The soldier, Brennan A. Mitchell, was a member of Battery B, 139th Field Artillery, American Expeditionary Forces in France. With the diary was a photograph of soldiers in front of a building with a Red Cross sign.
A man of few words, this soldier from Sherman, Texas was part of history in 1918, even if he was often bored and had a little trouble with spelling as he recounted his adventures:
July 17 Arived in NY.
July 22 AWOL three days sent to
hospital. AWOL ever night till Sept.17.
Sept. 19-20 Met Miss Zachary
splendid time made the City ever other day till Sept. 29.
Sept. 30 Goldbricked till left on
Oct. 6. [ I had to refresh my memory on this term. "Goldbricking" is slacking off at work while pretending to be busy.]
After
reading through his diary and looking at a number of websites online, I came to
the conclusion that Mitchell went to war on the HMS Cedric out of Long Island:
Set sail [to Liverpool] Oct. 6
enjoyed trip until night of 16 Wed. [at] 10:55 ship struck by torpedo or depth
bomb. All was in an uproar until we found out we could make port.
Oct. 17, 1918 Thursday we landed
in Liverpool Endland. Had a glorious reception by all. Red Cross served coffee. Hiked through city to camp arrived 1:45 after
a two mile hike with full pack.
Up next morn Oct. 18 7 o’clock
took bath walked around camp saw first German prisoners also New Zealand
soldiers wer in a English camp.
Oct. 20 Sunday Up early washed went to church. After, went up to vilage with [indecipherable other soldiers' names] drank lots of beer. Real quaint village.
Shortly after that, Mitchell and his comrades took a train to Southampton and then sailed to Cherbourg, France.
Oct. 23 Left Cherbough in box
cars 8 horses or 40 men 50 in our car…rode all night arrived in Aldmans [?] had
supper. Arived in Plorenel [Ploermel?] France 12:30 a.m. bed.
Apparently they ended up in the ancient city of Vannes, where he bought two postcards.
Oct. 25 Up early after a very bad
rest on floor in old Catholic convent built in 1400 and 1689 a very interesting
building still occupied by French peasants. Went to town drank first French
wine no good.
Nov. 8 Same things so I wrot
nothing.
Nov. 9 Up early left for Camp De
Meucon [American
artillery training camp a few kilometers outside Vannes] road 16 miles in
trucks hiked 15 miles with full pack.
Nov. 10 Up early ate washed went
to church. After ran around camp. Saw captured German guns.
Nov. 11 Up early. Made gunner so practiced hard all day. Bed early.
Note
the date: November 11, 1918. They finally gave him something useful to do,
on the day the war ended.
Nov. 12 Same schedule gun
practice. Awful happy heard armisti was
signed war won drank too much wine that night had to tie my bed down.
Nov. 13 & 14 Went out to the guns in morning came back was
made Battery tailor excused from all formations. Went to Y. can show came back turned in.
I hadn't realized that the YMCA was involved in serving soldiers during The Great War. But they were.
Nov. 15 PAY DAY Nothing special
only word was that we would leave for US soon.
Nov. 20 Went to range fired four
shots. Nothing else but tailor work.
Nov. 28 Nothing of importance since
Nov. 20 only Y.M.C.A shows and some tailor work. Tonight we have orders to
leave tomorrow ever one happy.
Only
they didn’t leave France for several weeks.
Something of importance finally happened to him a few days later. I’ll continue in my next blog post…
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