Warren Lee Goss

“ But every man knew his place in line and had his equipments ready at hand.
We silently crossed the river without opposition, and were in the northern half of the city which for six weeks had been in the hands of the invaders. Daylight revealed columns of French and American troops marching through its ruined streets. The men were jubilant with expectation. On their faces shone the light of youthful enthusiasm. The sharp report of rifles and the rat, tat, tat of machine-guns, mingled with the roar of artillery, assailed our ears. ”

“ Our big war birds, moving in spirals, flew up to meet them and, if possible, put them to flight. We could see, high in air, little puffs of smoke of gun fire; sometimes hear the chatter of machine-guns, and even the buzz of their propellers and sharp report of rifles, which showed that they were “out a-gunning.”
Sweeping around in curved lines, circling upward, darting downward, the combating planes fought with daring temerity, a wonderful battle in the air. We saw one plane, struck by a bomb, fall fluttering downward a thousand feet, right itself, and escape over the lines. ”

“ The roads were filled with all kinds of soldiers—doughboys and more doughboys, poilus in all sorts of uniforms, and then some more; horses prancing and snorting, mules heehawing and kicking, officers shouting sulphurous orders, guns and caissons, trucks and baggage wagons, all floundering along in the rain and mud, like dark rivers of humanity. On they came over crooked country roads that twisted around hills and plunged down into valleys, cut up and stirred up in muddy batter by heavy teams that had preceded us: a medley and jam of horses, mules, teams, guns and men! ”

“ We saw many sad faces and heard many sad stories from the brave daughters of France, mothers of heroes then contending with the German hordes. But their faces brightened at the sight of our flag. They recognized it as the emblem of freedom, and those who bore it as faithful allies and friends. Matrons, young women, girls, and children thronged around us at every halting place. Some offered us food, others wreaths and bouquets, and all greeted us with glad smiles and cheers of welcome. ”

“ Later we found peasants laboring to raise crops on land not over a mile from the trenches where battles raged.
And all through our march through ruined France were white-aproned women sitting in ruined doorways, or in huts of corrugated sheet iron sewing and knitting for their children, or for their absent loved ones fighting for “beautiful France.” Though their part of it was blighted by the invader, they were clinging to their ruined homes with a tenacity of faith in their armies almost beyond belief. The love of home and country was stronger in their hearts than the fear of death. ”

“ While my wound was given proper attention, it was pleasant to feel that, for once, in a hospital, I was something more than a “case.”
Emily’s face beamed with pleasure as with smiles and blushes she greeted me. She was not so wordy in her expressions of welcome as was Miss Rich; but somehow I liked Emily’s way best.
Dr. Rich had common sense; he did not prescribe any special diet, but when I hinted that a liberal one suited me best, said: “Eat what best agrees with you. A patient ought to know what agrees with him better than a doctor.” ”

“ Then broken French troops appeared, slowly and doggedly falling back.
The German lines sweeping onward, we open on the mass with our light guns, machine-guns and rifles. Our gun fire, increasing in intensity and deadly effect, did not halt them. On they came, their green-gray uniforms blending with the smoke and mists. All our weapons sharply spoke, but still the foggy columns advanced their heavy guns from the rear scarring and pitting the ground on our front. Explosions threatened our annihilation, while lurid flames sprang [109] up on all sides. ”

“ Then we passed in review with our wagon trains, cannon, and machine guns, the people cheering in their way, and showering us with wreaths and flowers.
Even our mules, because they were American, came in for a share of attention. One fractious animal, that on account of bad conduct had been taken from a baggage wagon, drew attention by standing on his front feet and waving his hind legs and tail in the upper air, as though trying to make holes in the sky, and paint his displeasure with his tail. ”

“ Jot teased me by declaring that I did not even care to take my swims, without Miss Emily for company, for fear of giving several lieutenants who were hovering around, a chance.
“No,” I said, “I’ve learned that it is not fashionable to swim here; they tub.”
I confess that though I believe myself to be a sensible young man, my heart sank like a piece of lead to the bottom of the sea, when those young fellows bowed and cast languishing glances at her which she answered with a smile. Every rose has its thorn! ”

“ I noticed Chaplain John in line. You could always reckon on him to care for the wounded, though he carried no arms. The Boche doesn’t like cold steel and he breaks as we rush upon him with yells and gleaming bayonets. We had one thought and one purpose: we must beat and drive the enemy. We were but a small part of the advancing line that was in the attack. We were near enough to see shells from our guns explode on their front, and men, and fragments of men, hurled in the air, leaving gaps in their ranks. ”

“ A vivid imagination is sometimes an inconvenient possession for a soldier.
All at last was ready. Short ladders had been placed all along the parapet, and rude stairways made of stakes were prepared, so that the men could quickly go over the top of the trenches. An hour before the coming attack we were moved to the front trench while others filled the connecting trenches, ready to follow us over the top.
It was in the gray hours of morning,—about four o’clock I should judge,—while the guns were still belching over us, that the shrill whistle of command sounded for advance. ”

“ We have been privileged to see the last shreds of hatred left over from our Civil War burned away in a fervor of patriotism, that has sent the sons of the Gray shoulder to shoulder with the sons of the Blue to the defence of liberty on the fields of France and Belgium.
If the writer has made clear that the young manhood of America has the same spirit to-day as had their fathers, in our great conflict of the sixties, and as had the Nathan Hales of the Revolution, he will have satisfied his own aspirations. ”

“ To find any one in this big city was, as Sam said, “like looking for a collar button in a pasture.” It was more difficult to find a person in this great city of barracks perhaps, than in an ordinary city, because of the uniformity of its buildings and the sameness of its uniforms.
One day I had left Muddy in charge of the mess sergeant and had gone to the Y. M. C. A. to write to Uncle Jim and Aunt Joe, when the door opened, and Muddy, like a whirlwind of hair and tail, came yelping and jumping upon me. ”

“ At this time our army in northern France were holding a sector in the world’s great battle where our regiment, with other American and French forces, faced the German army at the peak of a German salient. At some points the American positions were maintained in the shell holes that pitted the battle ground; and I felt guilty at leaving my comrades when I felt myself fit for duty and there was fighting to be done. ”

“ The tendencies of a soldier’s life are to make him a fatalist. He gets to feeling and thinking that what is to be will happen, and that he has only to do his duty faithfully as his part in it. And he is confirmed in that belief by the everyday happenings of his adventurous life; so why borrow trouble about that which you can’t help?
This, though not often put in words by them, is a very common feeling—or I may call it belief—among soldiers who are constantly offering their lives to the hazards of battle. ”

“ We can not divide our love; one must either hate or love one’s country, and serve one flag, only. I have been tried in the furnace of war as few others have ever been. If I have erred in serving the country of my love, and to which I am devoted and owe allegiance with every fibre of my being, then I have erred honestly. ”

“ Before daybreak, the next morning, our regiment was moved to relieve troops that held an advanced post along the very verge of the river, when as we silently marched through the moon-lit, half-ruined city streets to take our places, I again exchanged silent salutations with Jot. He seemed, as I thought, more like himself—cheerful and smiling.
We held a line on the river near the bridge which I have mentioned, where a street ran down near the water’s edge from the bridge road just above us. Everything was silent. Not a German soldier could be seen, as moonlight gave place to daylight. ”

“ Still they came on, got possession of one small part of our entrenchment between two traverses, [70] and tried to drive our men down the trenches by enfilading them with machine-gun fire. But they were driven back again with losses in dead, wounded, and prisoners.
The dark clouds that had hung over the scene during the fight cleared. The sun came out and as it neared the horizon, like a great disk of blood, the dark smoke drifted away, revealing the scene in our front. There a score of mortally wounded and dead lay. ”

“ A trumpet sounded and the great French soldier came forward. He pinned the red ribbon of the Legion of Honor on the coat of a grizzled French captain—and then kissed him first on one cheek and then the other! Then came my turn: he made a little speech in French—which of course I did not understand—and [119] pinned the green and yellow ribbon of the Croix de Guerre upon my coat, and—shook hands! I felt relieved.
But I was proud of the honor and the handshake from so great a soldier, and wished that my mother had lived to know about it. Perhaps she did; who knows? ”

“ A cheerful, hopeful man like him, one who sees the bright side of every hardship, and who has a stock of good humor, and fun in him, puts a valuable addition of cheerfulness and life into a company of soldiers. This characteristic can neither be measured, nor weighed. It is called its morale. Napoleon said that an army with this imponderable quality, made up in part of hope, cheerfulness and confidence in itself and its commander, was worth, in actual service, three times as much as an army without it. ”

“ I soon found that a rumor of the same purport was all around camp. Like most youngsters, I was hungry for a change; so when the top sergeant ordered us to be ready to move within a few hours, I was glad at the prospect of the change to some other place. Yet I thought of submarines and other scarey unpleasant possibilities, that night, before I slept.
The order came at last—it was on Sunday—for an army has no days more sacred than duty. ”

“ My uniform emphasized my stalwart form, now filled out and straightened by military training. Though I was never considered a big man at home, I felt myself, by the side of the smaller French soldiers, somewhat of a giant.
I stood up and saluted the little sad-faced woman and the “poilu”, and heard, or rather saw that she had asked some question about me.
“What is it she is saying?” I inquired.
“She wants to know,” replied the poilu, “if I knew the blond giant in America. Our people don’t know what a big country America is. They think it mostly New York city. ”

“ After a battle, when the enemy has been successfully met, there comes a feeling of exaltation among its defenders. The French officers were generous in praise of us, while our captain said, “You made a good fight, and I am proud of every one of you.”
Colonel Burbank also was generous in his praise. “It is your baptism of fire as soldiers that you will never forget, and can remember with pride,” he stated. ”

“ I, however, liked the military drill and, as Sam declared, learned it as though it was something that I was made for. But there were many petty exactions, which looked to me, as it doubtless has to every other raw soldier since the beginning, needlessly fussy; and the drill sergeant was exasperating. But there is a difference in men. Some, when invested with brief authority, have always been bullies. ”

“ I turned to go out of the door, but was confronted by a blue-eyed Red Cross nurse and a burly attendant.
“Let me alone,” I protested, “I want to see how my friend, Lieutenant Nickerson, got out of the fight.”
The nurse pointed, as a reply, to a near-by cot where a still form lay. “What’s the matter!” I exclaimed, striding to the cot. “Who is it?”
I needed no answer, it was Jot.
“What’s the matter?” I again cried. “Is he dead?”
“No,” said the surgeon; “only stunned; concussion of the brain from a heavy blow. He will be all right with proper attention, after a while.” ”

“ Many a good man had gone down, or had been carried, or had limped to the rear with desperate wounds. It was late when we at last repulsed the enemy and they had faded away before our fire, blending with the smoke behind them.
Our men were exalted: their spirits rose high when they found that they had withstood the Hun in the open. Hoarse cheers ran down the line. “Shure,” said Pat Quinn, “Lieutenant dear; we bate the devils; but it was a toight squake.”
“Aw,” said Goodwin, “you’s can bet we’s give ’em a wallup. Say! our lieutenant is great stuff, an’ don’t you forget it! ”

“ Sutherland, who was something of a reader, declared that he had never before understood why it was that in “Tristam Shandy,” so much emphasis was put by Uncle Toby in his assertion that “The army swore terribly in Flanders;” but that the reason was now revealed: for it surely was the cooties, that caused this profanity!
No one can understand the discomforts of trench life when simply depicted in words. No one can describe a trench by word or picture; he can not introduce any one there by illustration, he must be there himself, or he can not understand its real discomforts. ”

“ In spite of all this by-play of growling and seeming grumpiness, the men were not dissatisfied at being face to face with their enemy, or at least in the trenches opposite them.
The opposing lines, meanwhile, were so silent that our men, peering cautiously through the “gun holes” as Sam called the spaces left between the sand bags piled on top in front, were curious to see the Boche, and could be hardly restrained from firing a shot to “stir them up.” This feeling also was seen in those of higher rank; for is it not natural for Americans to want to “see something doing”? ”

“ Though at first our work would be of minor importance, it was soon apparent that it was not to be that of holiday soldiers. We were to contend against an army of wonderful efficiency.
“Dem guys,” said our New York boy, “can fight, an’ don’t you forgit it. We’s got to give them a wallup, or take some.”
There was a general feeling that we must meet a supreme test. We had scarcely got into these trenches before there came a trial of endurance under fire. First a great flock of air craft, with inquisitive noses, came buzzing above us. ”

“ As soon as I got a chance from my duties, I started to see Jot. He had been discharged from the hospital, I had learned, but I had not seen him since he came back on duty. Passing the guard I stood before Lieutenant Nickerson and saluted as stiffly as possible, and waited until addressed by my superior officer. Jot returned the salute and, coming up to me, put his hands on my shoulder, saying, “No formalities, Davie, now that we are by ourselves. What is it that makes you look so confoundedly troubled? Have the rations given out, or what is the matter?” ”