The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-01-24
FROM 1T. LOWELL L. TURLEY

Bure les Templiers, France, Dec. II.
S. r. Turley, Pennington, Mo.
Dear Dad:-Your letter of the 18th
ultmo. received yesterday and was in
deed glad to hear from you.
We have been very fortunate in be-
ing able to get our mail pretty regu
larly. OF course, we had several
skips but it was simply due to the
fact that we were moving so fast that
the mail could not catch up with us.
We are now in our training area and
this place is our headquarters. A, B,
C, and Headquarters companies and
the Engineer Train are located here.
D, E, and f Companies are located in
three nearby towns.
Sixth Division headquarters is at
Aigny lie Due, Eighth Engineers head
quarters is at Montigny and LIST Army
headquarters is at Bar sur Anbe. The
above places are on the military and
geographical chart. In other words, |
am at present in the Headquarters
Detachment, 3tS Regt. Engrs. (Sap-
pers) Sixth Division, Sth Corps, list
Army Lieut.-General Liggett COM
mands the 1st Army; Major General
Allen, the 9Th Corps; Major General
Gordon, the 9th Division; Colonel
Gross, the 31S Engrs., and l command
the Headquarters Detachment.
At present | have 124 men and 81
horses. have a mighty good detach-
men and everything gets along in fine
shape. ! have some good sergeants
and n-commissioned officers so do
not have to do all the work myself.
The band is also part Of my com
pany. Most of my men are special
lists in some line of work and very few
Of them are privates.
We are now on four weeks train
ing schedule. We have five hours a
day, an inspection Saturday morning;
Saturday afternoon and Sunday recre-
alton. We will have target practice,
drill and engineering. 1t is very easy,
compared to what we have been
through during the past month.
1t certainly was tough sailing up
through the Argonne Forest in mud
and water up to your neck. 1t GER
tainly means something to say that
one has followed up a big drive like
the one on Sedan.
We marched night and day but nov
err got closer than the German rear
guards. OF course the shells from
the cannon whizzed over frequently
but not single man in our regiment
was killed or wounded. We were for
tunate indeed.
Gne day while at Stonnc, near Sc
dan, | was sent out on horseback to
al e hot
the Germans had blown up in their
retreat. | went down after my horse
and had been gone only three or four
minutes when large shell burst just
where my horse and a couple more
were grazing tearing a hole in the
ground six feet in diameter and three
or four feet deep. Lots of such things
happened and it seems very funny that
we were so lucky.
Early the morning of our depart
ure the camp was shelled and also the
road by which we left. The shells all
went wild and no one was injured.
1t is certainly some sensation to
hear large shell rush by only a few
feet overhead. After the armistice
was signed we went to Verdun for
few days and did some work on the
roads, tore down some Tank Stops,
unloaded some large land mines I'M
der roads and bridges, and exploded
number of "Duds." 1t was some
ticklish job, too.
When there is so much happening
and there are so many troops concen-
trated in small area the food pro-
position becomes a very difficult prob
lem and all we have is corn-willy ond
bareback. Even that tastes mighty
good when you have gone "a to 48
hours without any sleep or food.
| have no idea when we will return.
1t is hard to tell what will happen.
We may return to the u. S. or we may
stay while to see that the Huns live
up to their terms.
There are eight officers going on
seven-day leave in few days and l
am one of them. expect to spend
most of it in Nice, so do not be sur
prised if my next letter comes from
there.
Yours lovingly,
LOWELL.