The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-02-06

quietly that the War Department was sending my mail to Charlestown, N. C., for five mouths afterward.
 T had to take about 2,000 Coast Ar tfllerymen, to make up my amnrunt- tion train, and machine gun battalion, and I didn't take the worst men in the Coast Artillery either. Later was asked if I had picked the best men, and I admitted I had. I was asked what authority had to do this, was told it was wrong, and to send them back. I replied, T can't; they are two days on the ocean. And what splendid work these lads did. There were 28,000 men in this Ameri- can division, and when they attached to it the Y. M. C. A, Red Cross, Knights of Columbus, Jewish Welfare Workers and all the other, it was a good 30,000 men, and up in the Toul sector, I fianlly had an attachment of 50, GOO men.
 l q had no professional officers. did have two or three but they were so good they were relieved and taken away from me for higher places. l sensed what to do with that sissy quality I had. I said I must get at these lads. They didn't know how to salute. They did more things wrong. I had to tell them everything. We had no target and practiced on tin cans. We did everything to perfec- tion."
 After telling in detail how he trained those men. although he said that if there is any success that he may have obtained it should be attributed to the mothers of these boys, and described how they fought and captured yicto- lriously in every drive, he concluded that the total loss, wounded and pris- oners was not so great after all and said, And those were your greet Nut megs who didn't know how to salute six weeks before they already fought victoriously.
 NO wonder JudendOrf and linden burg said, If green troops will fight like these, separate the French and English before the training of Amer leans IS complete, or disaster will re- tsult.' Such is the glorious Yankee Division of whom we all are so proud"
 On General EdwardS arrival at the
 armory in the afternoon the boys and
 girls and teachers who filled the hall
 to capacity stood up and cheered for
 fully five minutes. The general not
 only thrilled his young enthusiastic
 hearers with his short narratives full
 of pathos and humor, but he visual
 ized the very scenes of battlefields of
 blood with the scattering, stout
 hearted lads of the gallant 26th Di-
 vision of New England. He address
 ed the boys and girls as follows:
 "Mr. Superintendent, President of the Board of Education, girls, teach
 CTS and future soldiers of the 102
 Nutmeg Division-I have had tributes
 from mothers, wives, sweethearts of
 those boys that I have commanded
 and with whom I have gone through
 hell. I have told the girls not to get
 engaged until the boys come back.
 Now 1 will tell some of those lads
 that you have been Just as true and patriotic and patient as they. Those
 uncomplaining lads, some of whom
 fought continuously for months at 1 Verdun, where mems souls were tried, where mems legs and heads were thrown into the air thousands
 of times over the top. Those lads, ] tell you, deserve all the credit. They
 have made a record of which you may well be proud of.
 :, If a lad Is desperately wounded l he is the first the French pay atten- tion to. We fought with the French on the right of us and on the left o1 s us. And not once in that fighting was the Yankee division ever behind : If you promise not to tell, we will brag just 8 little-they were generally t well out in front"
 He said that he hoped to be back ~ in a year or so and muster all the
 boys into the army and pledge then r 1 to serve the country. Military disci
 pline is the best thing for the boys e he said. He told of many instances a of bravery, of the fellows dying, or a Iwhom he pinned the medals of honor = after they had gone to sleep forever