The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1919-01-17

AoIo.-bcdL MOIuci. wv ore BILL III
the same old camp and ] am feeling
fine. Have had several days of rainy
weather lately. Time passes slow it
seems. We haven't much to do
now and everybody is uneasy, sort of
expecting an order to move to the
seaport. One fellow has several
thousand francs bet that we will be
in a U. S. port by January /, hope he
wins.
Isn't much to write about so am
going to tell everything I've seen
since we left Camp Merritt last
spring.
We were awakened at midnight on
June % and marched about eight
miles to a little town on the Hudson
river, reaching there at daylight.
Here we loaded on a little river
steamer and went down the river to
the navy yards at Hoboken where
we unloaded into one of the big sheds
on the docks. Here the Red Cross
ladies gave us coffee, sandwiches and
cigarettes. Then we tramped up the
gangplank and down into the ship.
Tell you more about the ship when /
get home. Ten days later we "ighted
land, the western coast of Scotland.
We went south down the bay be-
tween Scotland and Ireland, I've for
gotten the name of it. On the
twelfth lay We reached Liverpool,
here we marched through the city
over to railroad station where we
cntrained for Southampton. We
reached Southampton next morn
mig at Z o'clock, marched several
miles up 20 a rest camp in the rain.
We rested until noon then marched
down to the docks, loaded on a cat
tie boat ar pulled across the English
channel 20 LeHavre, France. Here
we marched up long hill to another
rest camp. Here we stayed couple
of days then loaded on a real Frog
train, little dinky boxcars marked
forty men-eight horses. We were on
the train a couple Of days when we
hit St. Afghan de Nogers, big clas-
sification camp. Here our outfit was
busted up. About 4 hundred of us
were sent to another camp for artil-
lery training. 1t took us a day and a
half to reach the place, an old French
fort called LaCourti1e, over near the
week or so then were transferred
to the Fifty eighth brigade. We
loaded on those beloved boXcars and
travelled over France trying to find
the brigade. We finally located them
at a place called Caldahon on the
sixth day. We drilled here about
three weeks when the outfit was or
dered to the front. Box cars again,
day and night took us to the st. Mi
hiel front northwest of Nancy. We
camped ir a heavy forest a few miles
back of The line. The guns were
taken up at night and every night am
munitiOn was hauled up. Fritz was
going to get big surprise soon. The
lines had never moved either way for
four years, a quiet sector, you know.
was hauling water to the camp day
times and up to the guns at night.
What bothered me most was that l
couldn't smoke at night and it was
so awfully muddy, rained every day.
The bitches were lined up with horses
that had given out, trucks that had
slid off the road, etc. Some time I'd
get back from the guns about two
in the morning, so dark couldn't
see my team. Some how I'd get the
harness eff Of them and find the
PICKET lire, then crawl into my pup
tent. One night as / reached the gun
position l noticed something unusual
was up, everybody seemed uneasy.
asked one of the cooks what was Up
and he says the big show is going to
start ir about an hour. 1t was about
midnight hem. l wondered how the
doughboys felt up in the trenches a
would go over the top. About one
o'clock the big noise started, three
inch, six inch ard way back the big
navy guns doomed. A person just
couldn't think there was such rack
ct. About daylight the barrage lifted
and the doushboys went out, the
Fritzes had all beat it. BY sun down
that day the doughboys were miles
away and everything was quiet ex-
cert for the ambulances running back
and forth from the line to the hospi-
tails. Big flocks Of aeroplanes went
over in the direction of Germany,
bombing planes l think. The next day
we hit the trail for Verdun. The next
ten days we travelled nights and
slept day times. Some nights it was
awful nice, then again it would rain.
The ground would be wet or muddy,
but we lived through it and felt fine
when we hit the Verdun front some
time about the last of September l
think. Here we went through the
same old performance again, hauling
ammunition at night, wash harnesses
and clean equipment by day, sleep in
between. The drive started around
the 28th l think. In couple days
the gurs moved up ard peppered 'em
some more Finally we found our
selves about fifteen miles from where
we had started the drive. 1t was
about the tenth of October now and
we wondered when we would be re-
lieved. The outfit on our right hadn't
advanced as fast as We had and
Fritz was Smelling us from the flank.
Every night he'd drop few shells.
One night one lone shell got sixteen
head of mules ard horses, another
got one of our men and mule
Luch was with us that night l guess
for there were several hundred men
and horses iE camp and seven shells hit
right among us, only one man getting
killed although several tents were
full of holes. About this time the
peace rumor got strong, some Of the
boys bet war would be over before the
week end.