
Tenny o. Hanson was the soldier who
died at Camp Grant. The one lived
at Coon Valley, the dead soldier at
Westby. | don't know why some
body didn't think to have a moving
picture taken of that parade down
Main street. We embalm the beauti-
full music of great artists and we
might have preserved a picture of
that magnificent parade, probably as
great gathering of splendid fighting
men as Vernon County will ever see.
Did you stand where you could see
those overseas boys faces, a little
above and almost in front of them,
did you take note of their perfect ac-
ton, the firm determined expression
on their faces and didn't your heart
seem to come up a little nearer to
your throat? l think those parades
should be repeated in LaFarge, Hills
boro, Westby and at the fairs, and if
LaFarge could only have a motion pic
ture taken of the parade July 24, it
would be another indication that the
Kickapoo Valley folk have been fully
abreast if not ahead in patriotic work
all through the war. That parade of
overseas boys is worth going twenty
miles to see. Get GOOD position,
watch their perfect motion, watch
their faces, remember that no men
ever went deeper into hell than some
of them have gone and that splendid
tableau will haunt your memory until
YOUR diving day. C. v PORTER