The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1919-02-06
Stories About the Big War.

Stories About the Big War.
The following extracts are from a
letter received by Hon. ]. 4. Nanny. Of
I'lain Dealing. from his son. Sergt.
William II. Many. Of the !Sth lnfan-
try. now in Orleans. France, written
under date of December 10th. and fol-
lowing that is a letter, in full. written
in the same place on January Sd:
You should just slip in unobServed
some day and listen to us discussing
our past battles. Each one rattles off
with his tale of how he escaped after
being nearly surrounded by Germans,
and winds up hy saying. Gee! l don't
see how l ever did it," A person who
has not been in the fight would say he
is stretching things, but let me say,
that when /; ''doughEoy" who has seen
action in Chateau Thiery, st. Mihiel
and the Arsonne tells it you can take
it for the truth. for | have seen more
miracles i'll six months over here than
in all my life before-thingS that you
would not hardly believe. Here is Il
funny one told us the other night by
Billy Sundays right hand man { l for
get his name):
1t was during the Argonne drive i'll
October that large shells began to fall
near where bunch of negro engineers
were working. AS the first shell came
whistliny through the air with its
dc;ltl,-moaniny sound two negroes ran
and jumped into two small shell-holes
near ~ for safety. just i'll time to miss
the explosion of the shell, which sent
shrapnel flying all around their heads.
After the second shell had exploded
Rastus whispered to Ezekiel, the other
negro. and said:
Amt it Tout time we had better
jine de church,"
Who? Me. Niger? jined de
church when dat first one went over.
Rastus looked up. with great aston
| ishment. to see Ezekiel snatching of
| his clothes. so lie whispered. in shaky
voice. to ask:
What de devil is YOU dom, nigger!'
is tryin' to git jest as close to old
mother earth as kim" Ezekiel replied
About this time shell came whist
| ling over their heads. and when is ex
ploded it completely covered Rastus-
| all but his feet. Ezekiel lay there il
| that hole. every muscle in him stiff
from being in such Il strain Al
through his mind was flashing 3 in l.
/ dead man. l grave, ! coffin.
This makes one think of Henri.
Fcrd's auto plant all done at thu
same time.
| Dearest Father: Expect you viii
soon become tired Of receiving so man.
letters from he. lut. as l said EefOre
am tryill. to make up for the times
| Gid not get to write you.
| What seems to he the program Vi
the day i'll the old L. s.! Onr chic
| thoughts are, When will we ge
home!" but In IL few days from now
will lie headed for place acres!
the border, and. believe me, before Ion.
we expect to finish " the watch on til,
Rhine Then we will all come sailin.
home.
You remember in your letter of Jul.
you spoke of hoping to hear next from
HE in Berlin. THAT letter / receive,
while only ii short distance east o
Chateau Thiery, during August. w
had just been relieved from the from
line on the Vesle River and were o.
our way to IiffOl-le-Grande for ten
day rest l might add that IiffOl-le
Grande is about twenty miles frol
Gen Pershing's headquarters. Will
here we put our minds on drill. for W
were preparing for the st Mihiel offel
sive as an American army. We wer
only too anxious to do our bit" f0
heretofore we had heen doing our hi
with the French and British. but nov
we were alone. If we failed, the Amer
lean Army had failed: if we succeeded
then the Allies had good army t
fight beside them. Everything had bee
planned out to the point. We even ha'
i, map mad showing every spring. vel
or other water source In this sector
also showing the amount 1t affOrde
and whether 1t was good for drinking
purposes.
SO it was during the night of Sci
tember 18th that hell opened its mouth
and for hours the earth seemed to b
crumbling away as the Allied artiller
swept the strong Notifications that ha
protected the Hun during his fOu
years stay here. 1t was too much 70
him. and. as it was beginning to re
light. and the line of 'doughbOys., wit
their bayonets and rifles soon had thei
starting ON their home rum The
did not take time to gather up thei
supplies. etc. but left them behind t
convince us that the American Arm
had done what every other cOutry (eN
cept Germany had believed it wOul
do.
Hardly had the smoke cleared ava
from this battle before we were ''shifI
ing" the scene always at night frOl
the st. NIihiel salient to the ArgOnn
and MeuSe sector. During the night q
September 18th we were troddin
noiseleSsly from large woods benin
the line up to the trenches of " Dei
Mans Hill and Hill No. 3O4,' bot