Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 292, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1918 — NEPHEW OF MRS. VAN HOOK WOUNDED AND GASSED [ARTICLE]

NEPHEW OF MRS. VAN HOOK WOUNDED AND GASSED

The following letter was received by Mrs. Russell Van Hook from her nephew, Perrin C. Miller, Who was wounded and gassed at St MibiSl. Young Miller was a $1 a year man at Washington, but volunteered in the Marine service last April: November 17, 1918. o Dear Aunt Alia; —I have made up my mind to get at least one letter off to you, while in France. I do not recall if I h'axe written you before—events followed on another pell medl, which have prevented much writing and have confuted may memory as to what I have previously written. I am sure we are all grateful that peace is here again and I trust that it has come to stay. The continuous strain of war is worse than the actual fighting Itself. In my comparatively short service in France I was in two big offenhivee, the battle of St. Mlhiel and the battle of Argonne. The latter was by far the worse of the two. We were there attached to the French army corps on the Champagne front; exposed on three sides by a salient which <we had forced into the German lines, we were shelled generously and continuously. I received a slight scalp wound from a splinter from a, 150-mm H. E. shell. Within fifteen minutes at least 100 shells fell within 1000 yards of me and five of them within 100 feet I’ll never be able to figure out how I came out alive. It would seem like a paradox to you if I stated that one fears less when on the front in the most danger, but It is nevertheless true. I thought the odds were ten to one against me, and the greater the odds the less hope you have for yourself naturally; and the less hope you have for yourself the lees you give a damn, paradogially. ■ Usually the sound of the shell coming is the most demoralizing factor, but In this case there, were so many shells coming from so many directions, one elose on the tail of the other, and, my ears “<ere so deafened that I was spared this usual suspense. Part of the time we were carrying a man on a stretcher and It made It Impossible for us to hug the ground. I wish you could see the craters they made and the volcanoes of dirt they threw up- I had been exposed to intense shell fire many times before but I had never had to walk through It But here I am, safe and sound, and the war apparently oyer. shall leave here shortly, but as to where I shall go It Is only a wild guess. It Is certain that If I go back to my regiment I shall »nd very few that I know, for they have fallen In action,, my lieutenant and gunnery sergeant among them. I inay stay to France .go to Germany, return to the United States or go on board a man o’ war with a marine detachment. M T io,, to rt. MBRn( Base Hospital 202, A. ?• O. 797, France. 11