Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1919-01-10

fantry to fall in France, died in the
thick of the fighting in the Cham
pagne July IA, is told by J. T. Will
liams, of Macon, a member of the
151st Machine Gun Battalion, to
which Corporal Ratley belonged, and
who has arrived at Fort MCPHERSON,
where he is in the general hospital
recovering from wounds.
The narrative, which also tells OF
the fate and deeds of numerous other
Georgia lads, is published by the At
lanta Constitution and follows:
Bringing wonderful stories OF the
bravery and heroic deeds of many
other Georgians, eleven wounded sons
of this state arrived at general nos
pital 10. at Fort Mcpherson Mon
day morning.
One of the Georgians is J. 7, Will
liams, of Macon, ISL Machine gun bat
terry, which is made up of Georgia men
and which was trained at Camp
Wheeler, Macon.
There are only fifteen men left OF
my company, and they say would
not recognize the old Rainbow dl-
vision if l should meet in on the street
hecause il is so full of new men" ne
said. MY company which used to be
known as the Floyd Rifles, when II
belonged to the Georgia militia, mas
nothing to be ashamed of.
Our men stood by their guns IN
all of the big battles and sent lead into
the German lines so fast that often
the barrels were red hot.
"Our division was the first to be
entrusted with a sector. They gave
us a stretch of the Alsace sector and
we held it for 100 days so securely that
the French never again doubted the
ability of the Americans.
I'VE arrived on the Champagne
front on the Fourth of July and cele-
brated the birthday of our country
heavily. Sergeant Earl Walters, OF
Georgia. and Private oliver, of At
lanta. were killed that day.
The 14th day of July will long be
remembered by our company, for II
was on this day that we lost two OF
the Georgia boys whom we loved the
best. They were Delward Howard, OF
Dublin, and Corporal Ratley, of Amer
icus. Howard was the very sunshine
of the company and he was Only II
wears of age He enlisted with me
and he wore his first pair of long
pants up to the recruiting office so that
he could pass for IS years of age.
We had been hiding in some deep
dugout, but the foul air had driven
us to a deserted farmhouse. I was
standing in the door and Howard was
lying on his back on the floor with
his feet in the air, laughing and
singing
He said; Now boys, hear one
coming zizzing my name and you just
tell my folks back home to stand by
the democratic party The words had
no more than left his lips when a shell
struck the house; when it was all over
he was dead. Corporal Ratley, of
Americas, was another victim. He
was holding a $4,000 life insurance
policy which ne told us few days be-
fore he had made out to the Red
Cross in case he was killed.
''We fought along side of the French
Blue Devils in this part OF tn estruggle
and when it was over we received let
tiers from General Haig complimenting
US for our part.
When we arrived at Chateau
Thierry and were unloading the trucks
a group of our men were killed and
wounded by a big shell with which
the Germans greeted us. This shell
got Clarence Forder, of Dublin, and
wounded Roy Thompson, of Macon,
and also got Carl Thompson of Ma
con, They had finished their part of
the unloading and were grouped
around a little fire which they had
built"
Among the Georgians arriving at
the fort Monday were the following
Beaufort Sawyer, Chester; R. H. Tuck
err. of Elberton; Thomas Jones, of
Murray county; English Byrd, of Ash
burn; Issac Pitts, Chester; John R.
Salter, Macon; Joseph Hobby, Syl-
vester; Jesse Reese, Atlanta; Henri
Johnson, Quitman; Russell Yates,
Brunswick; Richard Gladdis, Dalton.
Our battalion was among the first
to advance" continued Williams, land
we helped take Hill 212 and the town
of Surgis We had a great time help
ing to round up the 100000 prisoners