Notes From The Trenches

Gary H. Foster

Description

The Terror and Triumph of WWI in a Soldier's Own Words... The Foster family of Wisconsin were vibrant and happy in the early years of the 20th century. Like many families in the area, they were descended from German immigrants and had a healthy appetite for hard work and beer. Barbara Foster, widowed early in life, created a loving home for her children Leo, Ottilia, Mary, and Kunigunda. They were all musicians, forming their own orchestra and playing in regional and local venues. But despite Woodrow Wilson's promises, America found itself drawn into the Great War overseas, and Leo Foster, bugler for the Wisconsin National Guard, was sent to the front lines. Nearly a century later, this book reconstructs Leo's World War I experience from letters, newspaper clippings, and photographs from Leo's footlocker. Nothing compares to the immediacy of the war experience in a soldier's own words. Notes from the Trenches follows Leo from stateside training to the horror of the Meuse-Argonne offensive and his battle-weary return home in May of 1919. Full of wit, good humor, and honesty, these letters provide a fascinating window into the War to End All Wars, with insightful organization and context from Leo's grandson, Gary Foster.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Military
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Outskirts Press
• Date de parution: 08 janvier 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781478795674
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

NOTES FROM THE TRENCHES
A MUSICIAN’S JOURNEY THROUGH WORLD WAR I
All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2018 Gary H. Foster
v2.0

The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.

This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Outskirts Press, Inc.
http://www.outskirtspress.com

ISBN: 978-1-4787-9567-4

Cover Photo © 2018 Gary H. Foster. All rights reserved - used with permission.

Outskirts Press and the “OP” logo are trademarks belonging to Outskirts Press, Inc.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue


PROLOGUE
In recent years, our country has been referred to by members of our own government as arrogant, dismissive, and derisive. I took that as a direct insult to the men and women who had fought for freedom overseas and served our country over the years through major and minor conflicts. Members of my family have fought for this country, including myself, and it all began with my grandfather, Leo Foster, who fought in World War I.
There were times when our country needed to act with arrogance, be dismissive, and operate with derision. World Wars I and II were two such periods where we needed these attributes to punish the enemy and win the war. I learned that in my formative years when history was taught correctly, and patriotism wasn’t just another word, and by studying history and military operations later in life at the Naval War College. My grandfather was a member of the US Army’s infamous 32 nd Division. My dad John Foster trained as a Naval Aviator in World War II, and my father-in-law Louis Zschernitz served in the 32 nd Division in World War II. My older brother Jeff Foster carried on the Foster military service line in the Air Force as a Weapons System Officer in F-111’s, and I followed serving as an officer in the Navy in the airborne nuclear command and control arena.
The comments made about our country were disappointing, annoying, and personally insulting—at least, they were to me. How could anyone in a leadership capacity in our United States be so naïve about our country’s long history of defending freedom? The Statue of Liberty standing watch over New York City carries the torch that lights the way to freedom and liberty for all nations, and we respond to any threat to those ideals. Surely anyone serving in an elected capacity in our government would understand this.
It was in 2010 that my dad, in the waning years of his life, gave me a footlocker that belonged to his dad and my grandfather. It had stayed relatively intact through the years, but had white paint splotches on the top, and normal wear and tear. It contained over 100 letters that Leo had written or received during his training and participation in World War I. It also contained old newspapers and pictures that had been saved by his mother Barbara, and his sisters Mary and Kunigunda, (Kuni). His oldest sister, Ottilia (Tillie), was married and living in South Dakota at the time of Leo’s training and deployment to France. She was dealing with her own issues, as her husband Ambrose Haag had joined the Marines and had gone off to training in Arizona. Every healthy man of age would either join or be drafted to participate in this war. It was a national emergency that unified the country. That’s how it was in 1917.
The footlocker had an invaluable amount of history, a story that needed to be told. With the 100-year anniversary of America’s entry into World War I coming up in 2017, the timing was right to reconstruct the adventures of Leo through those letters.

(Gary Foster photo)
Leo W. Foster’s footlocker. The top of the footlocker reads:
MUSC. LEO W. FOSTER
CO. M, 3RD WISCONSIN NG U.S. ARMY
His sister Kuni had transcribed several of the letters in the footlocker and mentioned to Leo in one of those letters about writing a book about his war experience. She never accomplished that task after the war ended, as she pursued her own career and interests and eventually married.
I set out to finish what my great-Aunt Kuni had started and write this story. I wanted to remember the forgotten, the men they called Doughboys who went “over there” to defeat the German army and their quest for world dominance. How dare anyone trample the memory of what these brave men accomplished! They were young, arrogant, dismissive, and derisive, the necessary qualities that define a fierce fighting force built to win.
I have been working on this project for approximately three years as of this writing. It has involved several major undertakings. My very first task was to organize the letters, pictures, and newspapers, and categorize the contents of the footlocker. I spent considerable time transcribing the letters from faded letters into Word documents. Upon completion of that task, I started looking through those old newspapers for clippings about my grandfather. Some of the newspapers in the footlocker had been marked by my great-grandmother or my great-aunts. I signed up for an online newspaper archive service and sifted through the old newspapers that were not in the footlocker. Finally, I researched the campaign battles that my grandfather had participated in.
This book is not a detailed description of the World War I campaigns or battles that Leo Foster experienced. To begin with, the formation of what eventually became the US Army’s 32 nd “Red Arrow” Division has its roots in the early part of World War I. My grandfather had enlisted in the Wisconsin National Guard and been assigned to Company M of the Old Wisconsin 3 rd Regiment. I am not a historian nor World War I expert by any means, but I did provide some of the pertinent details of the engagements my grandfather’s unit fought in. This story is a chronological history of Leo’s war life, from enlistment in the Wisconsin National Guard in 1917 to his release from active duty in 1919. It is completely based on ninety-six letters that he had written and a half-dozen letters or cards written to him or by other people in his life. Along with the letters there were numerous La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press newspapers from that era, and I sifted through those to provide details about Leo’s journey. There are in my estimation a few letters that are missing, and more than likely the critical ones that would clear up some of the confusion between family lore and what is captured in ink that are discussed in this book.
I found his letters to be very entertaining. He was, in his own right, a comedian, and by trade he was a musician assigned as an Army Bugler. He often referred to himself as “Little Lord Fauntleroy.” He signed his letters “Kid,” which I am sure was a term his older sisters called him often. He used expressions such as “say,” “gee,” “gosh,” “holy smokes,” “Jake,” “h _ _ _,” and other innocent terms you will see in his letters. I edited many of the letters to correct some of the spelling and punctuation, but I left a number untouched to give the reader a sense of how he wrote. As I have found out by reading sections of the newspaper that published letters from soldiers, he was not necessarily unique in his writing style. The soldiers often wrote in comedic prose to either humor themselves in the seemingly endless quagmire of their deployment, or to put their loved ones at ease and keep them from worrying about their fate.
His sister Mary he nicknamed “Jack,” and I assume she must have called him “Jack” or “Kid” a lot, so he referred to her as either, also. Perhaps the one thing that stands out the most in his letters is his love for his widowed mother. He felt enormous guilt for leaving the family to go to war, as the man of the house and the major wage-earner. Many of the soldiers who fought in the war had both parents to write home to. Though this was not unique, my grandfather wrote home to his mom and sisters. He never knew his dad, as he passed away early in Leo’s life. His mother had maintained her sanity through the years after suffering through several tragedies. She wanted her daughters and son to be successful. Leo’s love for his mother and sisters is one of the strengths that carried him through the war.
Talking in terms of mere dollars, he bragged about his pay of roughly $25 a month. His frugality was a product of the day and age of the depressed economy. To put aside any money was something, and Leo ran his own loan service enterprise for other soldiers. He sent what he could back home to his mom. Occasionally he would send a dollar or two to his sisters to “go out on the town.” It is fascinating what a dollar could buy during that timeframe. Through his own business dealings selling sweets and tobacco products while in charge of the Canteen, a name given to the Army snack bar, he accumulated the bookkeeping experience that he would use after the war in a variety of like occupations.
World War I has been described as a war about families. For La Crosse, Wisconsin residents, this was especially true. Many of the local men had enlisted in the National Guard, known as Old Company M. Their families knew each other well. As you will read in the letters, acquaintances and friends pop in and out of his life while serving in the Army.
Leo Foster’s mother, Barbara, was