The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1919-04-11
FOURTEENTH YEAR, No. 43.


though 1t was chicken. Just as the bat
terry came up saw one of the fellows
coming up and he handed me letter
from you, which you sure can bet |
was glad to receive.
From BOsmont we had very hard
trip across mo mans land."a The en-
gineers did poor job of filling tren-
ches and bridging them, but in time
we got across after letting a few cas-
sions and ammunition trucks down
into the trenches to bridge them. Many
prisoners were passing us in the mean
time going to the rear, and they look
ed good to us, as they looked so do
rile with the American sentries chas-
ing them. We got many souvenirs
from them. Many German tanks were
stuck in the trenches and were blown
up.
On the 14th We camped ~ kilo-
meters in advance of our old position
behind bunch of trees, but did not
put our guns in a pit nor fire them.
After We had been here for an hour or
so gun was fired from somewhere
near and burst of shrapnel was
heard somewhere near at hand to our
right. After an hour it was found that
three Austrians were firing shrapnel
out of n. They were taken prisoners.
We had three meals and an issue of
tobacco today.
| believe that in my last letter left
off with the st. Mihiel drive about the
10Th. Well. the drive was mighty near
finished then and We were on the
move again. On the morning of the
18th We moved into an old German
rest camp. 1t sure was some place.
There were dance halls and bowling
alley. A German band was captured by
the 18th infantry, also a supply train
with Red Cross materials for the Ger
mans, also some beer, which did not
last long. 1t was at this camp that we
were paid That is where | sent the
$40 from. | drew four hundred and
fifty franks. l wrote you letter on
the goth from that pace, too.
On the 21st we left there and went
30 kilOmeters to another wood, and
stayed there three days. Here it sure
did rain and was muddy While here
We put up picket line and during
the time we were digging the anchor
hole first lieutenant came along
and asked what we were doing and a
sergeant In charge told hi mthat we
were digging hole for dead man,
which we were. He asked us where he
was. Sergeant Cunningham said:
-Four of my men are going after him
in little While The iietlteiiant then
went back to the old picket line and
watched the men groom the sergeant.
Then after a while ne sent four men
after short log that was to be a dead
man. They had to come back past the
old picket line. The fellows laid their
hats on the log and whistled funeral
march. The Lieutenant gave them one
look and then fell for what fool he
was and beat it back to town. He
didn't ask any more FOOLISH questions
that day.
= We hit into our first position on the
Argonne about the 2rd of October and
we had no rest nor were we very far
from the line at any time for over a
year. We had no rest at al as the pa
pers stated We had. All of the other
divisions did, even our infantry hal
rest and the infantry men deserved it,
but you know, the regulars and espec-
tally the First was always mentioned
in small print. AS we arrived, the Ar
gonne drive had been going on for
four or five days. We followed them
up and went into position on October
End. The chaplain of the 2Sth Infantry
was killed just as we came into town
not thirty feet from our piece. The
weather was cold and frosty, but it
was muddy under foot. Many are ly-
ing dead in the valley at the foot of
the hill. There are seventy-five horses
dead in sight of our position, but we
are up the hill and -ot quite so much
in position for the Boch Shells Two
planes came over and were brought
down the evening we came, and an
other lit out of order. The square-head
who was in the machine was sure
scared. When he surrendered he tried
to burn his plane but did not succeed.
The story from here is a hard one.
We lost many men and had hard
life