TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SHARP COUNTY RECORD APRIL 11, 1919 P. 5
Editor Record –
I am writing a few lines to your paper, to take the place of a few personal letters I ought to have written and, in fact, to give all my friends a few lines.
I have just returned from France and you can be assured that I am very proud of it. I guess you have had several letters from the boys over there, and, too, perhaps from boys who have been “over the top” a few times.
I shall write just the same as I feel, and I feel like I have been over the bottom.
I left New York for France October 28th, 1918, and landed at Brest, France, November 9th. Our trip over was very satisfactory, excepting about 18 hours that was awfully stormy. The number of transports that were along was nine, I think, besides we were escorted by several submarines and later by aeroplanes.
I was over a good deal of France, but was never to see the horrors of war. I was separated from my company in about two weeks after I landed in France, and was assigned over to the 30th division. I was at this time in a place called LeMons, about 250 miles east of Brest, as I was sent from there to a little town called LaGuirchea as a part of the 30th division was located there. On being directed to my sleeping quarters I discovered it to be an old barn, and a sorry one at that. My bunk was flat on the ground, and there were no lights, only candlesticks and you had to furnish them if you had any lights. There was no place to wash and nothing to wash out of, and I don’t guess I had had a wash in ten days then. There was no place to warm, in fact, there was “no nothing.” Of course it seemed hard for a while, although, we soon got used to such things. We stayed there in the barns about three months. We used our steel helmets for wash pans.
Finally we got ahold of a big wash-kettle and knocked some holes in the bottom and made a kind of stove, but getting something to burn was the next question. French people do not have very much wood or fire. Their wood is brush tied up in bundles, looking more like a bundle of corn tops than anything I could mention. The wood lasts just about as long as cornstalks when placed on the fire, but they never burn a whole bundle at a time. We would buy this brush at 25¢ per bundle, and it was hard to get at that. You dare not pick up and burn brush that might be scattered about the place without paying the price.
I saw one hog killing while in France, and only one hog was killed, though it was a big one and must have weighed about 450 or 500 pounds. It took two men, two boys and three women two days to get this meat put up for the keeping. They took knives and cut all this meat into giblets and put it away some way.
They still wear wooden shoes in France. That may be one reason why wood is so scarce, because it takes a piece of timber about 18 inches long, 6 x 6, to make a grown person a shoe. They hardly ever wear hose, usually having an armful of straw placed in the shoe. I must not be too hard on the French, although I have not related any false statements.
A few words about our traveling in France and then I am going to close. All the traveling we did was in box cars and they would crowd us in just about like we would load a car of hogs or cattle to ship to the market. On each car was stated the capacity of Hommes or Chevaux, meaning the car had a capacity of so many soldiers or horses. Usually, cars held 40 hommes or 8 chevaux.
I remember one trip of a day and two nights from Brest to LeMons. They gave us one can of pork and beans to eat on the trip and no bread at all, and that was all we had. The folks at home will laugh at this for they know how I despise pork and beans, but I ate them for breakfast that morning and they were delicious. After while the train stopped. I jumped off and ran out to a little Frenchman’s restaurant, and happening to have a double handful of French pennies I piled them all out on the counter and pointed toward a loaf of bread and some bologna. Guess how much I got. A piece of bologna about the size of a dollar and about twice as thick, and a piece of bread, 4 inches square and an inch thick.
I hope to be home soon, where I’ll not have to stand at attention, parade rest, present arms, about face, right face, etc. I have served the best I could, but it was a hard lot sometimes, and I will be glad to get back home with my good wife and baby and all the folks.
Grover Sanders
Camp Jackson, S. C.
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY SHANNON SOUTHARD
Editor Record –
I am writing a few lines to your paper, to take the place of a few personal letters I ought to have written and, in fact, to give all my friends a few lines.
I have just returned from France and you can be assured that I am very proud of it. I guess you have had several letters from the boys over there, and, too, perhaps from boys who have been “over the top” a few times.
I shall write just the same as I feel, and I feel like I have been over the bottom.
I left New York for France October 28th, 1918, and landed at Brest, France, November 9th. Our trip over was very satisfactory, excepting about 18 hours that was awfully stormy. The number of transports that were along was nine, I think, besides we were escorted by several submarines and later by aeroplanes.
I was over a good deal of France, but was never to see the horrors of war. I was separated from my company in about two weeks after I landed in France, and was assigned over to the 30th division. I was at this time in a place called LeMons, about 250 miles east of Brest, as I was sent from there to a little town called LaGuirchea as a part of the 30th division was located there. On being directed to my sleeping quarters I discovered it to be an old barn, and a sorry one at that. My bunk was flat on the ground, and there were no lights, only candlesticks and you had to furnish them if you had any lights. There was no place to wash and nothing to wash out of, and I don’t guess I had had a wash in ten days then. There was no place to warm, in fact, there was “no nothing.” Of course it seemed hard for a while, although, we soon got used to such things. We stayed there in the barns about three months. We used our steel helmets for wash pans.
Finally we got ahold of a big wash-kettle and knocked some holes in the bottom and made a kind of stove, but getting something to burn was the next question. French people do not have very much wood or fire. Their wood is brush tied up in bundles, looking more like a bundle of corn tops than anything I could mention. The wood lasts just about as long as cornstalks when placed on the fire, but they never burn a whole bundle at a time. We would buy this brush at 25¢ per bundle, and it was hard to get at that. You dare not pick up and burn brush that might be scattered about the place without paying the price.
I saw one hog killing while in France, and only one hog was killed, though it was a big one and must have weighed about 450 or 500 pounds. It took two men, two boys and three women two days to get this meat put up for the keeping. They took knives and cut all this meat into giblets and put it away some way.
They still wear wooden shoes in France. That may be one reason why wood is so scarce, because it takes a piece of timber about 18 inches long, 6 x 6, to make a grown person a shoe. They hardly ever wear hose, usually having an armful of straw placed in the shoe. I must not be too hard on the French, although I have not related any false statements.
A few words about our traveling in France and then I am going to close. All the traveling we did was in box cars and they would crowd us in just about like we would load a car of hogs or cattle to ship to the market. On each car was stated the capacity of Hommes or Chevaux, meaning the car had a capacity of so many soldiers or horses. Usually, cars held 40 hommes or 8 chevaux.
I remember one trip of a day and two nights from Brest to LeMons. They gave us one can of pork and beans to eat on the trip and no bread at all, and that was all we had. The folks at home will laugh at this for they know how I despise pork and beans, but I ate them for breakfast that morning and they were delicious. After while the train stopped. I jumped off and ran out to a little Frenchman’s restaurant, and happening to have a double handful of French pennies I piled them all out on the counter and pointed toward a loaf of bread and some bologna. Guess how much I got. A piece of bologna about the size of a dollar and about twice as thick, and a piece of bread, 4 inches square and an inch thick.
I hope to be home soon, where I’ll not have to stand at attention, parade rest, present arms, about face, right face, etc. I have served the best I could, but it was a hard lot sometimes, and I will be glad to get back home with my good wife and baby and all the folks.
Grover Sanders
Camp Jackson, S. C.
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY SHANNON SOUTHARD