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New England's "Own" War 
 Correspondent 
 
 Bert Ford was the only war correspondent from New England 
 fully accredited with the American Expeditionary Forces and the 
 British Armies. 
 
 He was the only war correspondent authorized by the War 
 Department to return from France with the Yankee Division. 
 
 Mr. Ford was the only war correspondent from New England 
 who accompanied the American Army of Occupation into Ger- 
 many, where he remained three months studying conditions. 
 
 He saw the German forces retreating, miles and miles of in- 
 fantry and artillery, decked like a victorious army. He talked 
 with German officers. He accompanied the squad that carried 
 the first American flag across the Rhine. 
 
 Representing one of the three big news agencies that feed all 
 of the newspapers of the United States and Canada, Mr. Ford 
 enjoyed a roving commission that enabled him to travel the entire 
 length of the Western Front, from the sea to Switzerland. 
 
 , He saw every type of troops in action and witnessed every 
 battle in which Americans were engaged. This enabled him to 
 make observations and comparisons which give greater value to 
 his book. 
 
 He interviewed all of the leading British, French and American 
 generals. He was entertained by Marshal Foch and by General 
 Pershing on their private trains. 
 
 He interviewed and shook hands with King Albert of Belgium 
 and King George of England, and the Prince of Wales. 
 
 Mr. Ford was gassed in the eyes and throat, but not seriously. 
 He had narrow escapes from bombs and shells. He saw the lines 
 from an aeroplane and from an observation balloon. And after 
 it all he says : 
 
 "The American doughboy was the greatest figure in the world 
 war." 
 
 (PUBLISHER.) 
 
Photo by Green, Boston 
 
 BERT FORD 
 
 AS HE APPEARED ON OVERSEAS DUTY 
 
The 
 
 Fighting Yankees 
 
 Overseas 
 
 By BERT FORD 
 
 Dedicated to 
 Harriet North Ford 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 NORMAN E. McPHAIL, PUBLISHER 
 
 1919 
 

 ^G 
 
 Copyrighted 191 9 by 
 Norman E. McPhail 
 
 >£ 
 JK 
 
 THE ATLANTIC PRINTING CO. 
 
 201 South Street, Boston 
 
Secretary Baker's Tribute 
 
 to the 
 
 Yankee Division 
 
 The Twenty-sixth Division, under the command of 
 Major-General Clarence R. Edwards, embarked for France 
 in September, 1917. It trained actively after its arrival in 
 France, and in March, 1918, was associated with the 
 Eleventh French Army Corps. It was with this corps until 
 it moved to the district of Toul to take over the sector oc- 
 cupied by the First Regular Division of the United States 
 Army. In July it engaged in active offensive operations as 
 a part of the Sixth French Army. It participated in the 
 attack north of the Marne, and later played a decisive part 
 in the battle of the San Mihiel salient and in the battle of 
 the Argonne. 
 
 Throughout its career it won the high praise of its French 
 associates for its gallantry and soldierly qualities. It is one 
 of America's veteran divisions, and it has left a record in 
 France which is its full share of the glory achieved by our 
 great army there. The people of the New England States 
 who contributed th^se soldiers to the American Expedi- 
 tionary Forces can welcome their heroes back, for they are 
 heroes — men who have had a perilous and difficult duty and 
 who have done it to the admiration of all beholders. They 
 have had losses, and many of the men returned with wound 
 chevrons to show the fierceness of the contests in which they 
 participated, but they have exalted the traditions of the 
 country from which they came, they have played the part 
 of men on the greatest stage in the world, and they bring 
 back glory for their own achievements and victory for the 
 national cause. 
 
 NEWTON D. BAKER. 
 
 War Department 
 Washington 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. Perkins' Remarkable Feat 9 
 
 II. Dilboy's Dying Shots 17 
 
 III. In Front Line 210 Days • ■ • 23 
 
 IV. America's Greatest Battle. $0 
 
 V. Speaking of "Yanks" 89 
 
 VI. Pertinent Citations 45 
 
 VII. Front Line Famine and Mud 54 
 
 VIII. Turned No Man's into "Yankee Land" 60 
 
 IX. Armistice Day Attack 66 
 
 X. Doughboys Are "Gun Fodder" 73 
 
 XI. Logan's Front Line Service 79 
 
 XII. McConnell Dies Leading Men 86 
 
 XIII. Those "Gypsy Batteries" 93 
 
 XIV. Battery A's Historic Shot 98 
 
 XV. Keville's Ammunition Train 103 
 
 XVI. The Fighting Engineers n0 
 
 XVII. Heroic Machine Gunners 116 
 
 XVIII. Edwards Eulogizes Litter-Bearers I 23 
 
 XIX. A Surgeon's War Impressions 129 
 
 XX. Yanks All Athletes 134 
 
 XXI. Seicheprey a Reverse 14 ° 
 
 XXII. The Army Axe 149 
 
 XXIII. Conspiracy Charged 157 
 
 XXIV. President Wilson's Visit 164 
 
 XXV. The Fang of War m 
 
 XXVI. Soldier Poets 176 
 
CONTENTS {Continued) 
 
 XXVII. The "Sixth" Sense 182 
 
 XXVIII. Salvation Doughnuts 189 
 
 XXIX. Overseas Cemeteries 197 
 
 XXX. Armistice Day 204 
 
 XXXI. The War Curtain 217 
 
 XXXII. Homeward Bound 225 
 
 XXXIII. Worshippers in Rigging 234 
 
 XXXIV. Terra Firma at Last 248 
 
 XXXV. Spirit of 1861 and 1918 252 
 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 In preparing this volume, dealing with the achieve- 
 ments and sacrifices of the men of the Twenty-sixth (Yankee) 
 Division overseas, the author tried, so far as was possible, to 
 avoid the dull chronology of a history. He endeavored to 
 make each chapter a narrative in itself, while retaining a 
 historic sequence. He has given "close-ups" of the activities 
 of the New England Crusaders on the Western Front, acts 
 of personal bravery, intimate glimpses, and pertinent com- 
 parisons, for the entertainment and instruction of the folks 
 at home. 
 
 The world war was so stupendous that no writer, artist, 
 lecturer, or camera could hope adequately to describe or 
 reproduce it in its entirety. It is only by incidents and 
 anecdotes, by recounting the exploits of units and individual 
 heroes, like Privates Perkins and Dilboy, that anything 
 resembling a war picture can be suggested. 
 
 The sons of New England fought true to form, fought 
 with the valor they have displayed in every war. The 
 writer was moved by two desires in producing this book: 
 First, to do his share in giving all possible praise to the men 
 in the ranks — to the American doughboy, who was the 
 greatest figure in the war — and, secondly, to help keep fresh 
 and firm the traditions of our beloved New England. 
 
THE FIGHTING YANKEES 
 OVERSEAS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Perkins' Remarkable Feat 
 
 BThey called him "Mickey" for short, and as a 
 term of endearment. He did not have the cut of 
 a hero. Ten to one you would not have glanced 
 at him a second time, if he passed, because there 
 was such a swarm of his physical type at the front. 
 
 But for pluck, Michael J. Perkins was in a class by 
 himself. He was a first class private in D Company, 101st 
 Infantry, which was made up of the old Ninth and Fifth 
 Regiments of the Massachusetts National Guard, when 
 the outfit sailed from Hoboken, in September, 1917, and 
 only a scant fifty per cent of the original personnel returned. 
 
 If you asked his comrades for further particulars about 
 Perkins, they told you that he was "the son of 'Mike' 
 Perkins of No. 247 E Street, South Boston, Massachusetts. " 
 
 The men of the 101st never missed a chance to mention 
 their Commonwealth, which testified to their pride and 
 devotion. And they reminded you that Perkins "pulled 
 one of the biggest single-handed stunts in the A.E.F." 
 
 Private Perkins had been a teamster. He was rough 
 and ready and no stickler for deportment. Fight was his 
 middle name. 
 
 Otherwise he never would have dared to jump into a 
 cement "pillbox," slash his way through the enemy strong- 
 hold with a trench knife, silence seven machine guns and 
 capture more than a score of Germans. 
 
 And he did this ALONE. 
 
10 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Sounds like a motion picture thriller, doesn't it? It 
 isn't, though. It's gospel truth and the records of the 
 Yankee Division bear proof of the achievement. Perkins 
 came out of that trap with only a few minor hurts. 
 
 The grenade which he tossed among the cooped-up 
 Boches demoralized them and wounded several. The 
 others, thinking the jig was up, lifted their arms and yelled 
 "kamerad!" The few who showed fight were overpowered 
 by Perkins' blade. 
 
 After finishing that job, Private Perkins advanced with 
 the column, and, within an hour, was wounded, but not 
 fatally. The ambulance that was rushing him and others 
 to the nearest evacuation hospital was struck by a German 
 shell and Perkins was instantly killed. 
 
 Colonel H. P. Hobbs, who commanded the 101st Infan- 
 try during the absence of Colonel Edward L. Logan, 
 recommended a Medal of Honor for Private Perkins and it 
 was awarded to his father. The citation read: 
 
 "Recommended a Medal of Honor (posthumous) for First 
 Class Private Michael J. Perkins, on the following grounds : 
 
 "'On Oct. 27, 1918, at Belleu Bois (Belleu Wood), Private 
 Perkins alone voluntarily crawled to the rear of a German machine 
 gun emplacement, the guns of which were firing on other American 
 troops. The enemy occupying this emplacement would open the 
 door at the rear and throw grenades at the platoon of which 
 Private Perkins was a member. 
 
 "'Private Perkins awaited his chance, and, when the door 
 was again opened and a hand grenade thrown over him, hurled a 
 grenade into the doorway, bursting open the door, and then, 
 without hesitation or thought for his personal safety, drew his 
 trench knife, and threw himself alone into the enemy emplacement, 
 fighting hand-to-hand and capturing twenty or thirty of the 
 enemy, wounding several and silencing seven machine guns.' 
 
 "H. P. HOBBS, 
 
 "Colonel, commanding 101st Infantry.'* 
 
 The words, "A true extract copy," appear at the bottom 
 of this citation and there is appended the following: 
 
PERKINS' REMARKABLE FEAT 11 
 
 "NOTE — Private Perkins was wounded in this fight a short 
 time after he had performed the above-described valorous deed. 
 On his way to the rear the ambulance in which he was riding was 
 struck by a hostile shell and Private Perkins was killed. 
 
 "H. P. HOBBS, 
 
 "Colonel 101st Infantry.'* 
 
 In reporting the exploit to Major du Boisrouvray, under 
 date of Dec. 5, for consideration by the French Army, 
 Chaplain Lyman Rollins wrote : 
 
 "Private Perkins brought out twenty or thirty of the enemy. 
 Perkins, after throwing his grenade, could properly have awaited 
 the attack of his platoon. He did not, however, but attacked 
 alone. This permitted the advance of the troops that had been 
 held up by the fire from the seven machine guns. This piece of 
 work was witnessed by members of Perkins' company and has 
 been sworn to by his company commander and several of the 
 non-commissioned officers. " 
 
 Captain Martene Courum of Brownville, Miss., was 
 commanding D Company at the time. A regimental record 
 of the deed says in part: 
 
 "Private Perkins exhibited personal bravery above and beyond 
 the call of duty so conspicuous as clearly to distinguish him for 
 gallantry and intrepidity beyond his comrades, involving risk of 
 life in the performance of a more than ordinarily hazardous service 
 and the omission of which would not have subjected him to 
 censure for failure in the performance of his duty." 
 
 A bit of news known to few members of the regiment 
 was that Chaplain Sherry of the 102d Infantry came across 
 the young hero's body and buried it on Nov. 14, in a 
 battle area described on Map 4 as "Section 28-20; 81.7, 
 Verdun." 
 
 Of all the instances of individual valor that came to my 
 attention on the Belgian, British, French and American 
 fronts, I know of none that surpassed that of Michael 
 Perkins and few which equalled it for resourcefulness and 
 grit. 
 
12 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Sergeant Alvin C. York, elder of a church at Pall Mall, 
 Tenn., who has been acclaimed "the greatest hero in the 
 A. E. F.," was aided by a detachment of seven men in 
 killing twenty Germans, capturing 132 prisoners and silenc- 
 ing thirty-six machine guns. A whale of a job that for 
 York and his crew, but not exactly an individual exploit, 
 though his comrades admitted the Tennessean did most of 
 the fighting. 
 
 Private Perkins was a born soldier and patriot. He was 
 a man, every inch of him, and his parents found comfort 
 and pride in the legacy of his sacrifice and courage. 
 
 His act came within that category that inspires lec- 
 turers, poets and sculptors. South Boston ought to per- 
 petuate in bronze the gallantry of Perkins, a symbol to 
 remind coming generations of the fearless spirit shown by 
 him and other Boston and New England sons in the world 
 war. 
 
 I selected the performance and death of Private Perkins 
 to make known to the reader early in my narrative the 
 fibre of the men in the Twenty-sixth Division. Hundreds 
 of others fought and died as bravely, even if their deeds 
 were less spectacular, and right here I wish to pay homage 
 to the thousands of Americans who went to soldier graves 
 obscurely — to those whose gallantry and self-sacrifice and 
 patriotism were dimmed only by the chaos of modern 
 warfare. 
 
 The concern and discussion — I might say tempest — 
 occasioned by transfers of certain commanding officers in 
 no way impaired the splendid record made by the Twenty- 
 sixth Division in France. 
 
 I read a secret report captured from the Germans among 
 other documents which rated the Twenty-sixth as the fourth 
 best storm division in the American Army. Such an 
 appraisal by the enemy was interesting. 
 
 I considered the Twenty-sixth one of the best assault 
 divisions in the American Expeditionary Forces. I always 
 
PERKINS' REMARKABLE FEAT 13 
 
 regarded division comparisons as troublesome and some- 
 what unfair. They were apt to start discussion and cause 
 resentment. 
 
 Prisoners, guns, ammunition and the amount of ground 
 captured provided tables to determine relative merit, but 
 there were other elements to be considered, such as the 
 type of enemy troops encountered, variance in topography, 
 weather and the character of the operation, plus a liberal 
 dose of personal opinion. 
 
 I detected little, if any, difference in the endurance, 
 patience, dash and courage of American soldiers, it mattered 
 not what division they happened to be in. All they needed 
 was the chance and sufficient front line experience to do their 
 bit. There was a difference in staff work and in the effi- 
 ciency of officers at times, but the rank and file of American 
 troops were equally willing and tenacious and brave, 
 whether they came from the North, South, East or West. 
 
 They were all two-fisted Americans, eager to go where 
 duty sent them and to shed their last drop of blood for 
 Old Glory and democracy. That fact I am most 
 anxious to emphasize. 
 
 Military experts disagreed as to whether the First or 
 the Second Division, the latter consisting of a brigade of 
 Marines and a brigade of infantry, made up of the Ninth 
 and Twenty-third Regiments, should top all other divisions 
 in the American overseas army. I think they were both 
 cracker jacks, as good as could be found in any army in the 
 world, but I think the Second Division, because of the 
 difficult and important task that it had thrust upon it in 
 stopping the German push on Paris, shaded the First 
 Division from a standpoint of accomplishment. The 
 Third Division, also, had a fine record, though it was less 
 in the limelight. 
 
 While so-called regular organizations were cooler and 
 steadier in action at the start, certain divisions formed of 
 National Guard and draft units developed rapidly into crack 
 shock troops. 
 
14 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 I would rate the Second Division ahead of all others, 
 the First Division a close second in the list, the Twenty- 
 sixth, or "Yankee Division," third, and the Forty-second, 
 or "Rainbow Division," fourth. 
 
 The "Rainbow Division" was made up of National 
 Guard increments from all over the country. The Twenty- 
 seventh Division, composed of National Guard organizations 
 from New York state, the Thirtieth Division, made up of 
 National Guardsmen from North and South Carolina and 
 Tennessee, the Seventy-seventh, composed of New York 
 draftees, the Thirty-second and others did splendid work. 
 
 The Twenty-seventh and Thirtieth Divisions helped the 
 British smash the Hindenburg line in the north, and the 
 Seventy-seventh, in which was Major Whittlesey's "Lost 
 Battalion," fought hard in the Argonne, but none of these 
 had the type or length of service that the First, Second, 
 Twenty-sixth and Forty-second Divisions had, and the 
 Yankee Division had a longer front line service than any 
 of them. 
 
 I have been asked many times since my return how it 
 was that the Marines got all the credit for the early opera- 
 tions of the second battle of the Marne when the famous 
 old Ninth and Twenty-third Infantry Regiments of the 
 regular army did so much in that fight. 
 
 Gensorship restrictions, prompted by military prudence 
 and necessity, were the cause. Under the regulations, 
 correspondents were not permitted to publish the identifi- 
 cation or location of any regiment, and this rule deprived 
 us of the chance to immortalize, in news dispatches at the 
 time, the Ninth and Twenty-third Regiments for their 
 wonderful work at the Marne. We were eager to tell the 
 folks back home what they had accomplished, but to name 
 a regiment would be furnishing information to the enemy. 
 
 Use of the more general term "Marines" was forbidden 
 on the first day of the battle, but after a conference, the 
 correspondents were allowed to mention the Marines in 
 their cables for a day or two and then the ban was placed up- 
 
PERKINS' REMARKABLE FEAT 15 
 
 on the word again, but not until the "soldiers of the sea" 
 had reaped a gale of publicity. And they did not get a 
 syllable more than they deserved, the only regret being 
 that the two infantry regiments making up the other 
 brigade of the division could not, under military urgency, 
 have been given their share also while the Marne operations 
 were in progress. The Ninth and Twenty-third Regi- 
 ments must and will get their just measure of credit in 
 history. 
 
 One of the heroes in the Marines was a man from home 
 — Major Edward B. Cole of Brookline, brother of Brigadier- 
 General Charles H. Cole of the Yankee Division. Major 
 Cole commanded the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion. He 
 led a gallant assault on a strong enemy machine gun 
 position in Belleau Wood, June 10, 1918, and was fearfully 
 wounded by a grenade that exploded almost in his face. 
 Fortunately his eyes escaped, but his face was badly torn 
 and fragments penetrated his legs and arms. 
 
 He lost so much blood that transfusions were made 
 from two members of his outfit in an effort to save his 
 life. He died July 18. Although a member of another 
 division, by his bravery he added to the glory of New 
 England arms. He won a Croix de Guerre with a palm. 
 
 Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, in a letter to 
 Director-General John Barrett of the Pan-American Union, 
 rated the Yankee Division in the first four best American 
 divisions. His letter read: 
 
 "With the First and Second Regular Army Divisions 
 and the Forty-second, or Rainbow Division, the Twenty- 
 sixth is numbered, they being considered the first four 
 veteran divisions of our great American Expeditionary 
 Forces, and I would be glad to have the people of New 
 England know that their division, the first of the National 
 Guard troops to embark overseas, bore itself with distinction 
 and gallantry, and that it contributed on every battlefield 
 to America's real participation in the fighting and the 
 unbroken success of our arms." 
 
16 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 On Feb. 2, 1919, the day on which Secretary Baker wrote 
 to Director-General Barrett, General Pershing cabled to 
 Mr. Barrett as follows: 
 
 "Replying to your cablegram, it gives me pleasure to send you 
 a message about Vermont and New England troops. Briefly 
 stated, they merit the warmest praise by the people they represent. 
 They have maintained the best traditions of their New England 
 ancestors, and the spirit of '76 has been theirs. They have played 
 their full part in the splendid achievement of American arms on 
 the battlefield and in the supporting services." 
 
 As a citizen of Boston and a fully accredited war corre- 
 spondent attached to both the American and the British 
 Armies, with opportunity to see the men of the Twenty- 
 sixth in every battle and to compare them not only with 
 every other American combat division but with every type 
 of allied troops on the Western front, I was thrilled by an 
 ever-increasing pride in our home troops. 
 
 THE YANKEE DIVISION MADE GOOD. 
 
 Kindly stamp that deep in your memory. 
 
 It equalled and surpassed the expectations of the folks 
 at home. 
 
 It upheld New England traditions, the standards of 
 which are the very highest, which is about as big and fine 
 a tribute as one could pay it. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Dilboy's Dying Shots 
 
 BThe Twenty-sixth was the first American division 
 organized as a division in the United States and 
 transported complete to France. The units from 
 the regular army which went over earlier with 
 General Pershing were organized on the other side of the 
 water. 
 
 The Twenty-sixth Division was the first made up of 
 National Guard organizations to leave the United States 
 and the first National Guard division in history to set foot 
 on European soil. 
 
 It participated in the first two battles in which Americans 
 were engaged without the support of French infantry. 
 
 It was the first American unit to occupy a division front, 
 assuming that responsibility when it relieved the First 
 Division on the Toul sector on Easter Sunday morning, in 
 1918. Instead of the five kilometers that had been held by 
 the First Division, the Yankee Division guarded fifteen 
 kilometers. Prior to that American divisions had been 
 holding brigade fronts only. 
 
 A regiment of the Yankee Division — the 104th Infantry, 
 an all-Massachusetts regiment — was the first in the history 
 of the United States Army to have its colors decorated by 
 a foreign government when the French thus honored its flag. 
 
 A captured confidential document of the Nineteenth 
 German Army reads: 
 
 "THE TWENTY-SIXTH AMERICAN DIVISION IS A 
 FIGHTING DIVISION WHICH HAS PROVEN ITS QUALI- 
 TIES IN BATTLES ON VARIOUS PARTS OF THE FRONT." 
 
 17 
 
18 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Incidentally the best judges of a division are enemy com- 
 manders. In divers ways and on divers occasions the Ger- 
 mans showed a marked respect for the aggressiveness of the 
 men from home. 
 
 The first enlisted man in the American land forces 
 awarded a Medal of Honor was First Class Private George 
 Dilboy, a Boston lad, son of Antone Dilboy of the Massa- 
 chusetts General Hospital, and a member of H Company of 
 the 103d Infantry of the Yankee Division. 
 
 Dilboy, like Private Perkins, mentioned in the opening 
 chapter, died of wounds after performing his valorous act. 
 
 The citation that went with the medal to his father 
 stated that Dilboy had exhibited "conspicuous gallantry 
 and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty" in a 
 fight near Belleau, July 18, 1918. The citation adds: 
 
 "After his platoon had gained its objective along a railroad 
 embankment, Private Dilboy, accompanying his platoon leader 
 to reconnoiter the ground beyond, was suddenly fired upon by an 
 enemy machine gun from 100 yards. From a standing position 
 on the railroad track, fully exposed to view, Dilboy opened fire at 
 once, but failing to silence the gun, rushed forward, with his 
 bayonet fixed, through a wheat field towards the gun emplacement, 
 falling within twenty-five yards of the gun, his right leg nearly 
 severed above the knee and with several bullet wounds in his 
 body. With undaunted courage, he continued to fire into the 
 emplacement from a prone position, killing two of the enemy and 
 dispersing the rest of the crew." 
 
 Think of having the nerve so accurately to aim that he 
 killed two Germans and silenced a machine gun, with his 
 body riddled and bleeding and a leg hanging by a shred! 
 Think of doing this as he was dying! That is American 
 sand for you. 
 
 In a general order, dated March 8, 1919, Major-General 
 Harry C. Hale, commanding the Yankee Division, wrote: 
 
 "The division commander is pleased to announce the award 
 by the President, in the name of Congress, of Medals of Honor 
 to the following named enlisted men for acts of gallantry and 
 intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty, performed in action 
 
DILBOTS DYING SHOTS 19 
 
 against the enemy, while members of this command: Private, 
 First Class, George Dilboy (deceased), Company H, 103d In- 
 fantry (Medal awarded Dec. 5, 1918) ... and Private, First 
 Class, Michael J. Perkins (deceased), Company D, 101st In- 
 fantry (Medal awarded Feb. 20, 1919). . . . 
 
 "Such acts as these are rare indeed, and it is to be regretted 
 that both these soldiers lost their lives as a result of their extreme 
 courage and fearlessness. Their deeds will stand recorded in the 
 annals of this division and will remain in the memories of its 
 officers and men as true examples of the highest spirit of patriotism 
 and self-sacrifice." 
 
 Do you wonder that we who saw such patriots maimed 
 or dead on ground or litters are eager to sing their praises? 
 
 The American doughboy was the greatest figure in the 
 world war. 
 
 His pluck and his patience and his dash (Marshal Foch 
 laid stress on the latter quality when we American corre- 
 spondents interviewed him in his private train at Treves) 
 were sources of constant surprise to the allied leaders. 
 
 Without desiring to draw offensive parallels, or to de- 
 tract in the slightest degree from the fine record made by 
 our colleagues in arms, it might be pardonable here to state 
 that the position of the doughboy was different, psychologi- 
 cally, geographically and sentimentally, from that of the 
 privates in any of the allied armies. 
 
 The Poilu, than whom no craftier or braver soldier lives, 
 was fighting to save his home and his women and children. 
 England and Italy were menaced, but the American dough- 
 boy went 3000 miles and more to battle for a principle in a 
 foreign land. 
 
 His home and dear ones were in no immediate peril. He 
 could not hurry home to see his relatives or friends even if 
 he procured a furlough, which was seldom, if ever. The 
 Canadians, New Zealanders, Australians and other colonists 
 in the French and British Armies were similarly handi- 
 capped, but none of them made greater sacrifices or put up 
 with more than did the fellows from home. 
 
20 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 You thought of these things when soldiers like Perkins 
 and Dilboy fell. Often your intimate friends were among 
 them. Frequently as I passed a body in woods or field or 
 by the road, or doubled up in a trench or "fox hole," I 
 thought of the mother. I wondered who she was and where 
 she lived and if she was thinking of her son at that moment. 
 
 I wondered how she would feel if she stood beside me and 
 viewed the broken body of her boy in all that tumult 
 and desolation. I thought of the shock that the telegram 
 from the War Department would occasion, and of the name 
 in the list in the home newspaper. 
 
 Right here permit me to say that many a lad died as 
 gallantly over there as did those who received special honors 
 and who would have had his name inscribed on the honor 
 roll if the confusion of battle had not obliterated details of 
 his action and sacrifice. Citations and medals do not find 
 all the heroes. Let this, if it may, be a source of comfort to 
 those whose soldier relative died in obscurity. 
 
 Our fellows always looked so pathetically far away from 
 all the ties that they held dear, so woefully isolated when 
 struck down. Your heart went out to them — the dead and 
 the wounded. The latter were so patient and stoical. 
 That was the thing that impressed the doctors and nurses. 
 They agreed that the American soldier was even gamer than 
 they had expected. 
 
 You saw sick and wounded in hospitals who knew they 
 must die and who were in pain, but they never whimpered. 
 I saw a chap with the whole of his lower jaw shot away by a 
 shell fragment and his tongue was hanging, and he had the 
 grit to gurgle to the attending surgeon that he would smile 
 if he had "enough mouth left." 
 
 Between battles you made the acquaintance of wounded 
 who looked for you to hear the news. They used to re- 
 mark now and then that the hardest thing of all was to die 
 without seeing those at home. I recall a lieutenant, a 
 handsome chap, with pathetic brown eyes, whom I first met 
 back at Camp Devens. He recognized me as I passed the 
 
DILBOTS DYING SHOTS 21 
 
 rows of beds in an evacuation hospital one afternoon. He 
 had been gassed and the poison had got into his blood and 
 developed fatal complications. 
 
 I chatted at his bedside whenever I passed that way and 
 I saw him fade. The last day we talked he told me that he 
 would give worlds to kiss his mother and would die happy 
 with her blessing. I saw him buried without that privilege. 
 
 Fighting and facing bullets and bursting shells and 
 poisonous vapor clouds were not the only hardships of the 
 war. The tragedy behind the scenes — the personal ele- 
 ment — was one of the saddest features. 
 
 That was why it was so gratifying to stuff your pockets 
 with cigarettes and matches and help appease the ever- 
 lasting craving of the carried and walking wounded for a 
 smoke as they were headed for the dressing stations. 
 
 The smile or sigh of satisfaction was a reward that 
 effaced a week's war fag when a doughboy, uniform stained 
 red by a bayonet or bullet wound, muttered thanks be- 
 tween puffs. At the "non- transportable" hospitals — named 
 because only the desperately wounded were treated there 
 — those too serious to be carried far behind the lines — 
 I have seen patients enjoy a cigarette almost up to the 
 moment of death. 
 
 A youngster in his last gasp whispered to a surgeon: 
 
 "Say, Doc, I know I'm done for. Nobody has to tell 
 me. Do you think I made good? I did my best, Doc." 
 
 The surgeon said: 
 
 "The spirit of that kid got me. The only thing that 
 bothered him was whether he had done as well as was ex- 
 pected. He had left high school to do his bit. He had run 
 away from home. We buried him that afternoon near the 
 old church with a shell-hole in its spire." 
 
 I had seen that American cemetery grow in a span of 
 days from a dozen to several hundred graves. 
 
 The knights of old had nothing on the doughboy. He 
 was continually surprising commanding officers and bunkies 
 on the field of battle and often surprised himself. Young- 
 
22 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 sters who had never had a chance to test what was in them 
 developed into regimental heroes over night. 
 
 I saw them go "over the top," a term used after the 
 fighting became open, as it was during the more stereotyped 
 trench warfare, untried material, eyes straight ahead, chins 
 up, jaws set, every line in face and frame showing by the 
 tenseness that they appreciated the danger, but not a quitter 
 among them — the sons of Jews and the sons of Christians, 
 the sons of Greeks, Armenians, Poles, Swedes, Italians, 
 Scotch, Irish, English, American, yes and the sons of Ger- 
 mans — a crushing dynamo of sinew and courage, one of the 
 greatest armies of crusaders in the world's history. In 
 justice to the lads of German strain, let it be said that they 
 fought as gallantly against the common foe as any others. 
 
 Such was the human timber of the Yankee Division and 
 every other division in the American overseas army. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 In Front Line 210 Days 
 
 BNow for a few facts and figures about the Yan- 
 kee Division. 
 Its total casualties in battle were 11,955. Of 
 this number 421 were officers and 11,534 enlisted 
 men. The number killed was 1730. 
 
 It served seven months in the front line, or an aggregate 
 of 210 days. 
 
 In nine months of service, beginning Feb. 6, 1918, the 
 Yankee Division spent only ten days in a rest area. 
 
 The Twenty-sixth Division was organized in Boston, on 
 August 22, 1917, from units of National Guard troops of the 
 New England States and increments from the Seventy-sixth 
 Division of the National Army which were trained at Camp 
 Devens, Ayer, Massachusetts. 
 
 The Seventy-sixth Division was a promising outfit when 
 I left Camp Devens to go abroad. I had seen it developed 
 from the raw material into a first class division, under 
 Major-General Harry Hodges. 
 
 It was a typically New England division in its original 
 makeup, with lads of pure Yankee stock in large numbers. 
 But big quotas were constantly sliced from it and sent to 
 other cantonments, crippling it, and eventually it became 
 a replacement outfit. The next I heard of the Seventy- 
 sixth Division was that it had gone over in July, 1918, and 
 had been converted into a depot division back in the 
 S. O. S. (service of supplies.) 
 
 I thought that the Seventy-sixth would have made a 
 reputation as a combat division if it had been sent over in- 
 tact, as it was when General Hodges had command. I met 
 
 23 
 
24 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 artillery units from the Seventy-sixth with the Army of 
 Occupation in Germany and others served with credit with 
 combat divisions in the final months of fighting, but the 
 pity was that it was never primed and used as a fighting ma- 
 chine. It would have aided the Twenty-sixth in adding 
 lustre to the military history of New England. 
 
 I met officers and men of the Seventy-sixth Division in 
 Belgium, France and Germany. I met Major-General 
 Weigel commanding a division the day King George re- 
 viewed American troops in Belgium. General Weigel had 
 commanded the depot brigade at Camp Devens as 
 brigadier-general. I ran across Lieutenant-Colonel J. M. 
 Wainwright, one of the best known cavalry experts in the 
 country, at the front, and, later, filling an important berth 
 with the Army of Occupation. He had been a major on the 
 staff of General Hodges at Camp Devens. 
 
 Everybody in the Yankee Division regretted that Brig- 
 adier-General E. Leroy Sweetser was not with it, because 
 there wasn't a better soldier in New England. He commanded 
 the Bay State infantry brigade on the Mexican border and 
 was loved by officers and men. He was commanding a 
 crack brigade in a Southern camp and was just about to sail 
 when the armistice was declared. 
 
 To return to the Yankee Division. It was thrice cited in 
 orders issued by General Headquarters of the American Expe- 
 ditionary Forces. It had a citation from the French Army, a 
 citation in orders from the American Army Corps, four cita- 
 tions in orders from the French Army Corps and ten com- 
 mendations for gallantry in French service memorandums. 
 
 It captured 3140 prisoners, of which sixty-one were 
 German officers and 3087 enlisted men. The captures by 
 sectors were: North of Toul, six officers, forty-three privates; 
 northwest of Chateau Thierry, two officers, 244 privates; 
 north of St. Mihiel, forty-eight officers, 2520 privates; 
 north of Verdun, five officers and 280 privates. 
 
 In its Chateau Thierry operations, July 18-25, the 
 Yankee Division captured one large cannon, three of lighter 
 
IN FRONT LINE 210 DAYS 25 
 
 calibre, seven trench mortars and twenty-three machine 
 guns. In the St. Mihiel drive, Sept. 12-13, it captured 
 two large pieces of artillery, ten of lighter calibre, eight 
 trench mortars, 109 machine guns and forty-two rifles. 
 
 In all, it captured thirty-seven kilometers of ground 
 from the Germans, as follows: Chateau Thierry, July 18- 
 25, gained seventeen and five-tenths kilometers; St. Mihiel 
 salient, Sept. 12-13, gained fourteen kilometers; north of 
 Verdun, Oct. 11-Nov. 11, gained five and five-tenths kilo- 
 meters, showing how slow was the progress and the desperate 
 character of the country fought over in the closing days of 
 the war. 
 
 The division table of casualties: 
 
 
 Officers 
 
 Men 
 
 Total 
 
 Killed 
 
 78 
 
 1652 
 
 1730 
 
 Wounded severely 
 
 100 
 
 3524 
 
 3624 
 
 Wounded slightly 
 
 111 
 
 2708 
 
 2819 
 
 Gassed 
 
 113 
 
 3250 
 
 3363 
 
 Missing 
 
 10 
 
 273 
 
 283 
 
 Men taken prisoners 
 
 9 
 
 127 
 
 136 
 
 Totals 421 11,534 11,955 
 
 It took part in the following battles: 
 
 Bois Brule April 10-13, 1918. 
 
 Seicheprey April 20-21, 1918. 
 
 Humbert Plantation May 27, 1918. 
 
 Xivray-Marvoisin June 16, 1918. 
 
 Chateau Thierry July 18-25, 1918. 
 
 St. Mihiel Sept. 12-13, 1918. 
 
 Meuse-Argonne Oct. 17-Nov.ll,1918. 
 
 The detailed operations of the Yankee Division in the 
 St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne fighting are given in the fol- 
 lowing order received at Division Headquarters at Ec- 
 comoy: 
 
26 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 HEADQUARTERS FIRST ARMY, 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, FRANCE. 
 
 ADVANCE COPY. January 22, 1919. 
 
 GENERAL ORDERS 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 "Pursuant to telegraphic instructions from G. H. Q., the 
 Twenty-sixth Division, upon the establishment of its headquarters 
 in the Le Mans area, is relieved from duty with this army. 
 
 "The Twenty-sixth Division, joining early in August, 1918, 
 participated in the following operations of the First Army : 
 
 ST. MIHIEL OPERATION. 
 
 "The division attacked on the front south of Les Eparges on 
 Sept. 12th, driving the enemy from St. Remy and Dommartin on 
 this date and reaching Vigneulles early on the 13th inst. It then 
 turned east and occupied and held the line of heights about 
 Hannonville-Thillot, with advance detachments near Doncourt, 
 until Oct. 7-8. 
 
 MEUSE-ARGONNE OPERATION 
 
 "The division joined the French Seventeenth Corps east of 
 Verdun on Oct. 17th and took over the Neptune sector. The 
 division held this sector until the signing of the armistice on 
 Nov. 11, 1918. During this period the division engaged in the 
 following local attacks, in addition to defensive engagements in- 
 cident to holding this sector: 
 
 "Oct. 23 — Against ridge between Cote 361 and 346. 
 
 "Oct. 24 and Oct. 27 — Against Bois d'Ormont and Belleau 
 Bois. 
 
 "Nov. 9 — Against Ville-devant-Chaumont, Herbebois, Bois la 
 Ville and La Chaume. 
 
 "The army commander takes this occasion to express his 
 appreciation of the services of this division while a part of the 
 combat forces of this army, and wishes it Godspeed upon the final 
 phase of its participation in the activities of the American Ex- 
 peditionary Forces. 
 
 "By command of Lieutenant-General Liggett: 
 
 "H. A. DRUM, 
 OFFICIAL : "Chief of Staff." 
 
 H. F. LOUGHRY 
 
 Adjutant General. 
 
IN FRONT LINE 210 DAYS 27 
 
 The Yankee Division trained in scattered units at the 
 following camps: 
 
 Div. Hdqtrs. and Hdqtrs. Troop Boston. 
 
 101st Field Signal Battalion Boston. 
 
 Hdqtrs. Fifty-first Infantry Brigade Framingham. 
 
 101st Infantry Framingham. 
 
 102d Infantry New Haven, Ct. 
 
 102d Machine Gun Battalion Framingham. 
 
 Hdqtrs. Fifty-second Infantry Brigade.. .Westfield, Mass. 
 
 103d Infantry Westfield. 
 
 104th Infantry Westfield. 
 
 The first units of the Yankee Division sailed from Ho- 
 boken, N. J., on Sept. 7, 1917, and landed in St. Nazaire, 
 France, on Sept. 21, 1917. The division remained in the 
 training area, with headquarters in Neufchateau, about 
 four months, during which period details of troops were 
 engaged in constructing hospitals, building telephone lines, 
 serving as labor detachments, aided in organizing sections 
 in the service of supplies and otherwise shared in prepara- 
 tion for the main army, which began to arrive after Jan. 1, 
 1918. 
 
 The division entered the front line in the Chemin-des- 
 Dames sector Feb. 6, 1918, and was brigaded with the 
 French, north of Soissons. It remained there until 
 March 21. On April 3 it entered "La Reine and 
 Boucq sector," north of Toul, and remained in the 
 front line, holding the first divisional front in the American 
 Army, until June 28. 
 
 On July 10 it entered the "Pas Fini sector," north of 
 Chateau Thierry, which it held until July 25. On Sept. 8 
 it entered the "Rupt and Troyon sector," in the St. Mihiel 
 salient, holding it until Oct. 8, and on Oct. 18 entered the 
 "Neptune sector," north of Verdun, and held it until Nov. 
 14, three days after the armistice, when by easy stages it 
 advanced to the rest area in Montigny le Roi, which it left 
 for the Le Mans embarkation area late in January. 
 
28 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 A foot note attached to the table of time spent in the 
 various sectors says: 
 
 "The dates of entry and withdrawal are the dates on which 
 the command passed to or from the Twenty-sixth Division. This 
 table does not in reality show the exact time which all units of 
 this division served in line. There were several instances where 
 regiments and brigades entered the line several days in advance of 
 the passing of command to the division. Also, during the nine 
 months' service from Feb. 6, 1918, the Twenty-sixth Division 
 spent only ten days in a rest area (just prior to the battle of St. 
 Mihiel), the balance of the time being consumed in moving from 
 one sector to another, or in support position awaiting entry into 
 line." 
 
 The following localities were occupied by the Yankee 
 Division while in the front line: 
 
 CHEMIN-DES-DAMES SECTOR— Chemin-des-Dames, 
 Fort de Marmaison, Chavignon Valley, Laffaux Valley, 
 Pinon Woods, Cheval Mort Hill, Aisne River, Rouge 
 Maison Cave. 
 
 LA REINE AND BOUCQ SECTOR— Montsec, the 
 German artillery there will be long remembered, Bois Brule 
 (Apremont Woods), Seicheprey, including Remierre and 
 Jury Woods, Xivray-Marvoisin and Dead Man's Curve. 
 
 CHATEAU THIERRY SECTOR— Bois Belleau, Hill 
 190, Bouresches Railway Station, Trugny Woods, Epieds, 
 Vesle River (Artillery Brigade) and Vaux. 
 
 ST. MIHIEL SECTOR— Les Eparges, Vigneulle, Hat- 
 tonchatel, Dommartin and Bois de St. Remy. 
 
 MEUSE-ARGONNE SECTOR— Bois Belieu, Hill 360, 
 Bois d'Ormont, Bois d'Haumont, Bois d'Etrayes, Les 
 Houppy Bois, La Wavrille, Bois de Ville-devant-Chaumont 
 and Cote de Talou. 
 
 A tough old list which the survivors of the Yankee 
 Division had burned into their memories. 
 
 This table is interesting as it shows the dates of detailed 
 division movements: 
 
IN FRONT LINE 210 DAYS 
 
 29 
 
 Locations. 
 
 Department. 
 
 Arrival. 
 
 Neuf chateau, 
 
 Vosges, 
 
 Oct. 31, 1917 
 
 Couvrelles, 
 
 Aisne, 
 
 Feb. 8, 1918. 
 
 Bar-sur-Aube, 
 
 Aube, 
 
 March 18. 
 
 Joinville, 
 
 Haute-Marne, 
 
 March 25. 
 
 Reynel, 
 
 Haute-Marne, 
 
 March 27. 
 
 Boucq, 
 
 Meurthe-et-Moselle, 
 
 March 31. 
 
 Trondes, 
 
 Meurthe-et-Moselle, 
 
 June 20. 
 
 Toul, 
 
 Meurthe-et-Moselle, 
 
 June 28. 
 
 Nanteuil-les Meaux, Seine-et-Marne, 
 
 June 29. 
 
 Chamigny, 
 
 Seine-et-Marne, 
 
 July 9. 
 
 Genevrois Farm, 
 
 Aisne, 
 
 July 10. 
 
 Mery-sur-Marne, 
 
 Seine-et-Marne, 
 
 July 15. 
 
 Genevrois Farm, 
 
 Aisne, 
 
 July 20. 
 
 Lucy-le-Bocage, 
 
 Aisne, 
 
 July 21. 
 
 Grand Ru Farm, 
 
 Aisne, 
 
 July 21. 
 
 Mery-sur-Marne, 
 
 Seine-et-Marne, 
 
 July 30. 
 
 Mussy-sur-Seine, 
 
 Aube, 
 
 August 16. 
 
 Bar-le-Duc, 
 
 Meuse, 
 
 August 29. 
 
 Sommedieus, 
 
 Meuse, 
 
 August 30. 
 
 Rupt-en-Woevre, 
 
 Meuse, 
 
 Sept. 6. 
 
 Troyon-sur-Meuse, 
 
 Meuse, 
 
 Sept. 16. 
 
 Verdun, 
 
 Meuse, 
 
 Oct. 8. 
 
 Bras, 
 
 Meuse, 
 
 Oct. 18. 
 
 Pierrefitte, 
 
 Meuse, 
 
 Nov. 14. 
 
 Benoite-Vaux, 
 
 Meuse, 
 
 Nov. 15. 
 
 Frebecourt, 
 
 Vosges, 
 
 Nov. 19. 
 
 Montigny-le-Roi, 
 
 Haute-Marne, 
 
 Nov. 23. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 America's Greatest Battle 
 
 BThe Yankee Division never planned a retreat. 
 Guns and rolling stock always faced the enemy, 
 prepared to advance. 
 
 Nothing was ever pointed toward the rear, 
 as an emergency measure, because the fighting division from 
 New England always held its ground, it mattered not what 
 were the obstacles or the odds or the skill of the forces 
 opposing. 
 
 Even the cream of German shock troops, exercising the 
 maximum of force and cunning gained by long experience, 
 could not budge the men of the Yankee Division, vent their 
 fury and hammer as they may. 
 
 But it took men, brave men, to fight so gallantly. Losses 
 were heavy at times, especially in the treacherous hills north 
 of Verdun in the last weeks of fighting, when one enemy 
 system of defence after another had to be smashed. 
 
 At this stage open warfare had developed into a violent 
 duel of artillery and machine guns, with the latter predomi- 
 nating. The beaten Germans pinned their last hopes on 
 the machine guns, which accounted for the enormous num- 
 ber employed on every enemy front. 
 
 There was speculation and gossip and not a little criti- 
 cism in Paris and elsewhere while the Americans were chop- 
 ping their way through the Meuse-Argonne sector. Critics 
 wondered why greater progress was not being made, but it 
 was the chatter of those unversed, the idle gossip of those 
 ignorant of the desperate task assigned the Yanks, and of 
 the wretched topography of that region where each in the 
 series of wooded hills formed a natural fortification for the 
 Boches. 
 
 30 
 
AMERICA'S GREATEST BATTLE 31 
 
 These croakers did not know that the Americans had 
 been assigned the toughest section of the entire Western 
 front. They did not know that the Germans considered 
 the Meuse-Argonne front the pivot of the closing operations 
 of the war, in that the penetration of the elaborate enemy 
 defence system in that region would menace the main rail- 
 road artery over which the Germans transported practically 
 all of their troops and supplies in France, and would cut off 
 and trap the German forces in the north. 
 
 So while retreating before the powerful blows of the 
 Belgians, French and British, the Germans massed their 
 best troops against the Americans in a desperate effort to 
 check an advance that was as inevitable as was the igno- 
 minious defeat that came with the armistice. 
 
 Division after division was hurled against the Americans, 
 who crushed them with the slow, ponderous advance of a 
 steam-roller. The operations in the Meuse-Argonne con- 
 stituted the greatest battle ever fought by an American 
 army. There were nearly 800,000 Yanks engaged and 
 the losses totalled 115,000, but were not out of proportion 
 to the task accomplished. 
 
 Captain Arthur E. Hartzell, who served in the front 
 line with an infantry regiment before joining the Press 
 Section of the American Expeditionary Forces, has written 
 an able monograph of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, which 
 was the decisive battle of the war. Captain Hartzell has col- 
 lected statistics which are instructive and illuminating. 
 Here are a few of the figures: 
 
 Duration of battle 47 days. 
 
 Forces engaged 631,405 Americans. 
 
 138,000 French. 
 
 Total 769,405 against 607,212 Germans. 
 
 ( 22 American. 
 
 Divisions engaged < 4 French. 
 
 ( 46 German. 
 Maximum penetration of 
 
 enemy lines 54 kilometers. 
 
32 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Territory liberated for France 1,550 square kilometers. 
 
 Villages liberated 150. 
 
 Total number of guns which 
 
 began the attack 2,775. 
 
 Artillery ammunition fired . . . 89,404 (plus) average rounds per 
 
 day. 
 Largest amount artillery am- 
 munition fired single day.. 313,087 rounds (Sept. 26). 
 Total artillery ammunition 
 
 used 4,202,006 rounds. 
 
 Prisoners captured 316 officers, 15,743 men. 
 
 Material captured 468 guns of large calibre, 2,864 
 
 machine guns, 177 trench mor- 
 tars. 
 
 American casualties 15,599 killed. 
 
 8,805 missing. 
 69,832 wounded. 
 18,664 gassed. 
 2,629 shell shocked. 
 
 Total... 115,529 
 
 French casualties 7,000 estimated total 
 
 American and French casual- 
 ties 122,529. 
 
 German estimated casualties 
 
 (including 16,000 prisoners) 126,500. 
 Total casualties in A.E.F. up 
 
 to Nov. 18, 1918 53,169 killed. 
 
 179,625 wounded. 
 11,660 missing. 
 2,163 prisoners. 
 
 Total 246,657 
 
 Total prisoners captured by 
 
 A.E.F. all operations 637 officers, 42,650 enlisted men. 
 
 Total material captured by 
 
 A.E.F 1,421 guns, 6,550 machine guns, 
 
 503 trench mortars. 
 
 Defence after defence crumbled. The Americans were 
 compelled to storm fortified hills by frontal attacks against 
 terrible artillery and machine gun fire. No writer, no nor 
 can any camera convey to the folks at home the difficulties 
 
AMERICA'S GREATEST BATTLE 33 
 
 and horrors of the country over which the Americans fought 
 in the last weeks of the war. The Americans had to fight 
 for every inch of ground. 
 
 A kilometer won on that front was equal to five on other 
 fronts. After the most gruelling fighting night and day in 
 almost constant rain and in a temperature that penetrated 
 to the marrow, after herculean patience and effort, American 
 pluck and tenacity triumphed. 
 
 Every American in France was thrilled the Saturday 
 night before the armistice to hear that the Germans had 
 finally broken and fled, fled so fast that our front line troops 
 were sent in pursuit of them in motor trucks. It was the 
 first motor truck charge of the war, and our fellows had 
 difficulty even in trucks to keep up with the retreating enemy. 
 
 And right in the midst of this terrible region fought the 
 men of the Yankee Division, steadily advancing over as 
 difficult a terrain as confronted any American division, 
 fought until they almost fell from exhaustion, because it 
 was a division slogan to carry out every task assigned, no 
 matter what the cost. 
 
 The wonder was that losses were not greater. With 
 thinned ranks filled by replacements, the Yankee Division 
 strength on Jan. 9, 1919, was 26,540. But of those who 
 went over with the original division, owing to casualties and 
 transfers, only 57.2 per cent of the enlisted men came 
 home and 37 J^ per cent of the officers. 
 
 The losses in the infantry were the heaviest, the machine 
 gun battalions came second and the artillery third. About 
 48 per cent of the original infantrymen in the division, 
 about 65 per cent of the machine gunners and about 70 per 
 cent of the artillery men remained. 
 
 These figures are approximately correct. Roughly 
 estimated, a little better than 50 per cent of the men who 
 left the United States with the Yankee Division had the joy 
 of returning home with it, bearing in mind that the 
 difference included those transferred to other units and 
 those in hospitals. 
 
34 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 If anybody tries to argue that Uncle Sam was too late 
 and that what he did overseas was relatively unimportant, 
 tell him he doesn't know what he is talking about. Every- 
 body knows, or ought to know, that the financial and the 
 moral support of the United States were of tremendous 
 value to the allies before we struck a blow. 
 
 When the Yanks did strike the enemy line, they hit it so 
 hard that it counted. They struck when they were most 
 needed — at the crucial hour. Not a day could have been 
 lost. The initial American blows changed the complexion 
 of the war over night. They bucked up the shattered 
 morale of the allies. They instilled new pep and courage. 
 The Americans were Johnny-on-the-spot. Don't let any- 
 body tell you otherwise. The allied leaders know it. 
 
 And while the real turn of the tide came at the second 
 battle of the Marne, when the American Second Division 
 stopped the German drive on Paris dead in its tracks, a 
 minor operation successfully carried out earlier by the First 
 Division forecasted the change in Germany's fortunes of war. 
 
 The First Division was brigaded with the French on the 
 Montdidier front. Its commander decided to take Can- 
 tigny, a ruined village on a plateau, the capture of which 
 would straighten the American line. 
 
 Allied observers said it would not be difficult to take 
 Cantigny, but that the problem would be to hold it in the 
 face of the unusual enemy artillery and machine gun con- 
 centration. Cantigny could scarcely be called a battle. It 
 was nothing but a rush, following hours of intensive artillery 
 preparation by American and French batteries. Scarcely 
 a shot was fired by the Germans until our men had reached 
 the ruins. It was not until the Yanks were establishing 
 their outposts beyond the village that they suffered any 
 great losses, when the Boche machine guns opened on them. 
 
 It was doubted that troops so inexperienced could hold 
 their ground under such adverse conditions, but the First 
 Division units did, despite a series of bitter counter-attacks. 
 Cantigny proved an eye-opener to the Allies as well as to the 
 
AMERICA'S GREATEST BATTLE 35 
 
 Germans. It showed that the Yanks had the battle grip, 
 and the more spectacular and important fighting on the 
 Marne soon after gave further proof of American tenacity. 
 
 Those of us who lived through the dark days of Spring, 
 1918, when nights were made hideous by repeated air raids, 
 when the German horde was advancing toward Paris in 
 leaps and bounds, and when the big gun sent thousands 
 scampering from the city, know how shaky was the Allied 
 confidence and how timely the arrival of the American 
 forces into the breach. 
 
 No one country can be given credit for winning the war. 
 They all contributed. Great Britain did wonders with her 
 navy. France held the line unwaveringly for four years. 
 Italy did her share, and Russia had been a powerful factor 
 until weakened by internal corruption and treachery. They 
 all made their sacrifices, and did their bit. The way it looked 
 to me, at close range, was that Uncle Sam jumped in like a 
 football player with a reputation — a player big, strong, 
 fresh and confident — at the critical period and pushed the 
 ball over. 
 
 The Allies might have done it without us, but it would 
 have taken an awfully long time, and the Germans were 
 getting perilously close to Paris and the French troops 
 which our Marines and Ninth and Twenty-third Infantry 
 Regiments leap-frogged at the Marne were exhausted and 
 disheartened after days and nights of continuous fighting 
 against overpowering odds. 
 
 The French showed that they had the greatest staff 
 officers in the world. Foch and his colleagues outma- 
 noeuvred the Germans at their own game. But Foch and 
 the British commanders would not have dared to attempt 
 the final strategy with such fearlessness if they did not have 
 the confidence that came from the realization that back of 
 the French and British armies, in the event of reverses, 
 stood more than 2,000,000 Americans, young, fresh and eager. 
 
 That American line was the mainstay, green and in- 
 experienced as it may have been, compared with the vet- 
 
36 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 erans of Europe, and that mighty reserve of Americans 
 turned the trick. History must so record it. 
 
 It is absurd to say that the Germans were not good 
 fighters. The character and the length of the war belie such 
 an assertion, as does the fact that at the close of more than 
 four years they were still deep in allied territory, with the 
 weight of the world against them. 
 
 The German armies were wonderfully trained and disci- 
 plined. Officers were high grade and efficient. They were 
 proud almost to the point of arrogance and defiant after 
 capture. The rank and file of German troops knew the art 
 of war and they had plenty of spirit. In mass formation 
 German troops were superb and always dangerous. 
 
 I saw German machine gunners, lads of seventeen and 
 eighteen, dead beside their guns in fox-holes. They had 
 fired until they got the bayonet. The ground in front of 
 them was strewn with their victims. 
 
 They were "sacrifice" men, screening a retreat. They 
 knew they didn't have a chance when assigned to those 
 isolated positions, but they fought until the last gasp. In 
 the final battles the German machine gunners shouldered 
 the lion's share of the work. They were picked and gallant 
 soldiers. 
 
 It was not until the Americans entered the fight and 
 the warfare became open that the German spirit began to 
 wane. Then the infantry showed a tendency to surrender 
 if cut off from the main forces or lacking officers, often to 
 smaller units instead of fighting to the last ditch like the 
 Americans. 
 
 But even in the last weeks and days, with the hand- 
 writing written bold on the wall, the Germans gave the 
 Americans their best in the Argonne. The Yanks had to 
 fight and fight desperately all the way. Just tell any 
 American who was in the closing battle that the Germans 
 were "easy" and see what he says. The Germans realized 
 that the allies at last had the whip hand, that they had 
 builded a war machine mightier than their own. They 
 
AMERICA'S GREATEST BATTLE 37 
 
 realized that the jig was up and their confidence cracked. 
 But beaten, they showed their fangs. 
 
 The Twenty-sixth Division reaped its share of individual 
 and regimental decorations and citations. As I have pre- 
 viously stated, the 104th Infantry was the first American 
 regiment to have its colors decorated by the French or any 
 foreign government. The first Medal of Honor awarded to 
 an enlisted man in the American land forces went to First 
 Class Private George Dilboy of H Company, 103rd Infantry, 
 who died of wounds. 
 
 The first battalion of the 102d Infantry had its colors 
 decorated with a Croix de Guerre by General Petain. 
 
 Often more men are recommended for decorations than 
 receive them, leaving many who performed acts of bravery 
 which might have fallen short of the standard necessary for 
 medals without any record of their deeds. 
 
 To bridge this void, Major-General Clarence R. Edwards, 
 the original commander of the Yankee Division, intro- 
 duced a departure in the form of a division citation of record 
 entitled "THE YANKEE DIVISION— DISCIPLINE 
 AND STOUT HEARTS." 
 
 Dr. Morton Prince of Boston, the "soldiers' friend," 
 whose nephew was killed while flying for France, paid for 
 the printing of these certificates. 
 
 I am informed that there were close to 2,500 citations re- 
 corded in the Yankee Division, including decorations such 
 as Medals of Honor, Distinguished Service Crosses and 
 Croix de Guerre. Although the acts that inspired these 
 honors are worthy of publishing in detail, space will not per- 
 mit. There are enough of them to fill a thick volume alone. 
 
 The division was cited in American and French orders 
 and commended in letters and service memorandums, as 
 follows : 
 
 Cited in G. O. No. 7, Hq. Eleventh Army Corps (French), 
 March 15, 1918. 
 
 Cited (104th Inf.) in G. O. No. 737 A, Hq. Thirty- 
 second Army Corps (French), April 26, 1918. 
 
38 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Commended (101st Inf.) in Service Memorandum. Hq. 
 Eighth Army (French), June 8, 1918. 
 
 Commended in Service Memorandum, Hq. Seventh 
 Army (French), June 17, 1918. 
 
 Congratulated in Memorandum, Hq. Thirty-second 
 Army Corps (French), June 18, 1918. 
 
 Cited in G. O. No. 131, Hq. Thirty-second Army Corps 
 (French), June 18, 1918. 
 
 Commended (103d Inf.) in letter from G. H. Q., A. E. F., 
 June 20, 1918. 
 
 Cited in G. O. No. 133, Hq. Thirty-second Army Corps 
 (French), June 27, 1918. 
 
 Congratulated in letter, Hq. Sixth Army (French), 
 July 29, 1918. 
 
 Cited in G. O., Sixth Army (French), August 9, 1918. 
 
 Cited in G. O., G. H. Q., A. E. F., August 28, 1918. 
 
 Cited (102d Inf.) in G. O. No. 19, Hq. Fifth Army Corps 
 A. E. F., September 18, 1918. 
 
 Commended in letter from Hq. Second Colonial Corps 
 (French), October 3, 1918. 
 
 Commended in letter from Hq. Second Colonial Corps 
 (French), October 7, 1918. 
 
 Commended in letter from Hq. Seventeenth Army 
 Corps (French), October 24, 1918. 
 
 Commended (104th Inf.) in letter from Hq. Eighteenth 
 Division (French), November 17, 1918. 
 
 Commended in letter from Hq. Second Colonial Corps 
 (French), November 14, 1918. 
 
 Cited in G. O. No. 232, G. H. Q., A. E. F., December 19, 
 1918. 
 
 Cited in G. P. No. 238, G. H. Q., A. E. F., December 26, 
 1918. 
 
 Cited in G. O. No. 2, Hq. First American, January 
 22, 1919. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Speaking of "Yanks" 
 
 BEveey time I write or see the term "Yanks" I am 
 reminded of a friendly discussion which I heard in 
 a cafe in Meaux between two young Southern 
 officers, just after the Americans had stopped the 
 German push toward Paris. 
 
 "I don't like the name 'Yanks' and I don't give a damn 
 who knows it!" exclaimed a captain of infantry, putting 
 aside the Paris edition of an American newspaper, a headline 
 in which had caused his outburst. "I don't think it's fair 
 to the fellows who came from south of the Mason and Dixon 
 line." 
 
 "But there isn't any Mason and Dixon line any more, 
 friend," drawled a lieutenant of artillery, of less fiery tem- 
 perament. 
 
 "Perhaps not politically or patriotically, but there is 
 sentimentally, and always will be, unless I miss my guess," 
 replied the first speaker with spirit. "I came from an old 
 family in Virginia. I have an aunt who wrote the other day 
 and asked me what the boys from the South were doing over 
 here. 
 
 "She said all she read about in the newspapers and maga- 
 zines and on bill posters was Yanks, Yanks, Yanks! Now 
 I'm no scold or grumbler and I am willing to give the 
 Northerners their due, but the love of the Southland is 
 strong in me. My uncle and dad were in the Confederate 
 ranks, and I wish they'd find some other name for our army 
 over here." 
 
 "When it comes to that, neighbor," said the artillery 
 officer, "I'm somewhat of a Southerner myself. Hail from 
 South Carolina, but I don't object to the term Yanks, be- 
 
 39 
 
40 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 cause as I figure it, it means just plain American and that's 
 what every Tom, Dick and Harry of us in the A. E. F. is — 
 American. 
 
 "What's more, I read in a newspaper that writers had 
 wracked their brains to coin a title with a punch. First 
 there was the name 'Sammies,' which had about as much 
 strength as a bit of soggy gingerbread, and some others that I 
 can't remember offhand. 
 
 "But 'Yanks' sounds American. It's short and sweet 
 and strong. I think it hits the nail on the head. I know 
 Southerners as a rule don't like it. I've heard others kick 
 like you, but it suits me until they invent something better." 
 
 "You evidently have forgotten that in Europe the word 
 Yankee is a term of levity used in comic papers. In England 
 it is a subject of burlesque on the stage," argued the first 
 speaker. "Yankee, to most foreigners, implies a cute, keen, 
 grasping individual with a nasal twang who would sell you 
 wooden nutmegs. The only bunch that the name fits is the 
 Twenty-sixth Division. For the New England outfit it's 
 great, because they come from real Yankee stock, but 
 Yanks is no name to saddle on a Southerner. I object to 
 branding the entire overseas army with it. Why isn't 
 'American' good enough?" 
 
 I could see the point of the Virginian's argument and had 
 heard the issue debated a great many times at the front, but 
 as the chap from South Carolina said, the war produced no 
 stronger, more appropriate or popular title for the Americans 
 than "Yanks." 
 
 Nobody disputed the title of the Twenty-sixth, and 
 officers and men sure were proud of the name "Yankee 
 Division." It had bundled up in it all the fighting spirit and 
 traditions of New England. It made them fight better. 
 Every man of them would have died to uphold the dignity 
 of the letters "Y. D." 
 
 They were proud also of the tributes paid to the division 
 by the French and of the citations received from the Ameri- 
 can Army Headquarters. One of the most treasured docu- 
 
SPEAKING OF "YANKS" 41 
 
 ments in the Yankee Division files is a letter from the cure 
 of Rupten-Woevre, who gave the Yankee Division credit 
 for liberating the people of that region. 
 
 The letter, addressed to General Edwards, follows : 
 
 Rupt-en-Woevre, Sept. 13, 1918. 
 
 Sir: Your gallant Twenty-sixth American Division has just set 
 us free. 
 
 Since September, 1914, the barbarians have held the heights of 
 the Meuse, have foully murdered three hostages from Mouilly, 
 have shelled Rupt, and, on July 23, 1915, forced its inhabitants to 
 scatter to the four corners of France. 
 
 I, who remain at my listening post upon the advice of my 
 bishop, feel certain, sir, that I do but speak for Monseigneur 
 Ginisty, lord bishop of Verdun, my parishioners of Rupt, Mouilly 
 and Genicourt, and the people of this vicinity in conveying to you 
 and your associates the heartfelt and unforgettable gratitude of 
 all. 
 
 Several of your comrades lie at rest in our truly Christian and 
 French soil. 
 
 Their ashes shall be cared for as if they were our own. We 
 shall cover their graves with flowers and shall kneel by them as 
 their own families would do, with a prayer to God to reward with 
 eternal glory these heroes fallen on the field of honor, and to bless 
 the Twenty-sixth Division and generous America. 
 
 Be pleased, sir, to accept the expression of my profound 
 respect. 
 
 A. LECLERC, 
 
 Cure of Rupt-en-Woevre. 
 
 As the Yankee Division fought with the Sixth French 
 Army, it shared in the praises bestowed in the following 
 memoranda, which were posted and later filed in the di- 
 vision files: 
 
 Sixth Army Staff— Third Bureau. July 26, 1918. 
 
 No. 2283-3. 
 
 MEMORANDUM. 
 
 The President of the republic, during a visit to the Sixth Army, 
 expressed his satisfaction over the results obtained as well as the 
 proofs of valor and endurance shown by all the units of the army. 
 
42 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 The commanding general of the Sixth Army takes pleasure in 
 communicating to the troops of his army the congratulations of the 
 President of the republic. 
 
 GENERAL DEGOUTTE. 
 
 Sixth Army Staff— Third Bureau. July 26, 1918. 
 
 No. 2284-3. 
 
 MEMORANDUM. 
 
 The commanding general of the Sixth Army brings to the 
 attention of the troops of the army the following address received 
 from the Mayors of the arrondissement of Meaux, in meeting 
 assembled, on the 20th of July, 1918: 
 
 "The mayors of the arrondissement of Meaux, in meeting 
 assembled, on the 20th of July, 1918, are happy to acknowledge 
 the great victory of the Sixth Army, which, as at the time of the 
 battle of the Marne, has just saved their commune from the in- 
 vasion which was threatening them. 
 
 "Send to the valiant troops of the Sixth Army the most earnest 
 expression of their gratitude and admiration. 
 
 "The President of the Congress of Mayors, 
 
 "G. HUGEL, 
 "Mayor of Meaux, 
 "Deputy from Department of Seine and Marne." 
 
 The commanding general takes pleasure in transmitting these 
 congratulations to the troops of his army. 
 
 GENERAL DEGOUTTE. 
 
 Sixth Army. July 29, 1918. 
 
 No. 2353-3. 
 
 From: General Degoutte, commanding Sixth Army. 
 
 To: General Edwards, commanding the Twenty-sixth Division. 
 
 "The operations carried out by Twenty-sixth American Divi- 
 sion from July 18 to July 24 demonstrated the fine soldierly 
 qualities of this unit and the worth of its leader, General Edwards. 
 
 "Co-operating in the attack north of the Marne, the Twenty- 
 sixth Division fought brilliantly on the line Torcy-Belleau, at 
 Monthiers, Epieds and Trugny and in the Forest of Fere, advanc- 
 ing more than fifteen kilometers in depth in spite of the des- 
 perate resistance of the enemy. 
 
 "I take great pleasure in communicating to General Edwards 
 and his valiant division this expression of my great esteem, to- 
 gether with my heartiest congratulations for the manner in which 
 they have served the common cause. 
 
 "DEGOUTTE." 
 
SPEAKING OF "YANKS" 43 
 
 Sixth Army. Aug. 9, 1918. 
 
 General Order. 
 
 "Before the great offensive of July 18 the American troops 
 forming a part of the Sixth French Army distinguished themselves 
 by taking from the enemy the Bois de la Brigade de Marine (re- 
 named in honor of the American Marines who, with the Ninth and 
 Twenty-third Infantry Regiments, the whole making up the 
 Second Division, stopped the German drive on Paris) and the 
 village of Vaux, stopping his offensive on the Marne and at Fossoy. 
 
 "Since then they have taken a more glorious part in the second 
 battle of the Marne, rivalling the French troops in ardor and gal- 
 lantry. In twenty days of incessant fighting they liberated numer- 
 ous villages and made, over a difficult terrain, an advance of forty 
 kilometers, which carried them beyond the Vesle. 
 
 "Their glorious advance is marked by names which will make 
 illustrious the military history of the United States — Torcy, 
 Belleau, Plateau de Etrepilly, Epieds, Le Charmel, the Ourcq, 
 Seringes-et-Nestles, Sergy, the Vesle and Fismes. 
 
 "The new divisions, under fire for the first time, showed them- 
 selves worthy of the old fighting traditions of the regular army. 
 They had the same ardent desire to whip the Boches and that dis- 
 cipline which always insures the carrying out of orders of their 
 commanders, whatever be the difficulties to be overcome or the 
 sacrifices to be made. 
 
 "The magnificent results obtained are due to the energy and 
 skilfulness of their commanders and to the bravery of the soldiers. 
 
 "I am proud to have commanded such troops. 
 
 "The commanding general of the Sixth Army. 
 
 (Signed) "DEGOUTTE. ,, 
 
 Then came this praise from General Pershing, com- 
 mander-in-chief of the American forces, in which the 
 Twenty-sixth Division was specifically mentioned with 
 others: 
 
 G. H. Q. 
 "AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES. 
 "FRANCE, 
 "General Orders. Aug. 28, 1918. 
 
 "No. 143. 
 
 "It fills me with pride to record in general orders a tribute to 
 the service and achievements of the First and Third Corps, com- 
 prising the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty- 
 
44 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 eighth, Thirty-second and Forty-second Divisions of the American 
 Expeditionary Forces. 
 
 "You came to the battlefield at the crucial hour of the allied 
 cause. For almost four years the most formidable army the world 
 had as yet seen had pressed its invasion of France and stood 
 threatening its capital. At no time had that army been more 
 powerful or menacing than when, on July 15, it struck again to 
 destroy in one great battle the brave men opposed to it and to 
 enforce its brutal will upon the world and civilization. 
 
 "Three days later, in conjunction with our allies, you counter- 
 attacked. The allied armies gained a brilliant victory that marks 
 the turning point of the war. You did more than give our brave 
 allies the support to which as a nation our faith was pledged. You 
 proved that our altruism, our pacific spirit, our sense of justice 
 have not blunted our virility or our courage. You have shown 
 that American initiative and energy are as fit for the test of war as 
 for the pursuits of peace. You have justly won the unstinted 
 praise of our allies and the eternal gratitude of our countrymen. 
 
 "We have paid for our success in the lives of many of our 
 brave comrades. We shall cherish their memory always, and 
 claim for our history and literature their bravery, achievement 
 and sacrifice." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Pertinent Citations. 
 
 BIn addition to proving in an official way the 
 efficiency and success of the Yankee Division, the 
 citations and general orders give an accurate por- 
 trayal of the battles in which the New England 
 troops figured. With that point in view I have selected 
 these fragments from the division archives for your con- 
 sideration: 
 
 "HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION, 
 "AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 "FRANCE, 
 
 "General Orders. Aug. % 1918. 
 
 "No. 67. 
 
 "To the Officers and Men of the Twenty-sixth Division: 
 
 "On July 18th you entered, as part of the allied drive against 
 the enemy, upon the offensive and continued the offensive combat 
 until the major portion of the command was relieved on July 25th. 
 
 "On the assumption of the offensive your position in the 
 line demanded an important and difficult manoeuvre. Your suc- 
 cess in this was immediate and great, and the way in which you exe- 
 cuted it elicited high praise from the French Army commander. 
 The eight days from July 18th to 25th, marking the first great 
 advance against the enemy in which American troops bore pro- 
 portionately a considerable share, are sure of historical setting. 
 Your part therein can never be forgotten. In those eight days you 
 carried your line as far as any part of the advance was carried. 
 Torcy, Belleau, Givry, the Bouresches Woods, Rochet Woods, 
 Hill 190, overlooking Chateau Thierry, Etrepilly, Epides, Trugny, 
 and finally La Fere Woods and the objective, the Jaulgonne- 
 Fere-en-Tardenois Road, belong to your arms. You are the re- 
 cipient of praise, thanks and congratulations of our commander- 
 in-chief. You went unafraid into the face of the enemy's fire; you 
 forced him to withdraw before you, or to accept the alternative of 
 
 45 
 
46 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 hand-to-hand combat, in which you proved yourself morally and 
 physically his superior; you gave freely and gave much of your 
 strength and of your blood and your lives, until pushed beyond 
 mere physical endurance, fighting night and day, you still forced 
 yourselves forward, sustained almost by spirit alone. 
 
 "These things are now part of your own consciousness. Noth- 
 ing can detract from them. Nothing that I can say can add to 
 them. But I can testify in this way to my pride in commanding 
 such troops, so capable of achieving success in every undertaking, 
 and this testimony I give to each of you gladly and with deep 
 gratitude. 
 
 "C. R. EDWARDS, 
 
 "Major-General, Commanding." 
 
 "HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION, 
 
 "AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 
 "FRANCE, 
 
 ''General Orders. Sept. 28,1918. 
 
 "No. 82. 
 
 "To the Twenty-sixth Division: 
 
 "1. Again it becomes my duty and pleasure to congratulate 
 this division on the important part it played in the battle of the 
 ■St. Mihiel salient, Sept. 12-14, 1918. 
 
 "Our task was to attack on the historic and hitherto impreg- 
 nable ground near Les Eparges, where in the past so many thou- 
 sands of French lives have been sacrificed. 
 
 "In front of us the fortifications were manned by Germans, with 
 a No Man's Land on difficult slopes, churned and pitted by four 
 years of shelling and with a mass of wire and other obstacles from 
 trench to trench. 
 
 "The three infantry regiments in line, the One Hundred and 
 First, the One Hundred and Third and the One Hundred and 
 Fourth, with the brigade machine gun units, met a determined 
 resistance. The enemy machine gun fire was intense. The 
 artillery, without daylight registration, did well during that part 
 of the night allowed for preparation, in cutting breaches through 
 this mass of wire, which were completed by the infantry before and 
 during the attack. 
 
 "The determined and effective methods of the infantry in the 
 attack on the machine gun nests, the deliberate locating of these 
 nests, and the subsequent infiltration processes used in over- 
 coming these nests; the bold dashes wherever opportunity offered, 
 in one case resulting in the Second Battalion of the One Hundred 
 
PERTINENT CITATIONS 47 
 
 and Third Infantry rushing and capturing a hostile battalion of 
 greater strength before the enemy could raise his head; the fine 
 liaison and co-operation of the artillery; the expedition with which 
 follow-up roads were constructed by the engineers; the enterprise 
 of the medical, supply and other auxiliary units — all combined to 
 prove that its wide service and experience have made this a veteran 
 division. 
 
 "I was pleased with all elements of the division. 
 
 "2. By dark, on the 12th, the principal resistance of the enemy 
 had been overcome. Then came the order to close the gap be- 
 tween our forces on the north and our troops advancing from the 
 south, in order to prevent the escape of the enemy from St. Mihiel. 
 Our mission then was to reach Vigneulles before daylight and there 
 establish contact with troops of our Fourth Corps. 
 
 "3. The One Hundred and Second Infantry, in the division 
 reserve, which had followed the advance closely throughout the 
 battle in readiness for any such emergency, was ordered to spare 
 neither energy nor blood to accomplish this mission. The whole 
 division was pushed forward through the night, the rest of the 
 Fifty-first Infantry Brigade following the dash of the One Hundred 
 and Second Infantry, and the Fifty-second Infantry Brigade 
 moving out on the left rear of the One Hundred and Second In- 
 fantry, with the towns on the plain to the northwest of Hatton- 
 chatel, to include St. Maurice, as objectives. 
 
 "In less than one-half hour after receipt of this order the One 
 Hundred and Second Infantry and the One Hundred and Second 
 Machine Gun Battalion were on the march, led and inspired by 
 the regimental and battalion commanders in person. They 
 marched over nine kilometers on the only existing road, through a 
 dense forest, in an unknown and hostile country infested with the 
 enemy, losing, for the time being, liaison both to the right and left. 
 The leading elements, passing through Hattonchatel, reached 
 Vigneulles before 2 o'clock in the morning, took complete posses- 
 sion of those two towns, and pushing out occupied Creue and 
 Heudicourt and blocked the roads leading from the southwest, 
 while sending patrols further into the plain to gain contact with 
 the American forces coming from the south. 
 
 "This advance force captured many prisoners, much ammuni- 
 tion, stores of all kinds, and released many captive civilians from 
 St. Mihiel that the enemy in his retreat was forced by the One 
 Hundred and Second Infantry to abandon. 
 
 "With this advance force were the entire One Hundred and 
 Second Infantry, three companies of the One Hundred and 
 Second Machine Gun Battalion and part of the One Hundred and 
 
48 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 First Machine Gun Battalion from the division reserve. This last 
 part, abandoning its motors, marched fourteen kilometers, carry- 
 ing its guns by hand the entire way. 
 
 "By the morning the whole command had taken possession of 
 all the towns in the sector of its advance, and was impatient to 
 pursue the enemy across the Hindenburg line. 
 
 "The towns of St. Remy, Dommartin, Thillot, St. Maurice, 
 Billy-sous-les-Cotes, Vieville-sous-les-Cotes, Hattonchatel, Han- 
 nonville, Vigneulles, Creue, Heudicourt, Deuxnouds, Wadonville, 
 Avillers and Butgneville, as well as the entire length of the Grande 
 Tranchee de Calone, with a gain of fourteen kilometers, belong to 
 your arms. 
 
 "The division captured about 2,400 prisoners, large stores of 
 supplies and ammunition, horses and motor transportation and 
 about 50 guns. 
 
 "I am proud of you. You are a shock division. 
 
 "C. R. EDWARDS, 
 
 "Major-General, Commanding." 
 
 "HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION, 
 
 "AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 
 "FRANCE, 
 
 "General Orders. Oct. 10, 1918. 
 
 "No. 85. 
 
 "1. The following letters are published to the command: 
 
 "Second Colonial Corps. H. Q., Oct. 3, 1918. 
 
 "Staff. No. 29,329. 
 
 "From: General Blondlat, commanding Second Colonial Corps. 
 "To: The commander-in-chief (through channels, general com- 
 manding Second Army). 
 "Subject: Proposition for citation in Army Orders in favor of the 
 First Battalion, One Hundred and Second Regiment of Infantry, 
 United States. 
 "I have the honor to send you the report which I had the 
 general commanding the Twenty-sixth United States Division to 
 make on the very hard and glorious combat which this division 
 engaged Sept. 26, 1918. 
 
 "The Second Colonial Corps had received orders to carry out 
 extensive raids to attract and fix the attention of the enemy: 
 'General Order No. 20, Sept. 20, 1918, of the general commanding 
 the First United States Army — The Second Colonial Corps will 
 hold the front of Bois le Chauffour inclusive to Mesnil exclusive. 
 
PERTINENT CITATIONS 49 
 
 " 'The Second Colonial Corps will make a demonstration along 
 its front, launching artillery bombardment as well as making ex- 
 tensive raids at H hour.' 
 
 "The dimension and duration of the raid executed by the 
 Twenty-sixth United States Division certainly deceived the 
 enemy as to our intentions, the losses suffered by the troops taking 
 part in this operation were fairly severe, but there is no doubt that 
 those suffered by the Germans were much more serious. 
 
 "The spirit of sacrifice and magnificent courage displayed by 
 the troops of the Twenty-sixth United States Division on this 
 occasion were certainly not in vain; they seem to me worthy of 
 recompense and praise; therefore, I directed the general com- 
 manding this division to address propositions to me on this 
 subject. 
 
 "I urgently request that the First Battalion of the One Hun- 
 dred and Second Infantry be cited in army orders on the following 
 grounds : 
 
 ' Ticked troops, who, trained by Colonel Hiram J. Bearss, 
 led the attack in the first line, carried out brilliantly and with 
 splendid energy a particularly delicate operation; engaged battle 
 with a superb dash; won a victory after a violent combat over an 
 enemy who was both stubborn and superior in numbers, entrenched 
 in concreted shelters, strongly supported by numerous machine 
 guns and powerful artillery, and who made use of, in the course of 
 the action, infamous methods of warfare; heroically carried out 
 their mission in capturing in heavy fighting a village where they 
 maintained themselves all day in spite of four enemy counter- 
 attacks, and thus furnished the finest example of courage, abnega- 
 tion and self-sacrifice.' 
 
 "I request further that the officers and men mentioned in 
 General Edwards' report receive each and severally the rewards 
 suggested for them by name. 
 
 (Signed) "BLONDLAT." 
 
 "HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION, 
 "AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 "FRANCE, 
 
 "General Orders. Oct. 24, 1918. 
 
 "No. 93. 
 
 "2. The following tribute to the division is published for the 
 information of all concerned : 
 
50 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "HEADQUARTERS, 
 
 "Seventeenth Army Corps. Oct. 24, 1918. 
 
 "Staff. First Bureau. 
 
 "From: General Claudel, commanding the Seventh Army Corps. 
 "To: The commanding general, Twenty-sixth Division. 
 
 "General — The reputation of your division preceded it here far 
 ahead. 
 
 "To all its titles of glory gained in fierce struggles, and only re- 
 cently at the signal of Hattonchatel, it has added on the 23d day 
 of October a page which perhaps is more modest, but still does it 
 great honor. 
 
 "In a few hours, as at a manoeuvre, it has gained all the ob- 
 jectives assigned to it in the difficult sector of the woods of Houppy, 
 Etrayes and Belleau. 
 
 "This operation is evidence, indeed, of superior instruction, 
 mobility and will. 
 
 "I do not know how to thank you sufficiently for your assist- 
 ance, dear general, and it is my great desire to express to you all 
 our grateful admiration for your splendid division, which thus has 
 added its name to all of those who have fought to hurl the enemy 
 back from the outskirts of Verdun. "H. CLAUDEL. 
 
 "C. R. EDWARDS, 
 
 "Major-General, Commanding." 
 
 Here are a few earlier commendations : 
 
 ARMY H. Q. 
 
 "Eighth Army. June 8, 1918. 
 
 "Staff— 3d Bureau. 
 "No. 5310. 
 
 "SERVICE MEMORANDUM. 
 
 "The commanding general of the Eighth Army (French) is 
 happy to pronounce the success of the raid on the Camp du Moulin, 
 carried out during the night of May 30-31, 1918, by the 101st 
 Regiment of American Infantry. 
 
 "He requests the commanding general of the Thirty-second 
 Army Corps to forward his congratulations for this operation, as 
 well planned as it was energetically conducted, to the command- 
 ing general of the Twenty-sixth American Division. 
 
 (Signed) "GERARD." 
 
PERTINENT CITATIONS 51 
 
 True Copy Sent to: 
 Commanding General, 
 Twenty-sixth American Division. 
 Thirty-second Army Corps. 
 Staff — 3d Bureau. 
 No. 2918 B-3. 
 
 "The commanding general of the Thirty-second Army Corps 
 is happy to forward the congratulations of the commanding general 
 of the Eighth Army to the commanding general of the Twenty- 
 sixth American Division. 
 
 "By Order of the Chief of Staff. 
 
 (Signed) "E. MANGIN." 
 H. Q., June 9, 1918. 
 
 "GENERAL HEADQUARTERS AMERICAN EXPE- 
 DITIONARY FORCES. 
 "OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF. 
 
 June 20, 1918. 
 "14790-A-106 (PF). 
 ' 'From : Commander-in-chief. 
 
 "To: Commanding general, Twenty-sixth Division. 
 
 "Subject: 103d Regiment. 
 
 "1. I am directed by the commander-in-chief to inform you 
 that he has noted with sincere appreciation the excellent work of 
 the 103d Regiment of your division, which inflicted severe losses 
 in killed, wounded and prisoners in repelling the strong raid 
 attempted by the enemy on the morning of June 16, 1918, on the 
 Xivray sector. 
 
 "J. W. McANDREW, 
 
 "Chief of Staff.'* 
 
 HEADQUARTERS. 
 
 "Eighth Army. June 27, 1918. 
 
 "32d Army Corps. 
 
 "Staff. 
 
 "3d Office. 
 
 "3292-3. 
 
 "GENERAL ORDER NO. 133. 
 
 "At the moment when the Twenty-sixth Division of Infantry 
 of the United States is leaving the Thirty-second French Corps I 
 salute its colors and thank it for the splendid services it has ren- 
 dered here to the common cause. 
 
52 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "Under the distinguished command of their chief, General 
 Edwards, the high-spirited soldiers of the 'Yankee Division' have 
 taught the enemy some bitter lessons, at Bois Brule, at Seiche- 
 prey, at Xivray-Marvoisin : they have taught him to realize the 
 staunch vigor of the sons of the great republic, fighting for the 
 world's freedom. 
 
 "My heartiest good wishes will accompany the 'Yankee 
 Division' always, in its future combats. 
 
 "GENERAL PASSAGA, 
 "Commanding the Thirty-second Army Corps. 
 (Signed) "PASSAGA." 
 
 The following excerpt from the dispatch of a Chicago 
 correspondent relative to the fighting qualities of the Yankee 
 Division is interesting: 
 
 "The Germans found themselves in such a disfavorable posi- 
 tion in Monthieres that they had to begin a retreat. 
 
 "On the 21st the whole German line was in retreat and the 
 Chateau Thierry-Soissons highway was reached. The Americans 
 were cleaning the ground and vigorously pursued the enemy's 
 rear guard. 
 
 "On the 22d a battalion of Americans occupied Epieds. There 
 was hard fighting in the village and the enemy opened a violent 
 barrage fire. The fight was in open country and on that day it 
 was not possible to take the village entirely. Rather than to 
 sustain heavy losses, the commander of the American division 
 preferred to take his troops to the rear. It was necessary, if the 
 difficulty was to be overcome, to start the surrounding move- 
 ment again, and on the 23d the Americans sought to enter 
 Trugny Wood, south of Epieds. 
 
 "The Germans strongly opposed this attempt and counter- 
 attacked with energy, but they learned at their expense what 
 American tenacity is. Stopped once in the manoeuvre, the Ameri- 
 cans occupied the fringe of the wood on the 24th, entered it de- 
 liberately, took a whole company of German pioneers and con- 
 tinued their advance with such fury that about 3 P. M. they were 
 at the fringes of the Fere Woods and on the same evening had 
 reached the road from Fere-en-Tardenois to Jaulgonne. 
 
 "This American division has, therefore, realized in three days 
 an advance of as much as 17 kilometers at certain points, fighting 
 continuously night and day, and DISPLAYING THE FINEST 
 MILITARY QUALITIES. All the liaison services worked per- 
 
PERTINENT CITATIONS 53 
 
 feetly, both at the right and left wings and between the units of 
 the division. 
 
 # "A discipline which caused the Germans to wonder and admire 
 animated the attacking troops. They were marching with their 
 officers at the head of the column and their bodyguards on the 
 flanks, as the French troops. The German prisoners were as- 
 tonished. 'We do not see often those who command us,' they de- 
 clared to their captors. 'You are lucky; like the French, you are 
 led to the fight by your officers.' The French and American high 
 commands worked during the action in as close harmony as the 
 troops. 
 
 "The general commanding the division in question is a leader 
 of men, broad-minded, precise in his orders, of practical mind, 
 who from the first moment dealt with the problems raised by the 
 operations under way with a mastery which cost dear to the enemy. 
 
 "These days from the 18th to the 25th give a new and emphatic 
 proof of what the alliance of France and the United States can do 
 on a battlefield." 
 
 That's a bouquet for you, and from an observer from 
 Chicago, a stranger free from local bias who wrote what he 
 saw and gave the Yankee Division its due. Don't forget 
 what he said about "Finest military qualities" and about 
 the commanders of the Twenty-sixth leading their men. 
 That was true in every battle in which the New England 
 division fought. The officers of the division were so pleased 
 with this tribute that the newspaper clipping was reproduced 
 in division orders and distributed to every company. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Front Line Famine and Mud 
 
 B Watching a division of strangers going into 
 battle and watching a division made up almost en- 
 tirely of acquaintances and friends were different 
 matters, from an emotional standpoint. 
 
 You felt for them all, but when Eddie and Bob, Billy, 
 Dick, Jack and Harry went in — well, it whittled the great 
 struggle down to a personal issue. It brought the war home. 
 
 When the machine guns sputtered and the artillery 
 roared and the heavens glowed with the flashes of monster 
 guns for miles ; when signal rockets traced fantastic outlines 
 in the darkness and seemed straining to inject an element of 
 celebration which was a mockery of their purpose; when 
 dreaded "umbrella" flares turned night into day and made 
 doughboys in shallow "fox-holes" seem as big as houses — 
 when all the machinery of modern war thundered a mad 
 medley and the fury of fighting men had converted the 
 battle zone into an inferno that no pen can ever hope to de- 
 scribe — you wondered how your friends were weathering it 
 in the front line and you thought of them individually. 
 
 Then war's toll — the human wreckage — began to filter 
 back through the tempest, the more seriously wounded on 
 litters, and the walking wounded with dishevelled hair and 
 uniforms smeared with mud and filth, faces blanched, eyes 
 sunken, looking like creatures long entombed, an arm hang- 
 ing limp, or blouse stained red by a patch that grew larger 
 as you looked at it. 
 
 While first aid men and surgeons toiled with the flood of 
 stricken at advanced dressing stations and wounded lay 
 thick all about, enemy shells burst and killed many who had 
 
 54 
 
FRONT LINE FAMINE AND MUD 55 
 
 come from the outer line with curable hurts. Many doctors 
 and litter-bearers were among these victims. 
 
 There was no safety zone when a battle was raging. 
 Death stalked everywhere, reaping almost as liberally six 
 kilometers back as in the front lines. Fifty per cent of the 
 casualties occurred well back from gas and shrapnel. 
 
 As the tide of battle swept forward, and it invariably did 
 when the Yanks hit the line, you saw dead scattered every- 
 where, looking like so many discarded overcoats dotting the 
 landscape, in the uncertain light of dawn. The ground, 
 broken and torn, was littered with abandoned equipment, 
 Boche and American, with rifles and bayonets and small 
 arms, cantines, helmets, gas masks, caps and unused ammu- 
 nition of all sorts. 
 
 There was always an amazingly large quantity of unused 
 grenades and machine gun strips. I have seen corrugated 
 "egg" grenades and "potato-mashers" with handles strewn 
 so thick after a battle that it was difficult to walk without 
 stepping on them. A young woman writer and several 
 friends who were being escorted by a French officer came 
 across hand grenades on a battlefield one day. The woman 
 author, with feminine curiosity, picked up a "potato- 
 masher" and it blew off her arm, killed the French officer and 
 wounded all others of the party less seriously. 
 
 We often wondered how many tons of steel and explosives 
 lay buried over the face of France, to say nothing of the 
 hundreds of thousands of bodies. It is said that a million 
 men were buried in the Somme country, and, after motoring 
 through it, and seeing the miles of destruction and numerous 
 graves, you can readily conceive it. The days of reclama- 
 tion and cultivation* are bound to witness strange sights, and 
 perhaps accidents, when the first plows get busy. 
 
 Salvage parties combed battlefields and stacked and re- 
 moved "live" ammunition, which included the "duds" that 
 failed to explode. But these searching parties, whose job 
 was extremely dangerous, raked up only the unburied shells 
 and bombs. 
 
56 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 A private in an infantry company of the Yankee Division 
 started a fire one evening after the armistice and was blown 
 into eternity. The heat exploded a shell buried under a 
 thin layer of earth. 
 
 Many of the wounded came in famished. They had 
 been fighting in isolated positions where the play of enemy 
 artillery was so accurate that it was physically impossible to 
 get food to them even by foot couriers, which was often tried 
 in vain. Volunteers for this work performed some of the 
 most heroic duty of the war and many died in the attempt. 
 The British inaugurated the practice of dropping packages 
 of food from low-swooping aeroplanes to men in isolated 
 positions. 
 
 The front line famine occurred in every great battle and 
 in every army, Allied and German alike. It was a war con- 
 dition next to impossible to avert. But you could not re- 
 frain from thinking of the irony and pity of it — that Ameri- 
 cans, or any fighting men, should crave for food and drink 
 with such an abundance close at hand and with billions of 
 dollars to purchase more — shy of nourishment when they 
 needed it most. This, to me, was one of the biggest trag- 
 edies of the war. 
 
 The soldiers soon exhausted "iron" rations when cut off. 
 They went days without food or water when isolated by 
 enemy fire. Often they crawled in desperation, under cover 
 of darkness, to some near-by shell hole and drank from a 
 polluted pool. Mouths and bronchial tubes were burned 
 and poisoned in this way because the stagnant rain water 
 had been tainted by mustard gas and other corruption. 
 
 On the French and British fronts soldiers sought out 
 mine craters which had been flooded by rain and used them 
 as swimming pools, after first carefully poking the bottom 
 with poles to make sure no dead Boche lay concealed, as was 
 often the case. 
 
 The war was so complex and so staggeringly stupendous 
 and the artillery was so dense and active that no writer can 
 hope to give a word picture of it in anything resembling its 
 
FRONT LINE FAMINE AND MUD 57 
 
 entirety. It is best conjured from glimpses and flashes 
 caught here and there and by incidents and individual acts 
 of bravey. Episodes like those of Perkins and Dilboy and 
 Major Whittlesey's lost battalion of the Seventy-seventh 
 Division and other melodramatic features help paint a com- 
 posite picture and weave a comprehensive war fabric. 
 
 It is equally difficult to describe the ground over which 
 the Yankee Division troops fought and the conditions under 
 which they lived, or, we might say, existed. It may help 
 you to try to compare with some beautiful stretch of country 
 where you live or have spent a vacation the rolling hills, 
 clothed by what had been dense woods, in the country north 
 of Verdun, each height serving as a natural barrier and inter- 
 laced with a succession of German lines of defence. In such 
 a theatre were fought the closing battles of the war by the 
 men of the New England division. 
 
 Fancy trees splintered and stripped and blackened, re- 
 sembling gaunt spectres. Fancy the ground so torn by 
 shells and bombs and mines that scarcely a blade of grass 
 or a foot of level surface remained. Fancy this pocked sur- 
 face smeared with mud and abandoned equipment and 
 dotted with bodies, stained by the blood of martyrs and so 
 upheaved that it looked very much like an ocean lashed by 
 a storm. 
 
 Fancy the fighting men, your sons, brothers and hus- 
 bands, huddled in "fox-holes" hurriedly scratched out with 
 trench shovels, a process known as "digging in," hugging 
 these shallow shelters on the lee side of every embankment 
 and hill until the word to go over was given. Every now 
 and then a shell dropped and obliterated a position and its 
 crew. 
 
 Try, but you cannot hope adequately, to conceive the 
 awful stench of decayed flesh of men and horses, a stench so 
 overpowering that we tasted it for days. Fancy a terrain so 
 torn that it was almost impossible to walk without stumbling 
 even if the enemy snipers permitted such a privilege — a 
 place where to show a head or hand or to strike a match or 
 
58 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 even cough was fatal. Picture a place where almost every 
 "arrival," as enemy projectiles were known, disinterred the 
 leg or arm or head of some soldier that had fallen in earlier 
 battles and with every new corpse exhumed an increase in 
 the stench. 
 
 "Dutch" Mahan, private in A Company, 101st In- 
 fantry, and a reporter on the Boston Post in peace times, 
 told me he and his bunkie were on outpost one night, and, 
 while digging in, they unearthed a "fat Heinie." Said 
 "Dutch," in conclusion: 
 
 "We hated to shift after completing our fox-hole, be- 
 cause it had to be done without noise and it was ticklish 
 shifting, but the smell forced a decision." 
 
 Everywhere you looked was ruin and desolation and 
 death. You wondered how anybody came out of that hell- 
 hole alive. 
 
 The MUD. That's it— MUD. 
 
 I venture to say that if you made a canvass of the men 
 of the combat division, 90 per cent of them would say that 
 they abhorred the mud more than the vermin or the rain, or 
 the biting winds, or the gas, and almost as much as the shells 
 and bullets. 
 
 Mud, sticky, greasy, germ-laden MUD. 
 
 It was plastered thick over everything, even in the 
 doughboys' hair. It was the curse of the war — MUD. 
 MUD. MUD. 
 
 It almost drove men insane. It stuck to hands and feet, 
 heavy, ugly MUD. 
 
 It was worse than the rats. It was worse than the itch. 
 It was hell — that battle mud of Europe — and every man who 
 crawled through it and fought, ate and slept in it and who 
 drove a courier's cycle, or a motor car or truck, every runner 
 and mule-skinner will bear out what I say. 
 
 Allen, correspondent for a London newspaper, told me 
 that early in the war, when the French were obliged to stop 
 the Germans by just force of men in the face of withering 
 artillery attacks, soldiers were drowned in the mud of the 
 
FRONT LINE FAMINE AND MUD 59 
 
 battlefields. Shell and mine craters were filled with ooze, 
 and when troops tumbled in at night they were left to their 
 fate, because there was no time to rescue a few. Allen said 
 out of patrols numbering several hundred men sent out those 
 nights less than half would return. He added: 
 
 "Another correspondent and I wriggled through a bar- 
 rage one night on our stomachs from shell hole to shell hole 
 and we encountered soft, slimy objects which next day we 
 discovered to have been bodies coated with mud. They 
 looked like mummies. It made us shudder to see them in 
 daylight; what we had been crawling over in the dark." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Turned No Man's Into "Yankee Land" 
 
 B Everybody in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 
 Rhode Island and Massachusetts will be interested 
 in the record made by the Fifty-second Infantry 
 Brigade, as told by Brigadier-General Charles H. 
 Cole, its commander, because the brigade was made up of 
 increments from all of the New England States. 
 
 There was not a more vigorous arm in the Yankee 
 Division. 
 
 General Cole was formerly Police Commissioner and 
 Fire Commissioner of Boston and Adjutant-General of 
 Massachusetts when its militia went to the Mexican border. 
 When the Bay State militia was called out for duty in a 
 real war, Cole enlisted as a private in Colonel Logan's regi- 
 ment, and within a few months became a brigadier- 
 general. 
 
 He was the first general officer to take over a front line 
 brigade sub-sector of a divisional front in the American 
 Expeditionary Forces. He was also the first National 
 Guard officer to take over a front line command in France, 
 and Colonel Edward L. Logan was the first National 
 Guard colonel to take over a regimental front on the battle 
 line. 
 
 The Twenty-sixth Division was the first American 
 division to fill a divisional sector when it entered the line at 
 Toul. 
 
 The Fifty-second Infantry Brigade never lost ground on 
 either the offensive or defensive. It did not know the mean- 
 ing of "retreat," and turned "No Man's Land" into "Yankee 
 
 60 
 
TURNED NO MAN'S INTO "YANKEE LAND" 61 
 
 Land," because its patrols penetrated wherever and when- 
 ever necessity demanded. 
 
 The Fifty-second Brigade took 1,500 prisoners. It 
 gained thirty kilometers of enemy ground. Its total casual- 
 ties were 5,000. 
 
 The 103d Infantry, commanded by Colonel Frank M. 
 Hume of Houlton, Me., never lost a prisoner while holding 
 a defensive sector, a record equalled by few and surpassed 
 by no other American regiment. 
 
 The 103d Infantry was a tip-top fighting machine. It 
 did not receive its share of publicity. It was made up 
 chiefly of National Guardsmen from Maine, with incre- 
 ments from Vermont and New Hampshire. 
 
 It was the only New England organization with full- 
 blooded Indians in its ranks, a squad of real Americans from 
 the Passamaquoddy tribe, every one of whom fought true 
 to form and every one of whom was either killed or wounded. 
 Colonel Hume said there were no braver lads in his command 
 than the warriors from the Maine tribe. 
 
 The 103d Infantry lost 393 killed and about 2,600 
 wounded. Like their commanders, both of whom were 
 removed and reinstated, the 103d and 101st Infantry Regi- 
 ments were bound by close ties, although in different 
 brigades, and there were no better shock troops in Europe. 
 
 The fate of Lieutenant Howard and his raiding party 
 was one of the most tragic losses in General Cole's brigade. 
 Lieutenant Howard, efficient and fearless, was ordered to 
 take a hazardous objective, north of Verdun, on Oct. 14. 
 The little raiding party penetrated the enemy line, but not 
 one of them came back. 
 
 When the column advanced several days later, Lieuten- 
 ant Howard and his band of 29 patriots were found dead, 
 close to their objective, and every man was facing the 
 enemy. Hopelessly outnumbered, they fought until the 
 last man fell. 
 
 Lieutenant Bates, who arrived ten days before from a 
 military school in California, was ordered, on Sept. 26, to 
 
62 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 make a bayonet charge on Marcheville, where machine guns 
 bristled. With his platoon he charged the town and took 
 it and shielded another attacking force. 
 
 Captain Phillips was placed in command of a battalion 
 in the attack at Chateau Thierry. Shot in the stomach, he 
 ordered another to take command and told his battalion to 
 push on and not to bother about him. 
 
 General Cole praised the work of Joseph O'Connor, a 
 young Worcester surgeon, who had been his adjutant and 
 who was promoted from captain to major and sent to the 
 staff college, where he became an instructor. Lieutenant 
 Francis Logan, brother of Colonel Logan, succeeded Major 
 O'Connor as adjutant to General Cole, and Frank won a 
 captain's bars before he came home. 
 
 General Cole also praised Lieutenant Horton Edmunds, 
 formerly a reporter on the Boston Herald, who, although 
 married a little more than a year and just come daddy of a 
 bouncing son, cast his lot with the army, won a commission 
 at Plattsburg, was transferred to the Yankee Division be- 
 fore it sailed and was assigned to the line in the Fifty-second 
 Brigade. 
 
 "Lieutenant Edmunds developed into a 'corker,' " said 
 General Cole. "He led an attack one day that looked like 
 certain death and lived to tell it. You wouldn't think he 
 had the nerve he showed in action, he is so quiet and good 
 natured, but he was there. It was in his blood. His 
 father, Colonel Edmunds, formerly commanded the First 
 Corps of Cadets. When it comes to handing out bouquets 
 I ought really to mention by name every officer in the Fifty- 
 second Brigade because they all proved themselves to be 
 Americans and soldiers. I cannot praise them too highly, 
 officers and men alike. 
 
 "Every man in the brigade mourned the death of Colonel 
 P. W. Arnold, who was with the 301st Infantry of the 
 Seventy-sixth Division before being transferred to our 
 brigade and assigned to the 103d Infantry. Colonel Arnold 
 succeeded Colonel Hume, the idol of his regiment, and 
 
TURNED NO MANS INTO "YANKEE LAND" 63 
 
 coming a stranger at such a delicate time his task was any- 
 thing but easy. But his sense of fair play, knowledge of 
 human nature, cheerful personality and ability as a soldier 
 soon ingratiated him with officers and men. 
 
 "He tripped in the dark one night and fell down a flight 
 of stairs, sustaining a double fracture of the skull, and never 
 regained consciousness. Although under my command but 
 six weeks, I had written on the very night of his death a 
 recommendation for his promotion to brigadier-general. 
 By his death the regiment lost a splendid leader, an able 
 executive and an officer of the highest quality and char- 
 acter." 
 
 At this juncture General Cole paused to sign a batch of 
 urgent army documents and then proceeded with his narra- 
 tive. We were seated before an open fire in his billet in the 
 Eccomoy area. 
 
 "The Fifty-second Infantry Brigade," said General Cole, 
 "was organized at Westfield, Mass., August 25, 1917. The 
 103d Infantry was made up of the Second Maine National 
 Guard, 1,600 men from the First New Hampshire Regi- 
 ment and increments from the First Vermont Infantry 
 and the Sixth and Eighth Massachusetts Regiments. 
 
 "The 104th Infantry was an all-Massachusetts regiment, 
 composed of the Second, Sixth and Eighth Infantry Regi- 
 ments of the National Guard. The 103d Machine Gun 
 Battalion was made up of two troops of Rhode Island 
 cavalry, one troop from Connecticut and another troop from 
 New Hampshire. It can be seen that the Fifty-second 
 Infantry Brigade was distinctly an all- New England brigade. 
 
 "The first elements left Westfield the latter part of 
 September, 1917, and arrived in England and France early 
 in October. The entire brigade was in France by Oct. 
 25. When we arrived, the only means of transportation 
 was a broken down flivver, and the acting division com- 
 mander used that. 
 
 "The brigade went immediately into training under the 
 162d French Infantry, commanded by Colonel Bertrand, 
 
64 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 and the 151st French Infantry, Colonel Moisson. These 
 were noted French regiments. The instruction was in- 
 tensive. In addition to policing camp and billets, bathing, 
 washing and other work, six hours were devoted every day 
 to drill — snow, rain or shine. 
 
 "Instructions included work with the automatic rifle, 
 machine guns, 37-millimeter Stokes mortars, hand grenades, 
 rifle grenade firing, gas protection and all kinds of trench 
 warfare. 
 
 "Our billets were in barns, old and airy, but the men 
 never complained. The weather was bleak and damp. 
 During the latter part of the training period one of our regi- 
 ments had to march six miles and another eight miles to the 
 trenches, stand there seven hours in the mud, slush and 
 water in a biting temperature, and hike back to billets at 
 one and two in the morning and had to turn out again at 
 6 A. M. for reveille. 
 
 "Often their shoes were so warped and frozen that they 
 couldn't get their sore feet fully into them, but they re- 
 ported like soldiers, with scarcely any sleep. And still no 
 complaint. 
 
 "It was wonderful the way our men from New England 
 stood the hardships preliminary to actual battle. 
 
 "On Feb. 5 the first element started for Chemin-des- 
 Dames, where the brigade went into the front line with the 
 Twenty-second French Division, General Capespont. We 
 first assigned platoons between French platoons, then com- 
 panies between French companies, battalions between 
 French battalions, and finally regiments were sandwiched 
 between French regiments to give them confidence. 
 
 "The training and experience received in the Chemin- 
 des-Dames sector was valuable. The Yankee Division was 
 far better able to stand intensive shellfire and to weather the 
 storm later on than many other divisions that had to be 
 rushed into action in the heat of operations. The Chemin- 
 des-Dames training with the experience derived in the Toul 
 sector made the Yankee Division a first-class shock division* 
 
TURNED NO MAN'S INTO "YANKEE LAND" 65 
 
 "We remained in the Chemin-des-Dames sector until 
 March 21. While there the 104th Infantry made the first 
 successful repulse of a German raid of any unit in the Ameri- 
 can army. 
 
 "The 104th Infantry also captured the first German 
 prisoner taken by American troops. The 104th Infantry 
 was complimented by the French division commander for 
 defeating the German raid. He said that although they 
 had been in the front line only twenty days, they hurled the 
 Germans back like veterans. 
 
 "The 103d and 104th Infantry were both complimented 
 for their gas discipline while in this sector. In gas attacks 
 our regiments suffered only about one-sixth as many casual- 
 ties as the French who were in the same attack." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 Armistice Day Attack 
 
 BIn the course of his summary of the achievements 
 of the Fifty-second Infantry Brigade of the Yankee 
 Division, which he commanded, Brigadier-General 
 Charles H. Cole declared that units of his brigade 
 were ordered to attack after the armistice had been signed 
 on Nov. 11, and that the order was rescinded, renewed 
 and finally rescinded. 
 
 General Cole said: 
 
 "Having served their apprenticeship and learned some 
 of the preliminaries of modern warfare, the Fifty-second 
 Infantry Brigade moved from Soissons to the vicinity of 
 Bar-sur-Aube, which was reached March 22. The brigade 
 then marched east across the country toward its old training 
 ground and went into billets, supposedly for rest after their 
 tour of duty in the front line. 
 
 "It was the French custom to give troops rest after 
 thirty days' service in the front lines, and we expected a 
 lay-off, having been in forty-two days, but we were not to 
 get it at that time. We hadn't been in our billets more than 
 twenty-four hours when orders were received that we were 
 to go into the line again. 
 
 "The 104th Infantry started in trucks on March 30, 
 and arrived at Vignot, near Commercy, that same night. 
 They went into the sector northwest of Toul. On the night 
 of March 31st this regiment took over the famous Apremont 
 forest, Bois Brule and Brichausard woods, and the 103d 
 went into reserve. Part of the 103d Machine Gun Battalion 
 went into the front line and part remained in reserve. 
 
 66 
 
ARMISTICE DAY ATTACK 67 
 
 "At this time the Yankee Division adopted the French 
 custom of assigning one machine gun company to every 
 infantry regiment, a custom which we kept up until the 
 end of the war. The Fifty-second Infantry Brigade took 
 over a brigade sector of a divisional front, the Twenty-sixth 
 being the first American division to fill a divisional front. 
 
 "The Bois Bruel and the Apremont Forest were noted as 
 dangerous sectors. The French had lost prisoners, but had 
 not captured a German there for six months prior to our 
 arrival. It was the German custom when their morale 
 dwindled to make a raid and capture prisoners. They tried 
 this wrinkle on the 104th Infantry twelve days after the 
 regiment entered the sector. There were a series of raids 
 by the enemy there between April 12 and 16. Each was 
 repulsed. About seventy-five Germans were captured. 
 
 "Many Germans were killed and wounded. The 104th 
 lost only one prisoner. He was captured because he was too 
 eager to round up more Boche. For the splendid work 
 rendered in that sector the 104th Infantry was cited and 
 its colors were decorated. It was the first American regi- 
 ment to have its flag decorated and the only one to my 
 knowledge. 
 
 "The 103d relieved the 104th and the latter went in 
 reserve. Then the Yankee Division was ordered to extend 
 its line on the right and the Fifty-first Brigade moved over 
 and the 104th returned to the front line to the right of the 
 103d. Shortly after, a French regiment relieved the 
 103d, which in turn relieved the 104th. The Fifty-second 
 Brigade occupied this sub-sector until June 28. 
 
 "On the night of June 16 the Germans made a raid on the 
 town of Xivray-Marvoisin, which was held by one company 
 of the 103d Infantry and part of D Company of the 103d 
 Machine Gun Battalion. The raid was preceded by an 
 intense bombardment of our rear areas and front lines on 
 the right of Xivray. It was the plan of the enemy to enter 
 Xivray from the rear and destroy the dugouts, remain all 
 day and retire at night, but the plan failed utterly. 
 
68 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "The Germans were surprised when fired upon from a 
 secret machine gun position. Twenty-two of them were 
 killed in as many seconds. Renewing the attack on the 
 right, they were again repulsed, although they outnumbered 
 us six to one. Although some were first-class shock troops, 
 they failed to enter Xivray. They retreated in disorder. 
 We took thirty prisoners and buried fifty dead Germans. 
 We captured machine guns, ammunition and supplies. 
 
 "While in this sector we converted 'No Man's Land' 
 into 'Yankee Land.' Before our arrival the Boche troops 
 controlled the space in front, but after our patrols had 
 been active a fortnight no German patrols dared show them- 
 selves. Both regiments did wonderful patrol work. 
 Some of the scouts of the 103d Regiment penetrated 
 the enemy lines in daylight, although it was against 
 orders. This happened in Apremont Forest. 
 
 "Another patrol from this regiment, commanded by 
 Lieutenant Dwight of Boston, cut through electrified wire 
 which served as enemy defences near the Tuilleries, brought 
 back strands and attached a motor of our own, with which 
 contrivance they shocked the Huns with their own wires. 
 Every contact with German patrols resulted in their defeat 
 and the capture by our men of rifles and equipment. 
 
 "When we left this sector, June 28, we expected surely to 
 enjoy the long-deferred rest. Instead the troops were de- 
 trained at La Ferte-sous-Jouarre. None of the general 
 officers even knew of the shift in plans. The men were 
 marched into the towns and woods in the vicinity of La 
 Ferte. On the night before July 4 the 104th Infantry 
 went into the Bois de Belleau and relieved one of the regi- 
 ments of the Marine Brigade. On the night of July 4 the 
 103d Infantry went into line with the balance of the 103d 
 Machine Gun Battalion. 
 
 "The rest of the relief was held up and the Fifty-second 
 Infantry Brigade was attached to the Second Division and 
 so remained seven or eight days until the Second Division 
 moved out. 'Bois de la Brigade Marine,' as the woods 
 
ARMISTICE DAY ATTACK 69 
 
 were renamed in honor of the Marines, was under violent 
 artillery fire twenty-four hours a day. Our casualties ran 
 from fourteen to thirty daily there. The first nights we 
 hastily buried Marines and Germans found near the lines. 
 The dead had been so long unburied that the stench was 
 terrible. 
 
 "The 103d Infantry occupied the left of Belleau Woods, 
 which was so devastated that it was no better than open 
 country. Our men were compelled to lay in shell holes all 
 day under heavy shell fire. Daylight lasted sixteen hours. 
 They suffered from the Summer heat and lack of food and 
 water, but their morale was splendid. 
 
 "On the 20th day of July, the troops on our left having 
 come lip, the main attack was again started in an easterly 
 direction. At this time, the assault units were the First 
 Battalion, 103d Infantry, on the right and the Third 
 Battalion, 104th Infantry, on the left. The attack began at 
 3 o'clock with an hour's preparation by the division artillery. 
 
 "Counter battery fire by the corps artillery was expected 
 for an hour preceding the attack, but not a shot was fired 
 until after the attack was made and this cost many lives, as 
 the fire in this attack was terrific. The Third Battalion of 
 the 103d Infantry struggled to its second objective, Hill 190. 
 Out of a battalion 1,000 strong, only 100 remained. 
 
 "On the 23d of July we were ordered to remain in posi- 
 tion until the 101st made an attack on our right. This 
 attack was successful, and on the morning of the 24th of 
 July orders were received to make another attack, but 
 before they went into effect our brigade was relieved by the 
 Twenty-eighth Division and went into reserve. 
 
 "The division remained in one day more, was relieved, 
 and went back to a training area near La Fert sous Jouarre, 
 where we remained from the 26th of July until the 14th of 
 August, when we moved to the training area near Chatillon. 
 We remained there until about the 28th of August, when 
 ordered to the St.- Mihiel offensive. We moved by train to 
 the vicinity of Bar-sur-Aube. 
 
70 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "We marched to the sector just north of Les Eparges. 
 This was one of the finest executed movements made by the 
 Fifty-second Brigade. Every hike was made at night, and 
 had to be completed before daylight. The brigade was 
 ordered to move into the woods, so that they could not be 
 seen by hostile avions. The men were not allowed to move 
 out of the woods during the day. This lasted five or six 
 nights. On the 8th of September the First Battalion of the 
 103d took over the sector from the French near Les Esparge, 
 where the French lost 30,000 killed, in the mud, during the 
 early part of the war. 
 
 "On Sept. 12th the brigade took part in the St. 
 Mihiel offensive with the regiments side by side again. 
 The Second Battalion of the 103d and the Second Battalion 
 of the 104th were the assault battalions, with machine gun 
 companies attached. In this battle there was an artillery 
 preparation from about 1 o'clock to 8 o'clock and it took the 
 heart out of the Boche. 
 
 "The brigade advanced on schedule time, taking ob- 
 jective after objective. The Second Battalion of the 104th 
 got into the reserve line of the Germans before they knew it 
 and captured a whole German battalion, officers and all. 
 We took about 1,200 prisoners. On that night the brigade 
 advanced about five kilometers. The next day the attack 
 started again and continued that night. During the 
 first day we captured the towns of St. Remy and 
 Dommartin. 
 
 "Starting again that night without much opposition, 
 the troops reached their final objectives, the towns of St. 
 Maurice and Billy-sous-les-Cotes. We remained there 
 twenty-four hours and then were ordered to take over a 
 sector on our left held by the French. This we did. This 
 sector included the towns of St. Hiliare and Wadonville. 
 The Boche made an attack on St. Hiliare that night, but 
 were driven off by Company H, 104th Infantry, Lieutenant 
 Morris and Lieutenant Edmunds, and a deployment of 
 103d Machine Gun Battalion. 
 
ARMISTICE DAY ATTACK 71 
 
 "Lieutenant Edmunds coached and talked to his men as 
 if it were a football game, telling them how to fire and 
 when to fire. We held this sector until about the 7th of 
 October. During the time the sector was held we repulsed 
 several raids. On the 26th of September, the first day of the 
 Meuse and Argonne offensive, the First Battalion of the 
 103d Infantry with a battalion of the 102d Infantry made 
 a diversion attack on Marcheville and Riaville which was 
 successful in diverting the attention of the enemy. 
 
 "On leaving this sector we were ordered to join the 
 Seventeenth Army Corps, which was taking part in the 
 Meuse- Argonne offensive. The 104th Infantry moved into 
 the lines north of Verdun on the 14th of October. It was 
 attached to the Eighteenth French Division. The first 
 night in line it made an attack in conjunction with tanks on 
 the enemy. The tanks failed to make any progress. The 
 infantry would have been better off without them. The 
 infantry made an attack later the same day and obtained 
 their objective. There were many casualties as the result of 
 this attack, over 300 in the companies concerned. 
 
 "The 104th Infantry remained in the front, with the 
 103d Infantry in reserve, for about ten days, when it was 
 relieved by the 103d Infantry. 
 
 "The 104th was ordered to support the attack of the 
 Fifty-first Infantry Brigade, and to take over the front of 
 that brigade after the losses of the Fifty-first Brigade had 
 been heavy. The 104th Infantry was then relieved by the 
 Seventy-ninth Division, but remained out only a day or 
 two, when it was ordered again into the front lines. 
 Shortly after this the 104th had to relieve the Seventy- 
 ninth Division, so that this brigade most of the time was 
 holding far more space on brigade sector. 
 
 "There were numerous local attacks during all these 
 days. On the 8th of November the Boche began with- 
 drawing on the front of the brigade. It was discovered by 
 both regiments, who watched him closely, and took about 
 
72 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 two and one-half kilometers from him that afternoon, 
 capturing the town of Flabas. 
 
 "On the 9th of November the general attack was or- 
 dered, in which both regiments took part, but as there was 
 insufficient artillery preparation very little ground was 
 gained. The attack was resumed on the 10th, with the 
 same result, and on the 11th the attack was ordered after 
 the armistice had been signed, the order was rescinded, 
 given again and finally rescinded. 
 
 "This brigade was longer in the front lines during the 
 Meuse-Argonne offensive than any other brigade except 
 that of the Third Division and one French division. Casual- 
 ties of the brigade were estimated at about 5,000 officers and 
 men. During the attacks the brigade gained about thirty- 
 seven kilometers of ground. 
 
 "The brigade never lost any ground either in the attacks 
 or defensive. 
 
 "The 103d Infantry never lost a single prisoner while 
 holding a defensive sector, a record which cannot be sur- 
 passed by any other regiment. 
 
 "We took about 1,500 prisoners. 
 
 "We did not recognize the term 'No Man's Land,' nor 
 did the men know the meaning of retreat." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Doughboys Are "Gun Fodder" 
 
 B"Oh, the doughboys, the doughboys, with mud 
 behind their ears!" 
 This line from a song popular in American army 
 camps overseas hints at the gruelling grind of the 
 infantry. 
 
 In every war the foot troops have had to bear the lion's 
 share, but never in history had the infantry faced greater 
 peril and hardships than in the late world conflict, because 
 of the development and destructiveness of modern war 
 machinery. 
 
 Men were called "gun fodder" and the term was no 
 exaggeration. At the outset of the war, the French were 
 compelled to check the awful sweep of enemy blue-gray 
 with men, just force of men, and the slaughter was terrible 
 until they had an opportunity to overcome the handicap 
 secretly taken by the Germans and had produced French 
 guns which equalled and often surpassed those of the enemy. 
 A notable instance was the 75, a light field piece invented by 
 a French officer, which critics agreed was the most effective 
 weapon of the war. 
 
 To avert the first rush on Paris, when German outriders 
 penetrated the suburbs in 1914, residents of the city and 
 French people generally relate with pride how every man, 
 soldier and civilian alike, was rushed to the front in taxis, 
 motor buses, barges, private automobiles and every available 
 thing on wheels which the army commandeered. 
 
 This hodge-podge force of patriots, known as the "Taxi 
 Army," checked the enemy tide and held the line as their 
 trained comrades did unwaveringly for more than four 
 
 73 
 
74 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 years thereafter. Too much praise cannot be given the 
 French army for its bravery and sacrifice. There was no 
 abler or more stoical army in the world. 
 
 The slaughter of infantry continued on both sides in 
 spite of the stupendous massing of artillery. Into this 
 human crusher went our doughboys from the United States 
 as fearlessly as any of the European veterans, and the going 
 was hell. There is no other word for it. 
 
 That accounted for the heavy casualties in the infantry 
 units of all countries, heavier than in any other branch of 
 the service, which is proof of the terrible ordeals undergone 
 by the doughboys of the Yankee Division. 
 
 Take the casualties of the 101st Infantry, commanded 
 by Colonel Edward L. Logan. More than 9,000 men passed 
 through the Boston regiment alone in order to keep it at war 
 strength of 3,600 — a graphic index of casualties suffered 
 by foot troops in all American combat divisions. 
 
 Of the seventy-eight officers killed in the Yankee Divi- 
 sion, twenty-four were attached to the 101st Infantry — 
 more than 30 per cent. The number of enlisted men killed 
 in the Yankee Division was 1,652, of which 332 were from 
 Colonel Logan's regiment — 20 per cent of the total. 
 
 The total of men severely wounded in the division was 
 3,624, of which 527, one-seventh, were members of the 
 Boston regiment; division total of slightly wounded, 2,819; 
 101st Infantry, 500; total number gassed in division, 3,363, 
 of which 965 were in the 101st Infantry. There were in the 
 regiment men from Montana, California, North Carolina 
 and Georgia, and every one was a Yankee Division en- 
 thusiast and booster. 
 
 I have not attempted to describe in detail or chrono- 
 logically the various battles in which the Yankee Division 
 participated, because actions were too much alike. Every 
 engagement was prefaced by intensive artillery preparation, 
 following which the doughboys attacked in waves. The 
 technique of modern battles would not interest the average 
 reader. It was only in the spectacular performance of an 
 
DOUGHBOYS ARE "GUN FODDER" 75 
 
 individual or a unit that a feature developed worth chroni- 
 cling for lay readers. 
 
 Between actions both sides harassed each other with 
 artillery and there were frequent patrols and raids. Com- 
 manding officers in ordering many raids realized that men 
 were to be sacrificed. It was necessary that men die pene- 
 trating enemy lines in order to gain information and es- 
 pecially, by capturing or killing a few Germans, to identify 
 organizations in doubtful positions. Youngsters who went 
 to graves carrying out this hazardous and thankless work 
 were among the greatest martyrs in the war. 
 
 The 101st Infantry was organized August 21, 1917, the 
 nucleus from the old Massachusetts "Fighting" Ninth, 
 with a filling to war strength from the old Fifth Massachu- 
 setts, a crack National Guard organization which Colonel 
 Willis W. Stover commanded on the Mexican border in a 
 manner creditable to himself and his men. The Fifth 
 Regiment bemoaned the splitting up of their command, but 
 long before they entered the fighting line they had one 
 purpose — to keep the colors of the 101st Infantry among 
 the highest on the Western front, and they did it. 
 
 The patriotic members of the Ninth Regiment Asso- 
 ciates, later the " Hundred and First Associates," who 
 contributed such a generous fund for the welfare of the 
 newly constructed regiment overseas, were more than repaid 
 by the valor and the sacrifices of the men in Colonel 
 Logan's command. If they could have seen the benefits 
 of their funds, their hearts would have swelled with satis- 
 faction. There was not an American regiment in France 
 so well cared for in the line of extras. The men looked 
 it and acted it. It made them better fighters. 
 
 President James J. Phelan, the well-known Boston 
 banker, and his colleagues helped, in a larger and more vital 
 manner than they may have realized, to win battles, because 
 they were instrumental in preserving the morale of the men 
 of the regiment. 
 
76 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 I hope former Congressman Joseph H. O'Neil, Mr. Rat- 
 shesky, Mr. Endicott, "Dan" Coakley, "Jack" Heyer, 
 Congressmen Gallivan and Fitzgerald and all the good women 
 of the auxiliary will not blush too violently at this praise, 
 because it is gospel truth. 
 
 The women were just as loyal supporters as the men at 
 home; in fact, the mothers, sisters, wives and sweethearts 
 will probably never know what a power for good they were. 
 I cabled a story from the Western front one day to the 
 effect that the mothers and the rest of the women folks at 
 home formed the pluckiest and mightiest line in Uncle Sam's 
 army. 
 
 The 101st Infantry was the first National Guard unit to 
 leave the shores of the United States for France. It left the 
 camp at South Framingham Sept. 6, 1917, and sailed from 
 Hoboken, N. J., the next day. Congressman Gallivan, 
 known because of his recent activities as "the greatest Con- 
 gressman in the A. E. F.," and former Mayor Fitzgerald, 
 the late Postmaster William F. Murray, John Heyer of the 
 Federal Trust Company, Lieutenant Malcolm Logan and 
 Theodore Logan, brothers of Colonel Logan, and Henry C. 
 Lyons of the Boston Elevated Company, whose son, Ser- 
 geant Doren S. Lyons, made good in the outfit, were among 
 those of us who followed the transports down to the Statue 
 of Liberty in a fleet launch, and Colonel Logan and Captain 
 (now Major) "Tommy" Murphy, former adjutant, waved 
 us a farewell from the bridge of the first transport to leave. 
 
 I joined the outfit later in the Toul sector in France and 
 was present at every fight in which the Yankee Division and 
 every other American division was engaged along the 
 Western front. 
 
 As a fully accredited correspondent with the American 
 and British armies, my credentials gave me a roving com- 
 mission which permitted me to see every type of troops in 
 action from the English channel in Belgium to Switzerland. 
 I saw the Belgians "kick off" after guarding as important 
 and difficult a line, even if short, as there was on the Western 
 
DOUGHBOYS ARE "GUN FODDER' 11 
 
 front. They had stood two years in water and mud waiting 
 for the chance, and, when King Albert on that September 
 day addressed them and gave the word, they struck the 
 Boches with the speed and fury of tigers. 
 
 King Albert had been cautioned by his staff officers that 
 it was hazardous for him to lead his men, but he did, and 
 when he told them to strike for "king and country" there 
 was a storm of cheers. They shattered the German lines 
 that day, and before nightfall had advanced about eight 
 kilometers through a terrain that was little better than a 
 series of swamps. I saw the British sweep forward in a 
 series of brilliant victories. I saw the Australians, the New 
 Zealanders, the South Africans, the Canadians, the Scotch, 
 Irish and English troops in action, not forgetting the Senga- 
 lese in turbans. 
 
 I saw the Italians and the Portuguese fight and the 
 French armies and their swarthy colonists, units embracing 
 almost every type of fighting man in the world, in native 
 garb, the fearless warriors from Algeria and from the desert. 
 I stood one day near Rheims and watched English, Scotch, 
 French and Italian batteries in action on one hill. It was 
 a striking scene, typifying allied effort in a single artillery 
 position. 
 
 I witnessed the fighting of Yankee Division units at 
 Apremont Woods and Seicheprey, the first engagements 
 approaching battles fought by any organization in the 
 American Expeditionary Force, but both little better than 
 raids in the light of later operations. I was with the First 
 Division when it took Cantigny, and went into the Marne 
 with the Marines when they and the Ninth and Twenty- 
 third Infantry Regiments, all forming the Second Division, 
 leap-frogged the tired French and checked the Germans' 
 second drive on Paris. 
 
 After that I reported every American battle, and had the 
 good fortune to be with the Twenty-seventh and Thirtieth 
 American Divisions when they helped the British smash the 
 Hindenburg line in the north. After the armistice we ac- 
 
78 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 credited correspondents advanced with the American Army 
 of Occupation, and I remained in Germany three months. 
 
 I mention these things and inject the personal elements 
 reluctantly at this stage of my series for a purpose. Certain 
 correspondents, and especially certain foreigners, showed a 
 tendency to devote more space to what they had done than 
 to the troop achievements. I always felt that the reading 
 public was more interested in their soldiers and what they 
 did, and considered that the mere telling of a development 
 or battle, the fact that you saw and wrote about it, was 
 proof sufficient that you had been there. 
 
 My purpose in briefly outlining the battles which I re- 
 ported as an eye-witness is to show that I was in a position 
 to judge when I say that there was no better fighting ma- 
 terial, no more gallant or aggressive shock troops on the 
 Western front than those contributed by Boston and New 
 England. 
 
 I saw them all in action and I talked with experts from 
 various countries. With our roving commissions, we were 
 not tied to any single division or compelled to wait until the 
 fighting came to it. but on the contrary were obliged, as 
 accredited men, to follow the fighting wherever an American 
 unit was engaged. In this way accredited war correspond- 
 ents saw more fighting than generals or others who were 
 confined to certain zones or divisional areas and who had to 
 wait until the storm broke in their territory. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Logan's Front Line Service 
 
 DThe history of the Fifty-second Infantry Brigade 
 as detailed by General Cole is similar in a general 
 way to that of the Fifty-first Brigade, made up of 
 the 101st and the 102d Infantry Regiments. 
 
 Brigadier-General Peter E. Traub commanded the 
 Fifty-first Brigade when the Yankee Division went to 
 France, and Brigadier-General George H. Shelton, for- 
 merly a colonel in command of the 104th Infantry, com- 
 manded the brigade when it came home. 
 
 In the ravines and shell-torn slopes of the fortified hills 
 north of Verdun the 101st Infantry suffered 1,400 casual- 
 ties, losing fourteen officers in one day. These figures are 
 an index of the severity of the fighting in that sector. 
 
 No regimental commander in the American Expe- 
 ditionary Force had a longer front line service than did 
 Colonel Edward L. Logan. The so-called "Boston regi- 
 ment" remained in the trenches in the Chemin-des-Dames 
 from Feb. 5 until March 18, and spent ninety days in the 
 trenches in the Toul sector, from April 1 until June 29. On 
 July 1 the 101st Regiment, with other Yankee Division 
 units, started moving to Meaux to take up positions in the 
 Chateau Thierry sector. 
 
 The men heard they were going to parade in Paris July 4, 
 and word was circulated that they would camp near the 
 famous city. They were as delighted as school children 
 when the train ran close enough to Paris to see the Eiffel 
 Tower. 
 
 But all hands were doomed to another disappointment, 
 the bitterest of all, because the division was in for hard 
 
 79 
 
80 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 fighting at the Marne instead of being on the eve of the 
 long-prayed for but oft-postponed rest. Panton was the 
 nearest the Yankee Division got to Paris, but instead of 
 detraining there trains were shifted to Chateau Thierry. 
 
 Relieving the Second Division, which had won undying 
 glory for stopping the German drive on Paris, the Yankee 
 Division kept the pace set by the Second Division and by 
 its sturdy fighting on the Marne front won some of its 
 brightest laurels. 
 
 When the Twenty-sixth went into position in the Marne 
 sector it formed the only barrier to the enemy between 
 there and Paris and it helped to shatter the last savage blow 
 of the Germans in that direction. The division remained 
 in that sector until July 29. Losses were heavy. 
 
 On Sept. 7 the 101st Infantry relieved a French regi- 
 ment in the St. Mihiel sector and remained there thirty-one 
 days, until Oct. 7. Two days later it went with other 
 division units to the sector northwest of Verdun, where the 
 bitterest battles of the war were fought. 
 
 Colonel Logan's regiment won forty-three Distinguished 
 Service Crosses and thirty Croix de Guerre, and more 
 American decorations were expected. 
 
 The winners of Croix de Guerre were Lieutenant- 
 Colonel John D. Murphy, Major Christopher Lee, Chap- 
 lains Lyman Rollins and Osias Boucher, Corporals Frank 
 Hurley, S. Miller and C. Seitz and Private E. Larkin of E 
 Company; Lieutenant Harold K. Davison, Sergeant 
 Timothy J. Sullivan, Corporal Homer J. Wheaton and 
 Bugler Thomas H. Hammond of G Company, known as the 
 Emmett Guards; Lieutenant George F. Davis, Sergeant 
 George F. Dever, Sergeant Frank J. Hurley and Privates 
 Harold J. Eldredge and Leo J. Lipsie of H Company; 
 Private George N. Mclnnis of I Company; Sergeant Ed- 
 ward Brady, Corporal James F. O'Toole and Privates John 
 J. McKenzie, Adelbert Bresnahan and Herbert Bailey of K 
 Company; Corporal E. B. McCarthy, Corporal Trafton and 
 Private E. Shea of L Company; Sergeant Oscar Durand of 
 
LOGAN'S FRONT LINE SERVICE 81 
 
 M Company; Sergeant H. C. R. Mott and Privates Jesse S. 
 Ferry and Frank Barry of the Medical Corps. 
 
 Distinguished Service Crosses awarded in the 101st In- 
 fantry went to: Lieutenant-Colonel John D. Murphy, Major 
 Thomas F. Foley, Major Christopher Lee, Lieutenant 
 Frank P. O'Neil, Corporal Holga Jager and Private Charles 
 Miller of A Company; Sergeant Joseph De Cota and Private 
 Benjamin Yobivitiz of B Company; Sergeant Westra Hig- 
 gins, Sergeant Daniel O'Connor and Private J. J. Boughan 
 of C Company; Private Adolph Holtz of D Company; 
 Sergeant Francis McGowan, Sergeant John L. Clabby, 
 Sergeant Joseph W. Casey, Privates Law J. Kelly, Dan 
 J. Clasby and Fritz Hedlund of F Company, Hedlund 
 having the extra oak leaf decoration; Sergeant Doug- 
 las Ross of K Company; Sergeant Grady, Corporal 
 Austin J. Kelly and Private Rounds of L Company; Corporal 
 Victor K. Dubois and Corporal James Ducette of Head- 
 quarters Company, and Private John Mayne, Medical unit. 
 
 The list of 101st Infantry officers killed and the sectors 
 where they fell follow: 
 
 CHEMIN-DES-DAMES 
 
 Second Lieutenant John M. Flenniken, Springfield, Mass. 
 
 TOUL SECTOR 
 
 First Lieutenant Lynn H. Harriman, Concord, N. H. 
 
 CHATEAU THIERRY-PAS FINI SECTOR AND 
 AISNE-MARNE OFFENSIVE 
 
 Captain Francis M. Leahy, Lawrence, Mass. 
 Captain William P. Fitzgerald, Worcester, Mass. 
 First Lieutenant Lawrence J. Flaherty, Revere, Mass. 
 First Lieutenant James J. Mansfield, Concord, Mass. 
 First Lieutenant Donald E. Dunbar, Springfield, Mass. 
 
 ST. MIHIEL OFFENSIVE 
 
 Captain Ralph E. Donnelly, Worcester, Mass. 
 Captain Joseph W. McConnell, Roxbury, Mass. 
 First Lieutenant Chester Winans, Tuckahoe, N. Y. 
 
82 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Second Lieutenant Frank D. Hazeltine, Belfast, Me. 
 Second Lieutenant Andrew J. Gerdin, Chicago, 111. 
 
 BEAUMONT-ORNE OFFENSIVE VERDUN 
 
 Captain Robert Hayes, Dorchester, Mass. 
 
 Captain Paul E. Kittredge, Lowell, Mass. 
 
 Captain Stephen T. Schoonmaker, Teanick, N. J. 
 
 First Lieutenant Harry E. Hanley, Boston, Mass. 
 
 First Lieutenant Frank Y. Vanschoonhaven, Saratoga, N. Y. 
 
 Second Lieutenant Jeremiah W. Sullivan, Boston, Mass. 
 
 Second Lieutenant Ralph W. Lane, Brockton, Mass. 
 
 Second Lieutenant George W. Foster, Cuttingsville, Vt. 
 
 Second Lieutenant Edgar D. Bascomb, Wollaston, Mass. 
 
 Second Lieutenant Rowland S. Dodge, Pawtucket, R. I. 
 
 Captain Francis M. Leahy of Lawrence and Lieutenant 
 Lawrence J. Flaherty, brother of Maffit Flaherty, the 
 Revere life guard, were killed by the same shell in Trugny 
 Woods. When Major (then Captain) Arthur F. Hanson, 
 an architect and builder from Waltham, sprang to com- 
 mand and asked Captain Leahy if there were any special 
 orders, Leahy gasped: 
 
 "Take them forward, Arthur. The command is for- 
 ward. Don't bother about me." 
 
 The spirit of self-effacement exhibited by Captain Leahy 
 was that of a true patriot. He was aggressive and fearless 
 and was loved by his men. Lieutenant Flaherty was 
 courageous and efficient. The Park Commissioners have 
 named a square in his memory in Revere. Hanson, a top 
 sergeant on the border, won a major's commission and a 
 Distinguished Service Cross. He developed into one of the 
 ablest and most conspicuous soldiers in the division. There 
 wasn't any place too hazardous for Hanson to lead his men 
 if orders directed. 
 
 Another fighter and a great favorite was Captain William 
 P. Fitzgerald of Worcester. "Billy" was killed in Vaux, 
 July 14. He had repulsed a strong German force in front 
 of him and was corraling prisoners. He and his top ser- 
 
LOGAN'S FRONT LINE SERVICE 83 
 
 geant lined up about twenty Boches, and as Captain Fitz- 
 gerald turned to round up some more, one in the file just 
 formed drew an automatic revolver and killed "Billy" in- 
 stantly. The bullet entered the base of the brain. 
 
 The top sergeant was so infuriated that he shot the assail- 
 ant dead and killed several others before comrades could 
 quiet him. Fitzgerald's death occasioned sorrow. He was 
 a two-fisted soldier. Chaplain O'Connor and everybody 
 spoke highly of him. 
 
 Captain James F. Duane of Clinton, a fellow townsman 
 of United States Senator David I. Walsh, had a meteoric 
 career overseas. He went over a sergeant, in five months 
 he was a second lieutenant, in another five months he was a 
 first lieutenant and three months later won captain's bars. 
 There wasn't a more rapid advancement in the division. 
 "Jim" worshiped his mother. That love and her prayers 
 carried him through tight places, he said. 
 
 Captain Duane led the Clinton company. He had been 
 commanding I Company, formerly commanded by "Chris" 
 Lee. Shortly before the armistice Captain Duane learned 
 that the Germans in front of him were withdrawing. He 
 attacked so suddenly and savagely that he trapped a whole 
 company of Germans, an officer and sixty-four privates, and 
 advanced his line four kilometers. 
 
 He did all this on his own initiative. That was how 
 rapidly the lads from New England developed into first- 
 class soldiers and showed what sterling material for officers 
 often came from the ranks. On several occasions sergeants 
 and corporals led the remnants of battalions in the Yankee 
 Division. 
 
 Men told with pride how Captain Vincent C. Breen, 
 wounded in the leg and shoulder, told his comrades not to 
 bother about him, but to push ahead, while he endeavored 
 to dress his wounds himself. 
 
 Captain Robert I. Hayes of Dorchester, Captain Ralph 
 E. Donnelly of Worcester and Captain Stephen Schon died 
 like heroes. Captain Hayes was struck while leading a 
 
84 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 battalion. He was promoted from lieutenant for bravery. 
 Captain Donnelly had risen from sergeant and was always 
 in the thick of the fight. His men admired him. 
 
 Everybody in the 101st swore by Lieutenant-Colonel 
 John C. Green way, the former Yale athlete and member of 
 Roosevelt's "Rough Riders." They referred to him as "a 
 slashing soldier." He went home early, badly wounded. 
 
 "Tommy" Murphy, Colonel Logan's adjutant in France 
 and on the border, won promotion from captain to major and 
 weathered the argument like the soldier he was until in- 
 jured in a collision of motor cycles. An aviator's car ran 
 into Tommy's side car and he went home for treatment. 
 Regimental headquarters didn't seem the same without 
 him. Although his left arm was in a plaster cast and had 
 been operated on a few days before, Tommy rode a horse in 
 the final parade of the division and finished without mishap. 
 That was a sample of his grit. 
 
 "Wouldn't have missed it if both arms were out of com- 
 mission and I had to drive with my teeth," said he. 
 
 Arthur W. Desmond jumped from lieutenant to captain. 
 He was regimental personnel officer and a keen executive. 
 Captain George Irving of Clinton, commanding B Company, 
 was another credit to the regiment. Captain Martin Ken- 
 neally, a Boston fireman, who had a son in the service, 
 did tip-top work in the division quartermaster's. Jack 
 Earle, another Boston fireman, became a lieutenant, and 
 was sent home suffering from gas poison. He is wearing a 
 fireman's uniform again. Sergeant James Kelley of Worces- 
 ter won a lieutenant's commission in G Company. 
 
 There was not a more popular man in the regiment than 
 Major Harry C. Martin of Longmeadow, near Springfield, 
 formerly of the old Second Infantry, who succeeded Major 
 Bogan as regimental surgeon. The excellent physical 
 condition of the men was due largely to Major Martin's in- 
 defatigable efforts and so was the low sick rate on the U. S. 
 transport America, which brought Colonel Logan and his 
 staff and regiment home. Major Martin was a glutton for 
 
LOGAN'S FRONT LINE SERVICE 85 
 
 work and was popular with the men. The large number of 
 wounded gives an idea of the magnitude of his job. 
 
 He had an able assistant in Major Frank Piper of Han- 
 cock street, Boston. Major Piper hiked it with a pack like 
 the doughboys. He took all kinds of chances. 
 
 Captain Edward M. Guild of Beacon street, cousin of 
 the late Governor Guild, was intelligence officer in Colonel 
 Logan's regiment and he made good. He carried out 
 hazardous missions with success. He was immensely popu- 
 lar. Another Boston boy who showed efficiency and bravery 
 as a machine gun officer was Lieutenant George H. Lyman, 
 son of the former collector of the Port of Boston. 
 
 The French soldiers called the Yankee Division "The 
 Phalanx of Aces" and christened the 101st Infantry "Lo- 
 gan's Raiders." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 McConnell Dies Leading Men 
 
 BThe 101st Infantry landed at St. Nazaire Sept. 
 21, 1917, and was conveyed to a training camp in 
 freight cars, labelled "40 hommes-8 chevaux," 
 meaning that either beast or man, to the number 
 stipulated, might travel in the cars, which the men chris- 
 tened "Pullmans." 
 
 A doughboy's tabloid description of the journey to 
 France was given to me by Private Joseph Coen of No. 5 
 Pine Street, Manchester, Mass. "Joe" was a member of 
 Company I. He was such a good and tidy soldier that he 
 became orderly to Chaplain O'Connor, after the armistice, 
 a job which his comrades called "Sky Pilot's secretary." 
 Said Joe, as he fed the open fire in the padre's room in a 
 monastery at Eccomoy, on a day that was biting cold: 
 
 "All we fellows thought about was the big ship that we 
 were to travel on. Crossing the ocean was to be a treat — 
 something most of us never expected to experience only in 
 the movies. We didn't think of the dangers ahead or any- 
 thing. We were like a lot of kids waiting for the tour. We 
 were packed in like sardines below decks, and say, you 
 ought to have seen us the second day out. Talk about 
 seasickness! We didn't think much about the romance of 
 an ocean voyage then. 
 
 "We felt like asking the captain to stop the ship. But 
 in a few days we were strong and hungry and thinking of 
 submarines. We never knew the ocean was so big and wet. 
 We thought we'd never see land again, but one night when 
 we had been at sea almost a month, it seemed, we saw a 
 flash, and, if it hadn't been for a warning given by officers 
 
 86 
 
McCONNELL DIES LEADING MEN 87 
 
 with pistols drawn, who told us the slightest noise might 
 mean a torpedo, we would have yelled our heads off. It was 
 the beacon off St. Nazaire. We anchored there, it seemed 
 an eternity. We thought we were safe, but learned later it 
 was a dangerous position. A U-boat might have binged 
 the tub and got us all before we entered the harbor. 
 
 "We didn't sleep much that night. We could hardly 
 wait to get on the dock. It looked like a good town. The 
 houses were different and the small boats had red and tan 
 sails, and the men and women in wooden shoes, and the cops 
 carrying daggers instead of billies, and the trolley cars with 
 upper decks on them and big signs like a fence at a ball game, 
 and when we reached the train, we saw some officers getting 
 in swell cars with funny side doors and one of our non-coms 
 said that was the kind of train we were to travel in, but he 
 was only kidding. 
 
 "We walked and walked along the tracks and came to 
 freight cars marked 'hommes or chevaux' and in we crawled 
 on the straw and we looked and felt like cattle arriving at 
 the Brighton stock yards. That trip lasted two days and 
 two nights and perhaps we weren't glad to finish the Cook's 
 tour! 
 
 "Then the fellows were anxious to mix it with the 
 Heinies. We felt queer the first time we entered the front 
 lines. When the first shells cracked your blood felt funny, 
 but you soon got over that. Now when you look back at 
 it it seems like a nightmare and you wonder how you came 
 through. All a doughboy had to do was to carry his home 
 on his back and fight. You ask fellows in other com- 
 panies for Dick or Billy and they tell you they didn't come 
 along — that they're back with others on the hills. Gee, 
 but a load are sleeping over there. Strange, though, isn't 
 it? Fellows you knew buried in France by the hundreds. 
 And the war over! That seems funny, too. 
 
 "I knew one. He was my bunkie. Gee, but he was a 
 corker and game. I'll never forget Johnny Coyle if I live 
 to be a hundred. He came from Brighton. His father has 
 
88 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 a city job. I guess the family is comfortable. Johnny's 
 dad used to write swell letters. They always cheered both 
 of us. They made Johnny gamer. He was only a kid, 
 about eighteen (the speaker being little older) . I remember 
 one letter Johnny's father wrote. He said Johnny couldn't 
 fool him when he tried to write pleasant things. His 
 father said he knew pretty well what the gaff must be and 
 he said, 'My son, if the time ever comes when you have to 
 make the big sacrifice, do it like a man.' He didn't know 
 how near one of us was to it. 
 
 "Johnny was a good kid. He had principles which he 
 wouldn't break for anything. He prayed — we all prayed— 
 but where Johnny Coyle was different was in smoking 
 cigarettes. He never smoked before he came over here, 
 and then only two a day, not one more on his life. 
 
 "Johnny and I had a falling out one day over a slicker. 
 We didn't speak and that was the day a shell got him. You 
 can imagine my feelings. I felt as if I had lost a brother. 
 You are almost more attached to a bunkie than to a brother. 
 The toughest things you went through are the things you're 
 proudest of now. I often think of Johnny Coyle and his 
 two cigarettes a day, and our narrow escapes, and what he 
 gave for his country." 
 
 The Rev. M. J. O'Connor, formerly chaplain of the 101st 
 Infantry, later ranking chaplain of the Yankee Division, 
 came in, pulled a chair to the fire and picked up the thread 
 where his orderly had broken off. I had made a flying trip 
 from the Army of Occupation in Germany to see my friends 
 in the New England division. Eccomoy is a quaint farming 
 village, with the usual ancient church fronting on a square 
 that in dimensions would do credit to New York. The 
 headquarters of the Yankee Division there were eight hours' 
 ride by train from Brest. 
 
 The village squares are used as market places. The 
 rural communities in France have developed to a high 
 degree the system of direct trading between producer and 
 consumer. Stalls are set up like magic and the peasants 
 
McCONNELL DIES LEADING MEN 89 
 
 drive in from all directions and make market day a semi- 
 holiday. It was amusing and picturesque to see soldiers 
 from home strolling between the open-air stalls watching 
 the live rabbits and hens in crates and bargaining with 
 sympathetic old women for such extras as apples, radishes, 
 and onions, eggs and cheese. 
 
 Rooms were scarce in the village. I had to sleep in the 
 monastery, in a whitewashed room that resembled a cell 
 in cheerlessness and size. There was a large crucifix on the 
 wall and two plain chairs and an old secretary and a book- 
 case stuffed with musty religious volumes and an open 
 fireplace which cast fantastic shadows. Every now and 
 then you heard the slippered tread of a monk and the rattle 
 of his beads in the hallway. It was raining and the wind 
 was high. 
 
 I had heard how Chaplain O'Connor had been discovered 
 by General Edwards one day, coat off and sleeves furled, 
 digging graves. The division commander asked him why 
 he didn't leave that work for the enlisted men, and Chap- 
 lain O'Connor replied that they had all been busy fighting 
 and that he desired to bury certain bodies right away. A 
 battle was in progress at the time. 
 
 I asked Chaplain O'Connor about the incident after he 
 finished stirring the embers. He smiled and then looked 
 terribly solemn, for him, and said: 
 
 "The only comfort left for the parents and relatives was 
 the assurance that their boy had a prompt and proper burial. 
 When I wrote to the mothers how bravely their sons had 
 died and how they had all the rights of the church, it lessened 
 their grief, judging from the letters I received in reply, and 
 I want to tell you the most gratifying reward an army chap- 
 lain received were those letters of thanks from saddened 
 households. 
 
 "The army chaplains did good work over here and the 
 clergymen of all denominations attached to the various units 
 of the Yankee Division were as industrious and brave as any 
 of them. Some of the chaplains were decorated for gallantry 
 
90 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 in rescuing and administering to the wounded under fire. 
 Chaplain Danker, who had won a Croix de Guerre, was 
 killed by a shell. The men were fond of the chaplains. 
 The duties of the chaplains were arduous and dangerous at 
 times. 
 
 "There was always something to do. I had just been 
 hearing confessions and then I went to the Knights of 
 Columbus recreation room to censor letters. You should 
 have seen the stacks of post cards and letters. One young- 
 ster wrote thirty letters and cards. Since the armistice the 
 mail has increased because the men have more time and 
 feel more like writing. 
 
 "Some of the letters are amusing. Same thing over and 
 over again. 'How's everybody at home? I'm well. Hope 
 you are the same.' That's about the tone of the average, 
 though some of the enlisted men write mighty interesting 
 letters. Others might as well have a stereotyped form and 
 just add a new date because their letters don't vary in a 
 detail. I know of a squad who pool their letters, that is 
 to say, they get Sergeant Major Prout or somebody else 
 who is expert on a typewriter to strike off a bunch of dupli- 
 cates and the same formula does for all, with the exception 
 of date and names that are easily inserted. You can't beat 
 them. Sergeant Prout of Quincy invented this scheme. 
 
 "But the doughboy is a wonder. He was made of the 
 right stuff. I never saw or read about or expected to 
 witness such stoicism and pluck as was shown by the rank 
 and file. 
 
 "They bore their wounds like men. They were patient. 
 They died like true soldiers and Americans. It was a 
 pleasure and privilege to report their deeds of valor to their 
 parents and friends. 
 
 "General Edwards told me one day that the death of 
 Captain Joseph W. McConnell, the well-known Boston 
 lawyer, commander of Company A, had a peculiar effect on 
 him. He said it impressed him in an unusual manner and 
 that he could not get it off his mind. Our division com- 
 
McCONNELL DIES LEADING MEN 91 
 
 mander and all the men of the 101st Regiment and every- 
 body who knew him thought a lot of Joe. He died a soldier's 
 death, leading his company in the St. Mihiel drive. A 
 fragment of shell pierced his neck. There actually was the 
 trace of a smile on his lips, death came so suddenly. Joe 
 was always smiling and cracking jokes to brace up his men. 
 
 "He was one of the coolest and best soldiers in the 
 Yankee Division. You couldn't phase or rattle him. I 
 remember he bought fine new underwear, and, the morning 
 he died, put on a suit of it, remarking to me in jest, Tf the 
 Huns get me today, Father, they'll get me clean.' We 
 buried him in that suit of underwear. We had quite a hunt 
 for his body. My orderly was the first to find it. Joe was 
 always immaculate in his appearance. He was clean in 
 body and soul. 
 
 "He was a big loss to the 101st Regiment and to the 
 Yankee Division. He had acted as battalion commander 
 at times. We all miss him. He was married just before 
 we came over. I looked upon Captain McConnell as a 
 model young man. 
 
 "Before the men of Colonel Logan's regiment went into 
 battle they would go to confession and receive communion 
 by the hundreds. One morning more than a thousand 
 knelt at communion. It was a stirring sight. 
 
 "When they went in at Chateau Thierry, under heavy 
 shell fire in the dark, I stood at the crossroads and blessed 
 them as they passed. We had arranged it earlier and every 
 Catholic breathed an act of contrition as they agreed they 
 would. Next day I was about among the dead and wounded, 
 for many brave lads fell that night. The men were devout. 
 Their morale was high and their courage and patriotism 
 irresistible. They beat the Germans wherever and whenever 
 they met them." 
 
 Major William McCarthy said: 
 
 "Joe McConnell and I were together the night before we 
 went in at St. Mihiel. We had a bang-up feed at midnight 
 and we kidded each other about it. We said we'd have one 
 
92 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 good banquet before Fritz got us. Just before zero hour 
 we started out. We shook hands and wished each other 
 luck. I never saw Joe again. I refused to look at his body. 
 I wanted to remember him as he was that night in the 
 dugout. 
 
 "Joe was one great little fellow. Gosh, how he looked 
 forward to letters from his bride. When he answered them 
 I noticed that he blew a puff of cigarette smoke into the 
 envelope before he sealed it. He said his wife had written 
 that when she detected the odor of cigarette smoke in his 
 letter it seemed to bring him nearer. That's how well I 
 knew Joe McConnell at the front." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Those "Gypsy Batteries" 
 
 ••■^P^Too little has been written about the American 
 \r I artillery. No branch of the American Expedition- 
 
 | M ary Forces developed greater efficiency and effec- 
 tiveness. 
 
 The American gunners eagerly absorbed all of the fine 
 points of the art under the instruction of French experts and 
 soon astonished their tutors. 
 
 No artillerymen could hope to develop greater accuracy 
 than the French in the handling of 75s and 155s, but the 
 Americans did develop greater speed by loading on the recoil 
 and surprised the enemy because of their rapidity of fire. 
 
 I talked with Boche prisoners, who told me that the 
 American rifle fire was so brisk and heavy that it had been 
 mistaken for concentrated machine gun fire by the Ger- 
 mans, and that the Yankee gunners became so speedy in the 
 use of 75s that the enemy spread the rumor that the Ameri- 
 cans were using a "three-inch machine gun." 
 
 Every American was amused when a wail went up in the 
 enemy ranks that the Americans were "inhuman" because 
 they had equipped some of the troops with old-fashioned 
 shotguns, which, by the way, some of the doughboys em- 
 ployed with deadly effect at close range. 
 
 "Can you beat it?" drawled a Vermonter one day. 
 "Fritz introduced all the horrors of war, gas and air raids on 
 non-combatants and ugly shrapnel, and now he's kicking 
 because some of the Yanks are using birdshot on him. 
 What's birdshot compared to a G-I, eh, fellows?" 
 
 French artillery instructors told me the American artil- 
 lerymen took to the science like ducks to water, and it was. 
 not long before they were giving the Hun fits. 
 
 93 
 
H THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Of all the American artillery units, none attained a higher 
 battle perfection than the Fifty-first Artillery Brigade of 
 the Yankee Division. This was admitted in American and 
 French artillery circles. I heard nothing but praise for the 
 Twenty-sixth Division batteries. I heard officers in the 
 First and Second and the Forty-second Divisions compli- 
 ment their work; in fact, I never heard anybody knock the 
 outfit that Brigadier-General Sherburne of Brookline 
 brought home in the pink of condition. 
 
 The Fifty-first Artillery Brigade was the first to intro- 
 duce a "rolling barrage," and the first also to operate what 
 gunners termed "gypsy batteries," guns run into the open, 
 under cover of darkness, to exposed positions from which 
 they blazed at the enemy, and as quickly withdrew. This 
 innovation puzzled the Heinies, who laid down savage bar- 
 rages in vain on positions that had been only temporary, 
 after the elusive weapons of the New Englanders had 
 wrought the desired havoc at close range and had returned 
 to camouflaged positions. 
 
 Officers figure that the New England batteries pumped 
 upward of 1,000,000 shells of the 75 calibre and between 
 400,000 and 500,000 155s at the enemy. 
 
 When it is recalled that each 75 costs about $13 and each 
 155 about $48, one isn't surprised to hear that the Fifty- 
 first Brigade of Artillery of the Yankee Division hurled 
 approximately $25,000,000 worth of shells at the Germans, 
 and, we might add, with telling accuracy. 
 
 General Edwards had this to say about his artillery 
 units : 
 
 HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION, 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES. 
 FRANCE, 
 
 October 24, 1918. 
 General Orders No. 93. 
 
 EXTRACT 
 
 1. To the artillery of the Twenty-sixth Division is due my 
 expression of admiration for its efficiency and aggressive fighting 
 qualities and for its indefatigable support of our fine infantry. 
 
THOSE " GYPSY BATTERIES " 95 
 
 Artillery can desire no higher tribute than the conscious fact 
 itIHAS GAINED THE CONFIDENCE, RELIANCE AND 
 THANKS OF THE INFANTRY. 
 
 2. During more than eight months of fighting service the spirit 
 of loyalty displayed by every officer and man of the Fifty-first 
 Artillery Brigade toward his duty, toward the Yankee Division and 
 toward the division commander has been fine. 
 
 3. The record of the Fifty-first Artillery Brigade in the second 
 battle of the Marne is glorious. It went with, supported and pro- 
 tected the infantry in its advance of eighteen and one-half kilo- 
 meters by Chateau Thierry, and afterward, in succession, two 
 other divisions in the advance from the Marne to the Vesle, for 
 a period of eighteen days, between July 18 and August 4, with a 
 gain of over forty kilometers. 
 
 It is a record of which the entire division and our country may 
 be proud. 
 
 I congratulate and thank the artillery brigade of the Yankee 
 
 Division * C. R. EDWARDS, 
 
 Major-General, Commanding. 
 
 After the infantry units of the Yankee Division had done 
 their work in the Marne sector, by making a series of sharp 
 gains and trouncing the Germans at every encounter, they 
 were leap-frogged by the Forty-second, better known as the 
 "Rainbow Division," which in turn was relieved by the 
 Fourth Division. 
 
 These are the divisions referred to in General Edwards' 
 eulogy of the Yankee Division artillery, which continued to 
 support them until August 4. General Edwards forgot to 
 tell about the French division which the Yankee Division 
 gunners supported also during that trying period. In fact, 
 the Fifty-first Artillery Brigade had advanced so far in the 
 support, first of the Twenty-sixth Division infantry and 
 later that of the Forty-second, Fourth and a French di- 
 vision, that it required a hike of two days to get back to the 
 Marne. 
 
 And General Edwards bestowed that commendation 
 before another had taken command of the division and be- 
 fore the artillery and the infantry of the Yankee Division 
 
96 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 had performed their almost superhuman service in the 
 shell-torn hills north of Verdun in the heart-breaking battles 
 that ended the war. 
 
 The Fifty-first Artillery Brigade was made up of two 
 Massachusetts regiments, the old First Regiment from Bos- 
 ton, of which the crack Battery A was the basis, and the 
 Second Corps Cadets from Salem, forming the 101st Regi- 
 ment. 
 
 The 102d Regiment was made up of three batteries from 
 Merrimac valley — Lowell, Lawrence and Haverhill; also old 
 Battery C of Lawrence, two batteries from Worcester built 
 on old B Battery, and one battery from New Bedford. 
 
 The 103d Regiment was made up of three batteries from 
 Rhode Island, organized around Battery A of Providence, 
 two batteries from Connecticut, one from Branford and one 
 from Stamford, a platoon from New London and a battery 
 from Manchester, N. H. A trench mortar battery was 
 formed from the First Massachusetts Field Artillery. 
 
 The 103d Regiment was filled to war strength by coast 
 artillery troops from Massachusetts, Connecticut and 
 Rhode Island. A troop of cavalry from the Rhode Island 
 squadron formed a basis for headquarters company. The 
 brigade staff was drawn from the three regiments and the 
 new war brigade assembled at the old Second Cadets camp 
 at Boxford, August 10, 1917. 
 
 On July 28 Colonel Sherburne completed the organiza- 
 tion of the 101st and 102d Regiments. General William 
 Lassiter, then in England, subsequently became brigade 
 commander, joining the brigade in France. 
 
 A little bit of history not generally known is that Colonel 
 Sherburne's regiment, the 101st Artillery, was at one time 
 designated to join the Forty-second, but when it was dis- 
 covered that the Yankee Division would beat the Rainbow 
 across the 101st Artillery was kept within its home division. 
 
 The 101st Field Artillery and the 101st Infantry sailed 
 Sept. 9, 1917. The 101st Artillery went by way of Liver- 
 pool and Southampton and Havre, arriving at Coetquidon, 
 
THOSE " GYPSY BA TTERIES " 97 
 
 the French training camp, Sept. 15, where the other regi- 
 ments of artillery— the 102d and 103d— joined it. The 
 brigade remained in training until Feb. 1 when it joined the 
 Twenty-sixth Division at Chemin-des-Dames. 
 
 General (then Colonel) Sherburne's 101st Regiment 
 fired the first shot of any National Guard unit, on Feb. 5, 
 1918. The men of Battery A of Boston had the honor and 
 Colonel Sherburne sent the shell to Governor McCall. 
 
 On Feb. 22 the 101st Regiment celebrated Washington's 
 Birthday, in 1918, by firing the first rolling barrage ever 
 attempted by an American artillery unit during a successful 
 raid carried out in the Chemin-des-Dames sector by the 
 French and Americans. While occupying that sector the 
 Fifty-first Brigade fired many borages in support of raids 
 and repelling hostile attacks. 
 
 t It left the Chemin-des-Dames sector March 19-21, 
 withdrawing to a rest area. At that time the Germans 
 launched an offensive, and the First Division was hurried 
 to the front, near Cantigny, which it eventually captured, 
 and the Twenty-sixth was hurriedly ordered to replace the 
 First Division in the Toul sector. The Fifty-first Artillery 
 Brigade hiked 175 miles, with one day's rest, to reach the 
 Toul sector on time. It made the forced march in rain and 
 mud, covering forty kilometers one day and two of thirty- 
 five kilometers, regardless of horseflesh. 
 
 Like the infantry, the Yankee Division artillery took up 
 a division front instead of simply a brigade front that had 
 been held by the First Division in the Toul sector. The 
 first serious attack was made by 1,500 German storm troops 
 in Apremont Woods, April 10, 11, 12 and 13. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Battery A's Historic Shot 
 
 BAt the State House in Boston there is a shell case 
 which has taken its place among the most precious 
 of the historical relics of the Commonwealth. 
 It is the case of a 75 — the first shell fired by a 
 National Guard unit in the World War. 
 
 The men of A Battery, 101st Artillery, had the honor of 
 firing the opening shot at exactly 3.45 on the afternoon of 
 Feb. 5, 1918, shortly after they had rolled their guns into 
 position in the line in the Chemin-des-Dames sector. 
 
 That night the 101st Infantry took its position in the 
 front line. It was the first National Guard unit to enter 
 the trenches. 
 
 The Fifty-first Artillery Brigade helped repulse German 
 raids, which were the only activities there. Infantrymen 
 and artillerymen received their baptism in that sector and 
 learned tricks of war and gained experience which proved 
 valuable in other sectors where engagements steadily grew 
 in magnitude. 
 
 In the fights at Apremont Woods and Seicheprey, in the 
 Toul sector, considered important at the time, as they were 
 the most serious in which Americans had been involved, but 
 really nothing but raids when compared to later operations, 
 the artillery of the Yankee Division did splendid work. 
 
 General Sherburne's diary shows that his batteries "laid 
 down an intensive barrage" on April 10, which he entered 
 as a "real day." 
 
 On April 12 his batteries opened at 5.15 P. M. and kept 
 at it until 3 A. M., hurling twelve barrages, "considerable 
 fire," as he noted, adding, "An amusing feature was a report 
 that day that we were shy of currycombs." 
 
 98 
 
BATTERY A'S HISTORIC SHOT 99 
 
 On April 13 three batteries of the 101st Regiment fired 
 7,478 rounds, two complete caisson loads, in fourteen hours. 
 The boys from New England toiled like beavers, peeled to 
 shirts, without time to sleep or eat. In action their guns 
 reminded one of historic paintings. I thought of the 
 "Spirit of '76" and other traditions of our land as I watched 
 them at work. As a final salvo that day they fired twelve 
 rounds of shrapnel, the diary christening it "A wild day." 
 
 In the Apremont Woods fight Colonel Sherburne per- 
 formed a stunt that was the talk of the front. Anticipating 
 an attack and seeing that things were troubled in a certain 
 quarter, he loosened his batteries without a signal and played 
 havoc with a wave of German shock troops. 
 
 The 102d and 103d Artillery Regiments and trench mor- 
 tar batteries worked sixty hours without sleep in the Seiche- 
 prey fights. The strain was terrible. Guns were rushed 
 forward in motor trucks. There was no definite line. 
 Colonel Goodwin sent a battalion of men with guns to an 
 exposed but effective position and they pounded the enemy 
 hard. These exhibitions of resourcefulness were not un- 
 common in the Yankee Division artillery units and they con- 
 tributed to the general success. 
 
 Six batteries fired 13,000 rounds in thirty-six hours in 
 that fuss. General Sherburne claims the Seicheprey session 
 was marked by one of the heaviest artillery concentrations 
 that he encountered throughout the war. In the attack on 
 Fleurry he took the 101st Regiment on a spectacular hike 
 at night across the front and gained a new position without 
 firing a shot or losing a man, and he recorded that as "A 
 good gamble." 
 
 In those two engagements— Apremont Woods and 
 Seicheprey— the doughboys of the Yankee Division learned 
 to place the utmost confidence in the support of the artillery 
 units. I have heard the men of the 101st Infantry say they 
 would face anything with the guns of the 101st Artillery 
 supporting them. That team work characterized all 
 branches of the service in the New England division. 
 
100 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 The Fifty-first Artillery Brigade helped repulse an attack 
 on Xivray, June 16, with an effective barrage. The Ger- 
 mans shelled division headquarters at Boucq. The artillery 
 left the Toul sector June 28 and moved to Meaux, taking up 
 positions in the rear of the "Pas Fini Sector," near Vaux 
 and Torsey in the Chateau Thierry sector, relieving the 
 artillery of the Second Division July 8. 
 
 The brigade took part in the offensive that started July 
 18. When the Thirty-second Brigade of infantry stormed 
 and took the heights the artillery brigade laid a perfect roll- 
 ing barrage which swept backward and forward with 
 amazing accuracy. The artillery helped the infantry to 
 straddle the Soissons-Chateau Thierry highway and in other 
 operations in the Chateau Thierry region. 
 
 On July 27 Colonel Sherburne was advanced to the 
 rank of brigadier-general and ordered to take command of 
 an artillery brigade in the Ninety-second Division, com- 
 posed of colored troops. 
 
 General Sherburne's war diary shows that "the stench 
 of decayed human and horse flesh was terrible, July 21." 
 On July 22 the Boche were held at Trugny and the infantry 
 was fatigued. Machine gun action was intensive. The 
 artillery "P. C.'s" (post commander) were in shell holes and 
 hostile shells were falling thick. 
 
 While operating in the Chateau Thierry sector the 
 Yankee Division artillery supported units of four divisions 
 — its own division, the Fourth and Forty-second Divisions, 
 and a French division. This was an unusual performance. 
 The batteries worked night and day. They were in that 
 sector eighteen days, and withdrew August 4 to a rest area 
 and General Aultman took command. 
 
 On August 30 the artillery brigade started for Bar-le-Duc 
 to take part in the St. Mihiel push. Batteries were placed 
 in position Sept. 8, and the bombardment started early on 
 the morning of Sept. 12. 
 
 The advance of the Americans in that drive was so rapid 
 that the artillery found it difficult to keep pace, but it 
 
BATTERY A'S HISTORIC SHOT 101 
 
 did, in spite of the rain and mud. The batteries figured 
 in the storming of the heights of the Meuse and re- 
 mained in the Troy on sector until relieved Oct. 5. 
 
 During this time each artillery regiment of the Yankee 
 Division operated roving or "gypsy batteries" on the plains 
 of the Woevre with great success. They fired forty shots 
 per minute. Later the batteries took up their final posi- 
 tions in the series of hills north of Verdun, where Brigadier- 
 General Glassford took command and did splendid work. 
 He had formerly been commander of the 103d Artillery. 
 
 When the Yankee Division arrived home, Colonel 
 Robert E. Goodwin of Concord, Mass., commanded the 
 crack 101st Artillery Regiment. He took command after 
 Colonel Sherburne was promoted and he handled the outfit 
 with the skill of a veteran in the major battles following. 
 Colonel Goodwin practices law in Boston. He was entitled 
 to a large share of the credit for the upbuilding of the Bay 
 State artillery. He had long been General Sherburne's 
 right-hand man and was a captain and served as adjutant 
 in the First Massachusetts Artillery Regiment on the Mexi- 
 can border. He came along in leaps and bounds over there. 
 
 You inquired for "Lieutenant So-and-So" and discovered 
 that he was a captain or major and that majors a few 
 months before were lieutenant-colonels or sporting eagles. 
 Promotions won on the field of battle are worth while and 
 there were many in the Yankee Division. I found "Dono" 
 Minot, the former Harvard football star, acting as brigade 
 adjutant and with major's leaves on his shoulders. He 
 went over a lieutenant and was a top sergeant on the border. 
 
 Another youngster who made good was Captain George 
 A. Parker, son of former Attorney-General Herbert Parker, 
 who organized and led C Battery of the 101st, than which 
 there was no finer on the front. 
 
 "Ben" Ticknor of Jamaica Plain, connected with the 
 Houghton, MifBin Company of Boston, won a captain's 
 commission and did tip-top work as adjutant of the 101st 
 Artillery. Captain Lawrence Page, stable sergeant on the 
 
102 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Mexican border, won a Croix de Guerre at Chemin-des- 
 Dames for valorous work with the first battalion of the 10£d 
 Regiment. 
 
 Captain William F. Howe, commanding C Battery of 
 Lawrence, distinguished himself at Xivray, as did Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel John F. Herbert, formerly of B Battery, of 
 Worcester, at St. Mihiel. Major Norman McLeod won a 
 Distinguished Service Medal at St. Mihiel. The artillery 
 units came in for their share of personal decorations and 
 citations. Time and space do not permit mentioning them 
 all. They have already been published in official lists sent 
 out from Washington. 
 
 First Lieutenant Paul H. Smith, artillery liaison officer 
 with the 101st Regiment, repeatedly showed the stuff that 
 was in him. A runner was killed and it was necessary to 
 get back through a terrific enemy barrage. Smith did it 
 and returned, reporting with a calmness that astonished his 
 superiors. How he escaped injury or death was amazing. 
 Lieutenant Lovell of Concord, Mass., came through with 
 flying colors. His elder brother joined the air force. Both 
 were privates in A Battery on the border. Sergeant Tobey 
 became a lieutenant and a two-fisted fighter. They were all 
 good enough especially to mention, but in praising the 
 brigade you eulogize them all. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Keville's Ammunition Train 
 
 BThe success of the Ammunition Train of the 
 Yankee Division was summed up in two slogans, 
 one coined by the men of the train, which was: 
 "WE NEVER LOST AN AMMUNITION 
 WAGON." 
 
 The other was bestowed by the artillerymen and it was a 
 fine tribute: "THE BATTERIES NEVER HAD TO 
 WAIT FOR AMMUNITION." 
 
 If you searched the records and interviewed every man 
 in the Yankee Division you could not have hit upon a more 
 direct definition of the zeal and eflSciency of Colonel 
 William J. Keville and the men of his command. 
 
 He served through the war as lieutenant-colonel, but 
 always had the calibre of colonel. I was not surprised at his 
 promotion. I expected it earlier. Nor was I surprised to 
 hear the artillerymen and everybody else say such nice 
 things about "Billy's" outfit. 
 
 Regardless of obstacles and dangers, Colonel Keville 
 and his men saw to it that the ammunition went through, 
 whether the mud was hub deep or the highways had been 
 almost effaced by shells and mines. Those of you who have 
 not seen how the face of the earth was pitted and distorted 
 by the furies of war cannot appreciate what it meant to get 
 shells through in time to keep the batteries in action in the 
 height of battle. If the Ammunition Train fell down, a 
 battle might be lost. 
 
 Colonel Keville was too good a soldier and organizer to 
 permit such an emergency, no matter what the weather, or 
 cost, or the fury of enemy artillery. 
 
 103 
 
104 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 After a while it seemed to the drivers of ammunition 
 trucks and wagons that the shells fired by the Yankee 
 Division used to sing: 
 
 "The batteries never have to wait for ammunition." 
 
 It seemed strange to think of a Boston lawyer doing this 
 important work in the biggest war in history, but the army 
 was thus constituted and the men from civilian life made 
 good in every department. "Big Bill" Mahoney, the well 
 known undertaker of Lawrence, who advanced from lieuten- 
 ant to captain for meritorious service, was Colonel Keville's 
 adjutant. Both had all kinds of narrow escapes, as did the 
 men. I knew of few more fortunate units. 
 
 The casualties were astoundingly small, and though 
 trucks were scarred by shrapnel and some were stalled and 
 lamed at times, only one was flattened, and that by a falling 
 wall. Every bit of it was stripped and used as spare parts. 
 The men of the Ammunition Train learned the value of 
 economy and tinkering and patching, to make everything 
 count, early in their training, when equipment and material 
 was pitifully scarce. There was a time when they had to 
 make washers out of cardboard. While a handicap at the 
 time, this condition developed their skill and resourceful- 
 ness. It was not long before they could repair and build 
 about anything. They simply had to do it. 
 
 The Ammunition Train was organized in August with 
 eighteen officers and 700 enlisted men from the First Ver- 
 mont Infantry, and six officers and 234 enlisted men from 
 the Massachusetts Coast Artillery. Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Keville took command at Westfield, Massachusetts, August 
 «7, 1917. 
 
 The table of organization called for four motor truck 
 companies and three horse battalions, two caissons for 
 hauling 75 and three companies of limber combat- 
 wagons for transporting small arms ammunition. Ninety 
 per cent of the work was done by motor trucks, but the 
 motor equipment was late in arriving. The promised 
 English type of caisson never came. 
 
KEVILLE'S AMMUNITION TRAIN 105 
 
 Artisans and mechanics were recruited from the Coast 
 Artillery and they were crackerjacks. Vermonters accus- 
 tomed to horses were put in charge of the animals. Colonel 
 Keville longed for light trucks, of from one and one-half to 
 two tons, instead of five-ton trucks used to haul "fire- 
 works," as the signal rockets were called. 
 
 Fifteen passenger cars and four sidecars were supposed 
 to be assigned to each company, but all they got were three 
 passenger cars and nine motorcycles. The light repair truck 
 and spare automobile parts never materialized, either, but 
 these handicaps were overcome by the ingenuity of the men. 
 
 The men of the Ammunition Train were armed and 
 drilled as infantry. Just before the train sailed forty white 
 men and one colored man were rejected for flat feet and 
 replacements were obtained Sept. 28. The train left West- 
 field Oct. 2, and embarked on the R. M. S. Aurania Oct. 3. 
 This ship was later torpedoed. 
 
 Colonel Keville had command of the ship, which carried 
 also twenty-four officers and men of the 104th Infantry, one 
 officer and sixteen men from the Signal Corps, and 105 
 officers and 145 enlisted men as casuals. The Aurania 
 reached Liverpool Oct. 17, and on Oct. 21 the Ammunition 
 Train traveled in a cattleboat to Havre and hiked six miles 
 to Camp No. 1. They reached camp without baggage or a 
 kitchen and used packing cases for filing organization papers 
 and records. On Oct. 23 the Ammunition Train left Havre 
 and went to a motor truck camp. 
 
 American trucks came from St. Nazaire Oct. 29, about 
 the time the Ammunition Train was attached to the Fifty- 
 first Brigade of Artillery of the Yankee Division. B Com- 
 pany hauled supplies. The Ammunition Train scheme was 
 new in the American Army. Colonel Keville arranged a 
 course of instruction which greatly increased the efficiency 
 of his organization. He was most solicitous of the health 
 of the men of his command. 
 
 He insisted that night crews be provided with plenty of 
 hot coffee, which cheered them up on long, dangerous hauls 
 
106 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 through the shelled area on many nights that it rained. 
 Even in the heat of battle he worked his men in eight-hour 
 shifts, contending that a sleepy driver was a menace to 
 himself and everybody else. He accomplished this by equal 
 distribution of labor, with the result that the health and 
 morale of the train were excellent. 
 
 Finally the train procured a French forge and set it up 
 in a shed where repairing was done. At this time the trucks 
 numbered twenty-two, but some were in bad shape. One 
 lacked a radiator. On Dec. 18 the Ammunition Train 
 moved to the area occupied by the Twenty-sixth Division, 
 leaving 115 horses and receiving sixty-one at the new area. 
 It acquired thirteen French wagons, Jan. 6, and established 
 an ordnance repair shop, the unit consisting of three officers 
 and forty-seven men. Motor vehicles of the train were 
 repaired there. 
 
 Line education was received at Soissons. In February 
 a horse battalion went to Chemin-des-Dames, another was 
 assigned to La Palice and the train and headquarters sup- 
 plied the Twenty-sixth and French batteries. There the 
 men received their baptism in night hauling, over a route 
 repeatedly bombed by air-raiders. 
 
 Lieutenant Edwin G. Hopkins and Dr. Conrad Wessel- 
 hoef t won Croix de Guerres in the Soissons sector and others 
 were awarded decorations in later operations. At Reme- 
 court, March 28, the Ammunition Train was sporting sixty 
 trucks. It received a scrub lot of horses from the horse 
 hospital, many of them so skinny that the men had to re- 
 adjust the harness to make them fit, but the auimals were 
 soon flourishing. 
 
 The first real running of shell-swept roads was on the 
 Fleurry highway on what was known as "Dead Man's 
 Curve" in Anceville, in the Toul sector, when the Yankee 
 Division had replaced the First Division there. The men 
 never flinched. In the fights at Apremont and Seicheprey 
 Colonel Keville's men had to haul ammunition eighteen 
 kilometers over hazardous roads. They worked day and 
 
KEVILLE'S AMMUNITION TRAIN 107 
 
 night. In the Seicheprey battle all hands worked forty- 
 eight hours without a letup. 
 
 A truck was hit by a shell and it was loaded with ammu- 
 nition at the time. Fortunately the forward part was 
 struck, dislodging the gas tank and ripping away the driver's 
 seat. Wagoner James J. Burke and Lieutenant Earle S. 
 Horton were knocked off and wounded, Burke in the groin 
 and Horton fatally hurt in the chest. Under heavy shell 
 fire Driver Burke stopped up the shrapnel holes in the gas 
 tank with a bar of toilet soap which he carried in his tool 
 box, started the engine and completed the trip, and found 
 aid for Horton, who died in a hospital. Another ammuni- 
 tion truck was stalled in an exposed strip of road and the 
 driver, finding himself on an incline, released the brakes and 
 coasted to safety. 
 
 The Ammunition Train at this time numbered thirty- 
 two officers and 1,333 enlisted men. There was an epidemic 
 of mange among the horses and mules at Toul which proved 
 troublesome. The men of the train detailed to ammunition 
 camp duty did splendid work, as did the cooks, whose 
 hearty meals and midnight lunches contributed to victory. 
 
 When the Fifty-first Artillery Brigade began to use 
 roving batteries it became difficult for the drivers of am- 
 munition trucks and wagons to locate the batteries in the 
 dark This was accomplished by guides who, exposed to 
 bombs and shell fire, never failed to give proper directions, 
 no matter how great the danger and excitement. 
 
 From the first real action the men of Colonel Keville's 
 command vied with each other for the chance to go on 
 hazardous trips. This spirit was characteristic of every 
 Yankee Division unit. Quitters were harder to find than a 
 needle m a haystack. G Company always kept its horses 
 as if groomed for a horse show. 
 
 Major G. S. King of Hyde Park was Colonel Keville's 
 first adjutant. He was relieved at Bemecourt to go to the 
 office of the division adjutant. Captain H. S. Gushing be- 
 came a major and commanded the motor battalion. The 
 
108 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 violent artillery play at Chateau Thierry and the rapid 
 changing of the lines made it difficult for the Ammunition 
 Train men. Often positions changed hourly and it wasn't 
 easy or pleasant in a battle area to hunt for concealed battery 
 positions. Often the ammunition trucks and wagons were 
 forced to go almost to the very front line. 
 
 The preparation for the intensive bombardment of the 
 enemy in the St. Mihiel drive kept the ammunition trains 
 busy and none was more on its toes than "Billy" Keville's, 
 nor delivered more briskly. In the hill north of Verdun, 
 where roads became pitfalls and quarries, the Yankee 
 Division Ammunition Train managed somehow to worm 
 through and keep the various calibre of shells piled high 
 beside the batteries and the infantry well supplied with 
 small-arms ammunition. 
 
 Major Ashly was in the postal service in Burlington, Vt., 
 Major Pell worked in the postoffice at St. Albans, Vt., Major 
 Burton came from Boston, Major H. S. Cushing from Med- 
 ford and in peace times was bond manager at Lee, Higgin- 
 son & Co., State street, Boston. Captain Howe was from 
 Northfield, Vt., Captain Shanley was a member of the 
 Winooski, Vt., fire department. Captain Hudson was a 
 linotyper on the Burlington Free Press. Captain McMath 
 of Montpelier was in the office of the adjutant-general of 
 Vermont. Lieutenant Corey was a conductor and lived at 
 Newport, Vt., Lieutenant Melaney of Burlington was in the 
 railway mail service, Lieutenant Hartwell was a hardware 
 dealer at St. Johnbury, Vt., Lieutenant Rogers dealt in real 
 estate in Melrose, Lieutenant Edwin G. Hopkins, who was 
 decorated, was a civil engineer in Boston, Lieutenant Miner 
 was an electrician in Brattleboro, Vt., Lieutenants Gilbert 
 and Daily both hailed from the Bay State, the latter from 
 Hyde Park. Lieutenant Newton of Burlington was in the 
 postal service. By the way, Uncle Sam's postal employes 
 were plentiful on the Western front in France and made 
 splendid soldiers. 
 
KEVILLE'S AMMUNITION TRAIN 109 
 
 Lieutenant Lang was a railroad man from St. Johnsbury 
 and Lieutenant Buckley an ammunition inspector from 
 Bellows Falls. In the medical department of the Ammuni- 
 tion Train were Lieutenant Kelliher, from Cambridge, Cap- 
 tain Wesselhoeft from Boston. Lieutenant Turner sold in- 
 surance in Brookline, Captain Gorfinkle practiced law in 
 Boston, Lieutenant Gall was secretary at the Boston 
 Chamber of Commerce and Lieutenant Gleason graduated 
 from Norwich University. 
 
 Colonel Keville carried his own touring car over and it 
 traveled more than 30,000 miles. It had been repeatedly 
 under fire and bore shrapnel scars. Sergeant Pingree was 
 chauffeur for Colonel Keville until promoted to lieutenant, 
 when Sergeant Fred J. Kulda of South Boston took the job. 
 
 The Fifty-first Artillery Brigade set a fast pace, but 
 "Billy" Keville's Ammunition Train kept up with it and it 
 had almost at times to overturn mountains to do it. Colonel 
 Keville and his crew were there. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Fighting Engineers 
 
 B Perhaps you have read of "Gary's Chickens." 
 They were famous. They made history in the 
 Montdidier sector and American engineers were in 
 the brood. 
 
 It was in the Spring of 1918 when the German push was 
 at its height. The enemy, with superior numbers, struck 
 the British Fifth Army a staggering blow. 
 
 Lines broke. Cary, a British officer, rallied every avail- 
 able man — cooks, dishwashers, stablemen, litter-bearers and 
 hospital orderlies in a last desperate stand. 
 
 Into the breach sprang a detachment of American 
 pioneers who had been working with the British units. Un- 
 solicited they abandoned their tools to fight. 
 
 With rifles and grenades they joined "Gary's Chickens," 
 and with them bled and died. The gallant Cary and his 
 men held their ground that day and every allied army sang 
 the praises of the American engineers. Some of them were 
 decorated. All were commended. 
 
 Their superb spirit and courage in that fight immortal- 
 ized American "sappers," as the technical troops were 
 termed by the French. 
 
 There never was a time when the engineers from the 
 United States overlooked a chance to fight, although fight- 
 ing was not supposed to be included in their repertory. The 
 engineers were as eager to engage the Boche at close quarters 
 as was the doughboy, and they "mixed it" far more than any 
 historian will ever give them credit. 
 
 They abandoned picks and shovels and more technical 
 implements for bayonets at the slightest provocation. You 
 
 110 
 
THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 111 
 
 couldn't keep the engineers out of the fray when things were 
 popping. 
 
 The major part of the time, however, the war toil of the 
 pioneers was an unromantic, unspectacular, heart-breaking 
 grind. They had to build bridges and lay pontoons and 
 repair roads for the infantry to advance. Frequently they 
 were ahead of the attacking waves. They had to smooth 
 the way for foot troops and tanks. They had to fill in 
 enormous mine craters and numerous shell holes. 
 
 They were raked by artillery, sniped at by sharpshooters, 
 bombed and machine-gunned by Gothas, and it was all in a 
 day's work. The "sappers" were always in the thickest of 
 it. They worked, ate, fought and slept (with a soft pedal 
 on the latter) constantly in regions where death was supreme. 
 
 And right in the front rank of engineer organizations 
 when it came to pluck and achievement stood the 101st 
 Regiment of Engineers from home. No unit of sappers 
 served longer or with greater credit to flag and country. 
 
 And the 101st Engineers were none other than the First 
 Corps Cadets, one of the institutions of Boston. Coming 
 down to brass tacks, or, as we might say, "to speak right out 
 in meeting," every Bostonian recalls the days when the First 
 Corps Cadets did not receive the military respect that the 
 organization was entitled to. 
 
 Its roster boasted of the names of the first families, of the 
 most prominent men in the community, whose sons suc- 
 ceeded them in serving in the outfit. Partly because of this 
 select personnel and partly because it is a human tendency 
 and weakness to misjudge and misunderstand, the First 
 Corps Cadets were looked upon in certain quarters as "ball- 
 room warriors," "tin soldiers" and "social snobs." 
 
 You cannot appreciate how happy I am to be able to 
 shatter these absurd titles and banish this rot and to tell 
 the people of New England, and, through them, the Ameri- 
 can public, how unjust and cruelly inaccurate these appella- 
 tions were, how they wronged this and other historic or- 
 ganizations that went over and met the test. 
 
112 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 You should have seen those so-called "tin soldiers" and 
 "ballroom warriors" scrap. You should have seen them 
 work like laborers with their hands. You should have 
 beheld their indomitable spirit and courage. You should 
 have seen the hell-holes where they labored day after day, 
 week after week, month after month. You should have 
 seen them with the grime and fag of battle, should have seen 
 how they ignored danger and death in the performance of 
 their duty! 
 
 Theirs was the spirit of Concord and Lexington and 
 Bunker Hill and Gettysburg and El Caney. Hereafter, 
 when we hear the name of First Corps of Cadets, it will be a 
 signal for profound American gratitude and homage. My, 
 but how "tin soldiers" can fight and suffer! 
 
 The world war upset tradition. It was the mirror of 
 manhood. It revealed the true nature of men. In the 
 trenches and dugouts and fox-holes a real democracy was 
 born. 
 
 Youngsters from colleges and mansions fought shoulder 
 to shoulder with lads from shops and the slums. War was 
 a great leveller. The sons of the rich and the sons of the 
 lowly suffered and died. From the ranks of both sprang 
 heroes. I recall a cartoon in a comic monthly which I found 
 in a dugout in the Argonne one day, depicting a great lady 
 visiting the tenement of a washerwoman to tell her that her 
 son had written that the washerwoman's son was the 
 bravest lad in the regiment. The expression of pride on the 
 face of the mother of the tenement was as a benediction. 
 
 I came across the son of William A. Gaston, president 
 of the National Shawmut Bank of Boston, in the ranks 
 of the Fifth Marines. He left Harvard and enlisted 
 under age and became a "soldier of the sea" because 
 he wanted to see action. He had been careful not to 
 disclose family ties, because he wanted service and no 
 favors. He was just "Private Gaston" among his com- 
 rades, a big, plucky lad of nineteen, who was standing on 
 his own feet and on his own merit. 
 
THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 113 
 
 This modest effort, this plain Americanism, was one of 
 the finest features of the front. And another feature that 
 always gripped you was the official lists of "Americans" 
 cited for distinguished service, lists that resembled frag- 
 ments of a Russian directory, lists of names with a half 
 dozen and more syllables, names that we correspondents 
 dreaded to cable, there was such danger of having them 
 mussed before they found their way into print. 
 
 Indeed, an army of democracy for democracy was Uncle 
 Sam's Expeditionary Force of more than 2,500,000 men. 
 
 The splendid record made by the 101st Engineers was 
 largely due to the indefatigable efforts and military acumen 
 of Colonel George W. Bunnell, who was born in Oakland, 
 CaL, forty-four years ago, and who settled in Massachu- 
 setts in 1912. He lives in Worcester. 
 
 Colonel Bunnell was a regular before joining the National 
 Guard. He served in the Fourth United States Artillery 
 and resigned in 1901 to enter business. He was president 
 of the Power Construction Company before he went to 
 France. In 1906 he was lieutenant-colonel in the Engineer 
 Division of the New York National Guard. 
 
 The 101st Engineers had been quartered at Wentworth 
 Institute and at the Cadet Armory when ordered abroad. 
 The regiment left Boston, Sept. 24, 1917, for New York, 
 where it boarded the U. S. S. Andanta and sailed to Halifax, 
 where it joined the convoy. The engineers were landed at 
 Liverpool and went by way of Southampton to Le Havre. 
 The regiment sailed for home from Brest on the U. S. S. Mt. 
 Vernon, March 28, 1919, and with the other units aboard 
 received a hearty home-coming welcome April 4. 
 
 The officers under Colonel Bunnell were Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Arthur L. Bartlett, Major Frank W. Hamilton, com- 
 manding the first battalion, and Major John F. Osborne, 
 commanding the second battalion; Captain Herbert C. 
 Thomas, adjutant; Captain George G. Tarbell, personnel 
 adjutant; Captain John Ware, supply officer; Captain 
 Minton M. Warren, topographical officer; Captain Harold 
 
114 THE FIGHTING^YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 C. Hilgard, adjutant first battalion; Captain John E. 
 Langley, adjutant second battalion; Captain Harry R. 
 Howe, Company A; Captain Horace Z. Landon, Company 
 B; Captain Harold E. Hadley, Company C; Captain Charles 
 J. Bateman, Company D; Captain William R. Mattson, 
 Company E; Captain Edwin M. Brush, Company F; Cap- 
 tain George E. Parsons. 
 
 First Lieutenants — Joseph W. Strong, William F. 
 Chisholm, Colin S. Park, Robert B. Swain, Robert P. 
 Holmes, Arthur H. Niles, Leslie C. Skeen, William B. Mac- 
 Millan, Julius Daniels, Ernest W. Harvie, George H. Schlot- 
 terer, Walter R. Wallin, Henry C. Drown, Henry O. Jackson, 
 Charles W. Gant, Ernest J. Kluge, Karl F. Jackson, Schuyler 
 R. Waller and John F. Foley. 
 
 Second Lieutenants — William Dubler, Irven Paul, Fran- 
 cis J. Kurriss, Lewis J. Edmunds, Charles H. Juster, Robert 
 W. Kierstead, Lloyd E. Clayton, George A. Streicher, 
 Arthur B. Stanley, Porter W. Martin, John W. Condit, 
 Norville L. Millmore, Arthur H. Cashin, Frederic Hewey, 
 William S. Buxton, John F. Datson, Frank S. Sawyer, 
 George A. Fuller, Walter F. Livermore, Ernest B. Frey, 
 William S. Cleaves, Edward F. Sheldon, William J. Thorn- 
 ton, John B. Wheeler, Otis L. Farley, Alan C. Livingston 
 and John Caswell, Jr. 
 
 The medical officers were Major Edwin B. Nielson and 
 Captain Harold J. Connor. Captain Vincent R. Sayward 
 was dental officer and the Rev. H. Boyd Edwards, formerly 
 of the Eighth Massachusetts Infantry, was chaplain. 
 
 The high-grade personnel of the 101st Engineers was 
 shown by the many men who became officers from the 
 ranks. 
 
 The work of the 101st Engineers was so brilliant in the 
 St. Mihiel drive, when the American forces, in less than two 
 days of fighting, wiped out an enemy salient that had been 
 a thorn in the side of the allies for nearly four years, that 
 General Edwards sent the following commendation to 
 Colonel Bunnell: 
 
THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS 115 
 
 HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION 
 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 
 FRANCE, 
 
 .„ _ ,. September 20, 1919. 
 
 -From: Commanding General. 
 
 To : Commanding Officer, 101st Engineers. 
 
 Subject: Commendation of your command. 
 
 1 . From the 12th to the 14th of September this division played 
 an important part in the cutting off of the St. Mihiel salient, push- 
 ing through practically unknown enemy country from Les Eparges 
 to Vigneulles, to a distance of approximately fourteen kilometers. 
 
 2. In a brilliant dash of this sort, the advancing troops are 
 always hailed with the acclaim which they well deserve. The 
 multitude applauds them. But to those of us who know the inside 
 points of the game there comes the thought of those others without 
 whom the success could not have been accomplished. 
 
 3. The duties of engineer troops seldom lead to the path of 
 glory. Their labors and the fruits of them are seldom recognized 
 by the layman. But there are some of us who know of the work 
 that your regiment has done. In this last advance I cannot com- 
 pliment you too highly on it. The 101st Engineers not only did 
 the pioneer work at the front which was their specific duty but also 
 repaired the roads in the rear which should, perhaps, more properly 
 be done by Corps Engineers. 
 
 u n'i T° Ur officers and men repaired roads that were filled with 
 shell holes, wire and other obstacles, roads which in some cases 
 were entirely obliterated. They accomplished their mission in a 
 minimum of time under difficulties which seemed insurmountable. 
 Iney continued their work day and night, laboring unceasingly 
 under fire, making it possible to carry ammunition and supplies 
 to the troops, that they might hold the ground which they had 
 taken Without the supreme effort of your regiment our work 
 would have gone for naught. 
 
 5. I congratulate you on your masterly handling of a difficult 
 piece of work, and through you I congratulate your regiment, 
 which has continued to uphold the best traditions of New England 
 and of the Yankee Division. 
 
 C. R. EDWARDS, 
 
 Major-General, Commanding. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Heroic Machine Gunners 
 
 BFrom lieutenant to lieutenant-colonel is some 
 jump. John D. Murphy of Natick, expert machine 
 gunner, made it and nobody was surprised. We 
 all predicted that Jack would be there when the 
 time came, because if there was ever a man born a soldier, 
 Colonel Murphy was. 
 
 Jack was so successful on the battlefields of France that 
 Uncle Sam awarded him a Distinguished Service Cross for 
 gallantry and the French decorated him with a Croix de 
 Guerre. 
 
 Colonel Murphy came home division machine gun officer 
 of the Yankee Division at the age of twenty-six. He re- 
 turned conscious that he and the machine gunners of the 
 New England division did their share. The going was 
 rough at times and many brave men fell, but like the artil- 
 lery and the infantry, they held up their end. 
 
 That was the goal they had striven for during all those 
 black months — to make good as American soldiers. 
 
 The war toward the close developed into a machine gun 
 duel, which kept Lieutenant-Colonel Murphy and his gun- 
 ners busy nearly twenty -four hours a day. They performed 
 wonderful feats, at times carrying guns by hand across "No 
 Man's Land" and on long hikes to gain effective positions 
 when roads were too badly destroyed to permit of other 
 means of transportation. 
 
 The grit and determination of the Yankee Division ma- 
 chine gunners in making these departures were magnificent. 
 
 They were the brand exhibited by American sires in the 
 Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Jack and his men were 
 always in the thick of it. 
 
 116 
 
HEROIC MACHINE GUNNERS 117 
 
 Colonel Murphy commanded the Ninth Regiment Ma- 
 chine Gun Company during the tour on the Mexican border. 
 They were all Brookline youngsters and he whipped them 
 into such fine shape that regulars praised them. In those 
 days we always called Jack "the West Pointer," because 
 he looked the part, tall, erect, with square shoulders and a 
 natty appearance. He graduated from Norwich Military 
 Academy, which has turned out good men. 
 
 He was a captain when the Yankee Division went to 
 France and he was soon promoted to major, in which 
 capacity he led a machine gun battalion in all the battles. 
 Men were killed and wounded all around him, but Jack 
 Murphy bore a charmed life. 
 
 "I have to pinch myself to make sure I'm really safe at 
 home," said he to me. "I was fortunate. Some of the 
 corners we got into were nasty. Strange how some pull 
 through. Never felt better in my life, but we were all 
 worn to a frazzle when the armistice came. 
 
 "I cannot praise the men of the machine gun units too 
 highly. They were willing and brave. They took an in- 
 terest in the game and they developed rapidly. My hat is 
 off to them. I wish they might all be commended in person. 
 Every lad of them deserves the gratitude of his country- 
 men and so does every man of every other overseas unit who 
 fought on the Western front. 
 
 "The exchange was hot at times. It was hell. Nothing 
 short of it. Boche machine guns were almost as numerous 
 as blades of grass in those hills. Wouldn't have missed it 
 for a million. 
 
 "The result of artillery fire in the world war, the manner 
 in which it destroyed roads and ripped up the landscape, 
 convinced me that pack mules are more practical and more 
 dependable than motor units for machine gun transport. 
 Many times the men were obliged to lug machine guns be- 
 tween them more than a dozen kilometers. I always pre- 
 ferred the mule. He is tough and fearless and can pick his 
 way around and through bad country. Motor equipment 
 
118 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 is too apt to be stalled and when it is, it's worse than nothing 
 at all. 
 
 "I look for the development of a light machine gun which 
 can be carried and operated by a man almost as handily as a 
 rifle. The work and spirit of the machine gunners of the 
 Yankee Division was immense — American clear through." 
 
 Machine gunners in all armies were selected because of 
 their skill and nerve. I have seen them dead at their posts, 
 with heaps of empty shells beside them, showing how gal- 
 lantly they had fought. 
 
 The American machine gunners performed some of the 
 most difficult and heroic work in the closing battles. Their 
 efforts, individually and collectively, make up some of the 
 brightest pages of war history. 
 
 There was the case of "Scotty," the sixteen-year-old 
 hero of the 101st Infantry Machine Gun Company, son of 
 Mrs. Stuart C. Scott of Brookline. "Scotty" was one of 
 the youngest and bravest soldiers in the Yankee Division. 
 He was so gallant that they dedicated a war poster to his 
 heroic death for use in a Liberty Loan drive. 
 
 With every man in his squad killed or wounded, 
 "Scotty," the "baby of the Y-D," continued to defend a 
 dangerous defile in the woods at Chateau Thierry. He had 
 killed thirty-two Germans with his automatic rifle, lying 
 prone out there alone, when a German tricked him by 
 shouting in English: "Don't shoot, I'm an American!" 
 Scotty raised his head in curiosity and a Hun sniper got 
 him. His mother received his Croix de Guerre. 
 
 The 101st Machine Gun Battalion consisted of a squad- 
 ron of Connecticut Cavalry and 200 men from the First 
 Vermont Infantry. The 102d Machine Gun Battalion, 
 which Lieutenant-Colonel (then Major) Murphy com- 
 manded, was composed of a squadron of Massachusetts 
 cavalry less Troop B and plus three officers and 200 men of 
 the First Vermont Infantry. The 103d Machine Gun Bat- 
 talion was made up of a squadron of Rhode Island cavalry 
 plus Troop B of the Massachusetts Cavalry Squadron, a 
 
HEROIC MACHINE GUNNERS 119 
 
 machine gun troop from the New Hampshire Cavalry and 
 three officers and 225 enlisted men from the First Vermont 
 Infantry. 
 
 The Brookline Machine Gun Company remained with 
 the 101st Infantry, each regiment retaining its own machine 
 gun unit. A tabulation made by the Yankee Division on 
 Jan. 8, two months after the armistice, showed that 53.3 per 
 cent of the original officers remained with the 101st Machine 
 Gun Battalion and 63.3 per cent of the enlisted personnel; 
 102d Machine Gun Battalion, 56 per cent of the officers and 
 53 per cent of the men; 103d Machine Gun Battalion, 48 per 
 cent of the officers and 79 per cent of the men, due to cas- 
 ualties and transfers, but chiefly to the former. 
 
 The Yankee Division machine gun units trained in the 
 Neufchateau area and got their baptism in the Toul sector. 
 After that in all the major engagements at Chateau Thierry, 
 the St. Mihiel drive and in the Verdun sector the chronology 
 of the machine gunners' operations is similar to that of the 
 infantry. Both of these branches suffered the heaviest 
 losses, with the doughboys leading the list in all divisions. 
 
 Everybody regretted the death of Lieutenant "Dick" 
 Lincoln, supply officer of the 102d Machine Gun Battalion 
 and formerly of Troop A of the Bay State cavalry. He was 
 killed by an air bomb. Captain G. T. Comerford of 
 Brookline was wounded and Major Morgan J. Buckley, 
 promoted over there from captain, was gassed. Captain 
 Arthur A. Ashford of Portland, Me., also won a major's 
 commission for meritorious service. Major J. L. Howard 
 and Captain Rauden Meyers and others performed dis- 
 tinguished service. 
 
 There was gloom throughout the division when word 
 came that members of the 103d Machine Gun Battalion 
 were killed and injured in a railroad wreck on what was 
 really the first lap of their journey homeward. In battle 
 wholesale deaths did not seem to impress you, one became 
 so calloused, but deaths after hostilities ceased, from acci- 
 dent or illness, seemed more tragic. All but two of those in 
 
120 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 the railroad accident were members of D Company, the 
 two exceptions being members of headquarters company. 
 D Company was composed chiefly of Vermont and Con- 
 necticut men. 
 
 The accident happened near Montieramoy. Six were 
 instantly killed — Corporal Angelo C. Cavellero and 
 Privates Fred C. Foster, Louis A. Blair, Fred H. Guthrie, 
 Monny H. Kannon and Isaac Gillian. Machinist Riley 
 V. Strong and Corporal Gordon G. Warren died at a 
 hospital. Fifteen others were injured — Sergeant Harry 
 Chidsey, Sergeant McReland C. Perkins, Corporal Arthur 
 E. Carey, Privates Joseph Anderson, Jesse O. Bell, Leon 
 G. Gennett, Lender Howell, James W. Hudson, Patrick 
 L. Kinder, James Lynch, Lee R. Manns, Ambrose N. Mc- 
 Manus, Elsey B. Stutes, William H. Ritchie, Wagoner 
 James H. Malone, the latter connected with headquarters 
 company. 
 
 General Edwards paid this tribute to the 102d Machine 
 Gun Battalion: 
 
 HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION, 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 FRANCE, 
 
 Sept. 30, 1918. 
 
 From: Division Commander. 
 
 To: Commanding Officer, 102d Machine Gun Battalion (Through 
 
 Commanding General, Fifty-first Infantry Brigade) . 
 
 Subject: Commendation of your command. 
 
 1. On Sept. 12, 13 and 14 this division played an important 
 part in the reduction of the St. Mihiel salient and the return of 
 fifty square miles of territory to its own people. 
 
 2. Your march from Les Eparges to Vigneulles was a remark- 
 able achievement. Supporting an infantry regiment, you advanced 
 with a part of your battalion fourteen or more kilometers in the 
 darkness of the night, through an unknown territory infested by 
 the enemy, ever pushing on through obstacles and under shell fire, 
 until your ultimate goal was reached. The part that you played 
 with the officers and men of your command will not be forgotten. 
 
HEROIC MACHINE GUNNERS 121 
 
 3. I congratulate you, and through you your subordinate 
 officers and enlisted men, for your unfaltering perseverance and 
 your gallantry and courage. The people of New England have 
 every right to be proud of you, as I am proud of you, for proving 
 your worthiness as soldiers of the Yankee Division. 
 
 C. R. EDWARDS, 
 
 Major-General, Commanding. 
 
 Major Stillman F. Westbrook commanded the 101st 
 Machine Gun Battalion, Captain Hiram W. Mills com- 
 manded B Company and Captain Rawdon W. Myers, C 
 Company. First Lieutenant Chester F. Comey was adju- 
 tant. The other officers were: First Lieutenant Charles A. 
 Pellett, supply officer; First Lieutenants Harold Amory and 
 PhilipS. Wain wright, B Company; First Lieutenants John H. 
 Agnew and Carl J. Sandberg. C Company; Second Lieuten- 
 ants Charles G. Shepard, Andrew S. Gray, Henry L. Fon- 
 taine, John E. Cassidy, Kenneth R. Nisbet, Wendell* H. 
 Teegarden, Morton W. Scoville, Roy D. Heyman, Luther J. 
 Parker, James A. Durston, George J. Berlin, Lawrence H. 
 Hansel, Herbert C. Noyes, Clinton L. Allen, Henry A. 
 Brown and Robert K. Skinner. Captain Luman G. Moore 
 was medical officer, Captain William J. Clegg, dental 
 officer, and First Lieutenant Earl Taggart, chaplain. 
 
 Major William P. Carpenter commanded the 102d Ma- 
 chine Gun Battalion. Captain John A. Humbird commanded 
 C Company and Captain Karl M. Brouse, D Company, 
 First Lieutenant Gerald Courtney was adjutant and First 
 Lieutenant Raymond N. Atherton, supply officer. Captain 
 Leonard H. Ford was medical officer and First Lieutenant 
 Arthur J. Le Veer, chaplain. The other officers were First 
 Lieutenants Francis O. P. Carlson, Barry Keenan, George 
 W. Bunn, William C. Bickle, Gustaf A. Nelson, John C. 
 Carroll and Edward Carlson; Second Lieutenants Cola A. 
 Gray, Edward C. Jackson, Joseph R. Vatcher, John H. 
 Neary, Jesse S. Taylor, Walter B. Vogel, Edward H. 
 Wyatt, Harold F. Still, Walter M. Tenney, Walter A. Ken- 
 yon and Harold M. Fisher. 
 
122 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Major Herbert L. Bowen commanded the 103d Machine 
 Gun Battalion and Major Will N. Thompson, from the 
 Fifty-second Infantry Brigade, was attached. Captain 
 Jack B. Wood commanded B Company, Captain Joseph A. 
 Evarts, D Company, Captain Earle W. Chandler was acting 
 adjutant and First Lieutenant Harold C. Thomas was 
 supply officer. Captain Bertram H. Buxton was medical 
 officer, Captain Abraham B. Rosoff, dental officer, and First 
 Lieutenant Robert Campbell was chaplain. 
 
 The other officers were First Lieutenants Rex B. Mc- 
 Pherson, Roland T. Fenton, Charles H. Saltmarsh, Edward 
 G. Fletcher, George M. Wallace, Howard C. Arnold, Erwin 
 H. Newton, Harry H. Van Hala, Lawrence G. Miller and 
 James H. Wood; Second Lieutenants Robert D. Walbridge, 
 Fessenden D. Manson, Joseph H. Kehl, William W. Macom- 
 ber, Merle E. Geary, Charles E. Ames, Henry C. Lewis, 
 Paul D. Mattice, George L. McManus, Sheridan P. Dow 
 and Frank J. Stewart. 
 
 The 101st Trench Mortar Battery, made up chiefly of 
 the old First Maine Heavy Artillery, did tip-top work. It 
 was commanded by Captain James A. Walsh of No. 12 
 Mayfair Street, Roxbury. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Edwards Eulogizes Litter-bearers 
 
 BThe Sanitary Train kept pace with all other 
 branches of the Yankee Division. The organiza- 
 tion of the Ambulance Section and the zeal and 
 courage of the litter-bearers equalled those of any 
 American combat division. 
 
 There were no more willing or intrepid medical units in 
 the American Expeditionary Forces than those from New 
 England. They rescued and administered to the wounded 
 under the most perilous conditions. Many litter-bearers 
 were wounded and killed. Their performances and sacrifices 
 were among the most sublime in the Yankee Division. 
 
 Captain Herbert W. Taylor, M. C, commanded the 
 Ambulance Section, and his assistant, who deserves equal 
 praise, was Captain Joseph R. Helf, M. C, of Keene, N. H. 
 I don't think there were two more conscientious soldiers in 
 the A, E. F. 
 
 The Ambulance Section received warm praise from Gen- 
 eral Edwards in the following citation: 
 
 HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION, 
 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 
 FRANCE, 
 
 Sept. 30, 1918. 
 From: Division Commander. 
 
 To : Captain Herbert W. Taylor, M. C, Commanding Ambulance 
 Section, 101st Sanitary Train. 
 
 Subject: Commendation of 101st and 102d Ambulance Com- 
 panies. 
 
 1. I have been informed by the Division Surgeon of the ex- 
 ceptionally meritorious service rendered by the Dressing Station 
 
 123 
 
124 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 and Litter-Bearer Detachments of the 101st Ambulance Company 
 and the Ambulance and Litter-Bearer Detachments of the 102d 
 Ambulance Company on Sept. 25th, 26th and 27th, during the 
 attack on the towns of Marcheville and Riaville. 
 
 2. From an observation post I had personally observed the 
 gallant work of the ambulance drivers and litter-bearers under 
 terrific enemy shell fire, machine gun fire and rifle fire. From pre- 
 vious experience I know that the wounded of my division would be 
 well cared for under all conditions. My confidence in my sanitary 
 personnel during all our engagements has left my mind free for 
 other matters. 
 
 3. But from my point of vantage my view was only superficial. 
 It was not until later that I learned that you had established your 
 dressing station in a daringly advanced position under direct shell 
 fire and that your officers and men continued their operations 
 until the station caved in after many direct hits. Your ambulances 
 and litter-bearers worked unceasingly under this terrible fire for 
 over twenty-four hours, continuously searching for and carrying 
 the wounded. Colonel Porter states that your service was the 
 most remarkable that he has ever known in the United States 
 Army. 
 
 4. I congratulate you personally on your splendid manage- 
 ment of the situation, and through you I congratulate your officers 
 and men on their intrepid and gallant conduct. You have all done 
 much to further the glorious record of the Yankee Division, of 
 which we are all so proud. 
 
 C. R. EDWARDS, 
 Major-General, Commanding. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Fred E. Jones commanded the 101st 
 Sanitary Train. He was always on the job at the front and 
 had enough nerve for a half dozen men. The other Sanitary 
 Train officers were: Major Frederick L. Bogan, director of 
 the Division Field Hospital; Major Herbert W. Taylor, 
 commanding the Ambulance Section; Major Frederick L. 
 Blair, Major Maurice P. Jones and Major Elmer R. Edson, 
 all of Field Hospital 101; Major Leonard W. Hassett, 
 commanding Field Hospital 103; Majors Frank W. Stev- 
 ens and Benjamin F. Hawk of Field Hospital 104; Major 
 Charles S. Walker, Medical Supply Unit; Captain Bernard 
 H. Lovely, personnel adjutant; Captains Joseph H. Dunn, 
 
EDWARDS EULOGIZES LITTER-BEARERS 125 
 
 Joseph B. Edwards, John P. Bethel, Orlyn Wiseman, Clyde 
 C. Johnston, Robert B. Durham, Joseph H. Cutchin, 
 Charles H. Sprague, Marshall A. Wellbourn, Forrest J. 
 Drury, Joseph K. Surls, Thomas D. MacRossie, Frederick L. 
 Gregory, Robert H. Breslin and Thomas V, Daley of the 
 ambulance sections; Captains James H. Malonson, How- 
 ard L. Cecil, Arthur A. Weed, Harold F. Parker, Roy E. 
 Fallas, Chester P. Brown, John S. Buchanan and Thomas 
 L. A. Shaffer of the field hospitals; Captain Walter D. 
 Kells, dental laboratory; Captain Frank Willis, medical 
 supply unit; Captain Gustave P. Grabfield, sanitary officer; 
 Captain James F. Cobey and First Lieutenants Harry L. 
 Upshaw, Henry L. Christiansen, Hunter S. Woodberry, 
 Paul B. Roen, Swinton L. Lane, John E. Harris and John C. 
 Prather. 
 
 The 101st Field Signal Battalion also did yeoman service. 
 The men of this command had a difficult and hazardous 
 duty. It was their function to keep communications and 
 telephones in working order. Disrupted communication 
 might mean the loss of a battle and many lives. So when the 
 shells were dropping thickest the signal men had to be on the 
 job, in broad daylight as well as night, because whenever a 
 wire was cut it had to be repaired at once, no matter how 
 dangerous or exposed the point where the fixing had to be 
 done. 
 
 The heroism of the signal men equalled that of any branch 
 of the service, as did their efficiency. Many of them were 
 cited and decorated and quite a few were killed and wounded. 
 I heard of the case of a youngster of eighteen in another 
 division whose leg was nearly severed at the knee, but who 
 lifted himself into a tree to repair a wire and he swooned as 
 he was finishing the job. 
 
 Such pluck was not uncommon in the Yankee Division. 
 As early as the Apremont and Seicheprey fights the signal 
 men showed the stuff that was in them, and in the major 
 battles of the war they often accomplished what seemed 
 impossible in the face of rifle and machine gun and shell fire. 
 
126 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Major Harry G. Chase, who developed the Massachusetts 
 Field Signal Battalion into one of the best in the Na- 
 tional Guard, was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and 
 awarded a Distinguished Service Medal. His signal 
 battalion was always considered a model. He was 
 placed in command of all army signal schools in 
 France and remained abroad longer than the division. 
 
 The success of the 101st Field Signal Battalion was due, in 
 a large measure, to the zeal and leadership of Major Addison 
 
 F. Crafts, who commanded the battalion. His officers were: 
 Captain Volney B. Bowles, A Company; Captain William C. 
 
 G. Simkins, B Company, and Captain Russell Hobbs, C 
 Company; First Lieutenants Archie B. McPherson, Harold 
 S. Pratt, John J. Wray and Alphonsus C. Fox; Second 
 Lieutenants Benjamin F. Parker, Claude C. Dudley, Herbert 
 E. Burns, Ralph W. French, William L. Friend, C. F. Hunt- 
 ington, Arthur S. Greenwood, Theodore B. Smith, Joseph 
 W. Vermilye, Malcolm N. Webster, Edmund J. Winslow 
 and Ernest G. Wunderlich; Captain Daniel S. Harrop, 
 Captain Eugene J. McCarthy, medical officers; Captain 
 Merwin K. Fox, dental officer; First Lieutenant Malcolm 
 E. Peabody, chaplain. 
 
 The Yankee Division motor cycle dispatch riders who 
 took all sorts of perilous trips without flinching were: 
 Sergeant Edward J. Nelson, Corporal Elmus M. Kaldoch, 
 Privates Bertram G. Johnson, Alexander Tadesco, Charles 
 G. Mature, Harry L. Dewar, Herbert R. Boomhower, 
 Harry E. Avery, Ernest M. Bryanton, Raymond A. Nystrom, 
 Harry B. Kent, Fred L. Kent, Francis X. Desmond, Edwin 
 Hobbs, Harold F. Kropp, John F. Hanley, Jeremiah Tryon, 
 Elmer Boutin and George A. Stanton. 
 
 The personnel of the Yankee Division message centre was 
 Battalion Major Arthur L. Gavin, Sergeant James F. Day- 
 lor, First Class Private Thomas G. Kelley, First Class 
 Private Fred Harrahy and Privates Ralph Carr, Frank 
 P. Fornason, Martin Maher, James Smith and Joseph 
 Stafford. 
 
EDWARDS EULOGIZES LITTER-BE A RERS 127 
 
 Lieutenant A. C. Erwin of Detroit, Mich., was in charge 
 of the telegraph office. The knights of the key were Harry 
 Goldberg, No. 105 Southern Avenue, Dorchester, and Mich- 
 ael King of Cambridge, both formerly employed at the West- 
 ern Union main office on Congress Street, Boston. Sergeant 
 Charles Borse of Brookline was a division photographer. 
 
 In the French telegraph office in Eccomoy I found Hugh 
 Brinkley at work, jabbering French as fluently as English. 
 He is the son of Mrs. Lawrence de Cane of No. 541 West 
 Park Street, Dorchester, and brother of Sue Brinkley, the 
 well known singer and winner of first prize in a beauty con- 
 test. The first thing Hugh did was to show me the latest 
 photo of his mother. He was with the Signal Battalion on 
 the border and came through the European fuss without a 
 scar. 
 
 There was not a harder worker overseas than Colonel 
 Warren E. Sweetser, commander of the 101st Train Head- 
 quarters and formerly commander of the old Sixth Massa- 
 chusetts Infantry. Lieutenant-Colonel William H. Dolan of 
 Fitchburg helped Colonel Sweetser organize and develop 
 the military police unit of the Yankee Division. Colonel 
 Dolan was one of the most efficient soldiers in the division. 
 
 Colonel Sweetser's adjutant was Captain Charles E. Ake- 
 ley; Captain George H. Kirkpatrick, medical officer; Cap- 
 tain Arthur W. Ewing, dental officer; First Lieutenant 
 Robert F. White, supply officer; Captain John E. Wilson 
 attached. 
 
 Captain Michael J. Dee made an able commander of the 
 division military police company, assisted by Second Lieu- 
 tenant Freeman F. Dodge. First Lieutenant George H. 
 Ware commanded Labor Detachment No. 1; First Lieuten- 
 ant Roger W. Bennett commanded Labor Detachment 
 No. 2 and First Lieutenant Isaac Alexander was medical 
 officer. 
 
 First Lieutenant Lawrence D. Jenkins acted as assistant 
 zone major, and First Lieutenants Thomas J. Marley and 
 Ralph Cohn and Second Lieutenants Merle E. Geary and 
 
128 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 George W. Emsley served as town majors for the Yankee 
 Division. 
 
 On Feb. 19 the Yankee Division was given its final 
 review by General Pershing at Eccomoy and the commander- 
 in-chief praised the troops for their splendid appearance and 
 discipline. Some of the units had to be carried twenty 
 miles in trucks. The truck drivers worked forty-eight hours 
 to get all the troops at the review point on time. 
 
 Major-General Harry C. Hale, who commanded the divi- 
 sion when it came home, was so pleased with the feat of the 
 motor section that he sent this letter to Colonel Sweetser: 
 
 "HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION, 
 "FRANCE, 
 
 February, 1919. 
 
 "Colonel Warren E. Sweetser, commanding Train Headquarters 
 
 and Military Police, Eccomoy, France: 
 "The successful review of this division on Feb. 19 by the com- 
 mander-in-chief was made possible only by the extremely efficient 
 co-operation of the personnel of the divisional trains in conveying 
 a large part of the division to and from the review ground. 
 
 "I am aware of the serious obstacles that beset the truck drivers 
 in carrying out their work in this connection, and have learned 
 with gratification of their loyal, untiring and effective efforts in 
 surmounting these obstacles. It is at times like these, when such 
 unusual, unselfish and arduous work is demanded to insure suc- 
 cess, that the mettle of the soldier is tried, and in this case the 
 prompt and loyal response to the demand shows that the test was 
 met in every instance. 
 
 "I take this occasion, also, to congratulate you and the officers 
 and men belonging to the trains of this division upon their expert 
 skill in so long maintaining the trains in a serviceable condition, 
 and upon their labor and care in keeping them in a clean condition. 
 And their discipline and efficiency in those respects are equaled by 
 their careful observance of road regulations. 
 
 "I congratulate and thank you all. 
 
 "HARRY C. HALE, 
 
 "Major-General, United States Army, Commanding." 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A Surgeon's War Impressions 
 
 BI Obtained a medical slant on modern war from 
 Major Frederick L. Bogan of Dorchester, who was 
 appointed director of the Field Hospital of the 
 Yankee Division the day I met him in Eccomoy. 
 It was a well-earned promotion. Fred was congratulated 
 all along the line. He and every member of the medical 
 staff gave their best over there, often toiling until they almost 
 dropped from exhaustion. 
 
 I will cite an instance to illustrate how the "medicos," 
 as the doughboys called them, had to work when the maimed 
 and the dying were rushed back in staggering numbers from 
 the front line. I was standing outside an evacuation hospital 
 of another division one day during the early fighting in the 
 Marne, before the Yankee Division got into the scrapping 
 in that sector. 
 
 Two army surgeons, aprons stained by fresh blood, came 
 out of the operating room for a breath of fresh air and 
 cigarettes. One was young and the other an older man of 
 reputation as a surgeon in private practice. They had 
 scarcely stepped into the early morning sunlight when an 
 orderly announced that a critical operation was necessary 
 at once in the case of a marine. 
 
 "Hell," said the younger surgeon. "I was in hopes that 
 case would wait a few hours longer. I didn't think the 
 patient was equal to it, just yet." 
 
 "The commanding surgeon says the patient is fit now," 
 replied the orderly, saluting and turning on his heel. 
 
 "I've been on fifteen hours and don't feel in the mood," 
 said the older surgeon. 
 
 129 
 
130 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "And I've been at it ten hours. It's a ticklish job and 
 one that demands a more practiced hand than mine," said 
 the younger. 
 
 "Tackle it, lad, you're fresher than I am." 
 
 "But you could do the job so much better." 
 
 "I'll tell you how we'll settle it. Let's toss up," said 
 the older surgeon, who lost. He went in and his skill saved 
 the soldier's life, and I wondered if the coin had turned dif- 
 ferently and the younger had performed the operation, 
 whether he would have been so successful. It seemed to me 
 that in a measure at least the fate of the corporal depended 
 on the flip of that franc. 
 
 This incident was a rarity. Had they been inside they 
 would not have debated the matter an instant. I have seen 
 operating rooms in the chateau of titled persons who turned 
 over their estates to army hospital units and in halls and 
 library lay American doughboys desperately wounded 
 awaiting the knife that would send them back to their 
 relatives or to eternity. 
 
 I have seen doughboys with blanched faces studying the 
 designs of valuable tapestries that hung in the foyers of 
 ancient chateau, smoking cigarettes while two of their com- 
 rades were in the busy room, waiting for orderlies to bear 
 them on a stretcher into the apartment heavy with the odor 
 of anesthetics. 
 
 I have chatted with them as they lay on their cots on 
 the lawn, after they had pulled through with a new lease of 
 life, and I have seen forms carried shrouded to a remote tent 
 known as the "morgue," where company carpenters made 
 crude army coffins for them. I have seen them buried in 
 olive drab army blankets when the material for coffins gave 
 out and when casualties increased with the magnitude of 
 operations. 
 
 I have seen surgeons and first aid men at work in mine 
 craters and in the ruins of houses and under the battered 
 arches of bridges and in wrecked churches with shells crack- 
 ing all about. The American people owe a debt of grati- 
 
A SURGEON'S WAR IMPRESSIONS 131 
 
 tude to the professional men for their war services — to the 
 army doctors and surgeons and to the army chaplains. 
 Each class is entitled to a book dealing with their respective 
 contributions and accomplishments. 
 
 Major Bogan's father was colonel of the old Ninth In- 
 fantry of the Massachusetts National Guard in Cuba. He 
 died during that campaign and Colonel Logan's father suc- 
 ceeded him as regimental commander. Major Bogan 
 commanded the 102d Field Hospital before assuming com- 
 mand of the Division Field Hospital. Speaking of impres- 
 sions he said: 
 
 "It almost got you to see the fellows you knew, all 
 crumpled up. It was worse after you had picked them for 
 their physical soundness to see them wounded. I had 
 passed them, and a finer built crew couldn't be found in the 
 country — young, and lithe, and strong. 
 
 "Our hospital was handling all kinds of cases, gas and 
 everything. 
 
 "It was tough to see kids who lived around the corner 
 from you sucking for breath and when you bled them to see 
 the blood ooze black and thick as chocolate because of gas 
 poison. 
 
 "But weren't they game! I didn't think it was in the 
 ordinary man to show such fortitude. That was one of the 
 surprises of the war. I saw doughboys smile with mud and 
 blood in their hair. I saw them smile mortally wounded. 
 I saw them die with a smile on their lips, and that isn't an 
 exaggeration. 
 
 "Their patience and courage was magnificent. It gripped 
 your heart. It made you give the best that was in you. 
 
 "The war put a dent in your private life. We will all 
 have to go back and build our practice anew. It kept us 
 away from our homes and families. But every man is the 
 richer for the experience. I wouldn't have missed it for 
 anything. It has made every participant, from commander- 
 in-chief to buck private, broader and more sympathetic. 
 It was an education. 
 
132 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "And the war brought out new traits in men, or de- 
 veloped them. There was Mike Sweeney of Ward 8, one of my 
 handy men who carried litters until corns grew on his hands, 
 a dare-devil rough and ready, with about as much sentiment 
 in him as a clam. At least that's what we thought, but he 
 fooled us. 
 
 "Mike came to me one day with a long face and said he 
 didn't think it was right to have the dead lying in an old 
 French barn which we were using in a ruined village. I 
 asked him why. He said the place didn't look clean enough 
 for fellows he had known. I asked him if he would like to 
 be manager of the morgue and he jumped at the chance. 
 
 "The way he worked in that barn was a caution. First 
 he shovelled and then he swept and spread lime and tidied 
 things up generally, and he insisted that every soldier's 
 body be handled as tenderly as a woman handles an infant. 
 Mike made good in that job as he did in everything, only he 
 seemed to take a greater interest in this than anything he 
 ever did. War brought out a new side of his nature as it 
 did with most men. 
 
 "When we were in the Toul sector I had a hospital that 
 the men called 'Bogan's Hotel,' because we gave them eggs 
 and pie there. We used several thousand eggs a week, and 
 if the pies gave out there was a howl of disappointment. It 
 has been an awful grind, but it was worth while." 
 
 I wanted a haircut and found the barber and tailor of the 
 headquarters troop toiling side by side in a room little larger 
 than a closet in the barn attached to a private residence. 
 They were cousins. The barber was Harry Kohlligan, who 
 had a shop at No. 943^ Washington Avenue, Chelsea, and 
 the tailor, Joseph Madancy, who used to sit Turk fashion on 
 a bench at No. Ill Summer Street. Both lived at No. 274 
 Spruce Street, Chelsea. 
 
 If General Edwards heard the fine things these two 
 privates said about him he would be flattered. I'll wager 
 the general's ears burned in Boston that day. Said Kohlli- 
 gan as he kept the shears snipping merrily near my ears: 
 
A SURGEON'S WAR IMPRESSIONS 133 
 
 "All the men loved General Edwards. We were lone- 
 some when he went away He called you 'My son' when 
 he met you and he went right into the front line. He was a 
 fine soldier and a fine man, was General Edwards. The men 
 would go to hell for him." 
 
 Said Tailor Madancy: 
 
 "We didn't have time for this work when the fighting 
 was on. We were both mounted couriers then. We 
 learned to ride in the old country. I served in the army 
 there. I have had some sad thoughts as I worked at tailor- 
 ing after fights. I have had to patch holes made by bullets 
 and shrapnel and have had to shorten sleeves. It makes 
 you think, this game of war tailoring." 
 
 Corporal Cyril B. Dumas of West Barrington breezed in 
 and greeted us cheerily. He also eulogized General Ed- 
 wards, adding: 
 
 "I was a jockey seven years. That's why I left the 101st 
 Engineers to join headquarters troop. You wouldn't think 
 I was married and the father of three kids, would you? 
 Well, that's me. But it couldn't keep me away from the 
 war. Sure, I rattle off French like a native. Why shouldn't 
 I? My mother was born in Verdun, where we were billeted 
 for a spell, and my father was born in Lyons. 
 
 "I liked mounted courier work. It was exciting at times 
 and dangerous. Dick Currie of Watertown and Corporal 
 Meuse of Wakefield had horses killed, but they escaped. 
 Part of a tree hit my mount one night. The horses shied 
 easily. What scared them most was our own batteries. 
 When the guns suddenly flashed near you and you didn't 
 think there was a battery within a mile it made the horses 
 bolt. Shells dropped close at times, but orders were to get 
 through some way and we did our best." 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Yanks All Athletes 
 
 B Colonel John H. Allen, division surgeon, told me 
 he never saw finer physical specimens than were the 
 rank and file of the men of the Yankee Division. 
 He said they were broad-shouldered, thick-chested 
 and clean-limbed, "regular athletes." 
 
 A medical census taken early in February, while the 
 division was in the Eccomoy area, showed the percentage of 
 sickness to be one and four-tenths per cent, which was con- 
 sidered unusually low. The cases were all minor, such as 
 colds, tonsilitis and grippe, with a few cases of pneumonia. 
 No division in the army got any finer medical care and the 
 men showed it. 
 
 After we arrived home you heard people remark every- 
 where how rugged the men appeared, and those who re- 
 turned unwounded are better than they ever were in their 
 lives, now that the strain and hardships are over. And the 
 answer was — life in the open. 
 
 That was the medicine that proved the chief mainstay. 
 Hundreds of soldiers found it difficult and uncomfortable 
 to sleep indoors at first. They tossed about and seemed 
 stifled. It took them quite a while to become accustomed 
 to civilized sleeping comforts. 
 
 People at home saw them iive months after the fighting 
 ceased. They should have seen some of the men and 
 officers during the closing weeks of fighting in the hills north 
 of Verdun. They would have found them with drawn 
 faces and hollow-eyed and on the verge of mental and physi- 
 cal collapse, especially many of the officers. The long rest 
 
 134 
 
YANKS ALL ATHLETES 135 
 
 period that followed the armistice, the first real lay-off that 
 the Yankee Division received in France, made everybody 
 about as "fit as a fiddle." The duties and responsibilities 
 of the medical staff were heavy. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas L. Jenkins was sanitary 
 inspector of the Yankee Division, Major William B. Morgan 
 was assistant sanitary inspector, Major Carl R. Bailey, Ma- 
 jor Charles W. Comfort and Captain Robert 0. Blood were 
 assistant division surgeons, Captain Paul O. Collins of 
 Detroit, Mich., was water supply officer. He had the very 
 vital duty of going ahead of the division and testing the 
 water supply in every region where a division unit was to be 
 billeted. 
 
 He said he found water unfit to drink in many places, but 
 never came across a well that had been deliberately poisoned 
 by the enemy. The health of the men depended directly 
 on the character of the water supply, so that, in a large 
 measure, Captain Collins, only recently out of college, had 
 the welfare and lives of some 27,000 to worry about. He 
 was a hustler, and he loved his work. 
 
 Captain Joseph R. Helff was assistant divisional surgeon. 
 Captain Harry A. Stedkel was division psychiatrist and 
 Lieutenant Isaac Alexander, neurologist. 
 
 There were so many Hales at division headquarters that 
 the men used a parody on that familiar song which ran : 
 
 "Hale! Hale! the gang's all here, 
 
 Where in h — 1 is Edwards?" 
 
 Major-General Harry C. Hale, commanding the division, 
 was joined by Colonel Richard K. Hale, the popular artillery 
 expert, as chief of staff, after Colonel Duncan J. Major, the 
 so-called "storm center of the division," retired, and Captain 
 Willis H. Hale was aide-de-camp. The other aides were 
 Captain Charles D. Hodges and Lawrence B. Cummings. 
 
 Colonel William H. Dolan of Fitchburg was divisional 
 ordnance officer and his assistant was Captain Charles W. 
 Bowen; Lieutenant-Colonel John D. Murphy of Natick, 
 
136 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 divisional machine gun officer; Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred F. 
 Foote, divisional inspector, and First Lieutenant John P. 
 King and Second Lieutenant John P. Lane, assistant in- 
 spectors. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Elon F. Tandy of Fitchburg was 
 divisional quartermaster and there was not a better one in 
 the American Expeditionary Forces. His assistants were 
 Captain Oscar G. Lagerquist, Captain Martin A. Kenealy, 
 Captain Frank P. Edwards, Captain Robert B. Dickson, 
 First Lieutenant Roy E. Decker, First Lieutenant August 
 S. Atwood and Second Lieutenants Richard J. Leonard and 
 Charles I. Boynton. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Charles A. Stevens was divisional 
 adjutant, and his assistants were Captain-Major George M. 
 King and Lieutenant James W. Boyer. Colonel Stevens 
 had a perfect record system. I don't think there was a 
 better one in the American Expeditionary Forces. They 
 could produce a record or order or a citation in a jiffy, and 
 the working force came in for its share of praise. The adju- 
 tant's office was a beehive just before the division sailed for 
 home with the mass of army paper work to attend to, and 
 great as was the task, it was done with dispatch, and, what 
 was more important, it was done accurately. 
 
 Lieutenant Boyer had a remarkable memory. He could 
 give you offhand a man's middle initial or a date when a 
 certain order or citation was issued and he was always right. 
 He was a wizard in this respect and a "find" for Colonel 
 Stevens. Boyer is a Chelsea boy and a member of the 
 regular army. He was formerly in the Massachusetts Coast 
 Artillery. 
 
 General Hale was so pleased with the work of the statisti- 
 cal department of the Yankee Division that he sent this 
 commendation to Colonel Stevens: 
 
YANKS ALL ATHLETES 137 
 
 HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION, 
 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 
 FRANCE, 
 
 March 17, 1919. 
 Lieutenant-Colonel C. A. Stevens, 
 
 Adjutant, Twenty-sixth Division. 
 My dear Colonel Stevens : 
 
 During the period of four months that I have been with this 
 division I have noted with satisfaction the growing efficiency of the 
 personnel of your office. Their work is not such as to bring them 
 into public notice, but they deserve recognition for faithful and 
 effective service, nevertheless. 
 
 I wish, therefore, to express to you, and, through you, to the 
 officers and men of your department, my appreciation of the loyal, 
 conscientious and successful work that you have all done in fulfill- 
 ing your part in this war, and I desire to add to that appreciation 
 my thanks as your division commander. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 HARRY O. HALE, 
 Major-General, Commanding. 
 
 Captain Charles B. Campbell of South Orange, N. J., 
 was division personnel adjutant, and his records were also 
 in apple-pie order. Captain Emerson G. Taylor did 
 splendid work compiling statistics as historical officer. 
 First Lieutenant James E. Kreigh and Second Lieutenant 
 Russell K. Barnes assisted the personnel adjutant. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Albert E. Greenlaw was assistant C. 
 of S. G.-l, assisted by Captain Malcolm Stoddard, Captain 
 Howard J. Sachs, First Lieutenant Harry Van Hala and 
 Second Lieutenant Harry L. Jones. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton R. Hersey was assistant 
 C. of S. G.-2, assisted by Captain Richard C. Peters, First 
 Lieutenant Harold E. Washburn, interpreter, and First 
 Lieutenant Benjamin Pitman. 
 
 Major Emerson G. Taylor and Major Paul Loughridge 
 were assistants to G-3, as was Captain Oliver Wolcott, son 
 of the late Governor Wolcott, 
 
138 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Captain Keith P. Ribble was division gas officer. He 
 was assisted by First Lieutenant H. W. Brown. Captain 
 William J. Henderson, as transport officer, had his hands 
 full. Captain Gustave P. Grabfield was delousing officer, 
 Captain Walter D. Kells was acting dental surgeon when 
 the division came home and Captain Paul L. White remained 
 at school in France. 
 
 First Lieutenant Thomas J. Byrne and Second Lieuten- 
 ant Winthrop P. Mandell were tip-top officers in Head- 
 quarters Troop. Lieutenant Mandell is a member of the 
 Boston Transcript family. He developed into an A-l 
 soldier. 
 
 Captain Edwin S. Cooper as division photographer was 
 cited for his pluck in snapping battle scenes. First Lieuten- 
 ant Carl H. Hood was athletic officer. The 104th Infantry 
 won the last big divisional athletic tournament held in 
 France. 
 
 First Lieutenant Alexander Macdonald had his problems 
 as division mail officer. 
 
 Captain James F. Coburn had the distinction of acting 
 as division judge-advocate, just before the homeward journey, 
 as Colonel Harry B. Anderson, judge-advocate, was ordered 
 to remain in France. 
 
 The several welfare organizations did good work with 
 the Yankee Division, the Y. M. C. A., the Jewish Welfare 
 Board, the Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army, and 
 the Red Cross. The Knights of Columbus' rendezvous in 
 Eccomoy was always thronged. It was amusing to see the 
 doughboys puffing their corn-cobs, which they nicknamed 
 "Missouri meerschaums." 
 
 Everybody praised the activities of the various welfare 
 secretaries and particularly the diligence and generosity of 
 Captain Rufus H. Thomas, a Boston clubman, who repre- 
 sented the Red Cross. I never heard anything but praise 
 for the Red Cross overseas, and listen to what Colonel John 
 H. Allen, division surgeon of the Yankee Division, said 
 about it : 
 
YANKS ALL ATHLETES 139 
 
 "We don't know what we would have done without 
 Captain Thomas and the Red Cross. They certainly de- 
 livered the goods. They were always doing something fine 
 for us. The Red Cross put about $5,000 in cash in our 
 field hospitals." 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Seicheprey a Reverse 
 
 BThe Yankee Division did not take part in a major 
 operation until it relieved the Second Division at 
 the Marne in July. In the Chemin-des-Dames, 
 where it received its baptism, it conducted and 
 repulsed minor raids. 
 
 In the Toul sector, the fights in the Apremont Woods and 
 at Seicheprey in April, 1918, were the largest actions in 
 which any American units had been engaged up to that time, 
 but compared with later battles, these two early engagements 
 on a front not far from the birthplace of Joan of Arc should 
 be classified as serious raids and nothing more. 
 
 When the investigation is conducted in Washington, 
 regular army witnesses are almost certain to testify that 
 Seicheprey was an American reverse and it must, in historical 
 accuracy and fairness, be so recorded, so far as the first 
 thrust was concerned. But when the German "flying circus" 
 struck a second time that day, they received a hot reception. 
 It was no reverse then. Raids, on every front, are give-and- 
 take propositions. 
 
 Seicheprey, a ruined village, lay in an exposed position. 
 Fifteen hundred German shock troops attacked in daylight, 
 captured or killed our outposts and machine gun pointers, 
 remained in the village to clean up and carried off a number 
 of prisoners, including the doctor and his crew commanding 
 the battalion hospital. 
 
 The battalion of the 102d Infantry, chiefly Connecticut 
 men, which had been guarding the village, stiffened its front 
 and was reinforced to meet the second attack that afternoon. 
 The first attack had the effect of a stinging blow between the 
 
 140 
 
SEICHEPREY A REVERSE 141 
 
 eyes, but the men from the Nutmeg State recovered and 
 pitched into the Heinies with the fury of tigers. 
 
 They fought the seasoned enemy troops with rifle, pistol, 
 bayonet and grenade. They fought them hand-to-hand in 
 the streets and in ruined houses, cellars and dugouts. They 
 fought with their fists and they drove the enemy back. On 
 that day the Huns got their first real taste of the strength, 
 ability and courage of Yankee troops at close quarters. They 
 discovered that they were no match for our fellows with steel 
 and in rough-and-tumble tactics. 
 
 At Seicheprey the Germans laid their first death traps for 
 the Americans. They fastened grenades to the bodies of 
 dead Americans and adjusted wires so that those who han- 
 dled the bodies might be maimed or killed. They left be- 
 hind, in conspicuous places, attractive boxes, which, if 
 picked up, would blow the finder into eternity. The New 
 Englanders, in that scrimmage, learned a lot about the 
 artifices of modern warfare as practiced by the Boches, 
 and they learned, too, to be wary of German methods and 
 "souvenirs." 
 
 In the Seicheprey encounter the German losses were 
 heavier than ours in dead, judging from the number of 
 Boches buried by our men. But they claimed to have cap- 
 tured more prisoners than our units did, a claim which they 
 backed up by sending over a group photograph of the men 
 taken. 
 
 Apremont and Seicheprey steadied the Yankee Division 
 and showed the mettle that was in it. In later operations on 
 that front the Yankees always had the better of the argu- 
 ment. They became masters of No Man's Land and the 
 Germans had a wholesome respect for their artillery. 
 
 In the Apremont Woods fight the 104th Infantry, an all- 
 Massachusetts regiment, made up of increments from the 
 Second, Sixth and Eighth Regiments of the National Guard, 
 helped the French repulse a determined attack by German 
 storm troops. The fight lasted three days and the enemy was 
 trounced. 
 
142 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 The French army authorities were so pleased with the 
 work of the 104th Infantry that they decorated its colors. It 
 was the first American regiment thus honored by a foreign 
 army. 
 
 The French general, in conferring the decoration, said: 
 
 "This regiment showed during the battles, April 10, 11 
 and 13, the greatest audacity and a fine spirit of sacrifice. 
 Subjected to very violent bombardments and attacked by 
 very important German forces, it succeeded in checking a 
 dangerous advance, and retook, at the point of the bayonet, 
 with vigorous energy the few demolished trenches from which 
 it had fallen back at the first assault." 
 
 The men of the 104th cited for bravery were decorated 
 that day also. The ceremony was held on a Sunday after- 
 noon in a hollow back of the lines on the outskirts of Boucq, 
 where divisional headquarters had been located. German 
 and American artillery were active. The boom of cannon 
 floated over the ridge. 
 
 The sky had been overcast, but the sun broke through the 
 clouds during the ceremony, adding color to a scene that will 
 never be forgotten by those of us who were lucky enough to 
 witness it. 
 
 The honored regiment was drawn up in hollow square and 
 the file of heroes was so long that it stretched clear across the 
 meadow. At the head of the line stood the Rev. John B. 
 DesValles of New Bedford, who had carried rescued wounded 
 on his back under fire, and at the other end was the Rev. 
 Walton S. Danker of Worcester, who had administered to 
 wounded and dying like Father DesValles. Chaplain Danker 
 was killed by a shell some weeks later. He and Father Des 
 Valles were the first army chaplains in the American Expedi- 
 tionary Forces decorated. With the others in line that day 
 they received the Croix de Guerre for distinguished service. 
 
 Six Salvation Army lassies and a sprinkling of French 
 peasant girls and civilians were among the spectators on the 
 hill. The regimental band played the "Star Spangled Ban- 
 
SEICHEPREY A REVERSE 143 
 
 ner" and the "Marseillaise," and heavy artillery continued 
 to boom in the distance. 
 
 The French general passed smartly down the line ac- 
 companied by General Edwards and staff. As the French 
 officer pinned a medal on the breast of each Bay State soldier 
 he congratulated him and shook his hand, and General 
 Edwards had a word of praise also. 
 
 "Cheer up, son, don't look so solemn," said General Ed- 
 wards to one youngster who looked as if he was head pall- 
 bearer at a funeral. "This is nothing to be downcast over. 
 Smile. It's a proud day for us all, an event of historical 
 importance. Remember, lad, it's the first time in history 
 that an American regiment has had its colors decorated by a 
 European army." 
 
 The men took the cue, forgot their stage fright, grinned 
 broadly. Midway in the line, pale and tense, stood Private 
 James Corbin of Somerville. Just as the French general 
 finished pinning the Croix de Guerre on his blouse, Corbin 
 fell backwards in a dead faint. It was a dramatic touch. 
 
 He was wounded and had insisted on leaving his cot in 
 the hospital to receive his honor on the field with the others 
 and the strain and excitement had proven too much. But he 
 was himself soon again and the centre of an admiring group 
 at the close of the ceremony. 
 
 There were grim gaps in the line, marking the places of 
 dead and wounded heroes of the regiment, The posthumous 
 medals were sent to relatives at home and those for the 
 wounded were distributed to them in the hospital later that 
 day. 
 
 During the regimental review a lieutenant from another 
 regiment, standing on the sidelines, said out loud: 
 
 "The Germans can never lick a crowd like that or lower 
 that flag!" 
 
 And they never did. 
 
 Curious to ascertain the uppermost thought of a man just 
 decorated, virtually on the field of battle, I asked Private J. 
 H. Gallagher what his first thought was after the French 
 
144 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 general fastened the medal to his breast, and Gallagher's 
 reply was: 
 
 "I thought how proud my mother would be to hear it." 
 
 No danger or suffering, no matter how great, was able to 
 pry them away from the mother love. It was one of the most 
 beautiful sentiments of army life at the front, and you saw 
 it manifested in ever so many subtle ways. 
 
 In those two April fights, which occurred so close to Con- 
 cord and Lexington Day, the youngsters from home showed 
 the stuff that was in them. They went in with the pluck 
 and tenacity of veterans. They did all sorts of heroic stunts. 
 They made sacrifices to rescue wounded comrades. Men of 
 the 104th Regiment band were among those decorated that 
 Sunday, as were men from the first aid units. 
 
 The musicians turned litter-bearers and some were killed 
 and wounded. The leader of the band hitched wire loops to 
 his wrists in order to hold his end of the stretcher after his 
 hands had become so blistered and his fingers so stiff and 
 sore that he was unable to grip the handles. 
 
 That was the kind of American grit which the raids at 
 Apremont and Seicheprey revealed, a grit unbeatable, as 
 subsequent operations proved. 
 
 In spite of all that I saw later on other fronts, certain 
 features of the Seicheprey fight remained fresh in my 
 memory. 
 
 There was the case of Sergeant John A. Dickman of No. 
 339 Highland Avenue, Somerville. Jack used to work at the 
 Riverside Press in Cambridge. He lost his left eye and right 
 foot at Seicheprey and his left arm was out of commission, 
 and he suffered multiple hurts, but the Heinies could not 
 cripple his spirit. 
 
 Dickman's only worry the day I chatted with him at the 
 evacuation hospital was that he wouldn't be able to rejoin 
 his comrades in order "to take another wallop at the Huns." 
 
 "Gosh! if I could only get one more chance at them," said 
 Dickman. "Ain't it a shame this foot is missing? Only for 
 that I could go back. One eye wouldn't make any differ- 
 
SEICHEPREY A REVERSE 145 
 
 ence." All through his talk Sergeant Dickman never ut- 
 tered a word of regret or complaint about his own terrible 
 injuries. There was no thought of self. His one burning 
 desire was to get back into the fight. 
 
 After my talk I was not surprised that surgeons and nurses 
 had spoken so highly of the sturdy lad from Somerville 
 whom they christened "hero of the ward," a title that sent 
 me Dickman's way on the jump. 
 
 I had heard of his case down at the advanced dressing 
 station and had trailed him and other wounded back to the 
 clearing hospital on the outskirts of Toul. With all his hurts 
 Dickman had refused to quit until his squad, the "Fearless 
 Eleven," had been rescued from the death trap into which 
 they were drawn by the swirl of battle. 
 
 Dickman was so modest that it was difficult to pry his 
 story from him. He did not want to talk about himself. He 
 was eager to praise his comrades and to talk about his 
 brother's athletic prowess. Said he when pinned to the sub- 
 ject: 
 
 "There isn't much to tell, it all happened so quickly. 
 The Huns drifted over in a swarm. I was in charge of two 
 Stokes mortars and had eleven men under me. Gee! they 
 were game kids. They deserve all the credit. Not a quitter 
 in the gang! 
 
 "It was our job to protect the first line of infantry until 
 the artillery got into action. They told me later that our 
 fire broke up the first rush of Heinies. I was glad to hear 
 that. We planted our shots between the first and second 
 enemy waves and broke up their formation for a spell, but 
 they came like a river. 
 
 "Our fellows fought like hell. The Boche batteries 
 poured shells at us like rice at a newly married couple. 
 Twenty shells dropped on our dugout. We were soon cut 
 off entirely by the German barrage. The ground was all 
 chewed up. Two of the gang were killed and several 
 wounded right off the bat, but we stuck together and fought 
 until aid came. 
 
146 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "We gave it to them good while we had the strength. 
 Wonder any of us pulled through. And now I suppose I'll 
 quit and go home like a G. A. R. vet. If I had two feet they 
 couldn't send me back. I hate to leave the game this early, 
 just as things are starting. Talk about fireworks! That 
 was some day." 
 
 Private Raymond Cannon of No. 69 East Pearl Street, 
 New Haven, Ct., seriously wounded by shrapnel in the left 
 leg, seeing that the commander of his sanitary corps was 
 missing, organized a dressing station under a hail of shells 
 and administered to many wounded. He refused to quit 
 and was complimented on the field by superior officers. 
 
 I could fill chapters with these personal exploits. The 
 voluminous citations in the archives of the Yankee Division 
 are enduring records of the valor of the New England men 
 on the battlefields of France. 
 
 One of the saddest cases that I beheld in any battle oc- 
 curred at Seicheprey. Private Edmund Demunski of New 
 Haven, Ct., born in Russia, but a naturalized American, 
 and a brave soldier, was seriously wounded and buried up 
 to his neck by a shell. He had been in the first wave and 
 woke next day in No Man's Land, where he remained un- 
 able to do more than open and close his eyes for two days 
 and two nights in pelting rain and a temperature that pene- 
 trated to the marrow. 
 
 I talked with Demunski before he died. A shell frag- 
 ment had slit his leg from hip to the knee. It was a curable 
 wound and he might have recovered but for the terrible 
 exposure and loss of blood as he lay buried out there. Said 
 he: 
 
 "The shells were terrible. One hit near me and the 
 next I knew it was night and raining. I tried to move, but 
 couldn't. All but my head and left shoulder was buried. 
 I was nearer the German lines than our men. I could hear 
 the Germans talking. Then I got awful thirsty and hungry. 
 My leg pained. I became unconscious again. 
 
SEICHEPREY A REVERSE 147 
 
 "It was daylight when I came to the next time and Ger- 
 mans were in sight. I was afraid to open my eyes wide for 
 fear that they would bayonet me. I would squint with one 
 eye. While I was thinking I went asleep or fainted, I guess, 
 and that night Germans crept past me and one was so close 
 he stepped on my shoulder and grazed my face with his 
 boot. 
 
 "I would lose consciousness and come out of it again and 
 again. They told me Red Cross litter-bearers got me. They 
 had been signalling the Germans for permission to collect 
 and bury the American dead and finally on the third day a 
 German Red Cross flag answered and the American litter- 
 bearers went out and dug me up. They thought I was dead 
 when they carried me in, and then somebody found that my 
 pulse was going and they brought me here and dressed my 
 wound and I feel better now, but awful weak." 
 
 Demunski was well-built and intelligent. On the second 
 day after his arrival at the evacuation hospital he died. 
 The surgeons had no hope from the start. His ordeal had 
 been too much for any man, no matter how rugged. Of all 
 the forms of death that came to my notice I don't recall 
 any more terrible or pathetic than that of the poor Russian 
 from Connecticut. 
 
 Aside from his physical anguish, the torment of mind in 
 his conscious hours must have been indescribable. And 
 remember that he was a foreign-born youth who volunteered 
 his services and made that sacrifice for an adopted land. 
 Demunski died an American patriot. 
 
 Some poet ought to immortalize the young men born in 
 other lands who fought so gallantly for Uncle Sam. Don 
 Marquis of the New York Evening Sun has paid this tribute 
 in honor of the Yankees : 
 
148 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 THE OLD STOCK. 
 
 (Don Marquis, New York Evening Sun) 
 
 "Reuben Watson, Abner Jones, Eliphalet Thomas and Obadiah Freeman have 
 been drafted from our town." — Item in country newspaper. 
 
 Watch out for the chap with a Bible name, that comes from Dedham Mass. ; 
 
 Thompson, Uriah, 
 
 Johnson, Josiah. 
 Watch out for the boy with the Bible name, from Pea vine, Arkansaw, 
 
 Ezekiel, Josh, 
 
 And Jared, b'gosh! 
 He will bite his name in the crust of hell and think it's garden sass; 
 
 Reuben, Abijah, 
 
 Peleg, Elijah. 
 He can yank the hind legs off a mule and eat the damned thing raw. 
 
 The red-necked deacon named the lad right out of Holy Writ: 
 
 (Watson, Nehemiah). 
 The country parson lessoned his son to turn the other cheek 
 
 (Jones, Hezekiah), 
 But the Hun that he smites with his freckled fists will know he has been smit . 
 
 Hey, Obadiah? 
 
 And something solid is going to bust when he gets through being meek. 
 If the Kaiser listens, one of these days, he is going to get some news 
 
 From Smith's son, Tubar, 
 
 And Bogg's boy, Jubal; 
 Watch out for the hick with the Scripture name when he goes forth to war, 
 
 Enoch and Seth, 
 
 Nathan and Heth. 
 He will kick the inards out of a bull and wear the hide for shoes, 
 
 Blodgett, Abihu, 
 
 Saunders, Elihu; 
 He will bite his name in the crust of hell and pass his plate for more. 
 
 Gettysburg and Marston Moor, Nasby, Bunker Hill; 
 
 He squared his God with a nasal psalm and then sailed in to kill! 
 
 Apollyon? Back to hell, Apollyon! 
 
 Here comes the Jones' Zeke! 
 And the skull that he hits, when the prayin's good, will split from crown to 
 cheek! 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 The Army Axe 
 
 B Traveling to a battle front from a rear area 
 was always an interesting adventure. Every trip 
 had its thrills. The country in the rear looked so 
 beautiful and peaceful and the peasants seemed 
 so unconcerned that you felt, on your initial visits, that the 
 great world war was more remote when you headed for it 
 than it seemed back in the United States. 
 
 When trench warfare was in vogue, gains which might 
 have been registered on a football field were considered 
 news. Soon after our troops entered the line the whole 
 character of fighting changed to open warfare. The French, 
 in trench warfare days, cultivated their land right up to the 
 edge of the battle zone. I saw aged men and women toil- 
 ing in fields within shell range. I saw peaceful settings of 
 this sort while a bombardment was at its height a few kilo- 
 meters distant and saw blossoms shaken from fruit trees by 
 the concussion. 
 
 I saw old men and women cling to cellars of their homes 
 after the populace had evacuated, with ruin all around 
 them. The Marines tried to persuade a couple to leave a 
 village at the Marne, but they refused. 
 
 Motor activities always served as thermometers of 
 action. Miles and miles of trucks were operated back of 
 the lines at night, rushing troops, supplies and ammunition, 
 while Hun fliers dropped bombs. Battles were always thus 
 forecasted. You motored along congested roads, hope- 
 lessly jammed at times, between foot troops and artillery 
 units. You arrived at deserted villages only slightly 
 damaged, at highways where lone sentries guided the way, 
 
 149 
 
150 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 at villages reduced to ruins where the boom of heavy calibre 
 guns was punctuated by the stutter of machine guns, and at 
 roads so deserted that you sensed danger. 
 
 When you came to such a region it was necessary to take 
 cover quickly because snipers were alert. You arrived 
 close to the attacking line in a world of death and desola- 
 tion. The scenes were appalling, the excitement terrible. 
 
 Tourists who expect to see the battlefields and ruins as 
 they appeared during the fighting will be disappointed. 
 Labor battalions work fast. They fill up mine craters and 
 shell holes and build highways and bridges with astonish- 
 ing speed. I have entered ruined villages close on the heels 
 of retreating Germans, the streets of which were almost 
 impassable, and we had to roll bodies out of the way to make 
 clear a passage for our car. A week later streets were clean 
 and everything looked more shipshape. 
 
 The town of Albert was a notable example the day the 
 British captured it. The flood of battle had surged back- 
 ward and forward for several years, reducing that and other 
 towns to powdered brick and mortar and twisted metal. 
 The day we went to Peronne four giant mines blew up a 
 road an hour after we had motored over it. 
 
 Ypres is one of the most gripping ruins in Europe, with 
 its remnant of Cloth Hall and the other demolished build- 
 ings framing the square which is to be preserved in its 
 present state as a war park. I was in Amiens when the 
 people returned and when the bishop reopened the famous 
 cathedral. Within a fortnight the ruined city had taken on 
 a new lease of life. 
 
 This process, coupled with time, will rub off the rough 
 edges and smooth over the ruins, as a sore heals, before the 
 influx of sightseers, but don't be discouraged. There will 
 be specimens galore and probably for all time of how Hun 
 "kultur" operated in war-scarred France and Belgium. 
 
 Speaking of "kultur" reminds me that the rank and file 
 of National Guardsmen in France accused the regular army 
 
THE ARMY AXE 151 
 
 officers of exercising a "military autocracy every bit as 
 severe as anything in vogue in Germany." 
 
 The Guardsmen claimed they had gone to Europe to 
 fight for democracy and that, to their amazement, they 
 found it lacking in their own army. That complaint was 
 the keynote of speeches after they arrived home. 
 
 Major-General Clarence R. Edwards organized the 
 Yankee Division, and with such skill and dispatch that he 
 led it to France ahead of all other National Guard organiza- 
 tions, beating out the Rainbow Division, which had planned 
 to blaze the way. 
 
 Under the leadership of General Edwards, the Twenty- 
 sixth Division developed into a formidable fighting machine 
 and the enemy soon realized and admitted it. When 
 General Edwards was suddenly transferred in the height of 
 operations, and ordered back to the United States to take 
 command of the Northeastern Department, with head- 
 quarters in Boston, it caused a hurricane of surprise and 
 regret. 
 
 It was whispered that General Edwards was "in wrong 
 with the powers that be;" that "somebody wanted to get 
 him," and that this prejudice was strengthened by the 
 grudge which the regular army was alleged to have held 
 against the National Guard. 
 
 It was said that the Yankee Division was "made the 
 goat" because of these alleged prejudices, which developed 
 internal friction so acute that a crop of transfers followed. 
 Those removed at the eleventh hour were Brigadier-General 
 Charles H. Cole, Colonel Edward L. Logan of the 101st 
 Infantry, Colonel Frank M. Hume of the 103d Infantry, 
 and Major Albert C. Gray of the 101st Infantry, all of whom 
 were reinstated before the division sailed for home. 
 
 An old cry in the regular army, and one revived with 
 emphasis overseas, was that the National Guard was 
 honeycombed and weakened by politics and [that this evil 
 must be stamped out in order to promote efficiency. The 
 Guardsmen replied that the regulars played more politics 
 
152 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 than the National Guardsmen ever dared play, but played 
 them so clumsily that they were "as conspicuous as a sore 
 thumb." It was charged that commanders in the Yankee 
 Division and other National Guard divisions were deliber- 
 ately removed to make lucrative jobs for West Pointers. 
 
 Such counter-accusations as I have briefly enumerated 
 were subjects of everyday gossip in the American Expe- 
 ditionary Forces. The bitterness between the National 
 Guard and the regulars increased tremendously after the 
 armistice, when there was more time to think and find fault 
 and when open criticism was not likely to affect the success 
 of the cause. 
 
 The shake-up in the Yankee Division was debated all 
 over France and in the Army of Occupation in Germany. 
 Congressman James A. Gallivan's famous "whipper-snap- 
 per" speech proved a sensation. His defence of the Na- 
 tional Guard caused him to be christened "the Congressman 
 of the American Expeditionary Forces." Because of the 
 transfers, the Yankee Division became the storm center of 
 the overseas army and the Thirty-fifth Division from 
 Missouri soon after came into the spotlight. A congres- 
 sional investigation was inevitable. 
 
 Officers and enlisted men loved General Edwards, a tall, 
 white-haired, fatherly regular, who never overlooked the 
 welfare and interests of the men in the ranks. 
 
 I never saw anything to beat it. No matter with whom 
 you talked, whether latest recruit or officer, every one 
 sounded his praise. Their regard for him was little short of 
 worship. This sentiment was not exaggerated. I talked 
 with the men, under all manner of circumstances, and I 
 know. 
 
 No wonder there was such sadness when he turned over 
 his command to another and went home. Those were dark 
 days for the Twenty-sixth. Everything seemed to crack 
 at once. General Edwards' aide-de-camp, Captain "Nat" 
 Simpkins of Brookline, one of the most popular young 
 officers in the division, died from complications arising 
 
THE ARMY AXE 153 
 
 from pneumonia, just before his chief departed. The zeal 
 and untiring efforts of Simpkins and his sunny disposition 
 contributed in no small measure to the success of the 
 division. 
 
 Then General Edwards received a cable announcing the 
 death of his daughter. The gloom caused by this latest 
 bereavement is best reflected in a letter in which the Rev. 
 M. J. O'Connor of Roxbury, senior chaplain of the division 
 and formerly chaplain of the 101st infantry, sent to General 
 Edwards : 
 
 HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION, 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 FRANCE, 
 
 October 17, 1918. 
 "My dear General Edwards: 
 
 "I know how futile are words to assuage the grief that has come 
 to you in the loss of your only daughter. I know how dear she 
 was to you, and her loss by death at a time when you are far from 
 home and so deeply interested in the destinies of the men under 
 your command will draw from you all the virility of your manhood 
 to sustain the blow. 
 
 "I realize that a heart like yours which has caused you to show 
 so much sympathy for afflicted parents and wounded soldiers must 
 feel deeply the grief that has come to you. Were it possible for 
 the officers and the men under your command to lighten this bur- 
 den, every man of them would feel it an honor if his life could 
 restore hers to you. 
 
 "But we are powerless, yet if there be consolation in knowing 
 that there are 30,000 hearts which desire to lessen your sorrow, 
 the Twenty-sixth Division grieves with you. 
 
 "May God, Who has placed this burden on you and your good 
 wife, give both of you the strength to accept it with Christian 
 fortitude. 
 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 "M. J. O'CONNOR, 
 
 "Chaplain." 
 
 In that letter Chaplain O'Connor expressed the senti- 
 ments of every man in the division, General Edwards re- 
 plied thus: 
 
154 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION, 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 FRANCE, 
 
 October 25, 1918. 
 
 "My Dear Chaplain O'Connor: 
 
 "Your note will be treasured by my poor wife. It is beautifully 
 like you and I appreciate it very much. 
 
 "I got an official cablegram from the War Department about 
 Army Nurse Bessie Edwards, quoting a message from Mrs. Ed- 
 wards, the first I had received, that she had cabled me three times, 
 that she was with our daughter to the last, and that she died happy, 
 and that Bessie had sworn in as a nurse with a chance to come to 
 France. 
 
 "I did not believe that God's inscrutable ways would demand a 
 daughter for the cause and a second, but more successful sacrifice, 
 than the other member of the family. However, it has come and 
 it must be borne, together with this last separation. 
 
 "Just say to the individuals of this Yankee Division as you 
 see them that my one wish is that they should carry on under the 
 new commander and continue in their glorious record. That is the 
 thing that is on our conscience that nobody can deprive us of, and 
 their loyal devotion and success are a great compensation and a 
 great comfort to me. 
 
 "I will see you before I go. 
 
 "Faithfully yours, 
 
 "C. R. EDWARDS." 
 
 With heart torn, General Edwards was a soldier through 
 it all, as this letter shows. No finer index could be given 
 of the man. 
 
 Events happened rapidly thereafter. On Oct. 26 
 Colonel Edward L. Logan, a Harvard graduate and judge 
 of the South Boston District Court, was relieved of com- 
 mand of the 101st Infantry and sent to Blois, the reclassi- 
 fication camp, otherwise known as the "morgue." 
 
 It was averred that he had not been sufficiently prompt 
 in the execution of certain orders. His transfer came like a 
 thunderclap. The 101st, made up chiefly of the old Ninth 
 
THE ARMY AXE 155 
 
 Regiment, with a war strength filling from the Fifth Massa- 
 chusetts Infantry, had been commanded in the Spanish war 
 by Colonel Logan's father, General Lawrence Logan. 
 
 "Eddie," then a Harvard student, went with his dad as 
 a top sergeant in the Cuban campaign, and was himself 
 colonel of the regiment when the Bay State National Guard 
 went to the Mexican border in June, 1916. 
 
 He had the honor of commanding the first National 
 Guard regiment to leave the United States for active service 
 in France. I remember how his father embraced him and 
 kissed him on the cheek, and, holding him at arms' length, 
 a hand gripping each shoulder, looked him straight in the 
 eye, the day the regiment set out for Europe from the South 
 Framingham camp, saying in broken voice: 
 
 "Do your best, son. No man can do more. I would 
 give much to be young enough to be going with you, boy." 
 
 And his mother tried vainly to stifle tears with a smile. 
 
 The order of transfer came within a fortnight of the 
 armistice. Colonel Logan had gallantly led his regiment 
 in every action, taking the same chances as his men in the 
 front line and lying out all night in the rain and mud under 
 terrific shell fire. He had many narrow escapes. Men 
 were killed on all sides of him. The day Chaplain Danker 
 was killed fragments of a shell missed Colonel Logan, Chap- 
 lain M. J. O'Connor and several others by inches. 
 
 On Nov. 1, ten days before the armistice, Colonel Frank 
 M. Hume of Houlton, Me., was relieved of command of the 
 103d Infantry, made up of the old Second Maine Infantry, 
 the First New Hampshire Regiment and increments from 
 the First Vermont and the Sixth and Eighth Massachusetts 
 Regiments. 
 
 Colonel Hume developed a tip-top regiment which en- 
 joyed the very rare distinction of never having had a man 
 captured while holding a defensive sector. As in the case 
 of General Cole, the reason ascribed for his transfer was that 
 he had permitted his men to fraternize with the enemy. 
 
156 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Brigadier-General Charles H. Cole was relieved of his 
 command — the Fifty-second Infantry Brigade, composed 
 of the 103d and 104th Regiments. He had enlisted as a 
 private in the 101st Infantry, commanded by Colonel Logan, 
 his life-long friend, when the National Guard was called out 
 for oversea service. 
 
 He was made lieutenant and soon after commissioned 
 captain and commanded a large detachment of recruits 
 which he whipped into shape in brisk order, and, within a 
 few months, was made brigadier-general, a meteoric but 
 merited advancement. 
 
 General Cole's transfer came on Oct. 8. He was charged 
 with permitting his troops to fraternize with the enemy and 
 was sent to Blois. 
 
 No sooner had Colonel Logan established himself at 
 Blois than he assumed the responsibility of acting as counsel 
 for General Cole, Colonel Hume and himself in proceedings 
 for reinstatement, on the ground that all three had been 
 illegally deprived of their commands. In addition, Colonel 
 Logan handled and won upward of forty miscellaneous 
 cases. In fact, he had such success that the officers at Blois 
 urged him to "hang out a shingle." 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Conspiracy Charged 
 
 B Colonel Logan framed a defence for General 
 Cole and represented him at the hearings. General 
 Cole offered evidence to show that instead of allow- 
 ing his troops to fraternize with the Germans, he 
 had been the first officer in the division personally to issue 
 an order against fraternizing. 
 
 General Cole's case was so clearly and forcibly pre- 
 sented that he was sent back to his old command by order 
 of General Pershing. The order read as follows: 
 
 France, November 30, 1918. 
 From : Adjutant-General, A. E. F. 
 
 To: Brigadier-General Charles H. Cole, Centre of Information, 
 A. P. O. 
 
 Subject : Relief from Fifty-second Infantry Brigade. 
 
 1. I am directed by the commander-in-chief to inform you 
 that upon his personal examination of the papers reporting the 
 facts incident to your relief from command of the Fifty-second 
 Infantry Brigade, he is of the opinion that the facts did not war- 
 rant your relief and he has, therefore, directed that you be reas- 
 signed to your former brigade. 
 
 2. Accordingly, orders will be issued in the near future. By 
 command of General Pershing. 
 
 ROBERT C. DAVIS, 
 
 Adjutant-General. 
 
 This order speaks for itself. It was a complete vindica- 
 tion. With the reinstatement of General Cole, the way was 
 cleared for Colonel Hume, commanding the 103d Infantry, 
 which was in General Cole's brigade. As General Cole's 
 
 157 
 
158 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 charges were dismissed, those against Colonel Hume, 
 alleging fraternizing with the enemy, were automatically 
 weakened. 
 
 Colonel Logan drew up a statement for Colonel Hume 
 and drafted his own defence last. Both were given hearings. 
 Colonel Logan's case was investigated exhaustively. He 
 was charged with inertia. There were at least three hear- 
 ings. His declaration was spirited and voluminous, con- 
 sisting of more than thirty typewritten pages, much of it 
 too violent for publication. 
 
 He reviewed his own record and that of the regiment, 
 pointing out that no colonel in the American Expeditionary 
 Forces had a longer front line service. He argued that the 
 accomplishments of his regiment were the best proof of the 
 success of his command and a contradiction of the charge 
 upon which his transfer was based. 
 
 He called attention to the fact that if his services as a 
 regimental commander were not satisfactory, it was strange 
 it had not been discovered earlier and that he had been 
 permitted to lead his men through all the major engagements 
 and be dropped at the eleventh hour. 
 
 These, in brief, were his contentions, coupled with the 
 claim that his order of transfer came late one afternoon 
 during a battle, and as he had planned the regimental 
 operations his lieutenant-colonel had requested him to 
 remain and see them through. This prevented him from 
 going to division headquarters until the next day, a fact 
 which, according to his declaration, was cited as an instance 
 of failing promptly to execute a command. Colonel Logan 
 also alleged that the charges were lodged and his transfer 
 ordered by a division commander who had been in com- 
 mand of the Twenty-sixth Division less than forty-eight 
 hours and who had never seen him. 
 
 Recommendations for promotion of men in his regiment 
 were made by Colonel Logan from time to time, but were 
 rejected. He charged gross discriminations and persecu- 
 tions. He claimed there was a conspiracy to "break" him. 
 
CONSPIRACY CHARGED 159 
 
 At the close of his vigorous defence of his own case a 
 member of the trial board remarked, "And they charged 
 him with inertia!" 
 
 Word reached division headquarters at Eccomoy on or 
 about Feb. 9, 1919, that General Pershing had ordered the 
 reinstatement of Colonels Logan and Hume. There was 
 great rejoicing in the Yankee Division that day. 
 
 "Regular old home week," remarked a major. 
 
 "General Edwards is the only one missing now," said a 
 chaplain. 
 
 General Cole went to work at once to plan a celebration 
 for the returning regimental commanders. Meanwhile the 
 family circle was enlarged by the unexpected return of 
 Brigadier-General John H. Sherburne of Brookline, member 
 of the Massachusetts Legislature, who came back to com- 
 mand the Fifty-first Artillery Brigade of the Yankee Division 
 on the homeward voyage, a very fine and fitting honor to 
 an officer that helped develop one of the most efficient 
 artillery outfits in the American Expeditionary Forces. 
 
 General Sherburne had been commander of the 101st 
 Artillery Regiment, which grew out of the old First Massa- 
 chusetts Artillery Regiment, on the Mexican border. 
 
 Following his promotion he was transferred to the 
 Ninety-second Division, made up entirely of colored troops, 
 and commanded an artillery brigade. 
 
 He paid tribute to the negro artillery the day I lunched 
 with him in a chateau twenty kilometers from Eccomoy. 
 He said: 
 
 "It was astonishing how rapidly the colored troops 
 developed in gunnery. It was a departure for them, but 
 they went to work with a will and they made good to such 
 a degree that I would match my brigade with any of them. 
 I had perfect confidence in the batteries. I am happy to 
 pay this compliment to men who worked so hard and con- 
 scientiously and who conducted themselves so bravely. 
 
 "While at Chaumont one day I met General Pershing 
 and he told me he was planning to send me home with the 
 
160 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 artillery brigade of the Yankee Division, but weeks passed 
 and I heard no more about it. 
 
 "The Ninety-second finally arrived at Brest and vicinity 
 and I had actually reached the dock when I again acci- 
 dentally met General Pershing. He asked me what I was 
 doing there and why I was not with the Twenty-sixth 
 Division. I told him the order of transfer had never come 
 through. It did then in a hurry, and here I am among 
 the old gang and happy to be going with the division." 
 
 After the announcement of the reinstatement of Colonels 
 Logan and Hume days passed before they reported at 
 Eccomoy because both had been asked to preside at court- 
 martials in Blois. 
 
 Colonel Horace P. Hobbs bade farewell to the 101st In- 
 fantry as soon as official notice was served on him that 
 Colonel Logan was to resume command. Colonel Hobbs 
 eulogized the regiment. He said it was one of the best in 
 the American Expeditionary Forces, and he regretted to 
 leave it and the Yankee Division. 
 
 Brigadier-General P. D. Glassford praised the Fifty-first 
 Artillery Brigade when he turned over command to General 
 Sherburne and Colonel P. W. Arnold surrendered command 
 of the 103d Infantry to Colonel Hume with fitting cere- 
 mony. It was not until Feb. 14 that Colonels Logan and 
 Hume reported at division headquarters and then hurried 
 to the outlying villages where their regiments were drawn 
 up to welcome them. It was a stirring scene. 
 
 The returning officers said they were moved by the fervor 
 of their men. Festivities followed. No sooner were the 
 commanders reinstated than subordinate officers who had 
 been transferred began to return. It became a regular 
 "Old Home Week." 
 
 Major Albert C. Gray of Medford, commander of the 
 Third Battalion of the 101st Infantry, who had been trans- 
 ferred on the charge of "discussing orders," was tried and 
 exonerated and returned to his old outfit. His was the last 
 case defended by Colonel Logan at Blois. 
 
CONSPIRACY CHARGED 161 
 
 The next to return was Captain John J. Lydon, a Boston 
 newspaperman, who had been supply officer in the 101st 
 Infantry and who had won a promotion in the field from the 
 rank of lieutenant. He had been transferred to the Twenty- 
 eighth Division. Lieutenant John W. Casey of Brookline, 
 who was shifted to the postal service for a spell, after the 
 armistice, also came back, and so did Major John J. Barry, 
 formerly commander of the old "Brickbat Battalion" of 
 the 101st Infantry, who soon after was made a lieutenant- 
 colonel for his tireless and efficient work in the army mail 
 service. 
 
 General Edwards was relieved of the command of the 
 Yankee Division Oct. 25, 1918, and was succeeded by 
 Brigadier-General Frank E. Bamford, who was relieved 
 Nov. 19 by Brigadier-General Harry C. Hale. General 
 Edwards cabled his congratulations to General Hale on 
 his appointment. 
 
 The Yankee Division remained in the sector north of 
 Verdun until Nov. 18, seven days after the armistice, when 
 it was relieved by the Sixth Division and ordered to march 
 to the eighth training area at Montigny le Hoi, east of 
 Chaumont, a distance of 137 kilometers. The hike was fin- 
 ished in seven days by all but the artillery units, which were 
 delayed by lack of horses. The 101st and 102d Artillery 
 Regiments remained at Suilly until late in December, when 
 motor trucks were used to remove its guns from the lines. 
 The artillerymen and their equipment were sent to Montigny 
 le Roi by train. 
 
 When the division moved from the rest area at Montigny le 
 Roi to the Le Mans embarkation area, it was predicted that 
 it would sail about March 1, although no official date had 
 been fixed and later guesses ran all the way to April. The 
 first units sailed from Brest on Thursday, April 27, 1919. 
 
 I spent nearly six months on the Mexican border with 
 the National Guard units which made up the nucleus of 
 the Twenty-sixth Division when it arrived in France. I 
 accompanied the organizations on the hikes across the desert 
 
162 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 and through clouds of alkali dust to Las Cruces, New 
 Mexico. Little did we think during that tour, which 
 tuned up all the outfits wonderfully and developed efficiency 
 in every branch of the service, that it was but a forerunner 
 of sterner duty abroad. 
 
 I recall how civilians in New England used to sympa- 
 thize with our doughboys while they were on sentry duty 
 at home, guarding railroads, bridges, water and lighting 
 plants, factories and arsenals, having been called out 
 within a few months of their return from the Mexican 
 frontier. Civilians thought the guard duty cold and 
 hazardous, but it was child's play compared with what they 
 faced when they took up positions in the battle line in 
 France. 
 
 I remember the 101st Infantry marching from the camp 
 to the train in South Framingham on a bright September 
 afternoon in 1917. The church bells tolled a farewell, and 
 the town was gay with flags, but somehow though the crowd 
 was as large, the send-off was less boisterous than when the 
 troops left for the border. There was grim business ahead 
 this time, and the men, women and children who lined the 
 curbings showed their concern. There was a note of sadness 
 in what had been staged as a celebration. 
 
 I heard an old woman remark: 
 
 "Poor boys. Many of them never will come back." 
 
 And they did not — the brave fellows who sleep under the 
 rows of unpainted wooden crosses on the hills of France. 
 
 Ranks were filled by men from Mississippi, Florida, 
 California and Montana and other points. They rooted 
 and fought for the glory of New England, just as did the 
 fellows from Maine and Vermont and New Hampshire, 
 Rhode Island, Connecticut and the Bay State. 
 
 The same condition existed in every other division. 
 There had to be fillings from other States owing to the heavy 
 toll of war. The Yankee Division went to France well 
 equipped and well trained. It eagerly and quickly assimi- 
 lated the art of modern warfare as taught by French and 
 
CONSPIRACY CHARGED 163 
 
 British instructors. The Yankee Division was the first to 
 copy the French and British system of branding all vehicles 
 with insignia. It adopted the monogram "YD," and mules 
 and horses were thus branded long before division emblems 
 became the rule in the American Expeditionary Forces. 
 
 Later every officer and enlisted man in every division 
 sported his respective division emblem on the left sleeve just 
 below the shoulder. The "YD" was about as tasty as any 
 of them. Motor truck units in the Yankee Division 
 painted sub-unit emblems such as anchors, eagles and 
 miniature replicas of Bunker Hill Monument on their 
 vehicles. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 President Wilson's Visit 
 
 ^Fy% Christmas, 1918, will live forever in the memories 
 \r^ 1 of the men of the Yankee Division, for on that 
 
 1 1 day President Wilson reviewed 10,000 picked 
 
 American troops from the combat divisions of the 
 
 American Expeditionary Forces, and a crack battalion from 
 
 the 10£d Infantry of the New England division held the 
 
 right of line. 
 
 It was the first review of American troops in Europe by 
 the President, their commander-in-chief. It was held at 
 Humes, near Langres. 
 
 In the column with the detachment from the Yankee 
 Division were units from the Sixth Division, Twenty-ninth, 
 Seventy-seventh, Eightieth and Eighty-second Divisions, 
 and Troops K and M of the Sixth Cavalry, General Persh- 
 ing's own outfit riding black horses and carrying guidons. 
 
 Announcement of the selection of the Yankee Division 
 to occupy the right of line in the parade was made in the 
 following letter, which admitted officially that "the Twenty- 
 sixth Division had the longest period of service in France," 
 bearing out what I claimed in an earlier chapter. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS FIRST ARMY, 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 
 FRANCE, 
 
 Dec. 20, 1918. 
 From: Chief of Staff, First Army, A. E. F. 
 To: Commanding General, Twenty-sixth Division, A. E. F. 
 Subject: Visit of President of the United States. 
 
 1. The Army Commander desires me to inform you that, on 
 the recommendation of the commander-in-chief, the President has 
 
 164 
 
PRESIDENT WILSON'S VISIT 165 
 
 selected the Twenty-sixth Division as being the division he will 
 visit on^Christmas Day. This selection was made on the ground 
 that the Twenty-sixth Division had the longest period of service in 
 France. 
 
 2. The Army Commander desires that you be present at the 
 Presidential review at Humes, which is to start at 10.30 A. M. on 
 Dec. 25, 1918, so that you may conduct the President from 
 the review ground to such town or towns in your area as he may 
 desire to visit. The Army Commander desires me to say that all 
 organizations in the area should be prepared for this visit, billets 
 properly policed and men lined up outside of same awaiting the 
 arrival of the President. He also desires that the non-commis- 
 sioned officers in charge of quarters be ready and on the alert to 
 precede the President and the commander-in-chief into such 
 billets as they may desire to inspect. 
 
 3. The President has expressed a desire to eat Christmas din- 
 ner with the men, and to that end it is directed that you select 
 some organization which the President and his party can visit 
 at dinner time and eat the soldiers' dinner with the men. In the 
 party it is estimated that there will be somewhere in the neighbor- 
 hood of forty persons. 
 
 H. A. DRUM, 
 Official. Chief of Staff. 
 
 Laurence Halstead. 
 Colonel, General Staff. 
 A. C. of S., G-3. 
 
 The detachment from the Yankee Division made such 
 a good showing Christmas Day that General Pershing sent 
 this congratulatory telegram: 
 
 HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION, 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 
 FRANCE, 
 
 Dec. 29, 1918. 
 General Orders No. 121. 
 
 The following telegram is published for the information of the 
 command : 
 
 G. H. Q., Dec. 26, 1918. 
 O. G., Twenty-sixth Division. 
 
 "I desire to congratulate the division on the excellent work of 
 the battalion which represented it as the guard of honor at Chau- 
 mont, on the fine appearance and discipline manifested by the 
 
166 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 men during the visit of the President of the United States to the 
 billets of the division and on the splendid appearance made by the 
 detachments representing the division in the review for the Presi- 
 dent at Humes, France, Dec. 25, 1918. 
 
 PERSHING. 
 By command of Major-General Hale. 
 
 Lieutenant William J. Blake, commanding the Head- 
 quarters Company of the 101st Infantry, formerly a football 
 star at Harvard, decided to prepare a banquet fit for the 
 chief executive of the nation. "Billy" coached the company 
 cook and laid in special dishes. 
 
 Color Sergeant Eddie Creed, son of Judge Creed of the 
 Boston Municipal Court, polished up his oratory. He was 
 selected to welcome President Wilson on behalf of the 
 doughboys. 
 
 Eddie was called the "Silver-tongued orator of the 
 Yankee Division," because he was sent back to the States 
 to speak in the Liberty Loan campaign and returned. He 
 proved a whirlwind from all accounts. He entertained the 
 gang for months with his experiences as a Liberty Loan 
 stumper. 
 
 Sergeant Jimmy Loughlin, whom I met away up front 
 during the final hours of fighting, had his hair cut for the 
 occasion, and Sergeant-Ma j or George Gilbody, a journalist 
 in civil life, paid a buck private two francs to polish his hob- 
 nailed boots and borrowed Lieutenant C. Healey's best 
 breeches. He wanted Sergeant Doren S. Lyons' tunic, but 
 Doren calculated he'd sort of slick up himself. 
 
 The table groaned under the weight of good things and 
 Eddie Creed kept rehearsing all the Daniel Webster passages 
 he could think of and the reception line was agreed upon 
 and 
 
 President Wilson did not eat with them after all. He 
 changed his mind and dined with the officers of the division. 
 Eddie Creed vowed he'd pickle his speech until Gilbody ran 
 for Congress. The President's Christmas repast was pre- 
 pared by Mess Sergeant Herbert A. Hoey, who owned 
 
PRESIDENT WILSON'S VISIT 167 
 
 a restaurant in Worcester, and he was assisted by Sergeant 
 Paul Dufourd, who conducted a restaurant in Boston. They 
 served turkey and all the "fixin's." The typographical 
 section got out an elaborate eight-page illustrated souvenir 
 menu which astonished the guests and tickled the whole 
 division. 
 
 President Wilson in the course of his address said : 
 
 "And now we are to hail the fruits of everything you 
 have conquered since you came over — what you came over 
 for — and you have done what it was appointed for you to 
 do. . . . Everybody at home is proud of you, and has fol- 
 lowed every movement of this great army with confidence 
 and affection. The whole people of the United States are 
 waiting to welcome you home with an acclaim which prob- 
 ably has never greeted any other army, because our country 
 is like this country. We have been proud of the stand 
 taken, of the purpose for which this war was entered into 
 by the United States. You knew what we expected of you 
 and you did it." 
 
 It took Lieutenant Blake and his crew some time to re- 
 cover from the disappointment. Sergeant Creed was eulogiz- 
 ing some of his comrades Christmas night. He said the 
 chaplains and the officers agreed that no one man in the 
 Yankee Division did more to buck up the spirits and 
 morale of the troops than his running-mate, Color Sergeant 
 William Connery, son of former Mayor Connery of Lynn. 
 "Billy" proved the king-pin entertainer of the Yankee 
 Division. 
 
 Creed told also how Sergeant-Major Gilbody of Dor- 
 chester, whose duties as regimental clerk should have kept 
 him at regimental post of command, had taken part in 
 several raids with rifle and grenades. George wore a 
 wound stripe. He was gassed one night, but recovered 
 "tout de suite." 
 
 Lieutenant Blake, who made good and who had re- 
 peatedly exhibited a courage that everyone knew he pos- 
 sessed, interrupted Creed's conversation, saying: 
 
168 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "Eddie is too bashful to talk about himself. One time a 
 bunch of our fellows were cut off. They were in a hazardous 
 position and in need of food. Volunteers were called for. 
 Sergeant Greed agreed to lead a relief squad and he did. 
 Several of the squad were wounded by a fusillade of machine 
 gun bullets, but Eddie turned the trick. He was always 
 there on the show down." 
 
 I heard just as nice things about Sergeant Jimmy Lough- 
 lin, Lieutenant Healey of Charlestown, and others. 
 
 Bandmaster Edward M. L'Africain of the 101st Infantry, 
 cornet soloist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, developed 
 what was looked upon as the best band in the American 
 Expeditionary Forces. 
 
 He had the distinction of leading the massed band of the 
 division when General Pershing held his final review of the 
 Twenty-sixth in the Eccomoy area. 
 
 Every division had its troupe of entertainers, some of 
 whom became so clever that they gave performances before 
 other divisions. The Twenty-seventh Division of New 
 York had an all-professional cast which played before King 
 George and made a hit with the Tommies while the division 
 with the Thirtieth, composed of troops from the Carolinas 
 and Tennessee, was preparing for its successful attack 
 with the Australians against the Hindenburg line. 
 
 Many of the doughboys acquired skill as female imper- 
 sonators. There were rivals of Julian Eltinge galore 
 and some were so coquettish and togged out so bewitchingly 
 that strange soldiers flirted with them. Lieutenant John 
 P. King, author and actor of Augusta, Ga., and New York, 
 had charge of the Yankee Division performers and he re- 
 cruited a versatile crew. They organized June 28, 1918, 
 and were the "oldest theatrical troupe in the American Ex- 
 peditionary Forces," as programs cited. 
 
 The opening performance was given during an air raid in 
 Toul, in the presence of a capacity audience in which sat one 
 corps and four divisional commanders. They played under 
 weird and strenuous circumstances at times, in schools and 
 
PRESIDENT WILSON'S VISIT 169 
 
 stables and in the open, when weather permitted, using a 
 canvas flooring for a stage. ?> 
 
 "The Follies of the American Expeditionary Forces 
 was the title of the production and it was a scream. The 
 stage manager and organizer of the show was First Class 
 Private John J. Chaisson, K Company, 103d Infantry. 
 There was a ten-piece jazz orchestra directed by Musician 
 Alphons A, Walker, 102d Field Artillery. 
 
 The musical specialties were: Private Frank Depierro, 
 M Company, 103d Infantry, jazz violinist; First Class 
 Private Stuart Chapin, Princeton '20, Battery A, 101st 
 Artillery, trick banjo soloist; quartet— Corporal P. J. 
 Cuffe, Jr., Battery E, 101st Artillery, Privates James F. 
 McEntee, A Company, 101st Infantry, Charles E. Bissett, 
 Battery E, 101st Artillery, and Allen R. Tailby, Battery A, 
 101st Artillery. Tailby sang solos. 
 
 Acrobatic stunts were done by First Class Private Arthur 
 Grossman, Supply Company, 101st Artillery, Private Leo 
 A. Connolly, F Company, 101st Infantry, and Wagoner 
 Alfred J. Lorean, Supply Company, 101st Artillery. 
 
 Bugler Arthur L. Park, B Company, 103d Infantry, did 
 a clown sketch. First Class Private George L. McGinley, 
 103d Machine Gun Battalion, impersonated Elsie Janis in 
 tip-top fashion and did a "parlor dance" with Private 
 Richard A. Dana of Headquarters Troop. After a lightning 
 change McGinley did a snappy "hoola-hoola," which always 
 brought down the house. 
 
 Corporals Alfred Pagnin, B Company, 101st Supply 
 Train, and Edward A. Clear, Headquarters Company, 103d 
 Infantry, known as "The Pussy-Footing Corporals," did a 
 clog dance. A comedy sketch, including a Jew dialogue, 
 was put on by Privates Philip A. Gero, Jr., Battery B, 101st 
 Artillery, and John J. Lane of the same battery. 
 
 Private Victor Rottman, a professional movie actor, did 
 a song and comedy act. Private James F. McEntee made 
 an excellent Irish comedian. Private James Jacobson, B 
 Company, 101st Engineers, impersonated a negro comedian. 
 
170 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Jacobson had a dialogue with Corporal Ira T. Webster 
 of Battery A, 101st Artillery. First Class Private Royal K. 
 Hayes of Battery A, 101st Artillery, recited poems which he 
 composed himself and they were popular with the dough- 
 boys. Private John Elliott, 101st Ambulance Company, 
 told stories in dialect. 
 
 The stage hands were Corporal Leon L. Burdick, Supply 
 Company, 102d Artillery; Private John W. Durkee, Com- 
 pany A, 101st Engineers; Private George T. Osgood, Com- 
 pany F, 101st Engineers; Wagoner Cable Salter and Cor- 
 poral Edward E. Perkins of the 101st Engineers. 
 
 The members of the jazz orchestra were Sergeant Thayer 
 Kingsley, Corporal Chester L. Kingsley and Corporal 
 Frederick M. Kingsley, all of A Company, 101st Engineers; 
 Private Ear] D. Cummings, Battery A, 102d Artillery; 
 Private Charles S. Temple, Battery A, 101st Artillery; 
 Private Robert L. Hoag, Battery A, 102d Artillery, and 
 First Class Private Albert Smith, Battery B, 101st Artillery. 
 
 The show ended with a comedy sketch called "Sherman 
 Said It," by First Class Private John J. Chaisson, in which 
 Philip A. Gero and James F. McEntee took the principal 
 parts, and it was a riot. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The Fang of War 
 
 BIn warfare, death is appraised as the "supreme 
 sacrifice," but I met cases worse than death, cases 
 where death would have been the easier and the 
 more welcome route. 
 I came across men whose lungs had been seared and 
 shrivelled by gas. I met men who had been blinded and 
 others hopelessly crippled. I saw one youngster whose lower 
 jaw had been blown away and they had harnessed his left 
 arm into the cavity where the bone was slowly being grafted 
 to serve, when amputated and shaped, as a new jaw. 
 
 Medical experts will have interesting things to tell the 
 profession and the public about the herculean operations 
 performed under the stress of battle. 
 
 I mention these things to show that many Americans 
 who went overseas to fight for democracy and the honor of 
 our flag and nation often made bigger sacrifices and suffered 
 more, physically and mentally, than did men who were in- 
 stantly killed. The sufferings of many soldiers abroad were 
 multiplied by news from home during the influenza epidemic 
 that parents and wives and other near relatives had died. 
 
 Frequently it became necessary to break this news to 
 men who were in critical condition themselves. There 
 were weeks when about all the news we received from home 
 concerned the deaths of persons who had been close friends 
 and neighbors. The "flu" caused upward of 85,000 deaths 
 in the United States, approximately 10,000 more than the 
 total deaths in the American Expeditionary Forces due to 
 battle, disease and accidents. 
 So worries were mutual. 
 
 171 
 
172 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 I picked up home news at times in the most out-of-the-way 
 places and under the most singular circumstances. I heard 
 in a dugout one Sunday night in the Argonne forest of the 
 deaths of Postmaster Murray and his wife and of Eddie 
 Martin, baseball writer for the Boston Globe, and his bride. 
 
 I had been harvesting news at advanced p. c.'s all after- 
 noon. Shelling was brisk and sunshine had brought un- 
 usual air activities. German and American flyers fought 
 several duels over our heads. 
 
 I wanted news of a morning operation from a New York 
 unit, and, crawling into a dugout, was surprised to meet 
 Captain John F. Cronin of South Boston, formerly attached 
 to the old Ninth Regiment, acting as intelligence officer 
 with New York units. Captain Cronin had clippings 
 which his wife had sent to him from Boston newspapers. I 
 read the details of Postmaster Murray's death and of the 
 double funeral of Eddie Martin and his bride. 
 
 I saw men go into battle after they had received word 
 that wife, mother, father, brother, sister or sweetheart had 
 died of influenza. It is difficult to imagine a bitterer ordeal 
 or one that so sorely tested a man. 
 
 I don't know a man in the Yankee Division who gave 
 more to his country in time of need, whose sacrifice was 
 greater than that of Major Christopher Lee of the 101st 
 Infantry. 
 
 "Chris" is big and handsome. He had everything to 
 live for, a fine home and a wife that was a real pal. As 
 captain he commanded I Company on the Mexican border. 
 He went to France a captain, and, after a course at the 
 general staff school, became adjutant of the Fifty-first In- 
 fantry Brigade under Brigadier-General Traub. Just before 
 the St. Mihiel drive he was transferred to the 102d Infantry 
 and led a battalion, still a captain. He won the commission 
 of major on Oct. 1, for gallantry in action. 
 
 "Chris" led the first assault company in the Bois de 
 Haulont so effectively that he smashed the German positions. 
 He was seriously wounded in the groin and suffered other 
 
THE FANG OF WAR 173 
 
 hurts from a shell that burst very near him. While in a 
 hospital back of the lines, suffering great pain, his wife died, 
 a victim of the "flu." 
 
 Mrs. Lee had been one of the leading spirits in a group 
 of young Boston women who had been active in war welfare 
 work. She had done much for the regiment and for the 
 American soldier in general and had worked zealously on a 
 committee that planned a greeting for the homecoming 
 troops. She and several others on that committee died 
 suddenly, died before they had the thrill enjoyed by the 
 thousands who welcomed the troopships home and who saw 
 the parade of the Yankee Division. 
 
 It was some time before they dared break the news to 
 Major Lee and when he finally learned it on his cot in a 
 French hospital, his grief was overpowering. He is apt to 
 be crippled for life, his wife is gone and his home broken up 
 and he was for a long time an invalid in a Boston hospital. 
 He spent months in a hospital abroad. 
 
 The tax of war for him was heavy. On the day of the 
 divisional review he was driven out to Camp Devens in a 
 limousine by a Red Cross girl and was given a rousing wel- 
 come by officers and men. Company I men nearly lifted 
 the roof off the barracks cheering their former gallant com- 
 mander. "Chris" came over as a casual and landed in New 
 York, after Colonel Logan's regiment came home. Captain 
 Hugh Maguire, formerly regimental quartermaster, who 
 directed Mrs. Lee's funeral and who was best man at their 
 wedding, met Major Lee at the dock. 
 
 Major Lee was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross 
 by the American Army and a Croix de Guerre by the French 
 for bravery. They didn't come any pluckier than "Chris." 
 
 Everybody in the Yankee Division was proud of the 
 showing made by Major Thomas F. Foley, who as captain 
 had led the "Emmet Guards" of Worcester. "Tom" was a 
 police inspector before going to war and returned to the 
 force as a lieutenant. 
 
174 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "Tom" might have evaded service because of his age 
 and the fact that he is the father of three children, but he 
 was in the National Guard when the call came and had 
 served during the tour on the Mexican border and he said 
 he was eager to serve as a legacy and inspiration to his sons. 
 That's the kind of a daddy the Foley children have. And 
 he came back to them unscratched and stronger than he 
 had been in years, with a Distinguished Service Cross pinned 
 on his tunic. 
 
 Tom Foley, after winning promotion on the battlefield, 
 left G Company to command the Third Battalion of the 
 101st Infantry, succeeding Major James F. Hickey of Na- 
 tick, formerly commander of L Company. Major Hickey, 
 veteran of the Cuban and Philippine campaigns, conducted 
 a raid in the Toul sector known as "Hickey's Raid" and led 
 his battalion with success until his return home in September. 
 
 Major Foley had the reputation of being as "cool as a 
 cake of ice" in action. His quiet bravery made him con- 
 spicuous in many engagements, especially at Chateau 
 Thierry, where he led his battalion with a dash that was the 
 talk of the sector. Tom was as courageous as he was good- 
 natured. He lives at No. 84 Lovell Street, Worcester. 
 When decorated with a Distinguished Service Cross he 
 received the following citation : 
 
 "For repeated acts of extraordinary heroism in action near 
 Vaux, July 15-22, 1918. Throughout the four days of the advance 
 Captain Foley (this was prior to his promotion) commanded and 
 led his battalion with exceptional bravery and judgment, there- 
 by inspiring his men. When strong resistance was encountered 
 he personally went forward and reconnoitered the terrain under 
 heavy machine gun fire, and, on July 15 and again on July 22, he 
 personally led his battalion in a successful attack." 
 
 The men from Worcester said Danny McCormack, the 
 lilliputian actor, famous as Jeff in Mutt and Jeff, and for 
 years mascot of the Emmet Guards, could have had no end 
 of beds and hiding places over there, with so many "rabbit 
 
THE FANG OF WAR 175 
 
 holes" handy. It was warmer overseas than along the bor- 
 der, Danny. German shells and bombs were thicker than 
 hoofs at equitation drill. 
 
 Major William J. McCarthy of South Boston was an- 
 other Al fighter. He was connected with a safety razor con- 
 cern in private life. * ' Mac ' ' was one of the handsome men of 
 the division and a glutton for work. His pep was con- 
 tagious. He jumped from captain to major while the 
 division was in the Toul sector. 
 
 One of his hardest fights was in the Rupt-en-Woevre 
 ravine in the St. Mihiel push, in which battle his chum, Cap- 
 tain Joseph McConnell, was killed by a shell. With German 
 batteries hurling death from the heights, Major McCarthy 
 and his men advanced and fought the Boches at close quar- 
 ters. They fought hand-to-hand five hours while the 102d 
 Infantry stood in reserve. McCarthy and his men chopped 
 their way through a stonewall resistance and captured 
 prisoners and valuable ground. Companies A, B, C and 
 D did great work in that battle. 
 
 In the closing weeks of fighting in the hills north of 
 Verdun Major McCarthy and his battalion were main- 
 stays. McCarthy was gassed and almost collapsed from 
 physical exhaustion. He had to go to a hospital for a spell. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Soldier Poets 
 
 B American soldiers who went overseas to fight for 
 democracy and who survived are bigger men intel- 
 lectually because of the hardships and the expe- 
 rience. 
 
 They returned with new ideals and broader vision. 
 They are more sober in their views and speech. They will be 
 more appreciative of home influence and comforts. They 
 are more analytical and sympathetic. They are tenderer. 
 
 They are changed men. Study your son, brother, 
 husband or sweetheart who served in a combat division, and 
 judge for yourself. 
 
 War mellowed most men who took any part in it. 
 And one potent effect that was bound to come as soon as they 
 got into "cits" and settled in their walks of life was the 
 rekindling and the growth of ambition. 
 
 You are going to hear from officers and men who were in 
 the American Expeditionary Forces. The soldier of today 
 is going to be the leader of tomorrow. 
 
 He is going to make himself felt in finance, industry, 
 literature and art and in legislative halls. He is going to direct 
 business. He is going to make laws. He is going to govern. 
 
 The risk was great and the going hard, but although 
 they would not care to go through it again, the majority 
 admit that they would not have missed it for anything. 
 
 For every man of them, the big adventure has flung wide 
 the door of opportunity. 
 
 This generation will see the soldiers in the saddle in 
 public and private life. Just watch. 
 
 Some men did not find themselves until they reached the 
 battlefields of France. Hundreds did not know what was 
 in them until they were struggling in the maelstrom of war. 
 
 176 
 
SOLDIER POETS 177 
 
 Out of the ranks will come new writers, artists, sculptors, 
 actors, statesmen, philosophers and preachers. 
 
 They have been remade by the feel and the pain of the 
 ordeal. They who lived through it and they only can hope to 
 describe it so that others may see and feel, but only in a measure. 
 
 An old army chaplain told me that one of the biggest 
 surprises he had in the war was when the so-called "hard 
 guy" of the regiment, the man they picked to tame men and 
 horses, who staged all the boxing bouts and who did all the 
 rough work, placed on the grave of a comrade a bouquet of 
 wild flowers which he had picked with his own hands. 
 
 "If anybody told me 'Spike' had a particle of sentiment 
 in him before that," said the chaplain, "I would have told 
 him he didn't know the man, but war has wrought its 
 changes in our regimental 'rough neck,' as the boys called 
 him, as it did on countless others." 
 
 Many soldier poets were developed overseas. I came 
 across samples of their work from time to time and reprint a 
 few to give readers an idea how the muse inspired them in 
 the ranks. Poems by soldiers were published regularly in the 
 " Stars and Stripes," the official organ of the American 
 Expeditionary Forces, which was so popular with officers 
 and men that many called it their "Bible." The editors of 
 the "Stars and Stripes" published a booklet of soldier poems 
 which makes interesting reading and a splendid souvenir. 
 
 For example, just scan this poem, entitled "Cambric 
 and Cambrai," written by Bugler Hubert W. Kelley, 
 Company D, th Railway Engineers : 
 
 " 'Tis strange — it was not long ago 
 I sat and watched my mother sew, 
 And heard the drowsy hum and whirr 
 Of wheel that flew in gleaming blur; 
 And sometimes busy scissors snipped, 
 As seams were sewn, or seams were ripped. 
 
 "I often raised a dreamy look 
 
 Above my open story book, 
 
 And while she worked her agile hands, 
 
 My mother told me of the lands 
 
 Where cloths were made. I hear her say, 
 
 'This cambric came from far Cambrai.' 
 
178 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "It seems as if 'twere yesterday 
 She spoke of cambric and Cambrai — 
 The city of the Frankish king, 
 Where looms of magic weave and sing. 
 That fair old town of northern France 
 Was but one star in my romance. 
 
 "The star was not so brilliant then, 
 But when I see the ranks of men 
 March past me to the front each day, 
 I think of cambric and Cambrai; 
 And every time a cannon booms, 
 I think of Cambrai and her looms. 
 
 " 'Tis strange — it was not long ago 
 I sat and watched my mother sew, 
 And heard her tell of far Cambrai, 
 And now our guns are turned that way. 
 It hurts me when a cannon booms, 
 I think of Cambrai and her looms." 
 
 Fancy an engineer writing that in a dugout at the battle 
 front. Isn't that sentiment? Doesn't it express a tender- 
 ness of thought which anybody would think foreign to a 
 soldier in time of war? 
 
 Here are a few other samples of the work of soldier poets : 
 
 CHOW CALL 
 
 "Kinder funny how a feller 
 
 May be feelin' awful blue, 
 Like the world has gone to thunder, 
 
 Same as I have felt, an' you; 
 When he hasn't had a letter 
 
 Or is broke, an' tired, an' all, 
 But a smile enwreaths his visage 
 
 When he hears that old chow call. 
 
 "In the mornin', when our bugler 
 
 Wakes us with his darn first call, 
 We get sore enough to eat him 
 
 An' his horn, an' tune, an' all. 
 When he blows for drill an' 'sembly, 
 
 Seems to us he's mighty small; 
 But we love him like a brother 
 
 When he plays that old chow call. 
 
 "Cease your singin', Sirens' voices; 
 
 Pipes of Pan, cut out your stall; 
 For allurement, you aren't in it 
 
 When our bugler plays chow call. 
 Rather than be Paderewski, 
 
 Or Chopin, who looms up tall, 
 Would I be the unknown genius 
 
 Who composed that old chow call. 
 
SOLDIER POETS 179 
 
 "Maybe you ain't got a bugle, 
 
 Use a Jap'nese gong high-ball. 
 Well, you'll find out what you're missin', 
 
 When you hear that old chow call. 
 I should like to sing its praises, 
 
 Till from sheer fatigue I'd fall — 
 But just now I can't be bothered. 
 
 For I hear that old chow call." 
 
 GUY H. TALOR, 165th Aero Squadron. 
 
 SONNET— 1918 
 "What is this yellow swarm so swiftly sprung 
 
 From out a thousand towns that yesterday 
 
 Did teem with peaceful work and love and play? 
 What countless guns this quiet folk have slung! 
 The tyrant threatened Freedom, and they rose 
 
 Against his host long skilled and bred in war. 
 His host — none such the world had seen before — 
 Melted and bent, and fled before their blows. 
 And now they're turning back, and glad it's done, 
 Back to the thousand cities' peaceful joys. 
 Look at these warriors who have tamed the Hun, 
 O seem they fierce; vent they much bloody noise? 
 Ah no! For mothers, sweethearts every one 
 
 Doth sigh; they're only smiling, homesick boys." 
 
 MILES J. BRENER, 1st Lt. M. C. 
 
 TO M. L. D. 
 "I've been eaten up by cooties, 
 
 And I've bathed in Flanders mud. 
 I've ducked old Jerry's minnies 
 
 And awaited many a dud. 
 
 "I've had my joy and sorrow 
 
 And pleasures tres beaucoup. 
 But I'm waiting for the morrow 
 
 When I'll be back with you. 
 
 "That day has long been coming, 
 
 But now will soon be here. 
 The thought has kept me humming 
 
 Songs of Love to you, my dear." 
 
 WILLIAM F. GERMAIN, S. S. D. 
 
 UP WITH THE RATIONS 
 
 "Hovering of darkness and coverlids of dawn — 
 Up with the rations, where the boys have gone! 
 Creaking and crying the limbers rattle on — 
 Up with the rations — but the roads are gone! • 
 
 " 'Which is the road to take ? 
 How many miles to make?' 
 Never a nerve to shake — 
 On with the game! 
 
180 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "Shriek of the whining shell, 
 Bursting with flares of hell, 
 Lighting the road so well, 
 Thank it the same! 
 
 "Crooning of airplane, hovering o'er you — 
 (Mind you, the Infantry made it before you!) 
 
 " 'Come, build this bridge again — 
 Cut through this field of grain — 
 Work and forget the rain — 
 Hustle those men! 
 
 " 'Here, take this overcoat; 
 Cover that wounded bloke, 
 Pull it around his throat — 
 He's kickin' in!' 
 
 "How the mud oozes and clings to the ration cart, 
 *£ Clinches the rims of the tires till they hold! 
 How the mules fret at the load when the wagons start 
 Stretching the traces from lashes that scold! 
 
 " 'God! What a fierce barrage! 
 There goes a team at large! 
 Where is that transport sarge? 
 Finding a hole?' 
 
 "Never a chance to run for cover, 
 This is the way he puts them over — 
 
 " ' Bring on that set o' spares! 
 Pull off them murdered mares! 
 Hitch on two other pairs 
 And fix that pole! 
 
 " 'Now — one at a crack as I give you the sign, 
 
 Dig into her ribs and shoot for the line! 
 
 Or find yourself drivin' a limber in hell 
 
 And ball up my dope on the drops of the shell!' 
 
 "Close enough now for a shot from a gunner's nest 
 To warn you that Fritz is sniping out there — 
 
 Close enough now for a whisper to give you rest 
 To last you a while with never a care! 
 
 " "Sir! Your rations are delivered!' 
 
 "Oh, it's welcome to the dawn, lad, 
 
 When the night is long, 
 For here's an empty cart, lad, 
 
 That sings a lively song! 
 
 "Who would be part of the transport on a far flung battle line, 
 With never a thrill of battle, with never a lip to whine? 
 
SOLDIER POETS 181 
 
 "But, oh, there's a song in a limber 
 
 That stirs to the blood, my lad, 
 And swinging along with the rations 
 
 Is never one-half so bad, 
 For the glare and the gleam of a starshell 
 
 And a teamster's gay 'gid-dap' 
 Hold enough for the life of a soldier, 
 
 For the blood of a nervy chap. 
 And a lad lives close to his God, my lad, 
 
 And, lo, his heart is true, 
 For it takes a person of parts, my lad, 
 
 To get the rations through!" 
 
 J. PALMER CUMMING, R. S. S., 305th Inf. 
 
 Shortly after Christmas the doughboys began to get 
 postcards from admirers at home with the following verse 
 printed in big, burning letters on the back: 
 
 A WORD OF GREETING AND WARNING 
 
 "Be nice to the daughters of England, 
 
 And polite to the belles of France. 
 Be good to the orphans of Belgium. 
 
 Give the signoritas a glance. 
 And just remember you're out on business 
 
 And whenever your sympathies stray. 
 Keep your heart tied up in your kitbag 
 
 For the girls of the U. S. A." 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 The "Sixth" Sense 
 
 BThe Chaplains of the American Expeditionary 
 Forces made good. 
 They were two-fisted, practical, courageous, 
 everyday men. The doughboys nicknamed them 
 "Sky Pilots" and "Holy Joes." 
 
 The less outward sancity they wore and the more com- 
 monplace their methods, the better the soldiers liked them. 
 
 I met padres, many of them for whom the doughboys 
 would have sacrificed their lives — earnest, liberal, mild- 
 mannered men of every denomination. 
 
 Welfare workers who, actuated by personal impulse or 
 ambition, tried to serve religion with sweet chocolate or who 
 attempted to exploit pet spiritual hobbies received a cold 
 shoulder from the rank and file of the American troops 
 overseas. 
 
 The soldiers preferred to accept religion from the army 
 chaplains, who did not require any help from amateur 
 evangelists. 
 
 It was astonishing what influence the army chaplains, 
 and especially those of the Yankee Division, had on the 
 men of the organizations to which they were attached. 
 Officers and privates idolized them. They could do more 
 with a glance or a few off-hand words than some men could 
 if they preached all day. The soldiers had confidence in 
 them. 
 
 The game of war changed chaplains as it did the soldiers. 
 I recall a young divine of exalted manner who came from a 
 fashionable parish and who spoke with a broad English 
 accent, always with hands folded, and who was awfully shell- 
 
 182 
 
THE "SIXTH" SENSE 133 
 
 shy for a spell. The men guyed him behind his back and 
 it looked as if he were going to be a failure, but war trans- 
 formed "Morti," as the soldiers christened him, and it was 
 not long before they had taken him into their hearts as "a 
 regular guy." That young dandy turned out to be one of 
 the bravest men in the outfit and nobody was more surprised 
 than himself. He told us so. 
 
 I knew chaplains who did not hesitate to say "hell" and 
 "damn," after they had been in the field for a time, and the 
 soldiers liked it. 
 
 The religious element is different in the army than it is in 
 civil life and it was radically different in time of war than 
 it was in time of peace. 
 
 Judging from my observations along the front, religion 
 became a sort of sixth sense, in war. It seemed to become 
 as necessary as sleep, and food and rifle. It seemed as 
 natural and necessary as air to the great majority. It was 
 interesting to see how religion got under the skin of many of 
 the calloused and the unbelievers in the face of danger and 
 death. 
 
 Men just felt it. A rough-neck sergeant expressed it 
 pretty accurately when he bawled : 
 
 "Nobody has to spout religion to me when it's time to go 
 over the top. Prayer is second nature and you don't have 
 to get down on your knees. All that you learned about 
 religion in childhood comes rushing back to you and it gets 
 you good." 
 
 The army chaplains sized it up about that way. They 
 used effective logic. They did worlds of good. 
 
 Chaplain Lyman Rollins of Marblehead, attached to the 
 101st Infantry, injected a sort of Billy Sunday pep into his 
 talks. He talked from the shoulder in everyday slang and 
 trench lingo and always made a hit. On a certain Sabbath 
 Chaplain Rollins made his soldier congregation gasp. 
 
 Without a word of preface or warning, he thundered 
 forth a string of oaths and obscene phrases, every one that 
 he had ever heard, and suddenly stopped. 
 
184 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 The men thought he had gone crazy. Then before they 
 had recovered from their astonishment Chaplain Rollins 
 shouted: 
 
 "How did it sound, fellows? Pretty bad coming from a 
 minister, didn't it? Well, let me tell you it doesn't sound 
 any worse for me to utter these vile words than it does for 
 you. All I hear from Monday to Monday is profanity. 
 Cut it out, fellows." 
 
 He told me he did not hear a profane word for days after 
 that blast. Chaplain Rollins was a live wire, and yet he 
 had literally to fight his way across. He applied to go with 
 the regiment, but his application was turned down and he 
 had to hurry to Washington and pull no end of wires. The 
 Rev. M. J. O'Connor of Roxbury, then ranking chaplain of 
 the 101st Infantry and later senior divisional chaplain, 
 helped make a berth for Chaplain Rollins and they were in- 
 separable. 
 
 Father O'Connor directed all the chaplains in the Yankee 
 Division. He was such a big, forcible, good-natured padre, 
 an athlete and football player in college, that the soldiers 
 looked up to him. Chaplain O'Connor was gassed, but 
 recovered. 
 
 I don't think there was a chaplain in the American over- 
 seas army who roughed it more with the men in the front 
 lines and who came nearer sharing their hardships and risks 
 than the Rev. Osias J. Boucher, a Knights of Columbus 
 chaplain from Fall River. Father Boucher said at the 
 home-coming banquet given to Colonel Logan by the repre- 
 sentative citizens of Boston at the Copley-Plaza that he was 
 probably the "toughest looking chaplain in France," be- 
 cause he wore a regulation doughboy's uniform and never 
 had time to "slick up." 
 
 But Chaplain Boucher did not mention the countless 
 acts of bravery he performed under machine gun and shell 
 fire to adminster to dying soldiers. He, like Chaplain Rol- 
 lins, won a Croix de Guerre. 
 
THE "SIXTH" SENSE 185 
 
 The first chaplains in the American Expeditionary 
 Forces decorated by the French were the Rev. John B. 
 DesValles of New Bedford and the late Rev. Walter S. 
 Danker of Worcester, who was killed by a shell. 
 
 Father DesValles at the Apremont Woods and Seicheprey 
 fights rescued several wounded soldiers who were trapped 
 in No Man's Land. He was as handsome as a motion picture 
 hero. He was curate of St. John the Baptist Church. He 
 was assigned to the army by the Knights of Columbus. He 
 later won a Distinguished Service Cross. 
 
 After the Apremont Woods scrap he told me how he felt 
 the first time he was under fire. He said : 
 
 "First you recoil and get scared blue and then you forget 
 all about yourself when you see men dead and wounded 
 around you. It was hell. That's the only name for it 
 while the shelling was at its height. There was a time in 
 my life when I feared to stay alone in a room during a thun- 
 der storm. 
 
 "If anybody told me then I could face and survive what 
 I went through today I wouldn't have believed him. The 
 noise was maddening. Shells dropped everywhere, hurling 
 earth and stones and shrapnel. There were flashes and 
 thunderous reports. 
 
 "All the glory goes to the men in the ranks. That's 
 where you find the real heroes. Those youngsters are 
 wonders. Boys of eighteen fought like the warriors we read 
 about. They didn't seem to have a thought of fear. They 
 just pitched in. There isn't a power in the world that can 
 conquer such spirit. It was great. The fortitude of those 
 striplings was the marvel of it all. 
 
 "I was at a dressing station when Lieutenant John Galvin 
 of Greenfield came there for treatment. He had been fight- 
 ing gallantly all day. He told the surgeon there was some- 
 thing the matter with his eardrums. He said he couldn't 
 hear and that it interfered with his work. 
 
 "The doctor told him to bathe his ears in hot water. 
 Lieutenant Galvin smiled and said, 'Hot water? Can't 
 
186 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 even get cold.' I shook hands with him and he hadn't gone 
 many steps before a shell killed him. Poor lad. His men 
 worshipped him. Galvin was a regular fellow and a fine 
 soldier. 
 
 "As the battle progressed I had to do a little first aid 
 work of my own, administering to the wounded and anoint- 
 ing the dying. There were no denominational lines out 
 there. The spiritual feeling was strong. Youngsters 
 begged me to pray for them. 
 
 "Word reached me that Private Charlie Pike of Peabody 
 was wounded and unable to move in No Man's Land. I 
 went out and poked around, but couldn't locate him. I 
 came back for more definite directions and found him the 
 second time and hauled him in. Most ordinary thing in the 
 world, but some of them thought it good enough for a medal. 
 Anybody would have done it. 
 
 "I carried a thermos bottle filled with hot tea and I gave 
 them a drink from it the first thing and that spruced them 
 up, and then, as they started off in stretchers, I poked a 
 cigarette between their lips, and the cigarette always 
 brought such an expression of relief and satisfaction. 
 
 "Then I would whisper a prayer and a word of cheer in 
 their ear and send them down the trail to the hospital. The 
 first thing that many of the wounded youngsters asked was 
 how soon they could return to the line. The flashes and 
 rockets reminded you of the Fourth of July. In spite of the 
 dampness trees caught fire." 
 
 The bravery of army chaplains was one of the features of 
 the opening fights at Apremont Woods and Seicheprey. 
 The Rev. William J. Farrell of West Newton administered 
 to the dying during a rain of shells and carried ammunition 
 to a battery by hand. When four men were killed and 
 seven wounded, putting the guns out of action, Chaplain 
 Farrell operated a gun himself until wounded by shrapnel. 
 
 Chaplain Farrell carried Private Myron Dickinson of 
 Bridgeport, Ct., a nineteen-year-old artilleryman, on his 
 back to a dressing station. He was decorated for bravery. 
 
THE "SIXTH" SENSE 187 
 
 The commanding officer told Chaplain Farrell that he was 
 too good a fighter for a clergyman and offered him a com- 
 mission, but Father Farrell thought he'd better continue the 
 role of sky pilot. The men called him "The Fighting Par- 
 son." 
 
 The Rev. George S. L. Connor of Holyoke did splendid 
 work with the Yankee Division and later became senior 
 corps chaplain with the American Army of Occupation. 
 Chaplain Connor was fortunate enough to be transferred 
 back in time to come home with the Yankee Division. He 
 was attached to the 101st Infantry when mustered out. He 
 officiated at the funeral of Chaplain Davitt of Holyoke, his 
 classmate and chum, who was the last chaplain and probably 
 the last American officer killed in the war. 
 
 The Rev. John J. Mitty of New York was chaplain of 
 the 102d Infantry. He was thrown from his horse in the 
 big Boston parade and suffered a broken ankle. His mount 
 was frightened by noise and confetti in passing the Hotel 
 Lenox. 
 
 On Easter Sunday morning, 1918, as the Yankee Division 
 artillery was moving from the Chemin-des-Dames sector into 
 the Toul sector, I met Chaplain Murray W. Dewart of the 
 101st Field Artillery. Chaplain Dewart served with the 
 First Massachusetts Regiment of Artillery on the Mexican 
 border and staged all the regimental tournaments and box- 
 ing bouts. He said that day: 
 
 "About this time I would be mounting my pulpit at 
 home. I couldn't help thinking just now, as we passed that 
 little church down there, of the contrast. Here we are up 
 against the real thing at last; the thing we trained for on the 
 border — mud and rain and cold and fag, and cannonading 
 in the distance, entering a sector on the great Western front 
 at an hour when churches at home are thronged with wor- 
 shippers in their Easter finery. I can fancy myself part of 
 the scene. I can see the faces and the vested choir and 
 fancy the fragrance of incense and flowers. Some dif- 
 ference." 
 
188 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 The chaplains of the Yankee Division, each of whom was 
 a hustler and deserving of special mention, were: 
 
 Division Headquarters — Rev. M. J. O'Connor, ranking 
 chaplain of the division; Rev. Father Tucker, Rabbi Israel 
 Bettan of South Carolina and Acting Rabbi Benjamin 
 Riseman of Boston. 
 
 101st Infantry — Rev. George S. L. Connor, Rev. Lyman 
 Rollins, Rev. John J. Mitty. 
 
 102d Infantry — Rev. James P. Sherry, Rev. Burnham 
 Dell and Rev. Thomas G. Speers. 
 
 103d Infantry— Rev. Michael Nivard (K. of C), Rev. 
 Harrison R. Anderson. 
 
 104th Infantry— Rev. John B. DesValles (K. of C), 
 Rev. Allen Evans, Jr., and Rev. Charles K. Imbrie. 
 
 101st Field Artillery — Rev. Murray W. Dewart. 
 
 102d Field Artillery— Rev. Markham W. Stackpole. 
 
 103d Field Artillery— Rev. William J. Farrell (K. of C). 
 
 101st Engineers — Rev. H. Boyd Edwards, formerly 
 chaplain of the Eighth Massachusetts Infantry. 
 
 101st Ammunition Train — Rev. Chauncey Adams. 
 
 101st Machine Gun Battalion — Rev. Earl Taggart. 
 
 102d Machine Gun Battalion — Rev. Arthur J. Le Veer. 
 
 103d Machine Gun Battalion — Rev. Robert Campbell. 
 
 101st Field Signal Battalion — Rev. Malcolm E. Peabody 
 and Rev. John Creighton. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Salvation Doughnuts 
 
 BNo Series of anecdotes or history of the Yankee 
 Division would be complete unless it included a 
 chapter telling about the Salvation Army activities 
 with the New England troops at the front, and 
 the same applies to every other American combat division. 
 
 Observe that I say "at the front." I wish to place all 
 possible emphasis on that point, because that was where the 
 Salvation Army did the major share of its war welfare work 
 —AT THE FRONT— and did it so well that every officer 
 and enlisted man in the American Expeditionary Forces be- 
 came a friend and booster of the organization. 
 
 I heard generals praise the Salvation Army just as fer- 
 vently as did the doughboys. When you hear such a unani- 
 mous and emphatic verdict it must be so. The entire over- 
 seas army praised the Salvation Army for its welfare work, 
 praised it in a chorus so mighty that its echoes were carried 
 to this side of the ocean and those echoes will go ringing 
 down through the years to come. 
 
 The Salvation Army made good. Its success as an army 
 auxiliary in the battle zone was one of the outstanding 
 features of the closing year of the world war. 
 
 The Salvation Army saw a need and met it. It saw and 
 took advantage of a big opportunity, not to help itself but 
 to help others. Those at the head of the organization 
 tackled the job in the right way. 
 
 Their resources were limited, but what they had they 
 applied wisely. They concentrated in the obscure regions 
 where men were fighting and fagged and where they needed 
 little comforts far more than did the fellows back in the 
 
 S. o. s. 
 
 189 
 
190 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Sincerity, benevolence, indefatigable zeal, honest effort, 
 warm-blooded heart interest in the rank and file of American 
 soldiers and bales and bales of patriotic fervor enabled the 
 Salvation Army welfare workers to bridge gaps and to sur- 
 mount obstacles that were discouraging at times. Equipped 
 with a greater stock of these motives and attributes than 
 material things, the Salvation Army won out. 
 
 It couldn't help it. It was the old story of charity reap- 
 ing its own reward. The Salvation Army pitched in with 
 sleeves furled and administered to the Yanks in advanced 
 areas. 
 
 It lacked transportation and funds and a lot of other 
 things, but what it had the soldiers were welcome to. Right 
 there you find the secret of Salvation Army success on the 
 battlefields of France. It gave what little it had to the 
 doughboys with a smile and with a generous simplicity that 
 made a hit with the troops. They liked the spirit better 
 than the steaming coffee and the doughnuts, which is saying 
 a lot, because man ! how they gobbled those doughnuts ! 
 
 You don't have to depend upon my word for it. Just 
 ask any soldier you meet. They are the best witnesses. 
 When the tide of olive drab began to flow homeward after 
 the fighting ended, the Salvation Army again showed its 
 business acumen and efficiency by centering at the embarka- 
 tion ports and doing its utmost at Brest and Bordeaux and 
 other ports where effort was needed. 
 
 The Salvation Army had no publicity bureau over there 
 to boast about its work in the field. It just got busy in an 
 humble way because it felt the men needed such effort and 
 attention as its field secretaries could give. 
 
 But like the good will of the troops, the Salvation Army 
 reaped publicity automatically. It won publicity from the 
 goodness of heart of the small but earnest band of workers 
 in the field. American war correspondents saw that the 
 Salvation Army operatives were delivering, and they flashed 
 cables to let the people in the United States know about it. 
 
SALVATION DOUGHNUTS 191 
 
 The doughboys early began to contribute the most 
 effective publicity of all, writing home about what the 
 Salvation Army was doing for them and urging relatives 
 "not to let a tambourine pass without dropping something 
 in." 
 
 Pretty good slogan that. In my mail the other day I 
 received a letter from my friend John F. Mahony, local 
 publicity expert, who asked me if I would speak in the cam- 
 paign for the Salvation Army Home Service Fund, 
 
 Charles S. Whitman was national chairman, former 
 Governor Samuel W. McCall, State chairman, Edwin T. 
 Coffin, New England Campaign Director, and Mr. Mahony, 
 director of publicity. This paragraph appeared in Mr. 
 Mahony's letter to me: 
 
 "Everybody at New England Campaign Headquarters 
 of the Salvation Army Home Service Fund, from Colonel 
 Gifford down to the lowest officer, gives you credit for being 
 the correspondent who 'found' the Salvation Army abroad." 
 
 A mighty fine tribute. The doughboys "found" the 
 Salvation Army before I did, though now that Jack has let 
 the cat out of the bag, I might confess that I did happen to 
 be the first to cable a story to the United States about Sal- 
 vation Army welfare activities at the front and I considered 
 it an honor and a duty. 
 
 There was news value in the report that I cabled to the 
 International News Service which I knew would be of in- 
 terest to its hundreds of newspaper clients throughout the 
 United States and Canada. Six American girls frying and 
 serving doughnuts to doughboys with helmets on and gas 
 masks strapped at "alert" in a French village that was being 
 shelled and gassed was so good a story, in my opinion, that 
 I used "P. Q. urgent," a rate which meant that it traveled at 
 the greatest possible speed and cost 75 cents a word. 
 
 If the Salvation Army hadn't done something really 
 worth while in the Toul sector, I wouldn't have used 
 such an expensive cable service to telegraph that story to 
 America. 
 
192 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 I had the dual pleasure of putting across a news story 
 and, incidentally, helping a worthy cause. It was a case 
 of linking business and sentiment. 
 
 When the Yankee Division, after a long tour of duty 
 in the front line trenches in Chemin-des-Dames, relieved 
 the First Division in the Toul sector and took up a divisional 
 front, on Easter Sunday, 1918, 1 visited the battered village 
 of Anceville, not far from the divisional headquarters at 
 Boucq. 
 
 On the way there the army chauffeur who drove the 
 army car assigned to me talked a great deal about the 
 Salvation Army. He said the "gang" were loud in their 
 praises and he wanted me to take a peep into a tumbledown 
 factory, where a Salvation Army canteen had been set up. 
 
 It was a weird place. The roof of the old stone building 
 had been almost entirely ripped away by shells and buildings 
 all about had been demolished. Enemy shells had partly 
 destroyed the ancient chapel close by, and, in a house, a 
 few centuries old, the Salvation Army corps lived with a 
 couple almost as ancient-appearing as their domicile. 
 
 It was raining and had been for days. Mud was ankle 
 deep. The temperature was biting. Inside the Salvation 
 canteen everything looked black when you first entered, 
 but after your eyes had become accustomed to the light of 
 a few candles and an old barn lantern, you saw that dough- 
 boys were seated around boxes and boards that served as 
 tables and they were drinking hot coffee and devouring 
 doughnuts and egg sandwiches in awful gulps. 
 
 You noticed that an old strip of canvas had been used 
 to substitute for the missing roof, that it leaked, that day- 
 light showed through several shellholes in the walls, that 
 there was an improvised counter for chocolate, tobacco, 
 cigarettes and matches at the back of the apartment, and 
 that in the rear, entered through a portiere of damp, smelly 
 burlap, was a smaller room that served as kitchen. 
 
 "Ma" and "Pa" Burdick were there and four Salvation 
 Army girl ensigns, all busy as beavers catering to that 
 
SALVATION DOUGHNUTS 193 
 
 hungry line of doughboys, scores of whom waited in the 
 rain for their turn. 
 
 The ensigns wore bungalow aprons over their uniforms. 
 They were kneading dough and frying doughnuts. Their 
 arms were almost blistered from the heat and sputtering 
 grease. Huge vats of coffee sang on the stove. Dough- 
 boys helped serve and doughboys carried water and split 
 wood and did all the chores without being asked, they 
 appreciated so much what was being done for them. 
 
 In this reciprocal spirit the doughboys volunteered their 
 services to do the heavy labor whenever they had spare 
 time. Woe to the man who insulted or offended the Sal- 
 vation Army lassies. The soldiers worshipped them. They 
 used to say they reminded them of their sisters and that the 
 old battered canteen, in spite of its dampness and ugliness, 
 held a suggestion of home "with girls, aprons and smiles 
 around." 
 
 On my first visit to the Salvation Army canteen at 
 Anceville I took the names of the staff working there, 
 figuring that it would make an interesting mail story. I 
 found there, with Mr. and Mrs. Burdick, the Misses Gladys 
 and Irene Mclntyre, sisters from Mt. Vernon, N. Y., Miss 
 Stella Young, Chelsea, Mass., and Miss Myrtle Turkington 
 of South Manchester, Conn. Later they were joined by 
 Miss Gertrude Symonds and Miss Violet Williams of 
 Racine, Wis. 
 
 Before I had time to bother with a mail story the Ger- 
 mans attacked Yankee Division units at Seicheprey and 
 prefaced the raid with a violent artillery bombardment. 
 Roads leading to Anceville were screened by camouflaged 
 fencing, and there were frequent signs announcing in 
 French that you were in sight of the enemy. Mrs. Burdick, 
 a woman in her sixties, and the six girl ensigns were nearer 
 the battle line than any of their sex on the American front, 
 at the time. 
 
 When the enemy guns were turned on Anceville it 
 became a bang-up human interest story. Buildings crum- 
 
194 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 bled all around where the Salvation Army girls lived and 
 toiled. Soldiers who had patronized the canteen were killed 
 in the streets. Couriers were killed by shells on "Dead 
 Man's Curve." A brigade commander was compelled to 
 move his headquarters. 
 
 Everything was confusion when I reached there. Mus- 
 tard gas shells were being hurled. Stray shells had come 
 over for days, but those were expected on every front, and 
 Gothas fluttered over at night and dropped bombs. Affairs 
 finally became so hot that the town major was forced to 
 order the Salvation Army girls to evacuate and he did it 
 reluctantly. 
 
 Prior to that, Mr. and Mrs. Burdick had been trans- 
 ferred to another division. Here is the account given to me 
 by Irene Mclntyre in the presence of the others: 
 
 "The Germans had been conducting so many air raids 
 that we were forced to sleep in a stuffy dugout every night 
 for more than a week. Lucky they didn't begin Easter 
 week because we had the canteen working night and day 
 then. We never had fixed hours. If the men came out of 
 the trenches at 3 o'clock in the morning we made egg sand- 
 wiches and coffee and doughnuts for them. 
 
 "Well, Friday was really the first quiet night and we 
 girls decided to go to our own beds for a good rest, because 
 you can't sleep comfortably in a dugout without ventila- 
 tion. They kept a couple of pigs and a cow and chickens 
 down stairs in the house where we were billeted. 
 
 "We were all awakened at 4 o'clock Saturday morning 
 by the clanging of the church bell. One of the first shells 
 struck under the tower clock. They were sounding the gas 
 alarm. We girls all put on our gas masks as we had been 
 taught. We often had them strapped at alert while cooking 
 in the kitchen and wore our tin hats, too. 
 
 "A shell came screaming and landed just back of our 
 house and another struck a little to the right and they kept 
 on coming. Before we had time to adjust our masks we 
 all got a whiff of the horrible stuff. We looked awfully 
 
SALVATION DOUGHNUTS 195 
 
 funny squatted on those high French beds with those ugly 
 things on. We had the masks on so long that they became 
 burdensome and stifling and we wondered why the 'all clear' 
 hadn't sounded as it usually did. 
 
 "I agreed to take off my mask long enough to get my 
 flashlight to investigate. I no sooner took it off than I got 
 another sniff and I clapped it on again quickly. The shells 
 continued to roar. We all dressed hurriedly and at daylight 
 ambulances came around 'Dead Man's Curve' bearing the 
 wounded. 
 
 "We prepared to get things ready for them in the canteen 
 when the town major came and said conditions were so bad 
 that we must leave the town at once. We pleaded and he 
 said he was awfully sorry, but that it was a military order 
 for our own safety. 
 
 "We escaped at noon on a buckboard driven by a ser- 
 geant, and the ride was exciting. Shells were breaking on 
 all sides. The soldiers hated to see us go. The old village 
 looked ghastly. Fred Stillwell of Chicago showed grit in 
 rescuing our baggage. They told us we must rest in this 
 village for a spell, but we feel like fish out of water, don't 
 we girls?" 
 
 Miss Gladys Mclntyre, the older sister, and Miss Corie 
 Van Norden of the Van Norden family of New York were 
 the first to take up canteen work at the front in December, 
 1917, and they placed wild violets on the graves of the first 
 American soldiers killed in action in France. The Misses 
 Mclntyre were the only members of their sex cited by the 
 Yankee Division and the only ones to ride in the big Boston 
 parade. 
 
 Mrs. Burdick and her husband came from Houston, 
 Texas, and they were loved by the soldiers. "Ma" Burdick 
 (that's what the doughboys called her) said to me one day: 
 
 "This isn't work, it's a labor of love. If I attempted to 
 do half as much at home I'd be ill or dead, but over here 
 you don't think of time or effort. I've got a grown up family 
 and my husband and I are awfully fond of our home, but 
 
196 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 I wouldn't swap jobs this minute with the finest lady in 
 Europe. 
 
 "The soldiers are so nice and interesting and so grateful 
 for the least little thing. I hate to confess that I had to 
 come to France to discover what beautiful young men we 
 had in America. Their mothers ought to be proud of them. 
 They come in and ask your advice and your blessing and 
 they say good-bye before they enter the front line and some 
 of them don't come back. Nothing is too good for them." 
 
 The pace set by the ensigns at Anceville was kept up by 
 the Salvation Army at all fronts and with all divisions 
 throughout the American operations and the credit it got 
 in consequence was deserved. 
 
 The first girl welfare workers to reach the Rhine were 
 Salvation Army Ensigns Miss Edie Hodges of Richmond, 
 Virginia, recruited from Chicago, and Miss Florence Tur- 
 kington of South Manchester, Ct., sister of Miss Myrtle 
 Turkington, one of the heroines of Anceville. They 
 traveled and slept on a motor truck, and Fred Anderson of 
 Tacoma, Wash., a field secretary, was with them. 
 
 The first Salvation Army canteen operated in Germany 
 was established in Coblenz by Miss Margaret Shel of 
 Chicago and Miss Bertha Lowe of Newark, N. J. Drunken 
 Germans tried to batter down the door of their bedroom 
 the first night. They reported the case to the military 
 authorities. Doughboys wanted to beat up the offenders. 
 
 But the Salvation Army ensigns simply changed their 
 lodgings, bought a revolver between them and kept on 
 toiling for the Yanks. I never met a Salvation Army war 
 worker overseas, man or woman, who was a poser, or an 
 idler, or a misfit. I never met one who was patronizing or 
 narrow or unsympathetic. 
 
 So now you have the story, Jack, of how I "found" the 
 Salvation Army in France. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Overseas Cemeteries 
 
 BIn the censors' office at Neuf chateau, while affairs 
 were active in the Toul sector, I met Walter A. 
 Dragon of Lowell. He was acting as field clerk and 
 had a chance to meet and size up all the war corre- 
 spondents for newspapers and magazines. 
 
 This was interesting for Walter because he was a re- 
 porter on the staff of the Lowell Courier- Citizen before 
 entering the army. He used to write sports. Walter was 
 twenty-four. He was graduated from the Lowell High 
 School in 1912. He was popular with all the correspondents. 
 He had a keen "nose for news," as the saying goes in news- 
 paper parlance, and used to give us valuable tips. 
 
 "It was a big relief when the American hello girls took 
 charge of the army exchanges," said Walter one day. 
 "Their familiar 'What number please?' and The linens 
 busy' sure did sound good. They tuned up the service 
 right off the bat." 
 
 Walter was of French descent and spoke French fluently, 
 an accomplishment which with his knowledge of shorthand 
 made him mighty valuable in the censors' department. 
 
 During the fighting in the Spring of 1918 in the Toul 
 sector I met Stanley W. Prentosil of No. 81 Irving Street, 
 West Springfield. Stanley had worked in the Boston and 
 New York offices of the Associated Press and covered the 
 American front until he entered the army. We were sorry 
 when he returned to the States after a few active months 
 substituting for the regular correspondent. Prentosil made 
 good as a war correspondent. 
 
 In Bar-le-Duc I met Captain Harold Clarke, better 
 known as "Tad," who covered the Bay State militia for the 
 
 197 
 
198 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Boston Herald on the Mexican border and who went to 
 Plattsburg and won a captain's commission when the United 
 States was drawn into the war. "Tad " captained an in- 
 fantry company in the Seventy-sixth Division at Camp 
 Devens, and was doing intelligence work when I ran across 
 him in France. 
 
 In Bar-le-Duc also I met Captain Herbert E. Fleischner, 
 son of Otto Fleischner, assistant librarian of the Boston 
 Public Library. Herbert had been secretary for the late 
 Postmaster Murray and was attached to Motor Supply 
 Train Number Twenty-six. He trained at Camp Johnston. 
 
 I met Humphrey Sullivan, formerly a reporter on the 
 Boston Herald and later on the Boston American, in Paris 
 and again in Luxembourg. He was connected with a tele- 
 phone company in Texas before winning a commission. He 
 was in the Signal Corps. 
 
 In Coblenz I met Lieutenant Thomas F. Moriarty of 
 No. 492 Liberty Street, Springfield, acting as billeting 
 officer and attached to the Eighty-fifth Division. Tom was 
 one of the star tackles at Fordham. He played with Jim 
 Thorpe and later acted as coach. 
 
 His college chum, Captain Harry Costello of Meriden, 
 Ct., Georgetown, '13, one of the great quarterbacks of his 
 time, trained at Fort Sheridan, was assigned to the 339th 
 Infantry in the Eighty-fifth Division and went with 
 that regiment to Archangel, fighting revolutionists on the 
 bleak Russian steppes. 
 
 In Brest when President Wilson sailed for home after his 
 first attendance at the Peace Conference I met "Billy" 
 Scharton's former law partner, Joseph H. McNally, a cap- 
 tain of artillery, and huskier than I had ever seen him. In 
 Brest, too, I met Captain Edward O. Rushford of Salem, 
 formerly of the 101st Artillery. He was directing a monster 
 base hospital as chief urologist. His organization was 
 taken as an army model. Major Rushford recently married 
 a French society girl in Paris. 
 
OVERSEAS CEMETERIES 199 
 
 I found H. L. Stuart, formerly of the Boston Herald repor- 
 torial staff, who covered the first big Lawrence strike with us, 
 acting as British censor at the Bourse in Paris and wearing 
 the uniform of a British lieutenant. He had been liaison 
 officer in the British army in Italy, where he was wounded. 
 
 On the British front I met Bud Fisher, the creator of 
 Mutt and Jeff, a captain in the British army and sporting 
 a monocle. 
 
 Captain Charles F. Bowen, newspaperman of Man- 
 chester, N. H., was doing valuable work as assistant in G-l 
 in the Thirty-second Division beyond the Rhine. 
 
 The newspapermen of Boston and New England rallied 
 to the colors in force. You came across them everywhere 
 and from every branch of the newspaper service — editorial, 
 composing, mailing, stereoptying rooms and advertising de- 
 partments. They added lustre to Newspaper Row. 
 
 One of the first journalist heroes to die was Sergeant 
 Homer Wheaton of Worcester. His military career 
 would have made a novel. He served on the Mexican bor- 
 der with the Worcester company of the Ninth Regiment 
 and was rejected for service overseas because he was run 
 down from overwork. 
 
 But Homer was too much of a patriot to stay at home. 
 He went through a vigorous course of training and diet and 
 built himself up so well that he was accepted. In a dugout 
 on the Toul sector while shifting grenades somebody acci- 
 dentally dropped one and the pin sprang open. Wheaton 
 saw that within a few seconds all would be menaced. There 
 was not enough time to carry it out, so he caught it up and 
 sacrificed himself for the others. It killed him, but his body 
 screened the other men in the dugout from the fragments. 
 The French sent Homer's folks a Croix de Guerre. 
 
 Lieutenant Paul Hines, a Boston reporter, went into No 
 Man's Land under terrific shell fire and saved a wounded 
 officer. He was decorated with the Croix de Guerre and 
 Distinguished Service Cross. I have told you of the gal- 
 lantry of Lieutenant Horton Edmunds, another Boston re- 
 
200 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 porter, as described by Brigadier-General Cole. "Dutch" 
 Mahan, a Boston reporter, who served throughout the war 
 as a private, was as plucky as they came and he wrote 
 brilliantly of his experiences. Lieutenant Dustin Lucier, 
 financial editor on a Boston newspaper, attached to another 
 division, figured in the cable dispatches one day because of 
 his gallantry in capturing a village with a small force of men 
 and in the face of stubborn resistance. Whenever you 
 heard of a Boston newspaperman over there he was 
 doing something worth while. 
 
 John J. Donovan, a well-known Boston lawyer and mem- 
 ber of the reportorial staff of the Boston Globe, acting as 
 field secretary for the Knights of Columbus, was the first 
 war welfare worker to reach the Rhine with a truckload of 
 gumdrops, soap and "smokes." 
 
 The doughboys in the Army of Occupation called him 
 "Santa Claus Jack," because he managed to land the first 
 load of Christmas supplies into Germany in spite of muddy 
 and congested roads. Jack beat the Salvation Army by a 
 week and the Y. M. C. A. by ten days. He later was pro- 
 moted director of K. C. activities in the occupied territory. 
 
 Secretary Edward Ryan of No. 209 Broad Street, Provi- 
 dence, R. I., of the Knights of Columbus field staff, was with 
 Jack Donovan in Luxembourg. A piece of shrapnel grazed 
 him Oct. 12, ripping his breeches, and he refused to have the 
 rent sewn, keeping them as a souvenir. He had a narrow 
 escape. 
 
 In an out-of-the-way French village I came across Ser- 
 geant Charles V. Russell of Winthrop, formerly an under- 
 taker in Dorchester and then a member of the 101st Supply 
 Train of the Yankee Division. He told me that he had just 
 received a letter announcing the death in an automobile 
 accident of my close friend, William Barter, who served on 
 the border in the machine gun company of the Fifth Regi- 
 ment. 
 
 That is how you picked up morsels of home news and 
 met friends. Sergeant Russell was one of a party detailed to 
 
OVERSEAS CEMETERIES 201 
 
 search for missing dead of the Yankee Division and to locate 
 graves in the battle area. They had been doing this grim 
 work since soon after the armistice. 
 
 "We have had many strange and sad experiences," said 
 Russell. "I was selected because I was an undertaker. 
 Only today I buried a poor fellow whose legs and head were 
 gone. There wasn't much left but bones. It was impossible 
 to identify him. Rats and birds had been doing their work. 
 There are many such cases. 
 
 "Some were blown to atoms. Parts were found in trees. 
 I fancy sections of several bodies have been buried as one. 
 It will be impossible ever to reclaim those severely mutilated, 
 unless where identification tags served. Here again there 
 may be confusion. Some doughboys had a foolish habit of 
 swapping tags. Such a trick is apt to play havoc with the 
 records. When it comes time to send the bodies home, it is 
 going to be a big and difficult task." 
 
 The War Department issued a general order, dated 
 March 14, 1918, which reads: 
 
 "Remains of all officers, enlisted men and civilian employees 
 of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps who shall have died or who 
 may hereafter die in France shall be buried in France until the end 
 of the war, when the remains shall be brought back to the United 
 States for final interment. 
 
 "Deaths at sea — Remains of all officers, enlisted men and 
 civilian employees of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps who die 
 on board a ship en route to or from the United States shall be em- 
 balmed and returned to the United States on board ship on which 
 the death occurred." 
 
 Owing to the numerous deaths due to Spanish "flu" 
 while the transportation of troops was at its height, it was 
 impossible to follow out this order; hence burials were con- 
 ducted at sea. According to later plans the Government 
 is to establish a National Cemetery in France. 
 
 Relatives find comfort in having the remains of loved 
 ones in cemeteries convenient to visit. If it were not for 
 this it might be wiser in the majority of cases to let the Ameri- 
 
202 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 can soldiers sleep where they lie in the picturesque valleys 
 and on the hillsides on the edges of the battle zones of 
 France. 
 
 In no country in the world could be found more beautiful 
 and peaceful resting places, with poppies bathing the 
 meadows a deep crimson in Summer, with a weather-beaten 
 church close by, the chimes in the tower of which rang 
 daily benedictions, with shepherds and their flocks on adja- 
 cent hills and with sympathetic French women and children 
 eager to keep the Americans' graves fresh and green. The 
 French peasants early asked the military authorities for 
 permission to adopt graves which they pledged to care for, 
 and they have carried out the benevolent work with a faith- 
 fulness which shows their gratitude for the sacrifices made by 
 their American allies. 
 
 True, it seems awfully far away, but some of the soldiers' 
 cemeteries over there are ideally located. The most 
 striking are the graves of aviators, each with a cross made 
 from the propeller of an aeroplane, when possible from that 
 of the plane in which the deceased met his death. These 
 crosses of highly polished wood glisten in the sunlight. 
 
 Nothing so graphically typifies the enduring patriotism 
 of the United States Army as the sea of unpainted wooden 
 crosses marking the graves of American patriots in France. 
 
 The poet-laureate of the Yankee Division was not a 
 Yankee at all, but a big-hearted Southerner — Colonel Harry 
 B. Anderson of Memphis, Tenn., division judge-advocate. 
 The judge stepped right into the fold when he joined the 
 division by pulling this one: 
 
 "I'm a Yankee by adoption, but a Tennessean by birth." 
 
 He was adopted on the spot. Under the nom de plume, 
 "Tex Cavitt," Judge Anderson churned out quite a few 
 poems dealing with army life and war. Here is one: 
 
OVERSEAS CEMETERIES 203 
 
 THE Y-D CEMETERY 
 
 The peasant children pass it as they leave the village school, 
 
 The pious strangers cross themselves along the road to Toul, 
 
 The captains call attention as the dusty troops plod by, 
 
 The officers salute it though receiving no reply; 
 
 'Tis a spot all brown and barren 'mid the poppies in the grain — 
 
 The Y-D cemetery by a roadside in Lorraine. 
 
 A row of wooden crosses and beneath the upturned sod 
 The hearts once wild and restless now know the peace of God. 
 The brave young lads who left us while life was at its flood, 
 While life was fresh and joyous and fire was in the blood, 
 Their young lives now enfranchised from mirth or joy or pain, 
 They sleep the sleep eternal by a roadside in Lorraine. 
 
 Of all the myriad places for the dead of man to rest, 
 
 The graveyard of the warrior for a freeman is the best; 
 
 Oh! not for them our pity, but far across the foam 
 
 For the gray-haired mother weeping in some New England home, 
 
 'Tis she who has our pity, 'tis she who feels the pain 
 
 Of the Y-D cemetery by a roadside in Lorraine. 
 
 The plodding columns pass them along the old Toul road; 
 
 New companies come marching where yesterday they strode; 
 
 Above, the whirr of motors — beyond, the roar of guns, 
 
 Where their allies and their brothers join battle with the Huns. 
 
 And the sunlight of their glory bursts through the clouds and rain, 
 
 O'er the Y-D cemetery by a roadside in Lorraine. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Armistice Day 
 
 BNow for the last hours of hostilities. 
 The fighting ceased at a time easy to remember 
 in future years — the ELEVENTH HOUR OF 
 THE ELEVENTH DAY OF THE ELEVENTH 
 MONTH, IN THE YEAR 1918. 
 
 And what hours the final ones in the world war were ! 
 
 What a conflict of emotions ! 
 
 What hopes and despair ! 
 
 Americans fell in the last hour — in the last fifteen 
 minutes, while tidings of peace were being flashed around 
 the globe to thrill the people of every land. 
 
 The brave fellows who went to graves and hospitals in 
 the closing hours were the greatest martyrs of them all. 
 Men of the Yankee Division were in the list. 
 
 New England units were among those ordered to attack 
 that morning. I saw the victims buried next day. It was 
 one of the saddest spectacles of the war. 
 
 A few minutes more and they might have joined their 
 comrades in celebrating the armistice as their relatives and 
 friends did in a delirium of joy at home. 
 
 But orders had come to straighten the lines and some 
 units attacked and gained small strips of ground. Before 
 others could obey, orders were rescinded, renewed and re- 
 scinded. Obviously there had been a confusion of orders 
 somewhere. 
 
 It has been argued in defence of developments on the day 
 of the armistice that it was physically impossible suddenly 
 to terminate so gigantic a struggle without some closing 
 action and casualties. I heard it said that foot couriers 
 
 204 
 
ARMISTICE DAY 205 
 
 dispatched to advanced positions arrived too late to avert 
 attacks. 
 
 Critics reply that it was generally known for days that 
 the armistice would be signed. They say the Germans 
 seemed content to rest on their arms and to confine their 
 final efforts to brisk artillery fire. 
 
 They said we should have done like the Germans. I 
 heard it argued that it had been considered necessary to 
 make a show up to the last minute, to which critics replied 
 that it would have been wiser and more humane to have 
 confined activities to artillery and saved the lives of dough- 
 boys. 
 
 Critics further point out that the scant ground gained in 
 the last attacks had no strategical value in that within a few 
 days the American Third Army, otherwise known as the 
 Army of Occupation, crossed the German lines and ad- 
 vanced unmolested through the Duchy of Luxembourg, 
 along the valley of the Moselle and across the Rhine at the 
 heels of the retreating German forces. 
 
 This phase was sufficiently debated at the front to make 
 it apparent, coupled with what visiting statesmen dropped, 
 that the attacks ordered on the morning of the armistice 
 would be among the features investigated. 
 
 The weather was bad that day and had been for weeks. 
 It had rained all night and for days. The chill penetrated 
 to the marrow. It was the wet, risky climate prevalent in 
 upper France in Winter, where there is much rain and little 
 snow. There were slathers of mud. The rain had given 
 place to a fog so dense that vision was limited. It would be 
 hard to imagine a bleaker morning. 
 
 The fog spread a weird shroud over the landscape. It 
 gave a real battle effect, the kind conjured by popular fancy, 
 but foreign to modern warfare. With smokeless powder 
 used chiefly, there was not the smoke that civilians like to 
 imagine and which artists are wont to employ. 
 
 The camouflaged fencings, screening shelled roads, 
 seemed superfluous that morning, though life-savers ni a 
 
206 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 brighter atmosphere. They looked in the fog like canvas 
 posters at a circus sideshow. Motor ambulances filled 
 with newly-wounded sped past. Shells whined overhead 
 and exploded with a savage roar in our wake at the railhead 
 in Verdun, which had been a target for the Germans for 
 weeks. 
 
 Shells cracked in the ruined villages through which we 
 were obliged to pass. They flopped perilously close, in the 
 soggy, uptorn fields. 
 
 "A fine time to be bumped off, just before the last cur- 
 tain," said Junius Wood of the Chicago News, "but I 
 wouldn't miss it for a farm Down East." 
 
 "It's worth the chance to be in on the finishing touches," 
 said Jimmy Hooper of Collier's. "So poke her nose as far 
 as possible today, driver. With this curtain we won't have 
 to do as much mud- wading as on ordinary days." 
 
 A German high explosive interrupted him. It struck 
 just ahead to the right and our chauffeur put on more speed. 
 We came to a world of war caves whose entrances were 
 screened by ingenious lacings of grass-colored burlap in 
 chicken wire; passed beyond the protecting fencing into a 
 battle-swept land more hideous than ever in the fog and — 
 were almost flung from our seats by the concussion of a 
 salvo from massed American batteries of 155s. 
 
 They had been so cleverly concealed to prevent sighting 
 by enemy fliers that we were alongside before we discovered 
 their presence by their sudden and thunderous outburst. 
 Again the earth trembled and again a flock of mighty pro- 
 jectiles traveled Bocheward. Then a voice that sounded 
 very thin out there shouted: 
 
 "Come on down! The mud is fine. Good for corns and 
 bunions if you have any. Most of us have, and beaucoup 
 cooties, too. We're all from Little Rhody. What about 
 the armistice? Is it really coming at 11, or is it just some 
 more bunk? We guys can't believe it, can we, fellows, after 
 having pumped these old pals of ours at the Heinies so many 
 months." 
 
ARMISTICE DAY 207 
 
 The crew to which the owner of the voice belonged were 
 hard at work with their guns in a hollow. They had drawn 
 their battery into the open when the fog thickened, for freer 
 action. There we all stood, taking the gambler's chance, 
 while the gunners worked on until beads of perspiration 
 stood out on their foreheads. 
 
 Their youth impressed you. They were mostly boys in 
 their teens, lads from home, doing the work of modern 
 warriors, and doing it well. We had come into the positions 
 of batteries of the 103d Field Artillery of the Yankee Di- 
 vision and they certainly looked good to me. To our left in 
 the lee of a ridge French batteries were in action. It was a 
 stirring scene. 
 
 Captain Theodore C. Hascould of Lincoln Avenue, East 
 Providence, R. I., was in command of B Battery, of which 
 we became guests on the spot. Carrying ammunition, 
 loading, priming, directing fire, all doing their bits like a well- 
 oiled machine, were Sergeant Howard E. Alysworth of 
 Natick, R. I.; Sergeant J. G. Emerson, No. 151 Howell 
 Street, Providence; Corporal L. B. Smith of South Hadley 
 Falls, Mass.; Corporal Raymond D. Booth, East Green- 
 wich; Privates Alfred Roberts, No. 58 Sweet Avenue, Paw- 
 tucket; James Aitkin, Waverly; George Jackson, No. 1891 
 Smith Street, and George and Andrew Patterson, brothers, 
 of Bellcourt Avenue, North Providence, and Ernest Melvin, 
 No. 593 Broadway; Royal F. Sheridan, No. 1040 Broad 
 Street, Justin B. Richardson, No. 103 Ruggles street, and 
 Louis Watson, No. 14 Norton street, all of Providence. 
 
 They were hungry for "the latest dope." They had 
 time to ask questions, joke and puff cigarettes between 
 rounds well directed at the enemy. 
 
 "These are French guns and we've grown to love them. 
 This bouncer here has done fine work and never went wrong. 
 A shell hit near the limber one day and got a few of our fel- 
 lows, but our squad has been mighty lucky compared to 
 others," said Corporal Smith. 
 
208 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "Better knock on wood," suggested Sheridan. "You 
 know what they say when a fellow crows. There is plenty 
 of time to kick up our toes." 
 
 "Suppose a bruiser landed among us," said Roberts. 
 "It would make a mess with all of us in the open. But I 
 feel that it isn't going to happen. I've got a hunch we're all 
 going home." 
 
 There was a howl of delight when out of the fog from a 
 point farther front came Hugh L. Donnelly of No. 75 Doyle 
 Avenue, Providence, one of the Knights of Columbus field 
 secretaries attached to the Yankee Division, with a shoulder 
 bag stuffed with gum, sweet chocolate, cigarettes and matches. 
 He handed them around free, and my, weren't those contribu- 
 tions welcome! They instilled new pep into the men. 
 
 A youngster, offered the third light from a match, blew it 
 out and asked for a fresh match. He was living up to the 
 army superstition that bad luck pursues the person who 
 lights pipe, cigar or cigarette from a match that has lighted 
 two before. 
 
 They were interested in the story we told them about 
 Lieutenant Ralph Estep, a magazine photographer, who was 
 killed by a shell a few days before. Estep had defied death 
 over and over again crouched in craters snapping bursting 
 shells and getting "action" as the waves went in. He had 
 done the same thing in the Balkans and on the Italian front. 
 
 Like most soldiers, he automatically became a fatalist. 
 It was his notion that if a shell had your number it would 
 get you; that it was no use to try to dodge it. Most of us 
 felt the same about it. 
 
 The day Estep was bumped off he had accepted the third 
 light from a match and correspondents twitted him. He 
 said with a smile: 
 
 "Bunk! Some match concern invented that line to 
 promote sales." It proved to be true in his case. Lieuten- 
 ant Estep was as brave as he was ambitious. We all liked 
 him and his pictures told of his fearlessness and success as a 
 war photographer. 
 
ARMISTICE DAY 209 
 
 The Boche pumped a lot of big ones while we were with 
 the Rhode Island artillerymen, but fate was merciful to 
 those in our circle that day, though we saw less fortunate 
 men fall close by. 
 
 Finally the last hour came and dragged itself away, the 
 last half hour, fifteen minutes, five minutes, the guns of B 
 Battery steadily spitting flame and steel. 
 
 Everybody kept consulting wrist watches as the hour 
 hand slipped nearer 11. At two minutes before the mo- 
 mentous hour, one of the crew hurried to a hole in the side 
 of the hill and brought out the cook, Arthur O'Neil of No. 
 551 Columbus Avenue, Boston. O'Neil wore a soiled apron 
 and a grin. 
 
 Somebody hitched a clothes line on the gun in order that 
 all might have a hand in the last shot. At 11 o'clock every- 
 body yanked vigorously at the signal, but the rope broke and 
 had to be fixed. It was a shade after the hour set when B 
 Battery's last shot in the world war reverberated among the 
 shell-torn hills north of Verdun. 
 
 A youngster mechanically started to clean the gun as he 
 had done day in and day out, for months. Corporal Smith, 
 a wink our way, asked: 
 
 "What are you doing?" 
 
 "Polishing her off for the next round," said the other in- 
 differently. 
 
 "But there ain't going to be no next round," replied 
 Corporal Smith, with a chuckle. "The war is over. Fini 
 la guerre." 
 
 "Hell!" drawled the scrupulous one, drowsily. "I for- 
 got." 
 
 They gave three cheers. Somebody suggested a flag- 
 raising. Circling and leaping shell craters, we hastened to 
 a row of battered dugouts where the trunk of a sapling was 
 erected. A flag was produced from a bedding roll. 
 
 A captain, a manly chap whose name I have forgotten, 
 broke the colors at the peak and we all went the customary 
 military salute one better by uncovering in the mist and 
 
210 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 singing "The Star Spangled Banner." The captain made a 
 little speech offhand that was a gem. He spoke of the 
 loyalty and pluck and patience of the American troops. He 
 spoke of Old Glory with a tenderness that was impressive, 
 and pointing up at it shouted proudly: 
 
 "No nation can ever sully or humble those colors." 
 
 Three ringing cheers indorsed those words. 
 
 He began his speech, "Ladies and gentlemen." When 
 some one asked why he included the ladies with none to 
 hear, he answered quick as a flash: 
 
 "Because the ladies, your mothers and my mother, and 
 our sisters, wives and sweethearts, God bless them, are 
 uppermost in our minds in this happy hour. Isn't that 
 right, fellows?" 
 
 The hills echoed with the cries, "You betcha, cap!" 
 
 "Three cheers and a tiger for the womenfolk at home!" 
 said the captain, and they were given with fervor. 
 
 That scene was another in the series of historic tableaux 
 that day. It brought a lump into your throat. It made 
 you feel oh! how proud that you were an American! 
 
 The following order stopped the fighting: 
 
 Secret. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH DIVISION, 
 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 
 FRANCE, 
 
 Field Orders 11 November, '18. 
 
 No. 106. 
 
 1. Hostilities will cease upon the entire front at 11.00 o'clock, 
 11 November, '18 (today), French time. 
 
 2. Troops will not cross the line reached at that hour under 
 any circumstances, unless ordered by these headquarters. 
 
 3. An immediate reconnaissance of the front line will be made 
 by each front line battalion commander at 11.00 o'clock, showing 
 the exact location of all his units on a sketch and by co-ordinates. 
 This sketch will be forwarded to these headquarters with the 
 least practicable delay. Regimental and brigade commanders 
 will take the necessary steps to arrange for couriers for the prompt 
 transmission of this information. 
 
ARMISTICE DAY 211 
 
 4. Regimental and brigade commanders will, as soon as 
 practicable after 11.00 o'clock this date, personally check the 
 locations of their front line elements. This information will be 
 placed on a 1-20,000 sketch and also transmitted to these head- 
 quarters with the least possible delay. 
 
 5. Under no circumstances will officers and enlisted men of 
 this division fraternize with the enemy. 
 
 6. Troops will be kept ready for any eventuality and measures 
 of security will not be relaxed. 
 
 7. Organization commanders must maintain a high state of 
 discipline in their units. 
 
 By command of Brigadier-General Bamford: 
 
 DUNCAN K. MAJOR, Jr. 
 DISTRIBUTION : Chief of Staff. 
 
 Down to include 
 company commanders. 
 
 Similar orders were simultaneously issued to all combat 
 units. 
 
 We left the advanced artillery positions and stumbled 
 along on foot through country made ghastly by the wrath of 
 men, a country won within a few hours by our waves of in- 
 fantry. How any survived that inferno was a mystery. 
 Everywhere there was destruction, desolation, misery, 
 death. 
 
 And MUD. 
 
 Sticky, filthy mud, with bodies half buried in it. 
 
 To advance without crouching or fear of a sniper's bullet 
 was a new and pleasant sensation. It was a feeling that it 
 took the soldiers hours thoroughly to appreciate and get 
 used to. 
 
 Around the brow of a hill I met Sergeant "Jimmy" 
 Loughlin of the 101st Infantry, a star football player in 
 Boston. He was carrying ten pounds of France on each 
 foot. He said he was "glad the argument was over." 
 
 I found no dissenters. Near a tough-looking dugout I 
 met Captain (now Major) Judson Hannigan, adjutant of 
 the Fifty-second Infantry Brigade, his eye bandaged. 
 "Jud" was as full of pep as ever. I never met a chap with 
 
212 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 more vitality. He was always on his toes, which accounted 
 for his rapid advancement. 
 
 He was only a sergeant when he made such a hit in Bos- 
 ton stumping at recruiting rallies. Then he became a 
 lieutenant and won a captain's bars for meritorious service 
 at the front. 
 
 Speaking of meeting friends in odd places reminds me 
 that the front was the greatest place for unexpected reunions. 
 So was the whole of France and even the occupied section of 
 Germany. You came across acquaintances in the most un- 
 expected places. 
 
 The day the skirmishers in our Army of Occupation 
 crossed the German boundary I met "Joe" Lawless of 
 Waltham, international marksman and formerly a member 
 of the old Ninth Regiment. He was captain of infantry in 
 the Twenty-eighth Division, had been shot in the leg and 
 had just been evacuated from a hospital. He and another 
 captain were sitting on a wall at a crossroads in Germany. 
 They were tired and were waiting for a lift. 
 
 Joe saw me first and I told them both to hop in. I 
 carried them to a point where they picked up their regiment 
 and then hurried to Treves to see the first American dough- 
 boys march through that famous German city, in the middle 
 of which stands the ruins of an ancient Roman tower. 
 
 Lawless was hit while fighting in the Argonne, but his 
 wound was not serious. He looked a little pale, owing to 
 confinement at the hospital, but said he was feeling fine and 
 he wanted to hear all the news about the gang in the Twenty- 
 sixth Division. 
 
 On a hot Sunday afternoon in La Ferti, in the Marne 
 sector, I was astonished to meet George Shor, formerly of 
 the Boston American. He was sporting a captain's uniform 
 and was attached to intelligence headquarters of the First 
 Corps. 
 
 That afternoon I met Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt and 
 other prominent American fliers at an aerodrome which had 
 been hurriedly laid out back of Chateau Thierry. A week 
 
ARMISTICE DAY 213 
 
 later when I visited the same group, four of the eight 
 aviators I had chatted with the previous Sunday, including 
 Roosevelt, were dead. That will show you how rapidly 
 Uncle Sam's birdmen were killed in an active sector. 
 
 After the armistice, in a cafe in Coblenz, on the Rhine, 
 we American correspondents interviewed a diminutive Ger- 
 man ace who claimed to have downed Quentin Roosevelt. 
 Next day this ace and several others were testing planes be- 
 fore they were turned over to the Americans and the man 
 who claimed he was responsible for Roosevelt's death took 
 a nose dive and was nearly killed. It was queer to stand on 
 an enemy aerodrome up there among the castles on the Rhine 
 and to think that men who had engaged our fliers and who 
 had bombed us nightly had started from that self-same field. 
 
 At the aerodrome of "Eddie" Rickenbacker's "Hat-in- 
 the-Ring" squadron back of the Argonne front I met Lieu- 
 tenant Lucien Thayer of the Boston Globe staff. He was 
 collecting data as historian of aviation for the War Depart- 
 ment and had an army photographer along snapping pic- 
 tures of Rickenbacker and other star duellists of the air. 
 
 In the city of Luxembourg, capital of the Duchy of Luxem- 
 bourg, I came across John J. Donovan, also a former member 
 of the Boston Globe staff and a well-known Boston lawyer. 
 Jack was director of Knights of Columbus welfare work in 
 the occupied territory of Germany. He rode into enemy 
 land on a truck filled with gumdrops and soap and other 
 good things, which he distributed free to the soldiers. 
 
 The doughboys had been fed up on sweet chocolate for 
 moons by every welfare organization, and Edward L. Hearn 
 of Worcester, overseas commissioner for the Knights of Co- 
 lumbus, managed somehow to procure a load of gumdrops, 
 something that hadn't been seen on the front before. He 
 was tipped that soap was scarce in Germany also, and sent 
 along a big supply of that, and Director Donovan reached 
 the Rhine a week ahead of the secretaries of any other wel- 
 fare organization, but he had to undergo no end of discomfort 
 to accomplish the feat in bad weather with roads congested 
 
214 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 by army traffic. The soldiers called him "Santa Claus 
 Jack." He sure was busy and popular. 
 
 Commissioner Hearn made frequent trips to the Ameri- 
 can sector in Germany. His headquarters were in Paris, in 
 the big business block No. 16 Place de la Madeleine, oppo- 
 site the celebrated church of that name. The Knights of 
 Columbus rented the entire building and things hummed 
 there. 
 
 The French were talking of decorating "Ned" Hearn with 
 the Legion of Honor the day I sat in his office before going to 
 Brest for the trip home. He was working about twenty 
 hours a day. The French showed their appreciation of the 
 K. of C. war work in countless ways. So did generals com- 
 manding American combat divisions, because it was in the 
 combat zone that the K. of C, like the Salvation Army, 
 concentrated and made good as a war welfare organization. 
 The K. of C. system of simply acting as a distributing 
 agency in handling the contributions of the American 
 public and giving everything to the soldiers " free " made 
 a big hit. 
 
 Here are a few samples of the gratitude voluntarily ex- 
 pressed by division commanders: 
 
 HEADQUARTERS THIRTY-THIRD DIVISION. 
 
 January 19, 1919. 
 
 "Mr. Edward L. Hearn, Overseas Commissioner, Knights of Co- 
 lumbus : 
 
 "Dear Sir — In the name of the Thirty-third Division, I wish to 
 thank you for the generous supply of stationery, cigarettes, sport- 
 ing goods, etc., which you delivered to Chaplain A. L. Girard for 
 this division. 
 
 "Coming at a time when, because of traffic congestion, supplies 
 of this kind were very scarce, they were especially appreciated by 
 all the men. The chaplain has reported how generous the Knights 
 of Columbus have been in responding to his requests, what a fine 
 spirit of service they have shown in doing everything possible to 
 facilitate his getting the supplies loaded, etc., and I wish to assure 
 
ARMISTICE DAY 215 
 
 you that these things are appreciated by all of us, and make us 
 feel confident that we can rely upon the Knights of Columbus to 
 assist us in keeping up the splendid spirit of the men of our division. 
 
 "Very truly, 
 
 "GEO. BELL, JR., 
 
 "Major-General, U.S. A., Commanding." 
 
 HEADQUARTERS NINETY-FIRST DIVISION. 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES. 
 A. P. O. 776. 
 
 March 18, 1919. 
 
 "Mr. Edward L. Hearn, Overseas Commissioner, Knights of Co- 
 lumbus, 16 Place de la Madeleine, Paris, France : 
 
 "My dear Mr. Hearn — On the eve of relief of the Ninety-first 
 Division from duty with the American Expeditionary Forces, in 
 compliance with orders to return to the United States, I wish to 
 express the gratitude of officers and men of the division to the 
 Knights of Columbus, and through you to all members of that 
 society, for the assistance rendered this division during its service 
 in the recent campaign. The first representative of the Knights 
 of Columbus, Mr. E. M. Leonard, reported to me at Gondrecourt, 
 about Sept. 9, just as the division was marching to the positions 
 assigned for the St. Mihiel salient operation. He was with the 
 division during its participation in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. 
 
 "The following members of the Knights of Columbus joined 
 the division in October, while en route to Belgium: Messrs. John 
 Pender, John W. Rowles, Thomas P. McCollough, John Cav- 
 anaugh and Frank P. Whalen. During the service of this division 
 with the French Army of Belgium the assistance furnished by the 
 Knights of Columbus was especially valuable, since the division 
 was operating so far from any American base and so far from its 
 own railhead that it was difficult to procure from the supply de- 
 partments of the army over French railways the kinds of supplies 
 which the Knights of Columbus were able to furnish. 
 
 "Since Jan. 1 the division has been in the La Forte Bernard 
 area under the Second American Corps and the American Em- 
 barkation Centre, Le Mans. During this period of preparation of 
 embarkation our main problem has been the preservation of the 
 men's health and contentment, while awaiting transportation. 
 The assistance rendered by the Knights of Columbus in this area 
 has rendered it easier for commanders of units to promote the 
 health and contentment of the men. 
 
216 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "I enclose statement of the personnel of your society which has 
 served with this division during the campaign and a brief state- 
 ment of their activities and operations. I trust that the efforts of 
 these gentlemen will be appreciated by you and by the members 
 of the society you represent. A copy of this letter is furnished the 
 adjutant-general, American Expeditionary Forces, for informa- 
 tion of the commander-in-chief. 
 
 "Yours sincerely, 
 
 WILLIAM H. JOHNSTON, 
 "Major-General, U. S. A., Commanding." 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 The War Curtain 
 
 BAt the front we heard varied descriptions of how 
 the armistice was celebrated in Europe and at home. 
 We heard from cowboy soldiers that in Montana 
 ranch towns the folks danced all night in the 
 streets and bought up all the available fireworks. 
 
 We heard how employees of department stores, shops and 
 factories all over the United States quit work and joined the 
 street throngs in swarms of paraders that resembled snake 
 dances. 
 
 We heard of the confetti blizzards, and of the bell ring- 
 ing, and of the mad tooting, and the speeches, and the feast- 
 ing, and the heartfelt rejoicing in every city, town and ham- 
 let. 
 
 We heard from special correspondents and visitors that 
 Paris went wild with joy, and that London, too, was fit- 
 tingly exultant. We heard of the crowded cafes in Paris, 
 where emotion ran riot, where girls danced on tables and 
 embraced and kissed soldiers, and of the revelry of the 
 boulevards. 
 
 Memorable scenes, but those of us who were with the 
 fighting men in the front lines when the hostilities ceased 
 would not have swapped our thrills and impressions for all 
 the delirium of rejoicings that occurred elsewhere. 
 
 The contrast was great. For the most part the troops 
 were too stunned and mystified, too exhausted to do much 
 celebrating right off. They cheered some and had im- 
 promptu flag-raisings such as I described in the group of 
 Rhode Island artillerymen, but the big idea at first was to 
 sleep — to sleep in comfort without fear of gas or bombs or 
 shells — to sleep as they hadn't been able to in months and 
 months — to sleep the sleep so well earned. 
 
 217 
 
218 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 They did not require any sleeping powders. I saw them 
 flop where they finished and sleep the slumber of death — in 
 mud and musty dugouts, in tumbledown buildings, in 
 ruined churches and stables, wherever they found a place to 
 crawl. 
 
 When they awoke they talked of strange dreams and 
 rubbed their eyes and couldn't believe it was true. They 
 expected to return to the awful grind. You should have 
 witnessed the gratitude that came from way down in the 
 heart. I heard a fellow who hadn't been burdened with 
 religion say: 
 
 "God, I thank you!" 
 
 Just that and no more, but the four words told volumes. 
 No orchestra in any gilded cafe vibrant with armistice cele- 
 brations could produce music sweeter than the thanksgiving 
 of the soldiers. After the first fag vanished they joked and 
 sang and made merry. 
 
 It was not until darkness spread its mantle over the 
 battlefields that the real front line celebrations began. 
 Then the heavens reflected the exuberance of the American 
 troops in the glow of myriad bonfires and the flare of signal 
 rockets for which there would be no further use. 
 
 The sky was bejewelled and seamed with varied colored 
 rockets and slow descending umbrella flares. 
 
 Every unit and squad had its own celebration and its own 
 allotment of army fireworks. The hills bristled with them. 
 Imagine expanding Boston Common or Franklin Park on the 
 night of July 4, during a fireworks display, so that the rocket 
 area extended miles and miles, far beyond vision. Motoring 
 over the heights north of Verdun and viewing the valleys 
 and lower hills unfolded a picture that will never fade from 
 memory. 
 
 The rockets were so numerous and so recklessly aimed 
 that it was almost as dangerous on the shell-pitted roads as 
 during a battle. Camp fires dotted the landscape every few 
 yards and each was ringed by young huskies in olive drab 
 whose faces formed a striking circle from a distance. 
 
THE WAR CURTAIN 219 
 
 They were swapping experiences, telling all about it, 
 spinning the war yarns that will be spun in homes and col- 
 leges and schools and factories and village barber shops and 
 groceries for generations — spilling what the doughboy had 
 already christened "G. A. R. chatter." 
 
 You who enjoyed home comforts and steam heat 
 and open fireplaces and bath tubs cannot appreciate what 
 it meant to the fagged doughboys and ofl&cers to be able to 
 stand up and light a pipe or cigarette facing the enemy line 
 and not be nipped for doing it. 
 
 You cannot realize how good the fires looked and how 
 much better they felt. The doughboys were famished for 
 fire and warmth, for the dry, warm glow it gave them clear 
 to the bone. Little wonder that the wood details were the 
 first selected to scour the battlefield for fuel. Little wonder 
 that every five or six men had fires of their own in front of 
 which they squatted Turk fashion and talked until taps. 
 
 During hostilities the flame of a match meant enemy 
 fire. Do you remember the darkened den scene in Sherlock 
 Holmes when the lighted cigar placed as a decoy on the win- 
 dow sill was the only thing visible? Aviators say a tiny 
 light at the front looked that way in the dark and served as 
 a target for bombs. 
 
 I remember before the First Division took Cantigny, the 
 Gothas bombed Chepois and all the towns to Beauvais and 
 beyond nightly. Early in the air raids eleven doughboys 
 were shooting craps on an army blanket under an apple 
 tree by the aid of lantern light. They heard the tell-tale 
 buzz of enemy motors overhead, but the game was close and 
 stakes were high, and they didn't follow the French caution 
 to show no light. A Hun flier swooped low as a night 
 hawk, dropped a bomb and killed all but one. 
 
 I saw an Italian machine gunner near Rheims strike a 
 match in a retiring unit one night and instantly a German 
 aviator opened up on the column with a machine gun. 
 Automobile lights were visible for miles. That is why we 
 had to travel without them at night, and that was why long 
 
220 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 after the armistice, when we enjoyed that luxury, sentries 
 through force of habit would bawl out, "Douse those glim- 
 mers!" and then apologize, saying they had forgotten. 
 
 In conclusion, I will describe a scene which to me shall 
 always serve as the final drop of the war curtain. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon of the day following the 
 armistice. As if in mockery, the Weather Man switched on 
 a run of crisp, dry, clear days that lasted more than a fort- 
 night, after having compelled the troops to fight and shiver 
 in rain and languish in mud for weeks previously. 
 
 A more perfect Winter afternoon could not be desired. 
 We had forged our way on foot over a country once beau- 
 tiful, but now blighted by war. 
 
 The 101st Engineers were rebuilding what had been a 
 road. There was the sign of fury everywhere. Shell after 
 shell had partly disinterred the arms, legs or heads of 
 Frenchmen who had fallen in earlier battles. Often just a 
 mere daub of blue was visible where arm or hip or shoulder 
 showed. 
 
 We followed a footpath through "Shrapnel Valley," a 
 deep ravine pocked by shell craters and yawning with dugouts 
 now abandoned. We met a doughboy from Vermont. He 
 pointed to a file of musicians, instruments under their arms, 
 coming Indian file over a hill. 
 
 "They're going to play at the funeral of the fellows 
 who fell in the last hours. There is one large grave 
 dug on this hill and two other big ones for fellows found on 
 neighboring hills," explained the doughboy, tagging on 
 behind. 
 
 We were then climbing the slopes of the Cote de 
 Caures, which the Third Battalion of the 103d Infantry of 
 the Yankee Division took in a final charge in the face of 
 violent machine gun fire, and the price was the silent forms 
 harvested in rows on the hills. 
 
 In the centre of a clearing at the top was a grave thirty 
 feet long. Comrades of the dead, ranks thinned by the toll 
 of the last engagement, were flanking the hole in hollow 
 
THE WAR CURTAIN 221 
 
 square. The band took its position at a corner. Thrice 
 that band had been nearly wiped out serving as litter- 
 bearers. That day all that remained were eighteen of an 
 organization that had numbered fifty or more. 
 
 You who have attended military funerals at home know 
 how solemn they are, but add the ghastly setting of a battle- 
 field with scars scarcely twenty-four hours old, and the scene 
 becomes far more impressive. 
 
 The bodies of Germans dotted the landscape. There 
 had not been time to dispose of them. The doughboys first 
 received all the rites of army and church. 
 
 At the bottom of the big hole, shoulder to shoulder as 
 they had fought, lay eleven dead, a lieutenant and ten 
 doughboys. A large sheet of tarpaulin covered them and 
 in the centre of it was spread an American flag. 
 
 Chaplain A. G. Butzer of Buffalo, N. Y., as young as a 
 college senior, read the Scriptures and eulogized the dead 
 patriots. Captain (now Major) Charles R. Cabot of Cam- 
 bridge, who had led the Third Battalion as acting major, 
 stepped forward and uncovered. He wore the muddy uni- 
 form of a doughboy, without insignia, it having been the 
 custom to take this precaution in the event of capture and 
 resulting inquisition. Captain Cabot looked tired. There 
 were dark circles under his eyes, but he met the occasion 
 with spirit. 
 
 "Men," he said, "this is a solemn hour. This hill has 
 become sacred ground. We are laying away the best among 
 us. You all faced your duty, stern as it was, but it was or- 
 dained by a Higher Power that the sacrifice made by our 
 comrades was to be greater than ours. They gave their all 
 for the cause. It is your duty to go back and tell their rela- 
 tives and friends how gallantly they died. They were 
 brave fellows, true Americans, real men. 
 
 "As some of you may already know, First Lieutenant 
 Herbert Peart was found sitting beside a tree, pencil in one 
 hand and holding in the other this unfinished note addressed 
 to me: 
 
222 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 " 'Captain Cabot: 7.19 A.M. Am held up by machine 
 gun fire on left. Have located four of them. Also on my 
 right ' 
 
 "A machine gun bullet through the brain stopped further 
 writing. Lieutenant Peart was a gallant leader and he met 
 a soldier's death on the field of battle. The brave fellows 
 beside him are Corporal Leon le Bonville and Privates 
 Charles Worth, Frank Klavikowski, J. McGiven, John 
 Elliott, F. R. Snow, Albert O. Abraham, Charles W. Bar- 
 giall, William Whitney and Moses W. Neptune." 
 
 That grave holds a squad of men whose names were typi- 
 cal of the cosmopolitan makeup of the American Expedi- 
 tionary Forces. 
 
 The band played "Nearer, My God, to Thee," a tune 
 always soul-gripping, but I had never heard it, nor expect to 
 hear it, under sadder circumstances. It moistened the eyes 
 of many of the youngsters who stood rigidly around the 
 grave and made them gulp. 
 
 The last strains had scarcely died when there came grat- 
 ing on our ears the sounds of German revelry in the hollow 
 just over the brow of the hill within fifty yards. The Boches 
 sang and shouted and churned gas alarms, unconscious of 
 what was transpiring on the summit. 
 
 The firing squad stepped forward and fired three volleys, 
 a feature impossible during hostilities. 
 
 Ranks were broken and the men filed past for a last look, 
 and I noticed that the eyes of all but a few were directed the 
 other way. Then something happened which could not have 
 been more melodramatic if Belasco had staged it as the 
 climax of a play. 
 
 Four horsemen trotted into view at the farther end of the 
 hill, dismounted, and three soldiers stepped briskly forward 
 into the clearing. To the amazement of all it turned out to 
 be a German major, a captain and an orderly, a giant from 
 the Prussian Guards, the latter bearing a flag of truce, the 
 first one in actual use that any of us had ever seen. 
 
THE WAR CURTAIN 223 
 
 The German major was a snobbish young dandy with 
 Iron Cross and other decorations, uniform of faultless cut 
 and silver spurs. Saluting stiffly and being saluted, he 
 critically surveyed Captain Cabot from head to foot and 
 said in good English that he wanted to see a major or some- 
 body of rank. 
 
 "I think, sir, that I can deal with you if you kindly state 
 your business," replied Captain Cabot, head erect and look- 
 ing the enemy squarely in the eye. 
 
 The German major appeared confused. He studied 
 Captain Cabot's doughboy uniform again and seemed trying 
 to impress and freeze everybody within range. But the 
 doughboys who crowded close refused to be frozen. As the 
 situation became most embarassing a doughboy just arrived 
 on the outskirts piped shrilly: 
 
 "Who's the skinny Heine, fellows?" 
 
 The German major blushed, bit his lip and wilted. A 
 few minutes later the American and German officers ad- 
 journed to a dugout where the German with the flag of truce 
 stood guard. It developed that the truce party had come 
 with charts to explain the location of mines that would have 
 been touched off by the Germans if the fighting had 
 continued. There were several just ahead. They were 
 compelled under the armistice terms to make these 
 disclosures. 
 
 While the conference was in progress in the dugout we 
 returned to the top of the hill and watched the detail remove 
 the flag and fill the cavernous grave. 
 
 In a valley on the left the ruins of a French village re- 
 sembled a chalk quarry. The face of the earth had been 
 lashed like an ocean in a storm by the fury of artillery. 
 
 American soldiers unable to wait for dusk began shooting 
 rockets, as did equally impatient Germans just across the 
 line. The rockets looked queer in the fading daylight. 
 
 The sun, huge and red, was slipping behind and outlining 
 the scarred edges of a hill. Trees, twisted, splintered and 
 blackened, showed against the sun like charcoal scrawls. 
 
224 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 An American sentry in steel helmet, rifle over shoulder, 
 bayonet fixed, was silhouetted at an extreme outpost and he 
 was facing — West. 
 
 He was facing the way the gangplanks pointed over 
 which the Yankee Division and thousands and thousands 
 more would soon smartly pace — the long-awaited gangway 
 — the bridge whose western end was America and — HOME. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Homeward Bound 
 
 BIt was Tuesday, the fourth day out. We were in 
 mid-ocean. We were homeward bound at last and 
 the U. S. S. transport America was ploughing 
 smartly through a smooth sea. 
 
 I found Dave Brickley leaning against the rail of the 
 promenade deck, pensively watching the waves. Dave 
 worked as chemist for the American Sugar Company in 
 peace time. The game of war had made him bigger, and he 
 was no zephyr when he went away. 
 
 "Just thinking of the difference," said he. "I was a 
 buck private cutting meat in the transport galley when I 
 came over and I'm going back with a captain's bars and a 
 Distinguished Service Cross and a bundle of experience. 
 
 "Rough, but worth while. Some of the places were hell- 
 holes. Once we were cut off two days without grub or water 
 and I managed to get back with four men, about all in. It's 
 great to be going home with two legs and arms and a sound 
 constitution, but come to think of it, you leave something 
 over there. Bound to squeeze something out of a fellow. 
 
 "Johnny Murphy of Natick started as a machine gun 
 lieutenant on the border, went to France a captain, and is 
 returning ahead of us on the Mt. Vernon a lieutenant- 
 colonel, and ranking machine gun officer of the division and 
 sporting a Croix de Guerre and a Distinguished Service 
 Cross. That's climbing. He had enough nerve for a whole 
 company." 
 
 Lieutenant Jack Casey of Brookline and a group of 
 officers were stretched on steamer chairs, telling censorship 
 stories. 
 
 "Some of the doughboys wrote hot letters," said Casey. 
 "Talk about confidential epistles to a matrimonial bureau. 
 
 225 
 
226 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 One day a big boob came to me blubbering like a baby and 
 he was one of the tallest guys in the regiment. Tears were 
 streaming down his cheeks. He held out a letter and a hunk 
 of wedding cake. 'Just got these from my girl,' he said. 
 'Promised to wait for me, and now she's gone and married 
 another guy and had the nerve to send me a bit of the cake. 
 What would you do, lieutenant?' 
 
 "I advised him to tear up the letter and gobble up the 
 cake, and if it didn't kill him, to report to me next morning. 
 Later that day I saw him strolling down the road with his 
 arm around a mademoiselle and there didn't seem to be any 
 danger of suicide or lawsuits." 
 
 On the bridge I came across a captain of infantry, young 
 and clean-cut. He was standing alone, looking ahead, and 
 his expression was sad. He was one of the casuals traveling 
 with the Yankee Division. He came from Indiana and had 
 been fighting with a Texas outfit. 
 
 "Yes, it's a fine day, but there isn't much left in life for 
 me," he said glumly. "Got a cable at Brest that my wife 
 had died and the message was a month old. Flu took her. 
 Head whirled when I read it. Trunk is stuffed with gifts 
 for her and our little son. If it wasn't for him I'd sooner 
 kick off myself. I'll dedicate my life to him. Can hardly 
 wait to see him. After all we went through over there I'm 
 facing a desolate home." 
 
 The decks below us were smeared with olive drab. 
 Soldiers were sprawled thick. I thought of the joy their 
 return would occasion in many New England homes. I 
 thought how eagerly relatives awaited their coming and I 
 thought, too, how the arrival of the troops would make more 
 poignant the grief in homes to which soldier lads would never 
 return. 
 
 Yes, we were homeward bound. 
 
 All hands had longed for it and prayed for it for months. 
 
 The men of the Yankee Division wondered when the 
 glad day would come. They had wondered, too, who among 
 them would live to see it. It looked awfully remote and un- 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 227 
 
 certain at times. It was the big goal for everybody after 
 the armistice — HOME. 
 
 When the time to embark came there was an utter 
 absence of demonstration. The get-away might be summed 
 up in a series of capital S's— SERIOUSNESS, SOLEM- 
 NITY, SILENCE. 
 
 The silence was uncanny. The behavior of the New 
 England troops on leaving France, after eighteen months of 
 service, was a study. It was the most outstanding feature 
 of the trip homeward. Everybody on board discussed it. 
 There was no mystery about it. A rumor started, as army 
 rumors do, that a New York unit which had been too hilari- 
 ous had been detained. This report so deeply impressed the 
 Twenty-sixth Division men that they almost feared to 
 speak, even to bunkies. Word had been passed down the 
 ranks to be cautious and to give no opportunity to interfere 
 with the sailing schedule. 
 
 This dread was confined to the doughboys. It created 
 a timidity among them which reflected their intense eager- 
 ness to get started as quickly as possible. Hence the silence 
 was more significant than a demonstration. The men pre- 
 served their sphynx-like attitude all the way out on the 
 lighters to the transport lying down the harbor. A band 
 playing lively tunes on the dock failed to enthuse the soldiers. 
 The big idea was to get aboard the ship and it was accom- 
 plished with dispatch. 
 
 Wonderful things were done by the army and the navy 
 at Brest in the transporting of troops after the armistice. 
 American war divisions, numbering 27,000 men, with equip- 
 ment and baggage, were handled with greater speed and 
 ease than a regiment would be transported in the old days. 
 The war taught Uncle Sam a lot of tricks about the move- 
 ment of troops and taught him also how to clothe and feed 
 an army. 
 
 Major-General Helmick, commander of the port of Brest, 
 and his staff had everything running like a well-oiled ma- 
 chine. There was not the slightest delay or confusion. 
 
228 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 The men of the Yankee Division found Pontanezen Camp, 
 on the outskirts of Brest, sanitary and well equipped for the 
 housing and feeding of thousands of troops. 
 
 There appeared to have been ground for criticism owing 
 to early conditions at the camp, due largely to natural handi- 
 caps in a region where it rained more than 300 days the pre- 
 vious year. But matters were promptly improved in spite 
 of the weather drawbacks. When the New England units 
 reached Pontanezen they found it duck-boarded and tidy. 
 They agreed that the billeting there was the best they had 
 in France. 
 
 Each soldier was provided with an iron bunk, a mattress 
 and plenty of blankets. There was a stove in every tent, 
 making quarters dry and comfortable. The eating system 
 was appreciated. 
 
 The Troop Movement unit on the dock was equally on 
 the job. Colonel Daniel Van Voorhis, a cavalry officer, in 
 charge of troop embarkation, had perfected a system that 
 worked like a charm. Nearly 7000 men assigned to the 
 transport America, with mountains of luggage, were lightered 
 from the dock to the transport in less than three hours and 
 every man and piece of baggage were accounted for. 
 
 The organization which made this feat possible was 
 started by four officers who began in a shanty on the wharf — 
 Lieutenant-Colonel F. F. Jewitt, Major Roger Chatham, 
 Lieutenant D. S. Barry and Lieutenant E. A. Sellanach. 
 The Troop Movement Section developed like a mushroom. 
 When the Yankee Division reached Brest the section had 
 grown into quite an extensive plant, with sheds and offices, 
 elaborate records and files, rest rooms, canteeens and a 
 hospital. 
 
 The system of checking had been developed so scientifi- 
 cally that quite a few men reported killed or missing were 
 discovered in the embarkation lists, much to the joy of 
 relatives. This proved of great assistance to the War De- 
 partment records. 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 229 
 
 The shipment of troops to the United States swelled 
 from 47,532 in December, 1918, to 65,647 in January, 
 100,725 in February and 102,263 up to March 29, which 
 figures included the Yankee Division. 
 
 The army and naval authorities worked in perfect har- 
 mony, with the result that transports were sent homeward 
 in a steady stream. They resembled shuttles. Everything 
 possible was done for the convenience and comfort of the 
 home-going troops. Lieutenant Jack Mahan, aide-de- 
 camp to General Helmick, was a factor in the success of 
 operations at Brest. He was known as the "handy man." 
 He attended to everything from hunting lost baggage to 
 entertaining potentates. 
 
 The first unit of the Twenty-sixth Division to reach 
 Pontanezen Camp was the 104th regiment, which started 
 leaving the Le Mans area March 21. In succeeding days 
 the 103d Infantry moved, followed by the 101st Infantry, 
 and the 102d Infantry was the last of the New England foot 
 troops to reach Brest. The trains and sanitary units were 
 being sent meanwhile. The artillery was the last big con- 
 tingent to reach port. 
 
 It was announced in general orders that the first 15,000 
 of the Yankee Division would sail on March 29, 30 and 31. 
 Instead of occuring later, as expected, the schedule was 
 beaten by two days. General Hale and his division staff 
 and headquarters troop sailed from Brest on the transport 
 Mt. Vernon late Thursday, March 27. The Mt. Vernon 
 also carried the 104th Infantry and the 101st Engineers, a 
 total of 5600 men. 
 
 The transport America, which weighed anchor at 6.35 
 on the evening of Friday, March 28, carried Boston's pet 
 regiment, the 101st Infantry, complete, Company C of the 
 101st Engineers, and the 103d Infantry, minus Companies 
 L and M. The America carried headquarters of the Fifty- 
 first Brigade and 200 casuals, a ship's family of 6,830, ex- 
 clusive of the 400 officers and 1100 members of the crew, 
 which brought the total to 8330. 
 
230 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 On Sunday, March 30, the transport Agamemnon, sister 
 ship of the Mt. Vernon, sailed from Brest, carrying the 102d 
 Infantry complete, Companies L and M of the 103d Infantry, 
 the 101st Machine Gun Battalion, Base Hospital No. 4, 
 101st Field Artillery headquarters company, Batteries A and 
 B, and 196 casuals, a total of 5380 enlisted men and 484 
 officers, exclusive of 150 women nurses and welfare workers 
 and detached units. 
 
 Early in April Brigadier-General John Sherburne of 
 Brookline, commanding the Fifty-first Artillery Brigade, 
 sailed with the balance of the artillery units on the Mongolia, 
 and on later transports came the 102d and 103d Machine 
 Gun Battalions, 101st Ammunition Train, Supply and 
 Sanitary Trains and the 101st Motor Repair Unit. All 
 Yankee Division transports docked at Boston within a week 
 of the first one. The plan to send about 10,000 men of the 
 division by way of New York was abandoned at the eleventh 
 hour, and it was well. 
 
 The transport America slipped away from the shores of 
 France under a clouded sky as dusk was gathering. Decks 
 were swarmed. There was no singing or shouting. The 
 only noise was the hum of the engines. Soldiers leaned 
 against the rails watching the coast line fade, in such pro- 
 found thought that they scarcely spoke to those at their 
 elbows. It was a solemn occasion. 
 
 "I thought they'd make the welkin ring," remarked a 
 captain. 
 
 "More like a funeral ship than a home-going transport," 
 said a lieutenant. "The men were scared blue by those 
 stories in Brest. That accounts for the wet-blanket get- 
 away." 
 
 "Most of them act like men stunned or in a trance," said 
 a chaplain. "Guess they haven't fully grasped it yet. 
 Haven't myself. Wait until we see the home skyline. 
 Then they ought to cut loose." 
 
 "Ship can't travel too fast for me," said a medical officer. 
 "Just want to bounce up my front steps and grab my wife 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 231 
 
 and kid. See that captain over there? Casual from the 
 Dental Corps. Lives in New Jersey. Going to be married 
 as soon as he hits home and he's as nervous as a caged animal. 
 Said hours seemed days. Forever consulting the chart to 
 see how far we have traveled. Love is an awful malady." 
 
 It stormed the first night out. The sea ran rather high 
 and the rain was heavy. I was in a ward with fifty-nine 
 room-mates. I had the distinction of being the only war 
 correspondent authorized by the War Department to return 
 from France with the Yankee Division. 
 
 Some of my room-mates passed a bad night. In the 
 morning there was a stew of blankets, socks, shoes and gar- 
 ments on the floor. There were beaucoup vacant chairs at 
 breakfast. Hundreds were seasick the second day out. 
 Crates of lemons were devoured. The tossing of the trans- 
 port played havoc with the digestive organs of the enlisted 
 men below decks. Railings were lined by men who were not 
 admiring the ocean. 
 
 Guard and other details had to be reorganized, as 50 per 
 cent of the details were suffering from what the doughboys 
 termed "maritime malade." Band Leader Edward N. 
 L'Africain had to cut rehearsal because more than half his 
 aggregation were ill. As many of the replacements came 
 from inland states, they suffered torments. Many wished 
 the Paris metro had been extended. 
 
 "Gee! but this salt air smells good," said a lieutenant 
 from Boston. "Been hungry for it for moons." 
 
 "Keep your old salt air," replied a Texan squirmishly. 
 "Give me the hot winds of the desert. They don't make you 
 dizzy." 
 
 Sunday dawned fair and appetites revived. It was a 
 caution the way the ocean breezes sharpened the hunger of 
 the men. Those of us who were immune to seasickness will 
 never forget the first breakfast aboard. We met our first 
 grape fruit since we left home and we didn't spill a drop of 
 the precious juice. And the eggs were cooked American 
 style and the toast and the bacon and the coffee. My, but 
 
232 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 it was a banquet. We had grown fond of French cuisine, 
 or thought we had, but right then and there we voted we 
 wouldn't swap good old Yankee fare for anything in Europe. 
 
 The weather improved the third day and remained mild 
 throughout. The sun was radiant several days. Good 
 weather started quartet and deck singing. Enthusiasm in- 
 creased daily. The mess line for enlisted men was efficiently 
 handled and the soldiers praised the food. The Yankee Di- 
 vision was pleased to find that most of the officers and crew 
 on the America came from Boston. 
 
 It was appropriate that the 101st Infantry should make 
 the return voyage on a converted Hamburg-American 
 liner, formerly the "Amerika," one of the first German 
 passenger liners seized and interned in Boston harbor for 
 months, until taken over by the navy. This made it more 
 of a family gathering than ever. The America had a ton- 
 nage of 22,622 and was 689 feet in length. It was built in 
 Belfast, Ire., in 1905. The commanding officer was Captain 
 Z. E. Briggs, U. S. N. 
 
 A "gob" sold hundreds of photographs of the ship as 
 souvenirs of a trip than which the soldiers on board never 
 made a more memorable one, save that across. On the first 
 day out the Yankee Division men were astonished to re- 
 ceive the ship's daily newspaper, "The America," with a sub- 
 line which read "Printed on the High Seas." This edition 
 carried wireless messages of the latest world news and per- 
 sonals and events on board. Chaplain W. F. Blackard was 
 editor. Anybody could act as reporter. 
 
 It was difficult to find a place on so crowded a ship in 
 which to write an account of the passage home. Lieutenant 
 E. C. O'Shea, U. S. N., a Brighton boy and former member 
 of the Brookline Swimming Club, gave me the use of his 
 room as a writing den. 
 
 Officers and men of the Yankee Division were made to 
 feel at home as soon as they went aboard the America. 
 They were shown the utmost courtesy. Every soldier who 
 made the trip carried away pleasant memories of the America 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 233 
 
 and her crew. The spirit of the voyage was described in the 
 first issue of the ship's newspaper, which read: 
 
 "The officers and crew of the U. S. S. America extend to 
 every man aboard a genuine welcome. We came across just 
 for you, and, for the past ten days, planned and worked that 
 you might have a bon voyage. This is your home as long as 
 you are aboard. Your record in the sectors of Chemin-des- 
 Dames, Toul, Aisne, Marne, St. Mihiel and the Meuse- 
 Argonne offensive earned for you a glorious history. You 
 are cordially welcomed into your new home." 
 
 That got the soldiers. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 Worshippers in Rigging 
 
 B Open-Air Religious Services were held Sunday 
 morning on the "well" deck, aft. Chaplain Nivard 
 of Wisconsin, attached to the 103d Infantry, cele- 
 brated mass at 9 A. M. A section of mess board on 
 metal legs served as an altar. The soldiers were banked 
 solidly in hollow square on two decks. Some clung to rig- 
 ging and rope ladders, while others worshipped astride 
 booms and cross-beams. The congregation was too large 
 to kneel. 
 
 Private Joseph H. Dowd, H Company, served as altar 
 boy and Private William H. Keyes, a musician, stood in 
 front of the improvised altar to prevent the sacred articles 
 from being tipped off by the swell of the sea. Wind and 
 waves had subsided during the night, otherwise it would 
 have been difficult to hold the service. 
 
 As it was, the Rev. George S. L. Connor, of Holyoke, was 
 obliged to shield the flame of a candle by forming a cup of 
 his hand, and Colonel Logan protected another candle in a 
 similar manner throughout the service. It would have been 
 a fine picture for the movies — that framework of bronzed 
 faces and khaki. 
 
 Peppering the olive drab was the blue of the "gobs," 
 some of them wearing hip rubber boots, as they had just 
 finished swabbing decks. Every head was bared and it was 
 cold. Chaplain Connor preached a snappy sermon. He 
 said: 
 
 "Men, you are on your way home. You are headed for 
 your own country. The long awaited journey is under way. 
 Back in the hills, far astern, are many of your gallant com- 
 rades who made the supreme sacrifice. Their homes will 
 
 234 
 
WORSHIPPERS IN RIGGING 235 
 
 not be brightened by their return. Those of you who are 
 more fortunate are returning to loved ones who are planning 
 to give you a wonderful welcome. 
 
 "You will be feted, feasted and made much of. You 
 will be received as heroes. You will deserve the honor, but 
 right here, let me sound a warning. You must not let that 
 welcome turn your heads. You must not permit the grati- 
 tude and generosity of your friends and neighbors and the 
 patriotic public to blind you to your duty. 
 
 "I beseech you when you return to act like men, like 
 true Christians. I hope that you will bear in mind that the 
 public does not owe you a living because you came over to 
 do your bit as American citizens. 
 
 "I beseech you to remember that a duty well-performed 
 is your best reward and that you should expect no other. 
 You went to France because your country needed you. 
 You went to France because God needed you and because 
 humanity required it. 
 
 "You fought like true Americans. Your bravery is a 
 matter of record. You faced hardship and peril and disaster. 
 You are returning with your colors unsullied, held proudly 
 and high. You are returning as part — and a very important 
 part — of a victorious army. 
 
 "Therefore, let me advise you that as soon as all the ex- 
 citement and enthusiasm of your long awaited return home 
 is passed you think of the sterner duties of life. Let me re- 
 mind you that you must return without delay to the occu- 
 pations which you left to answer the call of your country. 
 When you go back, men, get jobs! Don't loaf around the 
 corner talking about what you have done. Go straight to 
 work. God bless you!" 
 
 A number of soldiers and sailors received communion. 
 Officers of all denominations looked down upon the scene 
 from upper decks. Immediately after the Catholic service 
 Chaplain Lyman Rollins of the 101st Infantry held an Epis- 
 copal service. Congregations shifted by means of a filter- 
 ing, squirming process which brought new faces to the fore- 
 
236 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 ground. Chaplain Rollins preached a sermon on the Prodi- 
 gal Son. His utterances made a hit. Like Chaplain Con- 
 nor, he advised the men to get employment as soon as they 
 returned home. 
 
 "In a sermon at the front," said Chaplain Rollins, "I 
 rapped the men pretty hard for profanity one Sunday. 
 I talked so plainly I didn't know I could get away with it. I 
 did not mince words. At the close of the service a dough- 
 boy approached me and said: 'You hit me pretty hard today, 
 Chaplain. I used to be an Epworth Leaguer, but I got to 
 swearing over here.' I told him that as a chaplain I held 
 target practice every Sunday and that as I was a fair marks- 
 man in the knowledge of human things, I figured on hitting 
 a good many bullseyes in every crowd. 
 
 "Back among the hills north of Verdun I was in a skunk 
 hole one day with a regimental commander. The hole was 
 known as a regimental p. c. Suddenly a runner slipped 
 down into our midst through the mud like a toboggan. His 
 shirt front was open. He was perspiring. His eyes were 
 sunken. He was on the verge of collapse. He said: 'The 
 battalion is out there surrounded on three sides. Major 
 So-and-So needs reinforcements.' 
 
 "The colonel said: 'We will give them help at once. 
 You must go back, runner, through that barrage and tell 
 the major to stand firm.' The major and his men did. 
 That's what you men must do when you return to civil life. 
 You must stand firm, just as you New England men did out 
 on the firing line so many times. 
 
 "You must stand firm and alert, just as you did on out- 
 post duty. Often the man at an extreme outpost found his 
 task lonely and menacing. But because you who per- 
 formed that duty did it well you made us fellows farther 
 back feel secure. The men on outposts were the ears and 
 eyes of the army. They protected and insured the army. 
 
 "One night during our early days on the front line a 
 youngster sent word from an outpost that he wanted to see 
 me at once. I crept out there under cover of darkness. A 
 
WORSHIPPERS IN RIGGING 237 
 
 novice at the game, the lad felt so lonely and frightened that 
 he wanted company and comfort. 
 
 "He began to see things. It was not long before he 
 thought the whole German army was coming at him. He 
 admitted it and then he said: 'Chaplain, I want to be bap- 
 tized. I never have been. Can you do it now? It will 
 make me feel better away out here alone.' I baptized him 
 on the spot and left him a stronger man. 
 
 "That is what Christ and religion will do for you men. 
 Remember, now, when you go home to your various com- 
 munities, stand firm! I hope our next service will be in 
 Camp Devens next Sunday.' 5 
 
 The soldiers sang many hymns and a Y. M. C. A. worker 
 played a folding organ. 
 
 Sunday afternoon there were three band concerts aboard, 
 rendered by the 101st and 103d bands and the ship's naval 
 band. 
 
 From Sunday on the weather was fine. The men 
 squatted all over the decks so compactly that it was diffi- 
 cult to walk. They showed the effects of regular meals and 
 sleep and ocean breezes and relaxation. They frolicked 
 like kittens. They gorged themselves with sweets between 
 meals. 
 
 They returned with cast iron stomachs and new disposi- 
 tions. They came back changed men, with a broader and 
 more serious view of life. 
 
 Within a few hours after anchors were weighed the 
 "gobs" were sporting all kinds of insignia and trading with 
 doughboys for war trophies. The America was a treasure 
 ship of souvenirs, as were the other transports bearing 
 Yankee Division units. 
 
 Barracks bags of the enlisted men and trunks of the 
 officers were stuffed with gifts and souvenirs for the folks at 
 home. War welfare secretaries — the Red Cross, Knights 
 of Columbus, Y. M. C. A. and Jewish Welfare — were busy 
 distributing candy, apples, oranges and reading matter. 
 Impromptu concerts and shows were held. There were 
 
238 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 three movie shows every night on board. Thursday after- 
 noon boxing bouts were held on the aft deck under a dazzling 
 sun. There was a scramble for vantage seats after luncheon. 
 The 101st band was popular on board. The sailors were 
 astonished to hear Bandleader L'Africain had been game 
 enough to go all through the "argument" at the age of sixty- 
 seven. Leader L'Africain was a professional musician. He 
 lived in Auburndale. He was for years cornet soloist in the 
 Boston Symphony Orchestra. He made the 101st band the 
 best in the American Expeditionary Forces. 
 
 Not one of the best, but the BEST. General Pershing 
 said so. The first time he heard it he sent for Leader 
 L'Africain and did the latter the honor to meet him half way 
 and to shake his hand and congratulate him. 
 
 "General Pershing told me he didn't know there was such 
 a splendid band with the American Expeditionary Forces," 
 said Leader L'Africain. "He told me he wanted every band 
 in the American overseas army to hear our outfit. He liked 
 it so well that he later took twenty of our best players for his 
 own band at Chaumont. 
 
 "That was a blow. I had to start all over again to pick 
 out substitutes and we've come back with a wallop. The 
 French said our drums and bugles were as good as anything 
 they had over there. Colonel Logan was the first to adopt 
 the French bugles, and other American bands followed suit. 
 We are to have new cords and flare banners and when the 
 men twirl the bugles they ought to bring down the house in 
 our home town." 
 
 Sergeant David Michaels, chauffeur for Colonel Logan, 
 canvassed the ship, the fourth day out, for tools to 
 weld the brass spearhead on the flag which the men of the 
 regiment presented to Colonel Logan. 
 
 "It's all silk and hand made," said Davie as he displayed 
 the treasure to a group of soldiers and sailors. "The stars 
 are all hand made. Each streamer stands for a battle. See, 
 the names are handworked, too. Heft it, and see how heavy 
 the silk is. Double thickness. 
 
WORSHIPPERS IN RIGGING 239 
 
 "A guy threw the flag off the train and broke the spear- 
 head. It was wrapped up in this white linen and he didn't 
 know what it was. I walloped him in the kisser for handling 
 it so roughly. 
 
 "Haven't got anything on the ship to fix it. Have to 
 wait until we get ashore. It's going to be in the parade ahead 
 of the colonel. I said good-bye to the colonel's car before 
 I came away, the one the associates gave him in Boston. 
 
 "It was a bird. I drove it 30,000 miles, over some tough 
 roads. It was hit four times by machine gun bullets and 
 has eleven shrapnel scars. Several men were killed in the 
 car and four or five killed standing near it. One day a fel- 
 low sitting in the back seat was killed and a piece of shrapnel 
 was imbedded in the car just ahead of me. The colonel and 
 I had some narrow escapes in it, but neither of us was 
 scratched. 
 
 "You'd ought to see the colonel up at Chateau Thierry 
 on his horse. He rode right up into the thick of it in the 
 saddle with shells breaking all around. He looked like a 
 fellow in a play. Colonel Logan showed all kinds of nerve. 
 The shelling finally became so hot he had to hitch his horse 
 behind an embankment and flop in the mud with the dough- 
 boys, where he remained for hours in the front line. Colonel 
 Logan certainly made good." 
 
 The most popular entertainer on board and in the di- 
 vision was Color Sergeant William Connery, son of Lynn's 
 former mayor. "Billy" was known by every doughboy in 
 the Yankee Division. He was a professional actor and 
 played with George Cohan and other celebrities. 
 
 He and his brother, Sergeant Lawrence Connery, were 
 singers, pianists and composers. They made a great team. 
 "Larry" went home several weeks before, having attended 
 officers' school. He and several comrades captured twenty- 
 nine Boche in the St. Mihiel drive after having been sub- 
 jected to enfilading machine gun fire. "Billy" was de- 
 lighted with the achievement of his younger brother, whom 
 he idolized. 
 
240 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "Billy" wrote "Giddy-Gidap," which was the most 
 famous song in the Yankee Division. 
 
 Lieutenant William Flaherty of Milton, Company E, 
 101st Infantry, was another entertainer in camp and on deck 
 and he staged many successful shows for the troops. "Bill" 
 was also a professional actor. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel William It. Pooley of Buffalo, N. Y., 
 who was transferred from the Third Division, Army of Occu- 
 pation, to the 101st Infantry, just before Colonel Logan's 
 reinstatement, won a warm place in the hearts of the officers 
 and men of the regiment. They looked upon him as an "old 
 timer." 
 
 Major Frank Piper, assistant surgeon of the 101st In- 
 fantry, formerly president of the Massachusetts College of 
 Pharmacy and a resident of Hancock Street, West End, 
 Boston, was loved by every man in the regiment. 
 
 Major Harry Martin of Springfield, surgeon of the 101st 
 Infantry, and the other members of the Medical Section, 
 with those of the 103d Infantry, were busy aboard ship and 
 as a result the health of the men during the journey was 
 excellent. There was not a death on board. 
 
 Colonel Frank M. Hume of the 103d Infantry was urged 
 by his friends to be a candidate for governor of Maine. 
 They cabled to him about it. He and the Maine troops 
 made a splendid record at the front. Colonel Hume and 
 Colonel Logan shared the same stateroom and referred to 
 each other as the "Blois kids." They said they were study- 
 ing a vaudeville sketch entitled "How We Came Back," 
 and expected to put it on the Keith circuit. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel John J. Barry, postmaster of the 
 Upham's Corner Post Office, Dorchester, had charge of the 
 ship's guard details during the voyage. Before leaving the 
 Postal Express Service of the American Expeditionary Forces, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Barry, then a major, received the follow- 
 ing letter of commendation from Adjutant-General Robert 
 C. Davis: 
 
WORSHIPPERS IN RIGGING 241 
 
 "Now that you are about to return to the United States 
 after ten months' service with the Postal Express Service, I 
 desire to record my appreciation of the loyal and efficient 
 service you rendered in this department. Your experience 
 and sound advice was at all times of great assistance to our 
 army postal organization." 
 
 Colonel T. D. Howe, chief of the Army Postal Express 
 Service, also commended Lieutenant-Colonel Barry in 
 writing. Barry during his ten months of service in the Pos- 
 tal Department of the American Expeditionary Forces 
 established 110 post offices, one in Holland, one in Italy and 
 one in Berlin. 
 
 "I always claimed," said Lieutenant-Colonel Barry, 
 "that I never would be satisfied until I had established a 
 post office in the capital of Germany, and I did it just before 
 I was transferred. It is United States Army Post Office 
 No. 946. 
 
 "The manner in which many of the soldiers' letters and 
 packages were addressed was amusing and often trouble- 
 some. Out of 400 letters examined on one occasion, 280 
 were either addressed simply 'American E. P.' or 'Some- 
 where in France,' with no attempt to designate the organiza- 
 tion. Often the name of the soldier was omitted. In one 
 instance a letter read '82380 via New York, A. E. F.' That 
 was all that appeared on the envelope. 
 
 "Another letter was addressed 'Wayne E. Drake, 
 A. E. F.' Still another 'Mr. Michael F. Tolan, Somewhere 
 in France.' One was addressed 'Mr. Benny Hill, colored, 
 Colored Regement, Some Where in France.' 
 
 "Letters for men killed in action were always pathetic. 
 It was interesting work, but extremely difficult to get the 
 organization running smoothly." 
 
 Favorable weather conditions enabled the commander 
 of the America to better the daily schedules, with a result 
 that on Tuesday half of the journey had been completed — 
 1490 miles. 
 
 Dialogues were amusing as officers reclined on bunks. 
 
242 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 "Count the days on one hand now," said a lieutenant 
 Tuesday morning. 
 
 "Won't it be funny to talk with girls without having to 
 struggle with French," said a casual aviator. 
 
 "Some of us will have to be d d discreet in our speech 
 
 when we land home," said a captain. "Got to put the 
 curbed bit on profanity. Bet a lot of them will spill it right 
 in the family circle." 
 
 The Wednesday edition of the ship's newspaper had this 
 startling announcement, on the front page : 
 
 "AMERICA WILL NOT STOP AT BOSTON. 
 LATEST WIRELESS SAYS HARBOR IS CHOKED 
 WITH BEANS." 
 
 That caused a howl. Colonels Logan and Hume kept 
 the radio operators busy from Tuesday on. They sent a 
 flock of telegrams. Colonel Logan sent this wireless to 
 Congressman Gallivan: 
 
 "Returning American soldiers hope soon to greet you, their 
 valiant champion." 
 
 Colonel Logan wired to Governor Coolidge of Massachu- 
 setts: 
 
 "Greetings from One Hundred First Infantry now in mid- 
 ocean." 
 
 Governor Coolidge replied: 
 
 "Massachusetts extends to you and your command the warmest 
 welcome and glories in your achievements." 
 
 Colonel Logan wired to Mayor Peters: 
 
 "Greetings to good old Boston and to you from One Hundred 
 First Infantry." 
 
 Mayor Peters replied: 
 
 "Boston reciprocates your greetings and welcomes One Hun- 
 dred First Infantry and its leader. You cannot come home too 
 fast." 
 
WORSHIPPERS IN RIGGING 243 
 
 This one followed: 
 
 "As mayor of Boston request privilege of tendering you the 
 first dinner on your arrival. Select date." (The flattering re- 
 ception by the leading citizens of Boston at the Copley-Plaza, a 
 week later, was the result of this invitation.) 
 
 Colonel Logan wired to General Edwards : 
 
 "Men and officers of One Hundred First Infantry eager and 
 happy to meet their former chief." 
 
 General Edwards replied : 
 
 "Many thanks for your fine message. You cannot be happier 
 than I am to have your splendid men back again. Most cordial 
 welcome to you and your gallant regiment." 
 
 Colonel Logan wired to James J. Phelan, the Boston 
 banker, president of the One Hundred and First Associates 
 (formerly Ninth Regiment Associates) : 
 
 "Our happiness increases daily. Be with you before week 
 ends." 
 
 Mr. Phelan replied: 
 
 "Message received. God bless you all. Boston awaits with 
 greatest enthusiasm your home-coming. Nothing has ever hap- 
 pened in your life which equals the welcome she intends to give 
 you." 
 
 Colonel Logan wired to Henry B. Endicott, Chairman 
 Massachusetts Public Safety Committee: 
 
 "A happy regiment is returning to its friends. Greetings to 
 you and your family." 
 
 The first wireless which Colonel Logan sent was to his 
 parents and he smiled like a delighted schoolboy when this 
 came back: 
 
 "Heartiest welcome home. Will be down harbor with special 
 party to greet you. Love. MOTHER." 
 
244 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 Mrs. Logan gave three sons to the cause and they all 
 came back to her — Colonel Logan, Captain Francis V. 
 Logan, adjutant to General Cole, and Lieutenant Malcolm 
 J. Logan, adjutant to General Sweetser. 
 
 The first newspaper greeting received aboard came from 
 the Boston American. It read: 
 
 "People of New England and Boston especially send welcome 
 home through American to the gallant commander of 'Boston's 
 Own!' " 
 
 Colonel Logan did not show me the reply he wirelessed, 
 and I discovered the reason when we docked next day. 
 Across the top of every edition that day was printed this 
 message from the commander of the 101st Infantry: 
 
 "To Editor Boston American: 
 
 "Many thanks for your cordial greetings. All thank you for 
 your generous support, and, through you, our Massachusetts 
 citizens for their unwavering interest and affection. We are 
 bringing with us a splendid type of American journalist, fearless 
 and brilliant, Bert Ford." 
 
 A warm greeting was also wirelessed by the Boston Post. 
 
 Colonel Hume, commanding the 103d Infantry, sent 
 wireless messages to Senators Hale and Fernald and to Con- 
 gressman Hersey and to the governors of Maine and New 
 Hampshire. He received a swarm of personal greetings. 
 
 Governor Milliken of Maine wired: 
 
 "Affectionate greetings to yourself and all the boys. Some of 
 us will be in Boston tomorrow. The whole State will be there in 
 spirit." 
 
 Governor Bartlett of New Hampshire wired: 
 
 "Greetings from New Hampshire. How many New Hamp- 
 shire men have you aboard?" (There were about 500 Granite 
 State men in the Maine regiment.) 
 
WORSHIPPERS IN RIGGING 245 
 
 Brigadier-General Shelton, commanding the Fifty-first 
 Infantry Brigade, was in command of the army units on 
 board. He nearly lost the transport at Brest, arriving on 
 the dock five minutes before the last launch put out. 
 
 Chaplains O'Connor, Rollins and Mitty worked like 
 beavers throughout the trip. 
 
 Private Donald E. Studley of Quincy, one of Colonel 
 Logan's orderlies, glanced at himself in a mirror and said: 
 
 "Suppose folks at home think I'm coming back thin and 
 pale after war. Look at me. Gained twenty pounds and 
 never felt better in my life." 
 
 "Same here!" chirped Private David J. Smart of Milli- 
 nocket, Me., orderly to Colonel Hume, inflating his chest. 
 "Seems to me I've gained about a dozen inches' expansion." 
 
 The 400 miles clipped off Tuesday was the best day's 
 record of the trip. At 8 A. M. Friday we were 433 miles 
 from Boston, with a moderate head wind and sea. It was 
 arranged to dock at 11 Saturday morning, April 5, 1919. 
 (Some date.) Barring engine trouble we could have done it 
 in a walk, but at midnight Friday General Shelton received 
 a wire, ordering the transport to slow down and not to dock 
 until 2 P. M. at the earliest. 
 
 There was speculation because of this sudden shift of 
 schedule. General Shelton remarked: 
 
 "We must dock Saturday, because it's my wedding anni- 
 versary." 
 
 The change was not popular. Officers and enlisted men 
 had begun to slick up and pack up. Some squatted on 
 bunks sewing on buttons. The ship's tailors were so 
 swamped with work that they recruited help from the 
 soldiers. 
 
 Saturday dawned in a mist and fog. The America had 
 slowed down during the night. No land was visible for 
 hours after the fog lifted, but the proximity of the coast was 
 denoted by two sparrows which paid us a visit and fluttered 
 and chirped about the ship, much to the amusement of the 
 doughboys. 
 
246 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 At 10 A. M. a gaily decorated tug boat hove in sight and 
 remained at a comfortable distance. The transport, in 
 order to kill time, and not arrive ahead of the hour set be- 
 cause of lack of train facilities at the dock, began to describe 
 great circles and the soldiers took up the cry: 
 
 "We're turning back!" 
 
 "Give the skipper a pathfinder. He doesn't know where 
 Boston is!" 
 
 "We don't want to go home. Like h we don't! 
 
 Point her south, cap, and lay on full steam." 
 
 These were samples of the deck chatter. 
 
 Then a torpedo destroyer arrived dramatically and led 
 the way. About this time it became noised about that Sam 
 Browne belts must not be worn ashore. 
 
 "Got to pack 'em away in moth balls or use 'em for 
 razor straps," said a discouraged lieutenant, "and just be- 
 cause we might ruffle the sensibilities of fellows who didn't 
 get over. I think we ought to be allowed to go home in 
 what was good enough to wear overseas." 
 
 "Hear ! Hear !" came in chorus. 
 
 There was a drone familiar to the battlefields, and out 
 of the haze swept a hydroplane driven by "Ted" Hedlund of 
 the Boston Post. It gave a pretty touch to the welcome. 
 
 Then out of the slate-colored horizon came a fleet that 
 looked like huge baskets of flowers in the distance. The 
 craft were fairly bursting with people and patriotism, and 
 were draped with flags and bunting from stem to stern. 
 Our transport seemed in a sea strewn with flowers and flags. 
 
 Nearly everybody had a megaphone. They cheered and 
 sang through them and asked all sorts of questions which 
 couldn't be interpreted. Everybody was talking at once 
 and everybody was 100 per cent excited. The saucy U- 
 boat chasers were the first out and they ventured nearest, 
 each carrying a galaxy of yeogirls in their nattiest uniforms. 
 The soldiers flirted with them in French. All the way up 
 the harbor there were barrages of wafted kisses. 
 
WORSHIPPERS IN RIGGING 247 
 
 About everything that floated was there, even to the 
 trusty tub that carries offenders to Deer Island on ordinary 
 days, and you could scarcely recognize her in her festive 
 attire. Somebody overlooked the swanboats in the Public 
 Garden. There was a chance for some ingenious politician 
 to get publicity by pedalling a swanboat down the bay to 
 the welcome. 
 
 Bands on the boats in the welcome fleet did their utmost 
 to make more noise than the bands on the transport. First 
 glimpses of familiar landmarks caused delight and feelings 
 so intense that you just wanted to look at them without 
 being interrupted, to feast your eyes on objects that you had 
 thought you might never see again. The fellows from the 
 West and South were most eager to catch a glimpse of 
 Bunker Hill Monument. 
 
 Steamer and factory whistles began to toot. Castle 
 Island was black with people and we could see them waving 
 frantically and could hear their cheers. As we swept past it 
 Colonel Logan and his staff stood on the port bridge with 
 the regimental colors, making a striking grouping. The 
 young commander of the 101st Infantry was within vision 
 of his birthplace. 
 
 The port officials, medical and customs, and local com- 
 mittees and General Edwards had boarded the transport 
 outside the harbor. Colonel Hume received Governor 
 Milliken and other officials from Maine in his stateroom. 
 
 It seemed as if all America had rushed down to the water- 
 front. Wharves, bridges, housetops, berthed steamships — 
 everything was bristling with eager, exultant humanity. 
 You know how it was. You probably were part of the wel- 
 coming throng, or read all about the details of the reception 
 given the America and all the transports that brought home 
 the men of the Yankee Division. 
 
 Those who witnessed the home-coming of troops in New 
 York said their welcome "couldn't hold a candle" to the wel- 
 come given the New England troops, and we believed it, be- 
 cause Massachusetts and New England always do things right. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Terra Firma at Last 
 
 BAnd the hardest part of all was to be compelled 
 to hear the bugle call on board the America Sunday 
 morning. To be ' 'so near and yet so far' ' from home 
 taxed the patience of the troops, but they were good- 
 natured about it, because weren't they warped tight and fast 
 against the good old U. S. A. at last? 
 
 General Shelton, Colonels Logan and Hume and a few 
 other ranking officers were given shore leave and so was I 
 for four hours, but we returned to the troopship and slept 
 aboard that night. Groups of relatives lingered in the 
 vicinity of Commonwealth Pier until quite late in the hope 
 that their Willies and their Toms might get ashore. 
 
 It was a long night for the doughboys, who were astir 
 with the peep of day, Sunday, April 6, when the real landing 
 was made. All hands were up at 5 and some long before 
 that, and by 6.30 the troops began streaming down the 
 gangways. 
 
 The enormous pier hummed with life. A big force of 
 war workers distributed good things to the soldiers. The 
 Red Cross women, in fetching uniforms, served delicious 
 coffee and buns. As the men marched to the floor below 
 where the long trains awaited them, bands played and they 
 passed through a runway that turned out to be a veritable 
 horn-of-plenty. 
 
 Red Cross, Knights of Columbus, Y. M. C. A., Jewish 
 Welfare and other representatives gave the soldiers candy, 
 khaki handkerchiefs, post cards and Sunday editions of the 
 Boston newspapers, giving a full account of the arrival of the 
 America with many photographs. 
 
 The troop movement to Camp Devens was carried out 
 with dispatch. The 101st and 103d Regiments were for- 
 
 248 
 
TERRA FIRM A AT LAST 249 
 
 warded ahead of schedule in trains that left the dock about 
 every twenty minutes. There were fifteen in all. 
 
 Long strings of clean day coaches were used and the men 
 flopped into red plush seats with a relish that was audible. 
 
 "Got the French freight cars beaten blocks," said a fat 
 corporal. "No smelly straw. Hang the military de luxe 
 cars that are labelled 'forty hommes or eight cheveaux.' 
 Give me the good old American coaches. Hey, fellows?" 
 
 There was an affirmative howl. The three-hour trip 
 from the pier to Camp Devens over the New Haven & Hart- 
 ford to Concord Junction and thence over the Boston & 
 Maine to the cantonment was one unbroken ovation. It 
 had the trips to and from the Mexican border faded. It 
 was as stirring in its fervor as the wonderful harbor demon- 
 stration and often even more gripping and spectacular, 
 though of an entirely different slant. 
 
 It was more of a home and community celebration, in 
 which towns and hamlets and farming sections vied with 
 each other in honoring the returning heroes. It was a sort 
 of everybody's back door demonstration. Rear clothes 
 sheds became popular balconies from which to pay homage. 
 
 The crowds began along the track just outside the pier. 
 Every bridge and station and crossroad, every railroad cross- 
 ing and yard, was thronged. 
 
 A doughboy said: 
 
 "I didn't know there were so many flags in the world. 
 New England does things up brown. I'm from California, 
 and seeing what we did down the harbor and this show today 
 has caused me to decide to stay and see the parade celebration. 
 Some spectacle. Wait until I tell them about it at home." 
 
 Men, women and children lined the tracks close enough 
 to touch the hands of soldiers, who poked their arms through 
 open windows. By this method refreshments were passed 
 with the train going at fair speed. Girls and boys pleaded 
 for souvenirs and some of the girls were old enough to be 
 doughboys' sweethearts. It was not long before the soldiers, 
 always quick to take advantage of romance, began dropping 
 
250 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 post cards out of windows and scaling them from platforms 
 into the crowds. 
 
 The girls scrambled for them, because on each card was 
 scrawled the address of some gallant doughboy who longed 
 to correspond with the recipient. 
 
 Passing locomotives, and those at roundhouses, shrieked 
 a welcome. Church bells were rung. Dudley Street station, 
 Bird Street, Hyde Park, Walpole, Norwood and South 
 Framingham did themselves proud. The men of the 101st 
 were thrilled when they caught a glimpse of the street in 
 South Pramingham down which they marched in June, 1916, 
 to entrain for the Mexican border, and in September, 1917, 
 to entrain for Hoboken and sterner duty overseas. 
 
 Walpole had a band and there was another at South 
 Framingham. The crowd was dense and full of pep at 
 Framingham; in fact, every group bubbled over with ex- 
 uberance and patriotism. One thought what a job Ger- 
 many or any other power would have to bridle or crush such 
 a spirit. It was typically and gratifyingly American. It 
 made the returning soldiers swell with pride. It made them 
 thankful they were home. It bucked them up. It was a 
 reward which they appreciated. 
 
 Big flags were strung from windows and fences and tele- 
 graph wires and trees. Banners were erected on poles 
 driven into lawns bearing all sorts of snappy inscriptions. 
 One read: 
 
 "You gave them hell, fellows." 
 
 Another was labelled: 
 
 "We were with you all the way through." 
 
 "Welcome home, boys," was the popular line. Many 
 small placards bore this greeting and children held them 
 with flags. Crossing tenders held "stop" signs in one hand 
 and flags in the other. Every time the train stopped the 
 soldiers were deluged with home-made fudge, apples and 
 oranges. Women and girls came down to the steps with 
 baskets stuffed with sandwiches and cake. The men 
 gloated over the home-made bread. 
 
TERRA FIRM A AT LAST 251 
 
 Two girls came panting down the track. One carried a 
 huge squash pie. A doughboy shouted, "Put on the brakes ! 
 Here's a chance for a real New England treat and she's 
 already sprinted six kilometers to get it to me." 
 
 "Get it to you no thin' ! It's going to be for me if I ever 
 get my hooks on it," said another. 
 
 This happened at Walpole, where the housewives were 
 unusually generous and where cooking was Al. That pie 
 was no sooner handed through the car window than it 
 melted like snow in a hot sun. 
 
 It was almost a continuous cheer, and it seemed as if the 
 entire way was walled with flags. At one station there was 
 a juvenile drum corps and the members wore soldiers' hats 
 made of newspapers. A few stations beyond stood two 
 Grand Army veterans in uniform, beating drums as they did 
 in the sixties. 
 
 The babies and little girls and the elderly men and 
 women, all with flags, made dramatic groupings. But the 
 most gripping figure of all was a woman in black who stood 
 on a hill alone waving a service flag with one star in the 
 center, and a soldier who knew her said it was the mother 
 of a bunkie who was bumped off by a shell in St. Mihiel. 
 
 The Yankee Division units were railroaded through the 
 sanitary process and physical inspection after their arrival 
 at Camp Devens, a work that was finished with dispatch, 
 after which units were placed in quarters where they re- 
 mained until mustered out. 
 
 The first Sunday in camp drew a big crowd, in spite of 
 erroneous announcements that the public would not be 
 allowed. The relatives and friends came to camp by train 
 and trolley, in barges and automobiles and about every- 
 thing on wheels. It was a rollicking reunion. Bandleader 
 L'Africain gave a concert and showed the home folks how 
 his band could play and flourish French bugles. 
 
 It was the first time the majority of the Yankee Division 
 men saw the Massachusetts cantonment where national 
 army divisions were trained, and they liked it immensely. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 Spirit of 1861 and 1918 
 
 B Liberal leaves were granted as soon as medical 
 requirements had been met. The soldiers were so 
 eager to get home that they could not wait for 
 trains. They clubbed and went to Boston and 
 Worcester and Fitchburg and Lowell by automobile. This 
 demand started a taxi service to neighboring cities and 
 automobile owners reaped a harvest. 
 
 When trunks and barracks bags were sorted, it was dis- 
 covered that the baggage of the returning heroes had been 
 looted by souvenir pirates. Scores of barracks bags had 
 been slit with knives and souvenirs and gifts which dough- 
 boys had brought for relatives and which could not be dupli- 
 cated were stolen. Locks were broken and trunks rifled. 
 Even the personal effects of the army chaplains were not 
 respected by the ghouls. The baggage scandal caused 
 rigid investigation and arrests and the recovery of some of 
 the property. 
 
 Sergeant Thomas Jones of No. 29 Dracut Street, Dor- 
 chester, member of H Company, 101st Infantry, gave a 
 soldier's offhand description of his arrival in the family 
 circle, and it was pretty much what happened in the ma- 
 jority of doughboys' homes: 
 
 "I got leave from Camp Devens and didn't let out a yip 
 that I was coming. The first thing they knew Tommy was 
 in their midst," said Jones, between puffs. 
 
 "My saint of a mother just stood off looking at me, sort 
 of stunned like for a minute, and then she came at me and I 
 thought she'd bowl me over with hugs and kisses. 
 
 "First she laughed and then she cried and my sister had 
 similar fits of joy and grief and it got me. 
 
 252 
 
SPIRIT OF 1861 AND 1918 253 
 
 "I said to them, 'What are you blubbering about? Ain't 
 I back with two arms and legs and a whole hide? Any- 
 body 'd think I was a corpse.' And then they told me they 
 couldn't help laughing and crying, it seemed so good to have 
 me back well and strong. I felt like a boob, they made such 
 a fuss. I never thought anybody cared so much for me. 
 
 "It was great to be home, to see the old faces and the old 
 furniture and my old room that I often thought I'd never 
 live to see again, and to meet our friends and neighbors. 
 
 "Mother asked me what I'd like best to eat, and I told her 
 to bring on the biggest steak she could get. 'Meat on 
 Friday?' she gasped. 'Bless us, Tom, but the army has 
 corrupted you entirely.' 
 
 "I had to laugh at her astonishment. I said, 'Mother, 
 there isn't any Friday or Sunday in the army in time of war. 
 All days are alike. There are no religious bindings* Catho- 
 lics can eat meat on Friday and Jews can gobble pork seven 
 days a week, if they can get it. It's a special dispensation 
 made by agreement of the War Department and the 
 churches. Men must have their strength to fight. Some 
 of the fellows said it would be tough to go back to meatless 
 Fridays.' 
 
 "Well, that converted mother. She broiled a whopper 
 and Saturday she cooked beans the way I like them and 
 made a brown bread, which she knew was one of my weak- 
 nesses, and she warned me to be home in time for supper 
 Saturday night, and I intended to, because she deserved my 
 company, but once I got out, visiting the fellows at the shop 
 and running into friends on the street, my date with mother 
 went by the boards. 
 
 "I kept it in mind constantly, but so-and-so wanted me 
 to go to his house and then I had to go to somebody else's 
 house, even if but for ten minutes, or they'd be sore, and the 
 long and short of it was that I had three suppers that night and 
 didn't get home until eleven thirty. And what do you think? 
 
 "There sat mother waiting for me, and she gave me a 
 good-natured earful for disappointing her, and then she had 
 
254 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 her revenge by forcing me to eat a platter of beans and brown 
 bread, late as it was. It was all I could do to force it down, 
 but I did to please her. I felt like a boarding house turkey 
 when I went to bed. But I was home, between sheets, 
 stronger than I ever felt in my life and I thanked God in the 
 dark. 
 
 "Seeing those mules over there reminds me of a team we 
 had at the front. The fellows nicknamed them Sardine 
 and Skyrocket. A big Texan drove them. Those animals 
 were wonders. They had more narrow escapes than you 
 could count and they came through unscratched and every 
 fellow in the gang was glad. I rode up with them many 
 times when the shells were bursting and a cooler pair I never 
 saw. A lot of mules and horses bit the dust, but Sardine 
 and Skyrocket bore charmed lives. Say, if a shell got them 
 the whole company would have worn deep mourning. They 
 were our pets. We all fed them with sweets and they were 
 like a couple of spoiled kids. 
 
 "Mascots went big in the front lines. Fellows had dogs 
 they would have almost died for, stray purps they picked 
 up in villages. Some of them had been German mascots. 
 They had been owned by French families first and captured 
 by the Germans and when they got into the Yanks' hands 
 they had to forget French and German and learn United 
 States. Did you pipe how the fellows smuggled purps in 
 barracks bags until we got out to sea and notice how they 
 began to turn up and roam around deck the second day out? 
 Mascot love did that. I pity a guy that was cruel to any 
 of those purps. 
 
 "I always felt bad for the animals. The dog mascots 
 went all through the scrap with outfits. What we fellows 
 felt worst for were the mules and horses when you came 
 across them dead, all torn up by shells. You see it wasn't 
 their fight. It was a man's row and they had to come in and 
 do the dirty work and take gas and air bombs and shells, 
 with never a chance to strike back. 
 
SPIRIT OF 1861 AND 1918 255 
 
 "Man! how some of those critters had to tug at the traces 
 in the mud and the hell holes they had to go through, with- 
 out a whimper. That's why we used to feed all the sugar 
 we could get to Sardine and Skyrocket. We hated to 
 leave them on the other side. They were munching oats 
 the last I saw of them, just as if they hadn't been through 
 the greatest war in history." 
 
 Sergeant Jones' reference to the sacrifice made by ani- 
 mals reminded me of a story I got early in our operations in 
 the war from a Lynn jockey whom I met in Paris. He was 
 wearing a Canadian uniform. His words tell it best: 
 
 "I didn't know Uncle Sam was going to be mixed up in 
 the fracas or I would have waited and joined his army. I 
 wanted to see it and joined the Canadian Corps and I've 
 seen my fill at Vimy Ridge and other scraps. 
 
 "I drive the leads in an artillery outfit. I used to ride 
 racers at Combination Park in Medford. Do you know the 
 place? Of course you do, if you hail from Boston. Lynn 
 is my hangout, when I'm home. 
 
 "I'm on a few days' leave now and I'm not too happy, 
 because I lost one of the best pals I ever had in my life. His 
 name was Dick. A shell got him. 
 
 "No, not a trooper. Only a horse. I've handled a few 
 in my day, but never came across one that compared with 
 Dick, only Jenny, his mate. Perhaps it's the game we're in 
 that makes me feel such affection, but I almost cried when I 
 looked down at Dick all bunged up. And the worst of it 
 was, we couldn't do a thing for him. If horses cry, Jenny 
 must have, too. She hasn't been the same since. 
 
 "She bites and kicks Dick's successor and won't have a 
 thing to do with him. It's broken up the family and makes 
 it harder for me, because the new horse is a willing beast, 
 but he can't hold a candle to Dick, and I know it and Jenny 
 knows it. Poor thing, she's pining. I can't cheer her up, 
 no matter what I do for her. 
 
 "When it happened a blonde kid was driving the wheel 
 pair on our gun. He had run away from home and was an 
 
256 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 American and joined up in Canada. He was new enough to 
 be still shell shy and curious. Every one that broke he 
 talked about, which is a sure sign of the novice. 
 
 "Well, there was one came that he didn't hear or see. 
 That is always the one that has your number. The shell 
 that bumped off the kid got Dick also, and wounded both 
 the wheel animals and bounced Jenny and me a bit (I was 
 riding her at the time), but didn't mar either of us. 
 
 "I miss Dick more than I can tell. I had cared for him 
 and Jennie like a couple of children. They almost talked 
 to me. I shared blankets with them wet nights and I 
 looked for the feel of their noses in the dark and damned if 
 I don't wish it hadn't happened, because I loved Dick and 
 it spoils another good horse, because Jenny ain't the same." 
 
 Captain Nicholas Biddle, remount officer in the Yankee 
 Division and a famous horseman, acquired valuable ex- 
 perience at the front in the handling of hundreds of horses 
 and mules. His report is interesting and instructive. He 
 tells how they coped with a serious outbreak of mange in 
 the Toul sector and of the heavy losses from exposure, shell 
 fire and gas while the animals were kept in advanced echelons. 
 He said: 
 
 "As a result, the greater part of the artillery animals 
 were taken back to the more or less sheltered rear echelons, 
 while the animals of the infantry and other divisional units 
 were stabled in the somewhat demolished but nevertheless 
 sheltered casernes of Verdun. 
 
 "Mules for the rolling kitchens, ration carts, water carts, 
 and a number of mules for machine guns had necessarily to 
 be kept up fairly close to the lines, and it was these animals 
 that shared the brunt of the shelling and exposure. 
 
 "The plan, however, was adopted to alternate these 
 animals, so that after one had served several days at the 
 front it was brought back to a rear echelon, rested and cared 
 for, while another took its place. 
 
 "Up behind the lines picketing of animals in small groups 
 of three, four and six was employed as protection from shell 
 
SPIRIT OF 1861 AND 1918 257 
 
 fire. There was an instance, however, in a certain machine 
 gun company where this was not done, and twelve fine 
 mules, tied together on one picket line, were completely 
 wiped out by a shell landing directly beside them. 
 
 "The so-called 'mule skinners' took care of their animals 
 under conditions when it was bad enough to have to look 
 after one's self, yet without the glory of the men in the 
 trenches, although their work was often equally as hazardous 
 and courageous." 
 
 The work of veterinarians and horsemen at the front 
 was of tremendous importance, because horse flesh was 
 valuable. It was a factor, a mighty big factor, in the scale 
 of victory or defeat. 
 
 On the British front there was an enormous hospital for 
 horses and mules directed by a veterinary of world renown 
 who cared for the pedigreed stock in the stables of King 
 George, the Kaiser and other royalty before the war. This 
 expert and hundreds of trained subordinates were doing 
 marvels curing and rebuilding animals that had been 
 wounded by shrapnel, gassed or that had become exhausted 
 or sick in the service. 
 
 The care and treatment given to the numerous animal 
 patients, the way they were classified, the wards with serious 
 cases, the convalescent yards and the whole works were 
 wonderful to behold. There were bundles of heart-gripping 
 animal stories in the animal hospitals at the front, stories 
 going to waste for the want of the telling and the lack of 
 time to dig them out. 
 
 Just bear in mind when you see a tired horse in the street 
 or one taxed by too great a load that his fellow creatures 
 helped win the war for democracy, helped in a greater 
 measure than you will ever realize. Thousands upon 
 thousands of animals perished in the cause and, as Sergeant 
 Jones said, it wasn't their fight. 
 
 The divisional review at Camp Devens, on Wednesday, 
 April 23, was attended by all the governors of New England. 
 It was a striking spectacle. The thousands who witnessed 
 
258 THE FIGHTING YANKEES OVERSEAS 
 
 it will probably remember longest the sea of steel helmets 
 shining in the sun. The helmets gave a look of added power 
 to the ranks. 
 
 The soldiers will never forget the great parade of Friday, 
 April 25, in Boston, and the generous homage paid by the 
 Bay State and its people. They will probably never forget 
 the smoke that curled high from the bonfires around which 
 they danced and warwhooped when they emptied the straw 
 filling of their mattresses, the day they were mustered out. 
 
 The days of welcome and celebration were days of lasting 
 impressions. I rode with the staff of Colonel Logan in the 
 parade. It was a wonderful experience passing, in the 
 saddle, through that flood of eager faces and flags, past miles 
 of reviewing stands. 
 
 It was stirring to see the crowds rise on both sides like 
 a tide as the popular leader of the 101st Infantry approached 
 — to ride through that hurricane of applause and confetti. 
 Newspaper headlines that day said a million sightseers 
 flocked to Boston. It was easy for those of us who passed 
 through the concourse to believe it. 
 
 The flag display of the Spanish War Veterans was a 
 feature, and the long line of automobiles bearing wounded 
 gave an idea of war's toll. The snow-white flag, carried 
 alone, bearing the figures 1730, the total of the Yankee Di- 
 vision's dead, was also grim. General Edwards remarked: 
 "That flag is the whole parade." 
 
 But I shall remember longest and most tenderly the sec- 
 tion reserved for the veterans of the G. A. R. It was risky 
 for them to sit out there so long on such a biting day. That 
 banking of grand old men in the blue of other days was to 
 me the keynote of the $300,000 celebration. They rose to 
 answer to the salutes of the Boston regiment. I saw tears 
 trickling down wrinkled faces. 
 
 They were trembling, almost overcome, with patriotic 
 emotion. Some were too moved to give utterance to the 
 cheers which they attempted. For those old warriors it 
 
 BD-6 6, 
 
SPIRIT OF 1861 AND 1918 259 
 
 was a crowning hour. The day meant more to them than to 
 any of the assembled thousands. 
 
 They were gathered to pay tribute to a type of fighting 
 man new in America — youngsters equipped with helmets 
 and gas masks, the strange accoutrement of modern warfare. 
 
 They had been spared to see the principles for which 
 they had fought and bled defended by their sons and grand- 
 sons and to see them triumph. They had been spared to 
 see the spirit that actuated them, aflame in the breasts of a 
 younger generation. 
 
 No wonder they cried. It was the first meeting of the 
 patriots of 1861 and the patriots of 1918. 
 
 New England had delivered again. 
 
 American traditions and ideals were secure. 
 
 The End. 
 
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