St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1919-03-08
COVINCTON BOY In
WAR TELLS OF
EXPERIENCE

MI. Jt-Ch 4dlApCl GlC
following letter taken from the Des
Moines Qa) Register, written by
Fred Kuhlman, familiarly known IA
Covington as Snow Digger" Ere /
was one of the first four boys to
leave CoEington and volunteer in
the army. Early in 1917 he was
sent to France and after a few
months of intensive training went
into action with the first American
troops. His letter to his parents il
Des Moines follows:
Somewhere in Germany,
December "a, 1918.
This being Sunday morning and
nothing to do so thought | would
drop you line le ting you know
that am we'll and happy.
Well, / found out something yes
terday-that l have been looking for
ever since the armistice was signed
Lieutenant Pope, my section COM
mander, told us yesterday that we
may now write anything that we
desire regarding our experiences.
Thought l would tell you about
some of the battle and towns that we
passed through. The first battle
that wish to mention is the great
battle that will go down in history
as the battle Of Cantigny, which was
captured by the Twenty-eighth in
fantry There is one thing that |
wish to mention before go into fur
ther details about the battle of Can
tigny. On the morning of May 27
the Germans threw over barrdge
on the Americans preparatory to
making a drive and it was one of
the worst barrages | ever experience
ed, but the Germans did not gain
anything by it. They sent over fifty
men, and out of the fifty we killed
forty-eight, wounded one and cap
tured the other The battle of Can
tigny | wish to mention is one of the
greatest battles | ever experienced
for the simple reason that it was
my first time over the top.
On the morning of May %, when
the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh felu
artillery threw over the barrage for
the Yanks it was great and very
wonderful because we could see the
shells bursting in the town of Can
tigny and building after building
tumbled to the ground. One thing
in particular that held my attention
was we could see the trees rise and
fall to the ground from the effect Of
bursting shells. On the 28th at $40
a. m. our officers gave the commana
to go over the top and the Yanks
sure went. Our ibarrage was terrible
and when we reached the Germans
first line of trenches they were piled
in it four or five deep. Every Ger
man the boys could see was a dead
Dutchman. Whenever we came in
contact with them they would hold
up their hands and call "Kamerad
and that's about all they could say.
When we reached our objectives al 1
dug in the real fighting started. The
Germans made seven counter attacks
in one day but every one was re-
pulsed, so finally they found out they
could not move the Yanks. just
think, mother, that my regiment has
the honor of being the first ones over
the top, capturing town and hold
ing 1.-THE fighting Twenty-eighth.
On the Marne.
OH uly 10 we "0uL OFSA tuS 10y
on the Marne front. We captured
four or five towns the first day but
do not remember the names. We
were driving for place called Soi5-
sons and we kept on going for five
days when we were relieved by
Scotch troops
On September 12 General Per-
shing's birthday the Twenty eighth
infantry went over the top at Toul IN
the St. Mihiel drive. We had har5
time of it in this battle because they
had a lot of machine guns and ar
tillery. The forest we had to go
through was called the Argonne for
est, so we call it the Argonne drive.
The Germans had lots OF machine
guns and one-pounders and the
made it hot for the boys, but we
pushed through. The Germans sure
are afraid of the Yanks.
Well, l have one more battle TO
tell you about and it will be the end
of my experiences. On Nov 5, We
went over the top again. We were
driving for a place called Sedan. p
capturing Sedan we could have cut
the German army in half. We had
very hard time of it because we
had no artillery but that did not stop
rs and we kept pushing forward.
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