Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1919-01-23

noon of the sixth of June we attacked
and took the village of Boureschess
lin the country of Aisne, near CheateSu
lTbierry and a part of Belleau wood.
/ MY poor friend Mercer was killed
that afternoon and Johnston was very
ibadly wounded. I think | sent some
kodak pictures Of the three OF us bath
ing In the Potomac.
!, I shot one of the two Germans.
II have finished over here, that day, and
got through without a scratch,
At midnight Of the seventh we were
attacked but had no trouble driving
them off. We counter attacked at day
light and l got the other German that
morning. / had two holes shot through
NV haversack and had my rifle shaft
cred in my hands.
By this time the Dutchmen nad
dragged UP their artillery and the fre
that we endured for the next month
was something beyond description. On
lime % we attacked again and took the
rest of Belleau wood which has been
renamed "Bois de Brigade Marines.
I copied a prisoner that afternoon.
Their wasn't a great deal doing in that
sector then until about July IL.
want to add that l saw Floyd
Gibbons of the Chicago Tribune on the
90 of June. He went forward with us
and stopped every now and then to
scratch a few notes. Shells bursting
all around and bullets humming like
hornets. Seemed to be regular fellow
We Jared pretty well then, resting in
the villages of Bezu and Nanteuil until
July 16. Went swimming in the Marine
, and blew up fish with hand grenades.
On the evening of the 1C we got
, aboard trucks and went up toward
scissors. On the morning or the IL
our artillery threw over a terrible
barrage and the Marines and the %
Infantry attacked near Villers Cotteret.
, They took some three thousand pris-
oners and about four hundred guns IN
couple of hours. Then on the 10 our
Regiment hiked up to town called
, Very and took up the attack. There
, was rather a desultOry fire coming
, from the Germans as we passed
through the village. Shrapnel bursting
+ overhead occasionally and shells dropp-
, ping here and there. We. had to cross
a big wheat field, a space of about
two thousand yards entirely in the
; open and how they did hand it to us
going through that field. 1t was
surely a wonderful sight those waves
men going forward and long line OF
tanks crawling along like turtles.
| was about four hundred yards
, ahead of the company with four or five
other fellows doing observation work.
There was a clump of little scrubby
trees in the center of the field and
was perched in one of these watching
the German lines through a pair OF
field glasses We had been there for
about an hour when think they must
have seen us stirring around for they
turned their artillery fire directly on
this clump of trees. I was obliged to
get down and crawl into little trench
which the Germans had dug and left.
I hadn't been there two minutes when
a shell landed in the trench and ex-
ploded right beside me. A piece hit ME
in the left shoulder and broke two ribs.
. Of course 1t rolled me out OF the
trench and I crawled down behind
=. little bank Hadn't been there thirty
, seconds when a shell exploded about
ten feet behind me and a piece struck
me in the hip. So I got up and beat
It down to the dressing station in the
village of Very. Fortunately there are
about a dozen immense natural lime
stone caves there which were used as
dressing stations. Otherwise | think
, most of the wounded would have been
killed for the German artillery was
|, battering the town to pieces. Also
German aeroplanes were dropping
bombs that were little less than earth
quakes.
I was evacuated to hospital in the
city of Evereaux along with a friend
; of mine named Tilghman. Tilghman
! had money and although I had none
!, we had a pretty good time. He had
been shot in the right foot and the
= right side. went up town one day
in a suit of French civilian clothes and
lady who had a son in the French
army gathered me in and handed me
, a lot of her best liquor. You should
!, have heard the line of French talk
; that I put over. She wanted to know
how old I was and whether l was
, married and whether had sweet
heart and whether my father and
mother were alive and did l have any
brothers and sisters and plenty Of
other questions that l can't recall
After about ten days we were sent
., to French hospital at Louviers to con
valesce. While we were there lad
named Horton from Cincinnati and
were picked up by an aff1uent French
lady who took us out riding in her
phaeton and invited us to dinner
several times. We had champagne and
all kinds of French wines Up there.
| rejoined the company at a village
called Auttreville UP near Toul. We
hiked around there for a cOIiple of