The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-01-09

France, Dec. 18th, 1918.-Now that
that the job of dealing with the Huns
is about completed the boys have a
little more time to devote to the
other kinds of "hons" over here. And
since my letter to you two and half
months ago I have had occasion to
see more of France, to gain new OBJ
servations and form deeper impress
sions. You will note from the heading
of this letter that 1 am now permit
ted to divulge not only the American,
but also the French names indicating
my location. St. Parize is the near
est town, only a few hundred yards
from this camp, and is about the
size of Ehrhardt. Just as America
is divided into states France is di-
vided into governmental units called
departments which are similar to our
states, and the name Nievre, above,
is the department in which this camp
is located. Ten miles from here lies
the city of Nevers, and this is the
place of 10000 inha bitants that re-
ferred to in my previous letter. 1t is
the capital of the department of Me
vre, and incidentally they are given
a like pronunciation which is as
though the word was spelled Newer.
It is in the east central portion of
the country 1856 miles from Paris
on the Paris, Lyons, Mediterranean
railway, and is about 115 miles re-
moved from Lyons, the second larg-
est city of France, and which shelters
a population of practically 100000
people including probably 100000
refugees from the devastated Sec
tions. 1 have not been to Lyons, but
this information was. obtained from a
highly intelligent citizen of that city
with whom I talked personally at
Nevers some time ago, and who in
answer to a direct question from me,
stated frankly but reservedly, that
the fate of France was doomed and
the war lost to the allies had not
America entered when it did, and
that was not only his conviction but
the general concensus of opinion
among the better elements of French
people.
1 should be glad to relate some of
the incidents of my 12-days' voyage
across the Atlantic which the rules
of censorship barred from my former
letter, but as they are more or less
of a personal rather than a general
nature, I shall not bore you with a
detailed account of the trip. 1t will
suffice to say that landed at the city
of Glasgow, Scotland, which is 10
Gated on the extreme northwestern
coast of that country. l crossed
Scotland from northwest to south
east by rail, and likewise entered
England in the northwestern corner
of that country and completely trav-
ersed England to the southeastern
section where I detrained at the an
cient city of Winchester, 60 miles
below London. I spent four days at
and Southampton, a city
claiming a population of $4,000 and
bordering on the English channel
which l crossed on the night Of July
22nd, my conveyance being miser-
able excuse for a steamboat. Early
the next morning I landed at La
Havre in the department of Seine
on the northern coast of
France and marched three miles out
to what they called an American rest
camp. God forgive those who called
it that. Two days later we were
herded aboard a dirty, dingy freight
train and jammed into box cars for a
ride of two days and nights through
France. We got off at little village
named Bricon in the department of
Haute Marne and stretched out on
the wet ground for a snooze of two
hours, when we we're aroused at
three o'clock in the morning to begin
our march of eight miles with heavy
packs, full equipment and empty
stomachs, for we couldn't get any
breakfast at that time of night.
Right here / must branch off to
more recent happenings for the night
mare of this march and events i'm
subsequent thereto will not
permit me to describe them without
the use of adjectives altogether inap-
propriate for publication in a family
newspaper. A short while ago was
to enjoy brief leave of
absence which I spent in the city Of
Vichy, Allier, about 80 miles south
of here. I was in company with two
other American soldiers, one from
New York the other from Indiana.
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