TRANSCRIBED FROM THE NEWPORT DAILY INDEPENDENT JANUARY 27, 1919 P. 2
December 6th
Issey, France,
Dear Independent Readers:
I haven't seen any letters from "Bonny" France to the Independent, so I thought I would write myself, and I hope it will be of interest to my friends in the county any way. The people over here are so different to those of the old U.S.A., in that they appear ignorant to me, any of them hardly knowing the armistice has been signed. But at that they certainly did their part and are a glorious people.
It is hard to realize what has taken place over here in the last four years. I have seen quite a lot of the battle field. I spent 45 days on the Verges Mountains in the Alsace Lorraine, but it was very quiet there. I went to the railroad station, got in a box car, rode all night, then hiked three days with a light weight pack of fifty pounds, it raining most all the time. The next battleground was the Metz front about eight miles from Nancy, where I remained six days in a puppy tent, but they didn't need us and we were returned. Then we made one hundred miles under cover of night to the Verdun front and there the Yanks gave the Huns all they could stand for six days without relief. One can't imagine how terribly the conflict was unless they have gone through it or have been near enough to have heard it. After the barrage we just walked through the Boche.
I am in Northeast France and do not have any farm houses here on the little patches they call farms, which is about as big as "pa's spud patch behind the barn." There are no wooden buildings here, only what the Yanks came over and built. The houses are of stone and concrete with red clay roofs. The barn is under the house, with living rooms upstairs and the manure from the stable is stacked out on the sidewalk, and later put on the "farm." The farmers and lower class wear wooden shoes and drink red wine with every meal. They are all Catholic, but we will have to hand it to them for good churches. Every village has a church. The one I saw at Alsace was built in 1496.
There are three of us from Swifton who are here in 130, M.G.B.U., who are _______Best, A. D. Smith and myself. Will close and write more in the future.
William Kendrick,
Company D, D. M.G. B.N., 35 Division A.E.F.
NOTES: William Harrison Kendrick was born in Jackson, Tennessee on January 9, 1886 and died in Swifton, Arkansas on December 30, 1933. He is buried in the Swifton Cemetery. He departed New York, NY on March 5, 1918 onboard the Carpathia. He was serving as a cook in Co. D 130th MGB 35th Division. He departed St. Nazaire, France on April 14, 1919 onboard the Antigone. He arrived in Newport News, Virginia on April 27, 1919. He was serving as a Private in Co. D 130th MGB.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
December 6th
Issey, France,
Dear Independent Readers:
I haven't seen any letters from "Bonny" France to the Independent, so I thought I would write myself, and I hope it will be of interest to my friends in the county any way. The people over here are so different to those of the old U.S.A., in that they appear ignorant to me, any of them hardly knowing the armistice has been signed. But at that they certainly did their part and are a glorious people.
It is hard to realize what has taken place over here in the last four years. I have seen quite a lot of the battle field. I spent 45 days on the Verges Mountains in the Alsace Lorraine, but it was very quiet there. I went to the railroad station, got in a box car, rode all night, then hiked three days with a light weight pack of fifty pounds, it raining most all the time. The next battleground was the Metz front about eight miles from Nancy, where I remained six days in a puppy tent, but they didn't need us and we were returned. Then we made one hundred miles under cover of night to the Verdun front and there the Yanks gave the Huns all they could stand for six days without relief. One can't imagine how terribly the conflict was unless they have gone through it or have been near enough to have heard it. After the barrage we just walked through the Boche.
I am in Northeast France and do not have any farm houses here on the little patches they call farms, which is about as big as "pa's spud patch behind the barn." There are no wooden buildings here, only what the Yanks came over and built. The houses are of stone and concrete with red clay roofs. The barn is under the house, with living rooms upstairs and the manure from the stable is stacked out on the sidewalk, and later put on the "farm." The farmers and lower class wear wooden shoes and drink red wine with every meal. They are all Catholic, but we will have to hand it to them for good churches. Every village has a church. The one I saw at Alsace was built in 1496.
There are three of us from Swifton who are here in 130, M.G.B.U., who are _______Best, A. D. Smith and myself. Will close and write more in the future.
William Kendrick,
Company D, D. M.G. B.N., 35 Division A.E.F.
NOTES: William Harrison Kendrick was born in Jackson, Tennessee on January 9, 1886 and died in Swifton, Arkansas on December 30, 1933. He is buried in the Swifton Cemetery. He departed New York, NY on March 5, 1918 onboard the Carpathia. He was serving as a cook in Co. D 130th MGB 35th Division. He departed St. Nazaire, France on April 14, 1919 onboard the Antigone. He arrived in Newport News, Virginia on April 27, 1919. He was serving as a Private in Co. D 130th MGB.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD