rom
dear ones 9,000 miles away right in the midst of it all. Is it any
wonder that on such occasions we frequently gave way to our emotions?

The letters that I received were enjoyed not only by me, but by my
companion, McKinley Johnston, as well, as he knew all of my people and
was as familiar as I was with the things that they wrote about. It is
a peculiar circumstance, but it is a fact, nevertheless, that all of
the boys, even those who did not know my folks and who came from other
States than California, were interested in these letters. They were
news from home and that is what all the boys were craving. They wanted
to read anything that came from America. So, after reading the
letters, I passed them all around and every boy in the camp read them.
After getting the letters back, I read them over several times.
Several of them contained photographs of familiar scenes and faces,
and it seemed good to look upon them again, for no one knew but that
it might be the last time we would see them. I thought it would be a
nice thing to sit right down and write, after reading these letters,
but when I attempted it, I was so overcome with emotion caused by
thoughts of those who were near and dear to me, that I was unable to
give expression to my thoughts.

The position of the American troops at this time was not favorable.
The enemy held the commanding ground, and was concealed in woods,
while our troops were out in the open. The Boche could see what we
were doing while we were unable to detect his moves. This
disadvantage, you might well know, would not long be tolerated by
Americans. We wanted the commanding ground and we wanted to put Fritz
in the open. So on Monday, September 23rd, we gave Fritz a three-hour
barrage and it was a hot one. By the time the barrage started, all our
light artillery had been brought up and put in place, and we were able
to rain shells from the famous 75's upon the enemy in torrents. This
barrage was for the purpose of breaking up the morale of the Germans.
We were counter-barraged by the Huns, and for a time they made it hot
for us. But our superiority began to show after about an hour's
firing. The men in the Flash Division worked hard to give our gunners
the correct location of the German batteries. We worked hard and fast
and the accuracy of our effort was shown by the silencing of the
German guns. One by one they ceased firing, as the American artillery,
with the data we supplied them, dro