The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1919-02-13
Descriptive Letter.
Continued from First Page,

| rOauDeu over WHICH lIuchS WtIG pass
ing with supplies. You should have
seen those colored boys drop their
picks and shovels and dash for the
bitches, trenches and any cover they
could find. \ Even the trucks were
abandoned. But one of our boys had
an eye for business. he noticed thai
one of the trucks was loaded with
rations and on top was a big stack Of
bread. We were rather short of bread
that day and what does Mr. Soldier
do but climb over the tailboard o.
the truck, hook two loaves of punk
and beat il across the fields to oui
quarters while the man in charge O.
the truck was hiding somewhere in
the ditch. Ii was laughable to see
this fellow blowing across the muddy
field with big round loaf under each
arm, while all the excitement and
even chance of being peppered with
machine gun bullets, was going on.
was in the town Of Essey, which
was about two miles from the woods
one morning while the Germans were
Smelling il trying to reach a bridge
which spanned a main supply road
1t was rather interesting to stand and
see those shells burst about 500
yards away. We had never had the
experience before, and so were fool
ish enough to want to stay for the
big show
By the way, my experience with
the Salvation Army began in this
town and my respect for them was
| greatly increased. Most all of their
work was done at the front under
actual firing and the brave men and
women certainly deserve credit for
the good work they did under such
trying conditions. One of the Sal
walton Army men, Hinkle by name, as
sisted b yhis wife, had fixed up a
very comfortable place for the sol
diers, in shell torn building. They
had a piano, graphaphone, and writ
4 ing tables. together with a supply of
candy, chocolate. handkerchiefs, and
other necessities.
| Between the ~" and Red Cross
and also the Salvation Army, we were
kept fairly we'll supplied with sweets
and tobacco. During our stay in the
woods we lay in waiting, as il were
for the word to send us forward into
/ our position. There was nothing to
do only roam around looking over the
eLtrenchments, practice with our pis
| tells, or sleep. l did a great deal of
each
Then on the evening of Nov 4th
one of our batteries got word TO move
and we knew it would be our turn
soon. The next evening found us on
the way. / can't say | was exactly
scared, but funny feeling came over
ME- ! didn't know whether we were
going right up into action and take
some other battery's place or what
we were to do So | just marched on
in the darkness and thought serious
thoughts Was greatly relieved when
we halted in village nesting at the
foot Of high protecting hill and was
| informed this was our eschelon,
Bouillionville. AS we were tired out
from the hike, We Topped most any
where in the buildings selected for
our battery to occupy. The next
morning we were rearranged and
First Sgt. Akley, Supply Sgt Very
| Corporal Connolly and myself were
very comfortably situated in the
| Orderly Room which had a nice fire
place in it and plenty of wood in the
rear room. / don't believe there was
any one particular thing which did
more to raise our spirits than to come
into the Orderly Room, drag a chair
or box up around the fire place, and
| with the room blue with tobacco
smoke bring up some fond recollec
ton, some laughable incident which
had happened during the day or In
| N uyho
the war would end and when we were
going home, for the latter was al.
ways one of our chief topics.
Our guns went into position the
night of Nov. 9Th, and right off the
bat the Germans threw gas shells and
held us back from taking our place
But our Battery Commander Capt
Baxter, located another road to the
emplacements and led us thru safely.
Then the Limbers were brought back
and my work began.
| had been appointed Ammunition
Sgt, Sept. 18th while at Camp Coet.
quidan and SO on the afternoon of
Nov. 9Th, ! rode out with 1t. STRAIT.
ton, regimental ammunition officer tc
locate the Regimental Dump We
left Bouillionville about 4:30 p. NJ
and rode horseback across country
for about five miles until we came &c
the place. 1t was located in thick
woods and there was only one road
winding thru the dump. Ammuni-
ton was stacked all around and in
order to keep the Germans from 10.
eating it, all work had to be done un-
der cover of darkness or a heavy fog
At it got dark early when we rode
home, / had hard time distinguish
ing objects by which / could mark
the way for the next trip.
When the limbers arrived at Bouil
lionville, we started out at 1880 the
same night to get our first load OF
ammunition. A heavy fog bad low
cred and obscured practically every.
thing from view and as guide | had q
most pleasant job on my hands guild
ing the party. There we're three
caissons, with three pair of horses
and three drivers to each. In add
ton we carried six men to handle
| ammunition Each carriage was sen