Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1918 — LETTERS FROM OUR SOLDIERS [ARTICLE]

LETTERS FROM OUR SOLDIERS

Another Letter Front Corporal Leatherman. David Leatherman received another letter Monday from bis son, Carrol W. Leatherman, the first conscripted soldier in Jasper county, which we are permitted to publish in full: * On active service with the American Expeditionary Force, Somewhere in France, April 17, 1918. / Dear Father and All: Well, I will make another effort to write you. This is the third letter I have written and have not got mailed. Each time I have changed places or somethlhg hindered me from mailing thehi. I was assigned to the 163 infantry, but before any one goes to the trenches they give them an examination. I had an examination -of my feet, resulting about the same as when I was first examined; was rejected for active service for the present at least. The rest of the bunch I as with left the 163 Inf. yesterday for the trencher, of course in the rear lines. But about ten or twelve of us were rejected and gent to another camp. That is where I am now. I don’t know what they will do' with me, but suppose I will be put in some kind of a place where I will not have to be on my feet so much, unless I jfet able to perform the duties of a soldier soon. My feet are not much worse than they have been, but they bother me in long marches pretty bady. I have seen and talked with several U. S. soldiers that have been to the front and sent back becauseof wounds, mostly of gas. That seems to be the* worst thing they have to contend with. You often hear of sunny France, but I have not seen much sunshine since I have been here. It has been rainy nearly all the time and cloudy. This will be the second Jetter I have sent you. Since I first wrote I have travelled a long way on both land and water. You ought to get my other letter soon now if nothing happens to it. (This letter was received O. K. and was recently I published in The Democrat.) I I will have to say that the U. S. are treated real good here. The French people are very friendly and will do most anything for them. It seemed strange to me at first not to be able to talk to them or understand them. Maybe if I am here long enough I will learn to talk to them. Well, there isn’t much that I can write. We have plenty to eat and I am O. K. so don’t worry about me. With best wishes I am as ever, Your son, Cpl. Carroll W. Leatherman. Co. I, 163 Inf., A. E. F., France, A. P. O. 727.

Vern Davisson Writes from the । Battle Front.

' Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Davisson have received the following letter from their son Vern, who is with the French forces as an ambulance driver. Vern also sent them a certificate of his appointment to something in this unit, but as our French vocabulary is somewhat limited we will not try to say what it is. The letter follows: Frontier, April 1, 1918. Dear Father and Mother: Owing to the fact that this Is April fool day I will fool you and | write a letter. I The allies hawe the •Boche" stopped now and I guess the worst |is yet to come,* if so, let it come and be over with. This is probably the last big battle, except'the. one the Huns are preparing for on the Italian front. It’s ill off with the

Boche now, is the general opinion over here. We hope so anyhow. We are having lots of rain here now, making it bad for everybody. The Americans are holding considerable portion of the front now, but I don’t think they are engaged in the big fight ’against the drive that is going on now. General Pershing has offered his awiy if they see fit to put them into it. General Petain, the French high commander, probably will not call on them unless in ease of absolute necessity. The English are anxious to see the IT. S. get into the big drive. Japan is doing us a little good in the way of ships, I see. For the package I received from Mose Leopold, C. Garver, Eva and Bob, give them my thanks and I will write to them as soon as I get some spare time, and when things cool down a bit over here. I am enclosing a picture of the decoration of this section, S. S. U. 629. for the atVck, and evacuation of the wounded at during a fierce air raid. One picture shows lhe general of the division pinning the (croix de guerre) cross of war on our section flag. The ■th er shows him lecturing to us on our good work. The pictures turned out very poor. I cannot locate Duvall there, and I am not sure that is me, but I picked out the ugliest one I, could find there and marked it. We are O. K., hope you are all the same. Will close with love. Your son, V. C. DAVISSON. At Poste.

Harvey Phillips Writes From France Harvey Phillips of McCoysburg writes the following letter to C. Earl Duvall, which will be interest to his friends here: I L’Aber Wrach, France, April 16, 1918. Dear friend Nub:- | Your letter brought back a faint recollection of Duvall’s Quality Shop. I need not try very hard to remember the faces that are now absent from roll call every evening after school. Some are still there, their bit toward keeping a fine army and navy in fighting trim. But the most of the boys | are with the colors either in active service or in preparation for duty.; You as well as everyone else kifbws that everyone cannot be a hero. And if we all went to war who would furnish food, clothing and other supplied necessary for i the maintenance of our forces? I have done about everything since we came here, pushed a wheelbarrow, carried boulders, handled a boat, cooked, and then I fell heir to

my present position and hope to keep it for the rest of my time in the navy. The latest and perhaps best addition to our camp is a moving picture machine. We have American movies three times a week and a big time every Sunday. This is what the ‘Y’ is doing for us over here. Last night we had a fine picture, “Truthful Trullover,” featuring Wm. Hart. We had a fine time. About half the audience were French kids that had never seen a movie. Gee, but they sure had a fine time. It was almost as much fun listening to them as it was* watching the pictures. Nub, if it is possible, I wish you would get me the addresses of the fellows that used to be seen around your fire most any time after school tor whenever we played hookey) and send them to me.' I am sending a little poetry that was written by an Indiana doughboy in France. Our mail can now be sent to this station direct instead of being distributed at Paris and perhaps sent to half a dozen camps before it finally arrives six weeks; after mailing. I read the church notices you sent and thought the prayer was fine and exactly what is needed. We know the home folks are doing all they can for us and we appreciate their help. Our little camp is growing all the time. I was among the first here and take it from me we sure worked, carrying stones and everything. All our work had to be done by hand and most all of us hatye a few marks to distinguish us from the newcomers. At present we have about one (censored). We have leveled it off and built a pier and have started on hangars and barracks. The timbers are all cut and fit so it is an easy task to put up the buildings. We older ones all have pretty good jobs and when the rookies get through working at night after a hard day’s work on the concrete work or rock pile we make fun of them for being tired by telling them what we had to do when we first came here. Of course, its easy to prove we did it by any of our gang. We knocked off work at noon on Saturdays and have a ball game in the p. m. We had a corker of a game last Saturday. My side got beat but they had a hard fight. Next Sunday we go to to play. We expect a trimming but won't give up until the last of the ninth. My address is H. J. Phillips, Sea 21C, U. S. Naval Aviation Base, L’Aber Wrach, France, co P. M. New Yoirk. Along with my address give my best regards to all the bunch. As ever. Your friend,

PHILLIPS.