The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1919-01-20
Carl P. MCNeese
Writes Lengthy
Letter to Mother
La Valbonne, France,
Nov 23rd, 1918.

How are you? Hope you are get
ting along fine. | am feeling fine
We have just finished our examina.
ton. We had our usual Saturday
morning inspection, and the exami.
nation took up the remainder Of the
morning.
/ think the school will be over
by the last of this week
We are going to have a football
game this afternoon. Think / shall
watch the game. / was so busy last
week | didn't get to watch the game
noticed in this weeks "Stars and
Stripes" that we are allowed to tell
where we are, what we have been do
ing, etc. Here | go:
| landed in France at Calais. We
then went to little village called
Narbycourt. We stayed there until
July End. We then started on q
march to Belgium. We entered
Flanders at IL o'clock noon, July a
Arrived at our camp about 400 p
m. 1t was, between Walan and Pap
eringh We went up in the front
line trenches for six days. We stay
until on or near the first of August
We were in the Ypres section. We
passed through Ypres both going and
coming out of the trenches. The
front line trenches at that time were
about three hundred yards in front
Of the eastern edge Of Ypres. After
we came out Of the trenches we went
% camp-"Proven." We were
lust outside the town one night wher
Jerry threw a few shells into the
own and killed some civilians and
wounded some soldiers. The civil.
ans became excited and many Of
hem left the town for the night.
We left Belgium on the 9th Of Sep
ember, boarded the train near
Proven, went through Belgium to
Calais. We then turned in south
western direction, going through
Boulogne down to st. Pal We arriv-
ID there September 7th. St. Pal is
/ nice little town. We stayed there
lbout ten days and then caught the
rain and went through Daullens, and
IN to camp about ten miles farther
had the pleasure Of visiting Daul-
ems once. / bought the handkert
.hief souvenir there sent you, AT
er a stay there of about three days
We loaded into trucks on the evening
If September 22d, and rode until
nearly daylight the next morning
We unloaded at little village call
ID Hamel. We passed through AL.
,ert and several other little villages
he night we were in the trucks
There wasn't a single building left
standing in Albert. We slept Mon
lay morning until about noon. We
rot up ate our breakfast and started
On our march. We went through
2aisel and went on to village call
ID Geoncourt. We were in our re.
'erve line there. We stayed ir
trenches which the enemy had beer
lriven out of less than week be.
ore. We stayed there until early
IN the morning of the 10th. We
PARTICIPATED in that drive on Sept
10Th against the Hindenburg line
me 1st and second battalions of our
'egiment were in the front Of the at
ack. Our battalion was in the re-
erve during that drive.
We were relieved on the Afternoon
# October LIST, and at that time we
we're just in front of BeIlicourt.
crossed the st. Quentin canal on 9
DOT bridge. / then went down tc
he entrance of the Bellicourt tunne'
and had a good look at it. On the af
ernoon we were relieved we went
rack to the kitchen and got a hot
upper. We gathered our equip
nent all together and started back tt
rest camp after supper, At Q p
n, the next morning we halted al
Fincourt, near Hamel, for short
nap. The next morning we got ur
md started out again, and hiked fo'
about fifteen miles that day. We
we're then in the vicinity of Peronne
On the morning Of October 5th, We
rot our packs ready for a move
thinking that we were going bach
somewhere for rest--maybe bael
to Daullens. We crossed the Somm
river and halted for a few minutes
shortly the trucks began coming
and we loaded in and rode until 3:3C
D. m We soon saw that we were
not going to rest camp, but toward;
the front. We then liked until II
p. M, and landed in the front line
trench, Just to the right Of Neuroy
We held the front line until Monday
morning, October 7th. The order
then came to make our Eight packs
as quickly as possible, and / knew
then what it meant. About fifteen
minutes later we were all lined up
ready to go cover, the top was
real anxious to go and had waited
anxiously for An epoortunitv for