Letters/information from or about: Private Paul Hay, Leo S. Ulm, Hugh Lowery, Jim Clifford, Walker Gardner, James Widner, Homer Harrison, Jack O’Connor, Jack Downs, Floyd Bailey & Arch Rogers

“Delphi Journal, Delphi, Indiana, Thursday, August 22, 1918, Pages 1, 2, 4, and Pages 8

CARROLL COUNTY, INDIANA BOYS WRITE OF CONDITIONS ON FIGHTING FRONT IN 1918

July 12, 1918

Private Paul Hay, 163 Aero Squadron, In Care N.S. Air Service, 35 Eaton Place, London, S.W.L.

Dear Sister and All:

Your letter of June 14th received yesterday and I was very glad to hear from you, as it had been about two weeks or better since I had a letter from the States. I thought that it must have been sunken on the way over. I also got a letter from Aunt Pearl and one from “Little Elda.” We seem to get our mail in bunches now more than it was before.

Well, I must say that I spent the quietest Fourth this year than ever I remember of having spent. I laid around camp all morning but I did get up ambition enough to walk into town in the afternoon. I went to the show in the evening and it was pretty good for a change. There were quite a number of celebrations around here. We had quite a time in one of the larger cities on the 10th; we went over in motor trucks and paraded the town. We were led by an English military band and some English officers. After the parade we were marched into an old town hall and the Lord Mayor of the town and the Arch Bishop of York and some generals talked to us, after that they furnished us with guides and showed us around the town. At 5:30 we assembled in the Museum Garden and had ‘tea.’ We stuck around there until 6:30 when we marched back to the trucks and came home. We got back in time for an entertainment given by the “Y.” It was pretty good although they had a couple of rotten numbers on it. I guess, I can‘t get the drift of these ‘deep’ English comedies and jokes.

Well, the weather has been rotten again for a change. It has rained about everyday this month with the exception of the Fourth. We have to wear our blouses nearly all the time because it is so cool without them. It is raining hard now and has been raining nearly all day.

We got some of the ‘monkey caps’ at last. They are not the regular issue, we could not get them so had to take the English caps. I look or at least feel like something that was sent for and couldn’t come. I like the old Campaign hat better than any of the other head dress. We are to keep the old hats to use when we ‘step out’ and for other occasions.

I haven’t heard anything about Jack O’Connor’s death but they might all die and we would never know it up here. Was sorry to hear that Bob had been sick. Well I expect that by the time you receive this letter that I shall have my first six months in Foreign Service. It will be up the 1st of August.

Tell Bill and Hall that I wish them the best of luck with their fishing and that I sure would like to be able to be with them. I believe that I could just enjoy one of our old trips down the river tonight but I don’t see any chance of it this year. Tell them to leave a few for seed so that all of us fellows will have chance when we do get back.

Well, Sis, as news seems scarce and this seems to be mostly about ‘me,’ I think that I shall close for this time. Hoping this will find you in the best of health and spirit, I am Your Loving Brother, PAUL HAY

P.S. Also tell Bert, Ariel, Flye and the rest I said “Hello.”

Sunday, July 14, 1918

Somewhere Along the Front

Dear Folks:

Will write a few lines to you before it gets dark I can’t see.

Lights are a thing of the past unless you want to be shot at. They come close enough without giving them a lighted target. It is going to rain very soon, is awful windy and the sky is very black. Real storms are very frequent, it rains for a few minutes and tops for an hour or two. I have a bunk made off the ground that is a few boards to lay on, so I guess I won’t get wet that way. Have a large piece of canvas over me, just like a house inside only different. If open air sleeping does one any good, we sure ought to keep in good shape. Have already seen the time when the ground felt like a feather bed. We have lots of company all the time. (Mr. and Mrs. Cootie and about a hundred children.) Oh, its great life. If the Boche don’t get you the cooties do so what are we going to do?

We hear the same stuff over here that you do at home, that the war will be over in September, but I couldn’t say, it seems to me it might and I sure hope so. Most of us have the idea that we will be home before Christmas. I hope so and I think it is possible but not probably.

I really expect you know as much about the war as I do, that is of what the papers put out because I don’t see many papers, when we do there is very little in them. The New York Herald and daily mail picked in parts and that only a couple of pages. Some of the boys have received letters from home saying they heard that BATTERY F was all shot up and some had legs shot off and all that, but there is no truth in it. Battery R has had only one casualty in France. Everybody is fine and enjoying themselves the best they know how. I feel fine and having a fair time.

We are still on front only a different one and of course don’t know what might happen here, but if we are as lucky here as we have been elsewhere we will sure get out without a scratch.

There is nothing I need now or I would send home for it. We heard here that you could send packages—if you can, you might send me something good to eat or smoke. See, maybe, will try and send an order one of these days before long, see.

Hope you are getting along fine and lots of big business.

One good thing about FRANCE is the road. I never saw such good roads in my life, just like cement pavement everywhere and lined with trees on both sides. We have been over most of France and I have failed to see a poor road yet. Anywhere you go in the country or town you see the same kinds of roads, they look more like boulevards.

I will tell you about seeing so many small villages from our hill, just to show you how France is populated in some parts. I went up on a hill or rather a small mountain, as it was and looked on all sides, and counted with my own eyes twenty-six small towns. That only happens in some places in France. We have been billeted in some fine villages and also some that were not so fine.

Well, I must close. It is getting dark and noisy as it does every night. Will write when possible and if you will send me the Journal by first class, I will be more obliged. Answer soon. With love to all, Your son, Leo

Address- Corporal LEO S. ULM, Battery F, 150 F.A., 715, A.P.O. A.E. F.

Hugh Lowery has written the following letter to his cousin Carl, of near Forrest

July 25, 1918

Dear Carl, Your letter of July 7 came today and I was glad to hear from you. That news of me having a fall and getting hurt and killing the man with me, was all a mistake. I had a forced landing with a dead motor, about sixty miles from home (or camp), it broke my machine, but I wasn’t hurt. I had to put a wing in the ground going about ninety miles per hour to keep from hitting a stone wall. I haven’t got hurt yet, but we take chances similar to these every day. I am glad you have good crops for that is one thing we need. We are winning and will win. I expect the home papers are talking lots about our new gains. We are gaining, but we have a hard fight ahead of us, but by this time next year, we can begin to see an end, I think. I am in charge of a certain part of the training here, and it keeps me busy. I think I will get up to the front in a few months. Give all my best regards. As Ever, HUGH LOWERY

Camp Eustis, Virginia, August 10, 1918

Editors, Delphi Journal

Dear Friends,

My thoughts could not help but drift back along the Wabash today, for I can picture in my mind all that will happen on this day in my own home town. “Old Settlers” day in Delphi, my how anxious I used to be for that day to come, if for nothing else just to get a dozen more hamburgers from Grandpa’s stand who used to cook them in a different way so it seemed to me and don’t forget lots of onions either, the girls all like the onion breath! Ha! Ha! But no doubt you will miss a lot of us this time, although our hearts are right there and we will all try and be with you next year and make it the biggest day Delphi ever had, and the Hun shall not prevent us either for what we are going to do to them before that time, will be a plenty.

Wonder why I didn’t receive your paper for a while but I see that the Government don’t allow it to be send free any longer. I want to thank you again for those you did send. Nearly four hundred of us left Ft Moultrie the 18th of July to come to this camp and boys gave us a hearty welcome at the engineers dock before we left. Our trip was full of excitement as we marched through the streets of Charleston singing and whistling everybody came to see us. One fellow wrote in large letters on all the cars, “From Charleston to Berlin, no Slackers allowed,” which brought applause from all bystanders. Red Cross women were as liberal as ever with cigarettes, candy, and hot coffee. We arrived here in a downpour of rain but little things like this never stop the detail of the Army. We stood in it for almost fifteen minutes while the Major called our names and assigned us to our respective barracks.

The mud was only over our shoes so we all got busy and made boardwalks that night. They are building the camp and it sure will be a dandy, when completed, the largest of the kind in the U.S. There is close to 45,000 soldiers here already and soon they expect to have 75,000, so there are soldiers from every branch of service. I believe except the Infantry and their camp is between here and “New Port News.” Regiments are shipped here for overseas service, our Regiment was just filled up yesterday from a bunch that came in from New Hampshire, 1600 boys came in Friday and Saturday, hardly two days pass and a couple of train loads come here. The balloon school is about a mile north of the barracks and the aviation school is about two miles east so we get plenty of excitement in the air. One fellow turned over in his machine, they sure got a lot of nerve. I just wonder what chance a Hun would have with him. We got paid today so you know how good we feel, this is one happy day for a soldier because $23.30 sometimes don’t last a full month, not if you remember me at Gay’s Park, August 23rd last summer…Ha Ha…that sure was some two days outing, how I wish my furlough would happen my y way along about that time. The sun has been playing havoc down here and last week, especially Tuesday and Wednesday, it looked for a while that our regiment wouldn’t be able to go across as 140 boys was overcome by the heat Tuesday and several more on Wednesday. The ambulance was kept busy all day bringing them to the hospital. Wednesday the Colonel called off all drills, so we went out in the woods along the St. John’s River, took our shirts off and stayed there all day. The K.P’s brought our meals to us. It was only 116 in the shade and I guess no one knew what it was in the sun, for they were afraid to go out and see.

It is rumored that we will leave here by next Tuesday or Wednesday, some say we to France and others say to Camp Meade, Maryland, but we don’t know where we are going but on our way. The captain asked who wants to go to France, well you ought to have heard the fellows yell, “Take Me,” now. Received a card from brother, Tom, of his safe arrival in England which makes me feel good, for we all know just what chance the Huns will have after the Americans get there. The cooks are telling me to ring off, so guess I will have to close for this time and will try and write all of you again. Good bye, Your Truly, JIM CLIFFORD, Camp Eustis, Virginia, Battery E, 49th Regiment, C.A.C.

Walker Gardner Wounded In Leg Fighting In France

Somewhere in France, July 30, 1918

Dear Mother and All:

Just a line or two to let you know that I am in the hospital. I was wounded in the big drive that took place July 15. I went all through it up till July 22 and had gone across the Marne River and come back to get some telephone wire and they got me. I was wounded in the leg and had to be operated on and I am getting along splendidly. I expect it will be some time before I will be able to go back to duty again. Now don’t worry. How are my dear little ones/ Kiss them a hundred times for me. I wish they were where I could be with them. I hope this will be the finish of the war, mother, you don’t know what war is till you once get in it and the Americans fight until they die. Now I can’t write much. I am in bed and don’t expect I will get out for six weeks at least and all of you write and kiss the children for me. I pray for them every night. Your Loving Son, WALKER GARDNER

Tag No 24492, Co C, Fld 11, Signal Corps, P.O. Unit 36, Hospital D, A.E.F. France

Somewhere in France, July 18, 1918

Dear Mother and All:

Received your kind and loving letter of June 12, and was glad to hear from you and that you are all well. I am in the best of health and never felt better in all my life. How is little Jessie? Bet he is a big boy by this time? We are on a move active front than we was a while back and you can bet it keeps us busy getting around but I have heard them shells bursting around me and shrapnel flying in so many directions that it don’t bother me much. There is only one thing that gets me a little excited and that is the gas but as soon as we hear them gas horns we are up and bringing our gas masks to gas alert, which is bringing the mask around in front of you and tying it on our breast where we can get it handy. I saw the paper where old Company C had started over here and you bet I was glad I was over here and got the training we got. Some of the boys back home might think we are having a picnic over here but they are fooled. I have taken part in one of the biggest offensives that has come of over here.

Don’t think I am downhearted because I am not and after a fellow gets used to it, why it is just like going to some big show or going to a big wreck of some kind.

Well, Mother, I am glad you got them Insurance Papers, I received my allotment of the Third of July and hope you will hear from it soon. I am sending you some of my pictures while I was at wash and you can bet I had a hard time getting even them. Well dear mother, and all, I cannot think of much but will write every day or so.

Will say good bye. From your Soldier Boy, JAMES WIDNER, Battery F, 150 F.A., A.P.O. 715 France

Dear Mother and Sister,

Received your letters of May 9th and 11th about the same time, had looked for them for a long time. I wrote you a letter the last night I was on the boat and have been wondering if you got it for some of the other fellows wrote the same times and their letters were returned to them, they did not pass the censor. I don’t know if mine did or not. It never came back anyway. I would have written sooner but had nothing to write on and it is almost impossible to get anything over here.

We have been on the move most of the time, since we arrived in this country. I have been over quite a strip of France and have seen some beautiful scenery. Some of the country is very hilly and some of it is very level but they farm almost all of it. They raise wheat, oats, rye, and clover. Some of the best clover I have ever seen…the wheat and rye is good also.

The farm buildings are built of stone and brick with the house and barn altogether, and built in a square with the barn lot in the center. They raise lots of stock except hogs.

It looks funny to see them working. They use a car instead of a wagon but it is heavier than our farm wagons and they work from one to four horses to a cart. They are real horses. Some of the cattle here would make the cattle in the States look like calves. The people work form early until late, about fourteen hours. They have some U.S. tools, binders and mowers…Hushing and McCormick and another make but I forget what it is.

Their plows and harvesters are old looking things, the plows have two mole boards. I can hardly explain it but anyway they plow across a field, then turn the plow upside down and plow back on the same side of the land. None of their tools have seats…everyone walks.

We have home time trying to make the people understand us, once in a while we meet one who can understand English, but we have just as hard a time trying to understand the French language.

This is a much different climate from ours. At night it gets cool, sometimes cold enough for an overcoat and in the daytime it warms up and gets pretty hot, sometimes it doesn’t get dark until 9:30 or 10:00 o’clock.

Have people started threshing yet? I can hardly realize it is that time. The time goes so fast over here, and so is Fritz, just now. From what the paper says, I guess there has been some celebrations in honor of the boys that are at the front, and they deserve it.

They have certainly showed Fritz a few things that he didn’t know. I believe he is about to his limit. It has been reported that German machine guns have been captured with women operators, you can hear anything here but I am inclined to believe our work over here is about done.

Are they having hand concerts in this summer? Where are all the fellows from home, do you know? Tell all the fellows to write, they can write better than I can and I would like to hear from them.

You must excuse this writing, as we are not accommodated with writing desks and chairs. I generally sit on the ground and write on the bottom of my mess kit.

Well this is about all I can write this a.m. and have had to write this in a hurry as we are waiting orders to move.

Give my best regards to everyone. Hoping you are enjoying the best of health, I am

Your loving son and brother, HOMER HARRISON, Company E, 112 Infantry, American Expedition Force

From page 4: JACK O’CONNOR, JACK DOWNS AND FLOYD BAILEY Write

France, July 24, 1918

Dear Mother and Dad: Well, I see that I was reported dead in Delphi. I must have given you a scare and was really too bad, but those things will happen in war. I assure I am worth quite a few dead men yet.

But I have lost my friend, ARCH ROGERS…he has made the final trip “beyond” and I can hardly realize it yet. It is my duty to write to his family and I hate to. We promised each other to do it long ago. Lieutenant Spouse, my first officer in Canada and my officer on the way over also got killed the next day. He made the remark that it was his wife’s birthday and that he guessed he would go and write her a message of congratulation. He had gone just about a hundred yards when a big one came along and burst directly at his feet. Blew him to pieces. Funny how it comes, isn’t it? If that idea had not occurred to him, he never would have been in the path of that shell.

Suppose you are proud of the American troops over there. We are. And we have been watching this last advance and pulling for them. I hope to God that it is the beginning of the final break. Of course you cannot see it, but men are bearing pretty heavy ____ over here.

My name is posted as one of the next to receive leave to Paris and believe me, I will welcome the chance and rest. The prospect of a sleep in a bed is very pleasant when you have not been in one for over a year. Expect to be able to talk to MacAfee by telephone if I get there alright and of course I will take every step to see anyone from home who might happen to be there.

Yes, I received the medallion you sent all right. I thought I had acknowledged it.

We came out of the line last night and are a bit mystified as to where we are going. We are resting today and we need it. We were in a bit of rough spot. I was working a party on a machine gun emplacement and a German outpost was plainly in view of it. You can imagine that it was a case of heads down during daylight.

Good bye now for this time. Hope you get no more false reports, nor any real ones either. My love to all the Folks. Your loving son, John,

Fort Amador, August 4, 1918

Dear Friend Journal

One morning about three o’clock in the month of July, we left Ft. Hamilton for the Canal Zone and after a long and tiresome journey of eighteen days, we arrived at the Canal Zone.

Out of the number of soldiers that came to the Canal Zone were three CARROLL COUNTY BOYS: Harry Haslet, Floyd Bailey and myself, Jack Downs), but the troops being divided into three different divisions, there were only two of us left to stay together as Harry was transferred to a different Fort. We arrived at Ft. Amador Tuesday, July 23rd and have been under quarantine ever since on account of measles and mumps and we are expecting to be under for quite a while as there is another case breaks out about every day.

On account of being in quarantine we are located at the present time in tents, but as soon as we get out of quarantine and assigned to our company, we have large concrete barracks to stay in.

We find that Amador is a very pretty place and has very beautiful buildings in it, but we do not like it as well as we did New York, but expect we will like it better after we get out of quarantine.

This is our twelfth day here and it has rained every day and it sure is pouring down now. The storms here are not like those in Indiana as it rains so much harder here and do not have many electrical storms.

There is all kinds of fruit growing down here and have a large banana grove not more than fifty yards from our tents. The fruit here tastes so much better than it does in the states, but have to be careful and not eat too much on account of fever.

Yesterday our Lieutenant took us for a hike about three miles to the Pacific Coast for a swim, we have now been bathing in both great oceans. After getting back from the hike we were wringing wet with sweat and declared this is no place for white people.

Well, Bert we would sure like to have you down here as it is baseball season here the year round for we used to have some hot games in the Sunday School League together.

Will close hoping to receive the Journal and hear from you and to be back in Carroll County soon.

JACK DOWNS and FLOYD BAILEY, Fort Amador, Unassigned Canal Zone

Dialogue about the War and War Related on Page 2

WAR HINTS—WAR HELPS—WAR DUTIES

The food administrator has lifted the ban on macaroni, spaghetti, noodles and vermicelli. He says ‘the situations in regard to wheat has eased up.” And he grabs the first chance to show his friendship for the Italians.

U.S. Food clubs have been started in 88 of the 92 counties in Indiana. Their purpose is to secure cooperation between Hoosier citizens and Uncle Sam in safeguarding our food supplies so that we may help generously our friends in Europe.

Hereafter boys of age 15 who weigh 115 pounds or more will have a chance to get into the Working Reserve. THE members are to have a distinctive uniform and organize into companies for military drill during the winter.

Acting on advice for Washington, the Committee on Food Production will go out for an increase of 17 per cent in the wheat acreage of Indiana in 1919.

The Red Cross is still asking for graduate nurses over 21 years old to enter active service immediately. The sisters of soldiers and sailors are now permitted to enroll. The pay has increased from $75 a month for overseas duty and $60 a month in hospitals at American Camps and cantonments. The government provides the nurses with War Risk Insurance.

War gardeners should save the seeds from the extra good vegetables. Purdue will send you a bulletin on how to store vegetables by the ground pit method.

If you have walnut trees 12 inches or more in diameter, write to Captain R.L. Oakley, production division, small arms section, Ordinance Department, 6th and B Streets, Washington. He will tell you where you can sell your walnut for a fair price. Walnut is needed for airplane propellers and gun stocks.

The following paragraph is from Poultney Bigelow’s “History of the German Struggle for Liberty,” and deals with the Prussian defeat at Jean in 1806.

“The most military state of Europe suddenly discovered that in the day of trial soldiers alone, even when led by officers of ‘noble blood,’ are a poor substitute for liberty-loving citizens capable of rapid organization.”