USA > Illinois > Lee County > War history of Lee County, Illinois, 1917-1919 : a history of the part taken by the people of Lee County, Illinois, in the World War, 1917-1919 > Part 22
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Love to all.
I am your son,
Lisle R.
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From Sergt. (afterwards Lieut.) Sherwood Dixon,
Fiume, Hungary, November 27, 1918.
Dear Mother:
"I know that you have often wondered where I have been, and it looks as though the censorship has been relaxed, so I'm going to tell you the whole story, taking a chance on its going through.
On June 6 we went from Camp Merritt to Weehawken, crossed the Hudson on a ferry, and boarded the "Acquitania" at the Cunard docks. The business of loading took some time, for the ship carried considerable freight besides the 7.000 soldiers and the crew of 1,500 so it was Saturday morning. June Sth, when we sailed out of New York harbor, accompanied by several destroyers and aeroplanes. The planes took us out about two hours, but the destroyers stayed with us until dark. Our boat was too fast to travel in a convoy, so it always worked alone. It is 901 feet long, but we did 25 knots an hour the whole trip, even though we were constantly twisting and turning. The "Carpathia" which was docked next to us, and left a day or two later was caught by the subs, but we were never in danger, though one of the gunners elaimed to have seen a periscope within 200 yards of us.
We were met by a convoy of British destroyers when we entered the danger zone, but we missed them, and didn't meet them until the day before we landed. On the even- ing of the 14th we passed the spot where the Lusitania was sunk, just off the coast of Ireland. It was marked by four large buoys, of peculiar shape, and on the morning of the 15th we landed at Liverpool.
It was almost noon before we got ashore. Then we marched through the city accom- panied by a British band and the usual crowd of admiring kids, to the Midlands R. R. station, where we entrained. We had a fine ride, (second class) through Derby, Birming- ham and several other big cities to Southampton. At that time the sun set at about 9:45 and it was twilight until elven, so it was hardly dark when we detrained and marched to a big eamp in the direction of Salisbury plain. There we stayed for about a day- Southampton is a beautiful place, but they certainly handed out some rotten grub at the rest camp there.
We marebed back into the city, to the docks and boarded the channel boat, "Viper," a very fast boat, capable of doing 35 knots, but rather small for a whole battalion. We sailed out of the harbor that evening, past all kind of eraft, including several torpedoed ships, through the mine fields, past the beautiful Isle of Wight, and dodged subs most of the night. I got a couple of hours sleep on the floor and woke up the next morning in Le Havre. We climbed through the city, which is very hilly, and ended up at Rest Camp No. 1, on the top of the highest hill of them all. We spent several days there, and that is where I saw Bob Ovington. I think that part of the Rainbow division had been there, judging from what people said, but at that time I hadn't learned enough French to understand more than 1 per cent of what I heard.
From Le Havre we took our first ride in the "Chevaux S. Hommes 40" cars that we were destined to become so familiar with. We rode about 24 hours, through a corner of Paris, (which we passed during the night, however), and quite a lot of interesting country to Foulain. It was from the little town of Foulain that we had one of our hardest hikes. We left the train at 6:30 p. m. and marched until 3 am. in the rain, up hill all the way. We were soft after the long rest. We were carrying extra heavy packs and wearing our light weight russet shoes, not our hobnails. Every village that came in view we thought we were going to stop at, and we surely had a lot of disappointments, because the villages,
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while most of them were small, were pretty close together-just a mile or so apart. Finally we halted, and I just dimly remember trying to seat myself on a big stone. It was wet and slippery, and I was tired. I didn't hit it square, slipped off and flopped into a puddle where I fell sound asleep. While I was asleep, billets were found, and some one woke me, and I staggered into a nearby barn, where I spent the rest of the night.
The village was Donne-Marie, in the Department of Hauto-Marne, 75 kilometers southeast of Paris, and 24 kilometers from Chaumont. The city I probably told you of having frequently visited was Nogent, a little place not far from Mondres.
We soon found out that we were going to Italy, and I didn't like the idea at first, for Italy seemed such an out of the way place, and there seemed to be so much going on in France, but of course my wishes did not amount to much. We were all set to go when the Germans opened up their drive between Soissons and Rheims, about the middle of July. Of course you know what happened then at Chateau-Thierry. We were held in reserve there for ten days, until the tide of the battle turned and it was evident that we would not be needed.
Then we marched to Foulain again, and boarded the train for Italy. We did not touch any of the big French cities on the trip, but we didn't miss much in northern Italy. We crossed the Alps, passing close to Mt. Blane and going through an endless chain of tunnels. At the entrance to one tunnel stood a French guard, and the last thing we saw before entering the tunnel was a little French village that surrounded the big hole. Then followed twenty minutes of darkness, and when we suddenly popped out into the blind- ing sunlight again, there was an Italian guard staring us in the face, and we were in an Italian city of some size. I never did learn the name of it.
Electric locomotives were attached to our train, and we made a fast trip from there on. I have told you a great deal about our reception, so I needn't dwell upon that.
We stopped at Turino about 6 p. m. and staged a parade. The people went wild over us, fed us, threw flowers, and all that. Then we went on, and arrived in Milano in the morning. We spent a couple of hours there, and though we did not leave the station, we got a pretty good view of the city, for the train passed quite close to some of the most celebrated buildings. We passed through Breseia, and stopped at Verona, took a branch road and backed up a few miles to the city of Villa-Franca. That was our first home in Italy. It was there that we were reviewed by the King of Italy, and first became ac- quainted with Jimmy Hare and the other photographers.
We stayed several weeks in Villa-Franca, making Sunday excursions to Verona, twelve miles away, and to other smaller places of interest. The first and second battalions were quartered in two nearby towns-Custoza and Somma Campagnia, so to get the regiment together, we were all moved to a level plain just outside of Valeggio, a little town on the edge of the mountains, where we spent over a month in tents.
There we stayed under a period of training in modern warfare-advancing under barrages, bombing, using liquid fire, and in fact, practicing almost every form of assault that is open to the infantry.
It was rather dangerous work, I must admit, and our battalion suffered more casuali- ties there than the whole regiment did during the advance from Treviso to Cormons. I have had some narrow escapes; once a shell fragment as large as my forearm struck less than the breadth of my hand from where I lay-had it struck a roek, or even fallen in a different position, your son would now be toying with a harp instead of a fountain pen. A trench mortar shell exploded within 30 feet of where I lay, and by its concussion set off three others among which it had fallen, killing seven and wounded
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forty, vet I wasn't touched. Advancing through thick brush, rifle and machine gun bullets have whistled all around me, yet I have never been touched. I saw our lieutenant colonel's foot blown off, and our major's jugular vein cut, and dozens of my friends killed and wounded around. I have been very leky. One time I saw a man's life saved by a plug of tobacco. A shell fragment was stopped by the old square of Climax and the man was merely bruised.
About the middle of October we moved up to Treviso and there we really got into things. One battalion went into the trenches, one was in support, and one in reserve. There was lots of excitement there. Air battles and artillery action all the time. We were raided by Austrian planes, seven times, but the British Archie guns were good protection, and no bombs were dropped on us or anywhere else where much damage could be done.
After several false starts, the big push finally opened, and, contrary to the original plans, we were not in the assaulting wave, but formed a unit of mobile reserves. We moved, from our position, just northeast of Treviso, to the Piave at Grave Island. The British had taken it, and thrown a pontoon bridge across the 33 mile per hour current. We crossed in comparative safety, and started to work up to the front lines. Everywhere there were dead, wounded, and prisoners, captured stores, damaged and ruined towns, and all the evidence of war. We walked day and night, foreing our way to the front. marching and counter marching to flank Jerry after we once got there. Our kitchens managed to stick with us for two days, but then we lost them. We ate our emergency rations and then lived on an occasional ear of corn, head of cabbage, or potato, that the retreating enemy had left. We could not tell whether the wells were poisoned or not, and we couldn't afford to take a chance. For three days I didn't drink a drop of water. Luckily it was fairly cool. If the weather had been hot we would have been in bad shape. Finally I decided that I had to drink so I laid in hiding near a well, and waited until I saw a woman come and drink from it. Then I can tell you that I filled up. When we made contact with Jerry we were pretty well in advance of the other forces but the British managed finally to get some monkey meat to us and with some nourishing food under our belts we put up quite a serap. Our company formed the advance guard, and we drove through the open country, right on Fritzies' heels, almost at a run. The last town I remember was Valvasone, about three miles from an important bridge on the Tagliamento. The Tagly is 1500 yards across, but is nearly dry most of the time, and at this point there were six swift narrow channels in it. Jerry got aeross on two railroad bridges and one foot bridge, which they fired and blew up as we approached. right on his heels, at dusk. Patrols from our company waded across while we established a position on the west bank, and found the Austrians in a very strong position behind a dike, which was lined with machine guns, ete. We kept them busy until five companies came from behind us, deployed, fixed bayonets, and without a minute's rest went right over after them. It looked almost impossible to cross the white gravel in the moonlight. with all the fire concentrated on one spot, yet with no artillery support except for one gun which fired not over ten shots, the Yanks went over the top. When the machine guns opened up the Yanks went for them, instead of seeking cover, and this so surprised the Austrians that they all turned-except those who couldn't-and fled. Our objective was the Austrian trenches, but some of the boys pushed on about five miles to Codroipo, and captured an immense supply of ammunition. After the assault, I took six men and ex- plored the river bed, but found nothing alive. The next day I took fifty men across with food for the men in the advanced sector, and saw a lot of interesting things. The same day the armistice was granted, and we withdrew to Valvasone for a rest. That is, we were to have a rest, but the next morning we moved up to occupy the captured territory,
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and our first foreed march was a terror. We marehed from one morning until the follow- ing night, with just two hours rest. I carried nearly one hundred pounds on the trip, and it taxed my strength to the utmost. We marched for several days, and finally halted at the border for three days. Then we moved into Austria and took over a couple of buildings to sleep in, at Cormons.
That was the end of our hard work. We stayed there almost a week and rested up, then our battaltion took a train for Fiume, one battalion left on foot for Treviso, and the other by motor truek for Veniee, from there to go to Montenegro.
Our sole purpose now is to keep peace in the family and see that everyone is treated properly. It is hard to tell how long we will be here, but it's a fine place, and it will not le a hardship to stay in Fiume all winter if we have to.
I'll tell you about Fiume in my next letter. I believe this is the longest letter I have ever written in my life.
Love to all, Sherwood.
From Sergt. Ira W. Lewis, 123rd Field Artillery (formerly 6th Illinois).
Doulaincourt, Haute-Marne, France, Dec. 5, 1918. My Dear Mrs. Preesott :
I have intended for a long time to write a long letter to you, but have had so little time to write and when a chance would come it would be so cold in the billet that we would have to keep bundled up with mittens on, and I couldn't write. It is warm enough today that we have our door open, blouses off, and no fire in the stove. It is quite warm for December (to us). It is a warmer climate here, anyway, than it is at home. People still leave their house plants out of doors daytimes most of the day, yet. Every house has a few geraniums, begonias and fuchias.
Lloyd and I both keep well except for colds. He is in command of Headquarters company and early in September had me transferred to his company and just recently has put me in for supply sergeant and since then I have been especially busy.
We have been at the front for a long time, leaving the training camp at Valdahou, the 22nd of August. Our first drive started the 12th of September in the St. Mihiel Salient and our part (artillery) lasted one night and one day. We took the Germans completely by surprise as we started the drive at one o'elock in the night and in the rain, and the Germans did not think that the Americans would start a drive under those conditions. They retreated in a hurry and only answered back with five shots. Some of our men found where they had left a meal partly prepared, potatoes peeled and canned meats and vegetables opened. Some of our men were ordered to go ahead during the barrage and turn around the eannons, which the Germans in their hurry had left behind them, and fire their ammunition back after them. During all our marches at the front we found ever so many German cannon which had been turned around and shot back after them.
Our next drive, in the Argonne forest, northwest of Verdun, started the 25th of Septem- ber and we were relieved by other artillery and sent back to a rest camp where we have been for six weeks or more.
We had a good many narrow escapes while at the front. I have slept or tried to sleep night after night with shells flying through the air thiek and fast, coming from all direc- tions, but my number was not ealled and I got through it safe. Either those German shells were no good or I was not worth killing.
One place where we camped was in the edge of a forest on the Von Hindenburg line
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and some of our men slept in the German dugouts. Just over the way from where we camped was an open meadow and in one corner of this meadow we buried thirty men from our brigade. It was a very sad sight, but saddest of all was to see three brothers laid side by side in one grave. What an awful shoek it must have been to the poor mother when she received the news of the son's deaths. They belonged to another regiment of artillery and were gassed.
Another place where we camped was in the open on the side of a hill overlooking "Hell's Valley," a very beautiful valley all thickly settled with troops in shelter tents. At one end of this valley was a town, Montfaucon, wrecked, ruined, solitary, and deserted. One night a shell lit about 30 yards from where I was sleeping and exploded near the picket line, killing 18 horses, and injuring others, some of which had to be killed. Others would live.
This same night one man was sleeping with his blouse folded up under his head for a pillow and in another tent a man was using his rubber hip boots for a pillow and both boots and blouse were torn by pieces of shell but the men unhurt. Four men who slept so near the pieket line that one of the horses in falling just missed their tents were not hurt at all when the 18 horses were killed. In another tent one man laid his steel helmet near his head and a piece of shell was driven through the helmet, leaving holes larger than a silver dollar, but the man was unhurt, only nearly deafened by the noise. A piece of shell was driven through five shelter tents in succession, in a row, but none of the men in them were hurt.
These instances all happened the same night but not from the same shell. Surely "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about those that fear Him and delivereth them."
The objective in our first drive in the St. Mihiel sector was Montsee, a town and large mountain by the same name, about six and a half miles east of St. Mihiel, and both Mont- see and the Argonne forest were considered about the hardest sectors to capture on account of being so strongly fortified, previously, and so hard to advance on, but we got back from 6 to 10 kilometers with our heavy artillery and shelled them from 12 to 15 hours at a time, then advanced our artillery while the light artillery and machine guns protected the infantry boys in their advance.
France is a very pretty and interesting country and has seen some terrible wars since its history began. We fought over the same ground where Caesar's Ballie wars took place and where Napoleon lived and conquered. We received our 312 weeks training in artillery in the "foothills of the Alps."
How is everyone in Dixon that I know and am interested in? Remember me to George, Homer, Daisy, Juliet and Mabel and their families.
There's no fighting going on now, but we don't know how soon we are going to leave for home.
Lloyd sends his best regards to all, too. With kindest regards from.
Ira W. Lewis. Hdq. Co., 123rd F. A.
P. S .- Out of our whole regiment only seven men were killed in action and three died from natural causes. Three of the seven were from C Battery, and six of the seven were from the 2nd Battalion.
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From Grover Lott, Battery D, 128 Field Artillery.
June 28, 1918.
Dear Friend:
Am not sure whether I owe you a letter or not, for it has been some sime since either of us has written, but if I am out of turn you may make it up whenever you please. You are supposed to laugh now, for that is a joke.
There is so much to write and so much that can't be said on account of the censorship that I don't know where to begin. The trip alone is worth anyone's time for we have seen things and been to places that we never could have met with in civil life. The greatest drawback is in losing connections with one's friends. Haven't had a line of mail since leaving Doniphan and don't know where any of my army pals are located. You will have to tell me all over again where the F. G. boys are and in particular Claud Businga, Bill Clingan and Charles Baker. From what I have heard in the last few days I rather think I can guess pretty close to where Roger is likely to be. His branch of the service is pretty busy getting a great reputation in France just now. Would surely like to meet some of the old boys over here.
Now, a little attempt to describe the trip. You have had some little traveling around the U. S., but I think you will appreciate this side of the Atlantic much better than most of the fellows who came over here to fight. England and France are both beautiful in the country, although I like France the better. The whole country is green and hedges and erops, and everything that grows shows the care that it receives. There are all kinds of fruits and berries, lots of grapes and I have never seen so many and such lovely flowers, both wild and domesticated. Everything is a lot different than at home. The buildings are all made of stone, also many of the fences, and where they are not en- tirely covered with vines they show that they were built some time ago. The fields are mostly small and are fenced with hedges and trees into all kinds of irregular shapes. Then, there are chateaux with their old architecture and their well kept grounds and parks. Some country for a camera if it could be used. In the towns France is prettier than Eng- land, for the latter is all alike. Everyone lives in villages and everyone's house is just like the rest, not very attractive either. In France, although they live in villages, yet they show some kinds of style. The people are fine and are glad to see us here, especially the youngsters and the fellows have a great time learning and teaching the languages.
We are billeted in a little old village in a very quaint old-fashioned province and our battery sleeps in what were once bowling alleys. Better than tents, if we do sleep on the ground. Get plenty to eat and after a few horrible days at first we are now getting plenty of tobacco. We are training a little harder than in the states and learning lots of new stuff all of the time. Never felt finer in my life and am as anxious as anyone else to get into action.
We had an awful workout today, and the good thing about it was that we had a chance to go swimming after the work was done. Am sore and stiff all over. Somebody just came in and said that mail had arrived and this is going to wind up in a rush. Be sure to write whenever you can and tell "Ottie" that I haven't received an answer to my last letter. Don't be afraid to tell me all the news. A fellow can't help getting just a little homesick once in a while. The following address will reach me anywhere:
Grover Lott. Battery D, 128 F. A., A. E. F.
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From Lawrence M Grath, 149th Fiekl Art.
Buschdorf, Luxemburg, November 28, 1918. Dear Folks:
An order has come through making censorship regulations much more lenient so that now we can even tell where we are. Buschdorf is a little village about like Woosung, except, of course that the houses are built on either side of one Main street and are all constructed of stone.
Things to eat are ruinously high in Luxemburg. For instance, a ten cent chocolate Far costs about 10 marks ($2.50) and everything else accordingly. You know the Germans have just evacuated the country for the first time since the war began, so things are nearly as scarce as they are in Germany. Then, of course, the people charge Americans higher prices because they know that the soldiers have the money and will spend it. We lose much money also in exchanging our good francs for the rapidly depreciating German marks, which seem to be the standard currency here.
Today, Thanksgiving, we had a good meal although none of the men got turkey or the trimmings this year. We had roast pork, mashed potatoes, cabbage, sauce, lettuce salad, bread, coffee, apple pie and jam- the best army meal I have eaten in many a day. We had a half holiday this afternoon. Yesterday I had a pass to the city of Luxemburg, the capital of the Duchy. I went in on the train, about 35 kilometers, arriving about 9:30 a.m., and leaving at 7:00 p. m. It was the first pass I had like that since I left New York. I certainly enjoyed myself, although it cost me plenty for meals, ete. The city is a regular place, with a population, I should judge of about 100,000. Am sending under separate cover some picture postcards of Luxemburg as well as of St. Leger and Arlon, two nice Belgian towns which we stayed in over night.
The cathedral at Arlon is a wonderful church, the grandest I have ever seen. As previously mentioned, am sending a package of small souvenirs: Post cards, coins, paper money of four countries, six months' service stripe, etc. You can tell what the things are by looking at them.
The German postcards were left by Boche sokliers in their hurried retreat in the St. Mibiel sector. One sheet is German propaganda asking peace. that was dropped from the clouds by a German aviator while we were in our second position in the Verdun fight about a month ago. One side is to the American soldiers, the other to the Frenchmen. The people of Luxemburg seem to be strongly pro-ally.
We hoarded the S. S. President Lincoln at Hoboken, N. J., Oet. 18, 1917, and left the three mile limit Oct. 19. We were on the water until Oct. 31 when we arrived in the harbor of St. Nazaire at the mouth of the Loire river. I heard last spring that the Presi- dent Lincoln was sunk by a submarine.
We stayed in the boat three days and in a camp outside of town ten days more, then we went about 60 miles north of St. Nazaire to Napoleon's old artillery camp. Camp de Coetquidan, 30 miles south of the city of Rennes. We stayed there until Feb. 18th, getting horses and training with our French 75 guns on the range.
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