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111 Chapter Seven Going Home One Step Closer to Home From the moment that the Armistice was signed, there was talk that the Yankee Division would be part of the Army of Occupation. That notion was soon put to rest. The division was pretty well used up during its long and arduous tour of duty. Within days, the division began to collect itself, absorb the recently received replacements (too late to really help with the fighting), and bury its dead. Ray Anderson, who had returned from the hospital, emphasized the positive in a letter to his father written shortly after the Armistice: My work has just begun too. Today I have been burying. Tomorrow and the next day I will continue. Then my work in bringing the boys back to life is going to be so wonderful. I long to preach to them and clinch all the wonderful things that have happened in their lives. So the time will fly and some day we will start home.1 Over the next several months, many old hands would make their way back to the division. Rumors were rife about a date for sailing home; some thought that it might be as early as Christmas. It was not to be. Billets were arranged in the area of Montigny-le-Roi, many kilometers to the south, and in the days that followed the Armistice, the weary warriors trudged there through French villages festooned with the flags of both nations. The nights were cold, but the men did not mind now that they were leaving the war behind. “We have not yet stopped long enough to get the mud of the shell holes off of us, and we are a dirty looking command,” wrote Horace Hobbs. He added: “It is bitterly cold today and the wind biting. . . . All the roads here in rear of the old lines are jammed with troops. . . .” Along the way, the artillery regiments turned in their guns and horses.2 It was also a time when anxious parents wrote for word of the fate of their sons, and it was the chaplain’s duty to get answers as the fog of war 112 SKY PILOTS slowly lifted. Ernest W. Gillingham’s mother had received word that her son had been wounded on October 23, but nothing further. She addressed her desperate plea to Chaplain Speers, “as the anxiety and suspense are a great load.” He answered her promptly with the news that her son’s wounds were not serious. A much-relieved mother responded: “It has made me so happy that I feel more than sorry for the mothers who had sons that lost their arms and legs or life, that I pray that God will send them some blessings to try to make up for their loss.”3 On Thanksgiving Day, Murray Dewart, who had just returned to the 101st Field Artillery from his temporary assignment, conducted an openair service on the grounds of the château near the edge of Guerpont, at the end of which were read the names of those in the regiment who had fallen and would not return with the division. “His clamor to rejoin his beloved regiment was too strong to be denied,” and this time, Chaplain Moody had given in. Over in nearby Is-en-Bassigny, the 103rd Infantry also celebrated Thanksgiving. The regiment had a new commanding officer, Col. P. A. Arnold, whom the men liked. Ray Anderson described him as one who “doesn’t swear or drink or carouse with women,” which was, in his words, “a delightful change over the old order.” In addition to a fine dinner on linen cloth, accompanied by the regimental band, Anderson preached a sermon at services entitled: “Thanks be unto God who giveth the victory.” He told his father that he meant, not only God’s gift of a victory over Germany , and also over death for those who had survived and for those who had died in Christ, as well as victory in the coming days.4 Shortly before Christmas, it was announced that President Wilson, who was then in France, along with General Pershing, would visit the 26th Division at Montigny-le-Roi and eat dinner with some of the enlisted men. Preparations were made in all of the units, in anticipation of an inspection, or at the very least a drive by. Some men waited in formation along the roadside in the cold and the rain, only to be sorely...

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