Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1919-01-17
a. C. Hankins Came Through o. X.

a. c. Hankins Came Through o. X. !
Antricourt, France, December 16.
Editor the C. w. News:
Just line to advise you that the
News is coming right along now and
IS enjoyed by q number of the boys. |
The bunch who went to the Univer-
sity of Virginia automobile school
May 23rd were distributed among
this regiment and am glad to advise
that the Tazewell boys all came thru |
Q: T., except c. w. Moore, who was
slightly wounded and all are enjoying
good health, but are anxious to pet |
back to the dear old u. S. A.
We are putting in 5h hours drill
per day now just to keep in shape you
know. At night we entertain our
selves by organizing cootio hunts and |
sincerely endeavor to lessen their af-
lection for us. This is~how it happen |
ed. They became attached to us dur
ing our occupation Of some German |
dugouts and pill boxes on the Verdun |
front near Metz and insisted on ac-
companying us on the 100 mile hike |
from the front here. The scenery en-
route and the packs on our backs !
claimed our attention along the way,
consequently when we finally became !
somewhat settled here we were sur
prised to discover that instead of be-
coming fatigued and dropping out OH
the line as some Of the "sore feet"
did, they had induced lot of French
coolies to join them. Well, the nov I
city Of having such pets soon disa-
peared and we are now waging
most determined war against them.
Some of them are old warriors and
have several service stripes.
Now, Editor, keep the News COM
ing, for Uncle Sam may deem it ad-
visable to hold US over here for some |
months yet,
For the speedy determination of
all existing coolies, l am,
Sincerely yours,
A. C. HAWKINS.
Corporal A. G. Hawkins, Co. B, 323rd
Infantry, A. P. o. 791, A. E. F.
Extracts from a letter written by
private Lawrence A. Barrett, to his
parents at Richards. He enlisted in
Co. F, End Va. Infantry, April 8,
1917. Received most of his training
at Camp Mcclellan, Ala:
Miramas, France, Dec. 8.
Dear folks:
This leaves me in the best of health
and i hope and proy it finds you all
the same. / have been expecting to
leave for the States every day, as all
men who have been wounded are to
come home first, and am one of
them.
AS the censor permits us now to
write most anything we want to,
am going to give you my history from
the time left the States to the pres
ent time. left Camp Merritt April
21st for Hoboken, N. ]. We boarded
the transport Huron, which was for
merly German vessel. We stayed
in port till next afternoon, when we
sailed out about five miles and were
joined by about five other transports
and battleship. 1t did not bother
me in the least coming over, but l
wish you could have seen some of the
boys that were on my boat. They
sure were sick. We had been out three
days when we had serious accident.
One of the other transports ran into
ours. 1t was about nine o'clock at
night. was in bed. I was down in
the fourth hatch and it knocked me
out of bed. We all thought we had
been torpedoed. There were 1920 men
on this boat and tell you, we were
lucky that the boat did not sink. Of
all the praying, it sure went UP to
our God that night. We returned to
New York and got another boat. We
sailed again on April Goth and had
a nice trip across. Never saw any
subs at all. We landed at st Nazarie
on May II. Stayed there four days
when they loaded in box cars and we