100 years ago in The Saratogian
Friday, Oct. 25, 1918. “The newspapers sure do crack us up,” writes an American soldier in France, “They only tell of the glory. Sherman is the only man that ever said anything about war that was true.”
The Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman reportedly said that “War is hell.” James W. Hennessey of the 37th Engineers of the American Expeditionary Force says something similar in a letter shared with Saratogian readers by his sister, Agnes Hennessey.
“During the day it is pleasant for we can see where we are and what we are doing but the nights are hard. I have not been to sleep until midnight in two weeks. I am located outside of a big city; that is I have a shop there, and sleep and eat there, but never know what minute I will be called out to ‘No Man’s Land.’
“Everything appears to be just as calm and safe as at home but when the battles is stirred up you would think they were moving H—-.” It’s unclear whether the editor or Hennessey himself censored the common term for the infernal region.
“The Boche [i.e. the Germans] says that God is with him and the Americans are with the French. I think that God is with both and the Boche will soon need his mercy,” Hennessey adds, “Well, I guess I will say good night before the air raids start and I have to crawl in a dug out for shelter.”
War, To Him, Like Big Game Hunting
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Salmon of Luzerne share a letter from their son, Corporal Clarence J. Salmon on Company E, 105th U.S. Infantry, who hadn’t written in a while.
“We just got back from the front line trenches,” Cpl. Salmon explains, “and I was kept very busy this time in, for we made things quite active for old Jerry [again, the Germans] and our reward is a nice rest where one doesn’t even hear the big guns roaring. That is some treat, believe me.
During a surprise mid-day attack, “I got so interested in hunting Jerries that I forgot to search some of them. Talk about hunting deer! It isn’t in with this game while it lasts, but I also find my past experience in hunting of great value, for the human is very much like the animal – only a little more cunning.”
Salmon claims to have captured two German soldiers ahead of the main advance. “I crawled upon them without their perceiving me … they were caught so much by surprise that they both threw up their hands and cried for mercy.”