TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ASHLEY COUNTY EAGLE MARCH 27, 1919 P. 1
“I will mention a few things which we have gone through without complaint. First, we lived in the trenches for six weeks, which had been used for three years without being cleaned, with only shot and shells to entertain us, with the exception of our friends, the rats and cooties. At the end of our first stay on the front we hiked back to a quiet sector and spent a few days, where we fought a hard battle against the lice, and to my sorrow I am compelled to say we never reached our object. Then we begun to live a real soldier’s life in France. Don’t many of the people in Hamburg know what it is to eat cold bully and hard tack, but if you could spend a month in France you would soon find out. We started from our rest camp to a more active sector, hiking day an night through rain and mud, with very little sleep, and when we did sleep our bed was the ground with only two blankets and a small shelter to half protect us from the sleet, rain or snow, whichever it might happen to be. After five days of hard hiking we reached our destination. Verdun, where we spent some time in trenches and dugout around Dead Man’s Hill, where you could see almost any kind of a sight you can imagine: and at last the time came when we “went over the top.” Of course that don’t sound very big to a man six thousands miles away from a firing line. Friend and foe fell around us until at last the eleventh of November came and all was over. I will never forget how quiet everything seemed that night. But on the field where for four years had been a continual battle, we spent the next two days in burying the dead, eating and sleeping. I would like to describe the next ten days, but November 23 found us one hundred and seventy miles south of Verdun and we hiked it very step with full pack, a soldier’s equipment which weighs seventy pounds. I am glad to say we are billeted better at this time than we have been since we landed over sea. We have at last reached our object in the campaign against the cooties. Hoping to be in old Hamburg some time soon wering the little gold service stripe. I send my best wishes to all my friends.”
Clarence Gardner
Co. H. 121 Inf. 81 Div.
NOTES: Appears to be a partial letter. Clarence Gardner writes to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Gardner of Hamburg. He was one of the first Hamburg men to reach France. Letter dated February 18. Gardener was born on November 19, 1892 and died on September 16, 1921. He is buried in the Hamburg Cemetery in Hamburg, Arkansas. His military head stone states that he was a Mech. In the 321st Infantry of the 81st Division. The letter shows 121st. Infantry.
TRANSCRIBED BY AUSTIN MALONE
“I will mention a few things which we have gone through without complaint. First, we lived in the trenches for six weeks, which had been used for three years without being cleaned, with only shot and shells to entertain us, with the exception of our friends, the rats and cooties. At the end of our first stay on the front we hiked back to a quiet sector and spent a few days, where we fought a hard battle against the lice, and to my sorrow I am compelled to say we never reached our object. Then we begun to live a real soldier’s life in France. Don’t many of the people in Hamburg know what it is to eat cold bully and hard tack, but if you could spend a month in France you would soon find out. We started from our rest camp to a more active sector, hiking day an night through rain and mud, with very little sleep, and when we did sleep our bed was the ground with only two blankets and a small shelter to half protect us from the sleet, rain or snow, whichever it might happen to be. After five days of hard hiking we reached our destination. Verdun, where we spent some time in trenches and dugout around Dead Man’s Hill, where you could see almost any kind of a sight you can imagine: and at last the time came when we “went over the top.” Of course that don’t sound very big to a man six thousands miles away from a firing line. Friend and foe fell around us until at last the eleventh of November came and all was over. I will never forget how quiet everything seemed that night. But on the field where for four years had been a continual battle, we spent the next two days in burying the dead, eating and sleeping. I would like to describe the next ten days, but November 23 found us one hundred and seventy miles south of Verdun and we hiked it very step with full pack, a soldier’s equipment which weighs seventy pounds. I am glad to say we are billeted better at this time than we have been since we landed over sea. We have at last reached our object in the campaign against the cooties. Hoping to be in old Hamburg some time soon wering the little gold service stripe. I send my best wishes to all my friends.”
Clarence Gardner
Co. H. 121 Inf. 81 Div.
NOTES: Appears to be a partial letter. Clarence Gardner writes to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Gardner of Hamburg. He was one of the first Hamburg men to reach France. Letter dated February 18. Gardener was born on November 19, 1892 and died on September 16, 1921. He is buried in the Hamburg Cemetery in Hamburg, Arkansas. His military head stone states that he was a Mech. In the 321st Infantry of the 81st Division. The letter shows 121st. Infantry.
TRANSCRIBED BY AUSTIN MALONE