Father Duffy's story : $b a tale of humor and heroism, of life and death with the Fighting Sixty-ninthDuffy, Francis Patrick
History
Father Duffy's story : $b a tale of humor and heroism, of life and death with the Fighting Sixty-ninth
Duffy, Francis Patrick
United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 165th; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
My principal occupation these days is visiting the hospitals, of
which there are three in Baccarat. The Spanish Influenza has hit the
Division and a large number of the men are sick. The fever itself
is not a terrible scourge, but when pneumonia follows it, it is of
a particularly virulent type. Our deaths, however, have been few:
John F. Donahoe of Company F, Richard J. Hartigan of Company I, Fred
Griswold of Machine Gun Company and Patrick A. Hearn of Company
D, whose death had a particular pathos by reason of the sorrow of
his twin brother who is in the same Company. All in all, we have
been a singularly healthy regiment, whatever be the reason—some
doctors think it is because we are a city regiment. We have been
almost absolutely free from the “Children’s Diseases” such as mumps,
measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, etc., which have played havoc
with the efficiency strength of almost every other regiment in the
Division. Occasionally replacements introduce some of those diseases,
but they have never made any headway. Since we left home our full
total of deaths in a Regiment of thirty-six hundred men has been,
outside of battle cases, just fourteen. John L. Branigan, of Company
B, died in an English hospital. In the Langres area we lost Charles
C. Irons, Company G; Edward O’Brien, Company M, and James Reed,
Company E, by illness, and Sydney Cowley, Company G, by accidental
shooting. Accidents were also the causes of the deaths of Corporal
Winthrop Rodewald, Company H, Donald Monroe, Company F, and Daniel J.
Scanlon of Company G, who also left a brother in the Company to mourn
his loss. Louis King and Joseph P. Morris of Company I and George W.
Scallon of Company A died of meningitis.
In this sector we have had just three battle losses. When Company
G was in line, a direct hit of a German shell killed two of our
old-timers, Patrick Farrell and Timothy Donnellan, and wounded Peter
Bohan. Recently at Chasseurs, Corporal Arthur Baker, a resolute
soldier, was killed while leading a daylight patrol in No Man’s Land.
Sergeant Denis Downing of Company G was killed by one of our own
sentries who mistook him for a German.
BACCARAT
_June_ 16th, 1918
Donovan’s men have been recalled from Chasseurs. The 42nd Division
has finished its preliminary education and is to start off for some
more active front two days from now. We are to be relieved by the
77th Division, New York City’s contribution to the National Army.
Today while returning from a funeral I met two M. P.’s from that
Division who were members of the Police Force at home. Met also two
old pupils of mine, Father James Halligan and Lieutenant Arthur
McKeogh.
MOYEMONT
_June_ 19th, 1918
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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