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The War Romance of the Salvation Army

E >> Evangeline Booth and Grace Livingston Hill >> The War Romance of the Salvation Army




You may call it what you will, but as I think of them I am again reminded
of that verse in the Bible about those brave and wonderful disciples: "And
they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus."

Two of the Salvation Army men went back to Mesnil-St.-Firmin the day after
the lassies had been obliged to leave, to get some of their belongings
which they had not been able to take with them, and one of them, a
Salvation Army Major, stayed to keep the place open for the boys. He was
the only Salvation Army man who is entitled to wear a wound stripe. By his
devotion to duty, self-sacrifice, and contempt of danger, he won the
confidence of the men wherever he was. He chiefly worked alone and
operated a canteen usually in a dugout at the front.

On one occasion a soldier was badly wounded at the door of a hut, by an
exploding gas-shell. He fell into the dugout and while the Major worked
over him, the Major himself was gassed and had to be removed to the rear
and undergo hospital treatment. For this service he was awarded a wound
stripe. During the St. Mihiel offensive he was appointed in the Toul
Sector and followed up the advancing soldiers, and later was active in the
Argonne. He is essentially a front-line man and always takes the greatest
satisfaction in being in the place of most danger.

The following is a brief excerpt from his diary when he manned the dugout
hut in Coullemelle:

May 12

"Arrived in Coullemelle Sunday night, May 12. Was busy with my work by
mid-day, Monday, 13. After cleaning our dugout, gave medicine to sick man,
who refused to sleep in my bed because he was not fit. However, I made him
feel fine, helped. I had a long talk with the boys.

_Tuesday, 14:_ Shell struck opposite to dugout and sent tiles down
steps. The Captain of E Battery visited me to-day, and then I visited the
Battery and had chow with them. Airplane fight: while batteries were
roaring, the Germans came down in flames.

_Wednesday, 15:_ No coming to dugout in the day-time on account of
shelling. I did good business in the evening and also had long services by
request of the boys. Received a letter from B---- here to-day, I slept
good.

_Thursday, 16:_ I visited army, the officers and men of F Battery.
Their chow kitchen is in a bad place, all men coming down sick. I had an
arrangement with the doughboys that they might come in my dugout any hour
in the night, whenever they wanted. I visited infantry officers to-day,
Capt. Cribbs and Capt. Crisp. I had a lovely talk with them. I offered to
go to the trenches with my goods, but Capt. Cribbs said I would just be
killed without doing what he knew I wanted to do, namely, serve the boys
with food and encourage them.

_Friday, 17:_ I was startled by a fearful barrage at four o'clock
when I got up, washed my clothes: was visited by the Y.M.C.A. Secretary:
was shelled from five o'clock till ten o'clock. I went for chow and found
shell ball gone through kitchen. High explosive, black smoke shells
bursting intermittently, tiles fell into my dugout. I took pick shovel in
with me; my kitten ran away but came back. A three-legged cat came to the
ruined home where I am; its leg evidently had been cut off by shrapnel.
Great air fight all day. Incendiary shells were fired into the town and
burnt for a long time. I visited Battery F, and gave the fellows medicine.
To-day both officers and men were in the gun pits and I with them, while
they were deviling with Fritzy. Big business in evening with long service,
gave out Testaments and held service in dugout; got a Frenchman to
interpret the scripture to his comrades. Bequests for prayer. Doughboys
came in 12:30, through a barrage, and got sixty-five bars of chocolate,
others got biscuits. I am very, very tired; artillery is roaring as I go
to sleep.

_Saturday, 18:_ Capt. Cribbs came down to dugout and said he was
worried to death over me (thought I was killed). I assured him I was all
0. K., and that it was their end of the town that needed looking after. He
laughed and enjoyed it. My supplies are kept up by the courage and
devotion of the Staff-Captain and Billy, who, taking their lives in their
hands, bring the Ford with supplies along the shell-torn road at great
peril. Capt. Corliss also came.

During the day, the officer of Battery F wanted the Victrola and got the
use of it in their dugout for three days. In the meantime I had furnished
Battery D the use of the Victrola and the day I made the promise, I found
the boys without chow for twelve hours. When about to serve it, the town
was gassed and their food with it and no one was permitted to touch a
thing, they were blessing the Kaiser as only soldiers can under such
circumstances. When I arrived among them, after finding out the way of
things, I suggested to the officers that I should be permitted to supply
them with such food as I had. They assured me it would be a mighty good
thing for them if I would, and I took four boxes of biscuits and six pots
of jam and other things to their trench in the rear of their batteries--
they surely thought I was an angel and I left them pretty happy. This was
all done under fire and at great risk. I chowed with Battery E and saw
shell hole through building which was new since my last visit--boys offer
to teach me how to work gun, their spirit is wonderful under the terrific
strain which they labor. I visited ruined church and went inside; here
were some graves of the French soldiers, some of the bodies being exposed.
Could not stay very long. Overtook soldier-boy limping, got him to stay
awhile and gave him hot chocolate; persuaded him to let his limb be seen
to, which he did, and was sent to hospital. I visited hospital corps-
fellows and arranged that in case of gas, they would visit and rouse me at
night. They are fine fellows. Doughboys bought lots of goods and blessed
the Salvation Army a thousand times. These lads come in from the trenches
and have some hair-raising stories to tell.

_Sunday, 19:_ Quiet till the afternoon when a gas barrage started. I
was driven out of my dugout. I had a narrow escape, while reaching the
hospital corps dugout. Lieut. Roolan (since promoted), of the Fifth Field
Artillery, was there for two hours and half. 480 shells, I was informed,
came down, averaging up three and four per minute. All night, from 6
o'clock to 3 A.M., 3000 shells are sent into the town. I slept in the
Headquarters Signal Corps dugout with my gas mask on all night.

_Monday, 20:_ Visited Y.M.C.A. and found their dugout had been struck
and the Secretary's eyes were gassed after a man took his place. I saw
Colonel Crane to try and get out of my dugout and get the one he had left.
He gave me permission, assuring me that it was not a very good one at
that. I took my Victrola with two of the battery boys from F Battery. I
carried the records and they the Victrola. We dodged the shelling all the
way and I had the pleasure of hearing the "Swanee River" song at the same
time as the firing of the big guns much to the enjoyment of the boys. I
understand that General Summerall visited and heard the Victrola soon
after I had taken it to the boys. I placed about fifty books among
officers of the Hospital Corps, Infantry officers, Battery officers. They
were highly appreciated. I slept with Signal Corps boys again as Fritzy
decided to continue the bombardment of the town which he did from 5.30
P.M. to 5.30 A.M. I slept with mask on and had no ill effects of the gas
at all so far; but about five o'clock a terrific crash just outside of my
dugout followed by a man shouting as he rushed down the dugout steps, "Oh,
God, get me to the doctor right away." That shell nearly got me. I was
only eight feet from it. I sprung up and rushed him from the dugout over
to the hospital. I had to chase around from one dugout to another and
finally landed my man (his name was Harry), who was taken to the hospital.

_Tuesday, 21:_ After taking the man to the doctor, I went to my own
place and found a nine-inch gas shrapnel shell had burst 15 or 20 feet
from my dugout, about fifteen holes were torn through the door, the top of
the shell lay six feet from the top of the steps, pieces of the shell were
scattered down the steps, and my dugout to the gas curtain, was full of
gas. If Staff-Captain and Billy had been visiting me that night, the shell
would have hit the Ford right in the center. Fierce bombardment all the
day. Houses were struck on the entire street from end to end. Shells fell
in the yard, one struck the corner of the house. The soldiers next door
have gone, and my place can only be opened in the evenings. Things are
pretty hot, I started out visiting the batteries to-day, but was driven
back and could get out only by the back entrance to the yard. I am told by
a soldier of the Intelligence Dept., that their bombardment is what is
known as a "Million-Dollar Barrage," and that all were fortunate to have
passed through it, he also told me the number and nature of the shells. I
served hot chocolate this Tuesday night and noticed that my hands were
very red.

_Wednesday, 22:_ I visited the Battery in their trenches again and
took them food. My eyes are affected by the gas, and I got treatment at
the Evacuating Hospital. Some shells come very close to my dugout--to-day
thirty feet, fifty feet and twenty feet. I gather up a box full of
remnants. I find I am gassed by a contact with the poor fellow coming in
whom I took to the doctor. I get treatment two or three times for my eyes
and throat. My hands begin to crack and smart. The flesh comes off from my
neck and other parts of my body. I had a fine meeting with boys in dugout
and am again visited by the doughboys and officers. I visit the ruined
church area again and get a few relics.

_Thursday, 23:_ My eyes are very red and becoming painful and also my
throat and nose, etc. I plan to move my dugout and pack up accordingly.
Things are quieter today; had services again in the evening. French
schoolmaster among the number, six requests for prayer.

_Friday, 24:_ Am all ready to move to a new dugout when Staff-Captain
arrives and tells me I am ordered out by the military."

Here is the Military Order received by the Staff-Captain:


"To Major Coe,

"Salvation Army:

"(1) Major Wilson, Chief G1, directs that the Salvation Army evacuate
'Coullemelle' as soon as possible.

"(2) He desires that they leave to-night if possible.

"(3) This message was received by me from the office of G1.

"L. JOHNSON,
"1st Lieut., F. A."


Orders also arrived soon for the removal of the Salvation Army workers in
Broyes:


"Headquarters, 1st Division, G-1.
"American Expeditionary Forces,
" June 3, 1919.

"Memorandum: To Mr. L. A. Coe, Salvation Army, La Folie.

"The hut, which it is understood the Salvation Army is operating in
Broyes, will, for military reasons, be removed from there as soon as
practicable.

"It is contrary to the desire of the Commanding General that women workers
be employed in huts or canteens east of the line Mory-Chepoix-Tartigny,
and if any are now so located they are to 'be removed.

"The operations of technical services, Red Cross, Y.M.C.A., and other
similar agencies is a function of this section of the General Staff and
all questions pertaining to your movements and location of huts should in
the future be referred to G.-1.

"By command of Major General Bullard.

"G. K Wilson,
"Major, General Staff,
"A. C. of S., G.-1."


In Tartigny they found a house with five rooms, one of them very large.
The billeting officer turned this over to the Salvation Army.

There was plenty of space and the girls might have a room to themselves
here, instead of just curtaining off a corner of a tent or making a
partition of supply boxes in one end of the hut as they often had to do.
There was also plenty of furniture in the house, and they were allowed to
go around the village and get chairs and tables or anything they wanted to
fix up their canteen. The girls had great fun selecting easy-chairs and
desks and anything they desired from the deserted houses, and before long
the result was a wonderfully comfortable, cozy, home-like room.

"Gee! This is just like heaven, coming in here!" one of the boys said when
he first saw it.

Just outside Tartigny there was a large ammunition dump, piles of shells
and boxes of other ammunition. It was under the trees and well
camouflaged, but night after night the enemy airplanes kept trying to get
it. The girls used to sit in the windows and watch the airplane battles.
They would stay until an airplane got over the house and then they would
run to the cellar. They came so close one night that pieces of shell from
the anti-aircraft guns fell over the house.

Sometimes the airplanes would come in the daytime, and the girls got into
the habit of running out into the street to watch them. But at this the
boys protested.

"Don't do that, you will get hit!" they begged. And one day the nose of an
unexploded shell fell in the street just outside the door. After that they
were more careful.

In this town one afternoon a whole truck-load of oranges arrived, being
three hundred crates, four hundred oranges to a crate, for the canteen,
and they were all gone by four o'clock!

The Headquarters of the Division Commander were in a beautiful old stone
chateau of a peculiar color that seemed to be invisible to the airplanes.
There were woods all around it and the house was never shelled. It was
filled with rare old tapestries and beautiful furniture.

The Count who owned the chateau asked the Major General to get some
furniture that belonged to him out of the village that was being shelled.
Later the Count asked the General if he ever got that furniture. The
General asked his Colonel, "What did you do with that furniture?" "Oh,"
the Colonel said, "it's down there all right!" "And where is the piano?"
"Oh, I gave that to the Salvation Army."

In this area it was one lassie's first bombardment; it came suddenly and
without warning. The soldiers in the hut decamped without ceremony for the
safety of their dugouts. One soldier who had been detailed to help the
lassie, shouted: "Come on! Follow me to your dugout!" Without further talk
he turned and started for cover. The girl had been baking. A tray full of
luscious lemon cream pies stood on the table. She did not want to leave
those pies to the tender mercies of a shell. Also she had some new boots
standing beneath the table, and she was not going to lose those. Without
stopping to think, she seized the shoes in one hand and the tray in the
other and rushed after the soldier. A little gully had to be crossed on
the way to the dugout and the only bridge was a twelve-inch plank. The
soldier crossed in safety and turned to look after the girl. Just as she
reached the middle of the plank a shell burst not far away. The lassie was
so startled that she nearly lost her balance, swaying first one way and
then the other. In an attempt to stop the tray of pies from slipping, she
almost lost the shoes, and in recovering the shoes, the pies just escaped
sliding overboard into the thick mud below.

The soldier registered deep agitation.

"Drop the shoes!" he shouted. "I can clean the shoes, but for heaven's
sake don't drop them pies!" And the lassie obeyed meekly.

In the little town of Bonnet where the rest room was located in an old
barn connected with a Catholic convent, one Salvation Army Envoy and his
wife from Texas began their work. They soon became known to the soldiers
familiarly as "Pa" and "Ma."

It was in this old barn that the tent top, later made famous at
Ansauville, was first used. Stoves were almost impossible to obtain at
that time, but "Ma" was determined that she would bake pies for the men,
so the Envoy constructed an oven out of two tin cake boxes and using a
small two-burner gasoline stove, "Ma" baked biscuits and pies that made
her name famous. Through her great motherly heart and her willingness to
serve the boys at all times, under all circumstances, she won their
confidence and love. One soldier said he would walk five miles any day to
look into "Ma's" gray eyes.

From Bonnet they were transferred to command a hut at Ansauville, but "Ma"
could never rest so long as there was a soldier to be served in any way.
She worked early and late, and she made each individual soldier who came
to the hut her special charge as if he were her own son. She could not
sleep when they were going over the top unless she prayed with each one
before he went.

The meetings which she and her husband held were full of life and power
and were never neglected, no matter how hard the strain might be from
other lines of service.

It was not long before "Ma's" strength gave out and it was necessary to
move her to a quieter place. She was transferred to Houdelainecourt. She
would not go until they carried her away.

Houdelainecourt at this time was on the main road travelled by trucks,
taking supplies by train from the railroad at Gondrecourt to the front.
Truck drivers invariably made it a point to stop at "Ma's" hut and here
they were always sure to receive a welcome and the most delicious
doughnuts and pies and hot biscuit which loving hands could make.

Not satisfied with this service alone, she undertook to fry pancakes for
the officers' breakfast. It was through these kindly services,
ungrudgingly done, at any time of the day or night, that her name was
established as one of the most potent factors in contributing to the
comfort and welfare of the men, and there was no hole or tear of the men's
clothes that "Ma" could not mend.

A short time after the pie contest over at Gondrecourt, "Ma" and one of
her lassie helpers set out to break the record of 316 pies as a day's
work. Their oven would hold but six pies at a time; their hut had but just
been opened and all their equipment had not yet arrived, so they were
short a rolling pin, which had to be carved from a broken wagon-shaft with
a jack-knife before they could begin; but they achieved the baking of 324
pies between 6 A.M. and 6 P.M. that day. It is fair to state for the sake
of the doubter, however, that the pie fillers, both pumpkin and apple,
were all prepared and piping hot on the stove ready to be poured into the
pastry as it was put into the oven, which, of course, helped a good deal.

A sign was put out announcing that pie would be served at seven o'clock,
but the lines formed long before that.

[Illustration: "Ma"]

[Illustration: "They had a pie-baking contest in Gondrecourt one day"--the
renowned "Aunt Mary" in the right-hand corner]

The pies were unusually large and cut into fifths, but even at that they
were much larger pieces than are usually served at the ordinary
restaurant.

By half-past eight some men were falling in for a second helping, but "Ma"
had been watching long a little company of men off to one side who hovered
about yet never dropped into line themselves, and made up her mind that
these were some of those who perhaps sent much of their money home and
found it a long time between pay-days. Casting her kindly eye
comprehendingly toward these men she mounted a chair and requested:

"All of the men who have already had pie, please step out of the line; and
all of those boys who want coffee and pie but have no money, step into
line and get some, _anyhow!_"

She gave the boys one of her beautiful motherly smiles and that made them
feel they had all got home, and they hesitated no longer. "Ma," however,
was more deeply interested in her meetings than in mere pie. The Sunday
before this contest over five hundred soldiers had attended the evening
meeting, and almost as many had been present at the morning service. Also,
there had been twenty-eight members added to her Bible class. Though the
hut was a large one it had been crowded to its utmost capacity in the
evening, with men packed into the open doorways and windows on either
side, and forty of the men who announced their determination to follow
Christ that night could not get inside to come forward. More than a dozen
gave personal testimony of what Christ had done for them. One notable
testimony was as follows:

"I used to be a hard guy fellers," he said, "and maybe I had some good
reasons when I used to say that nothing was ever going to scare me, but
when we lay out there with a six-hour barrage busting right in front of us
and 'arrivals' busting all around us, I did a whole lot of thinking. It
seemed as though every shell had my number on it! And when we went over
and ran square into their barrage, I'll admit I was scared yellow and was
darned afraid I was going to show it! We were under a barrage for ten
hours. A shell buried me under about a foot of earth, and for the first
time I can remember, while my bunkie was digging me out, I prayed to God.
And I want to say that I believe He answered my prayer, and that is the
only reason I came out uninjured. I promised if I got out I'd call for a
new deal, and I want to say that I'm going to keep that promise!"

A boy who had been converted in one of the meetings a few nights before
came into the hut and sought her out. He told her he was going over the
top that night, and he had something he wanted to confess before he went.
He had told a lie and he had felt terrible remorse about it ever since he
was converted. He had treated his mother badly, and gone and enlisted,
saying he was eighteen when he was only sixteen. "Now," said he with
relief after he had told the story, "that's all clear. And say, if I'm
killed, will you go through my pockets and find my Testament and send it
to mother? And will you tell my mother all about it and tell her it is all
right with me now? Tell mother I went over the top a Christian. You'll
know what to say to her to help her bear up."

She promised and the boy went away content. That night he was killed, and,
true to her promise, she went through his pockets when he was brought
back, and found the little Testament close over his heart; and in it a
verse was marked for his mother:

"The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."

During the early days of the Salvation Army work in France, while the work
was still under inspection as to its influence on the men, and one Colonel
had sent a Captain around to the meetings to report upon them to him,
"Ma's" was one of the meetings to which the Captain came.

She did not know that she was under suspicion, but that night she spoke on
obedience and discipline, taking as her text: "Take heed to the law," and
urging the men to obey both moral and military laws so that they might be
better men and better soldiers. The Captain reported on her sermon and
said that he wished the regiment had a Salvation Army chaplain for every
company.

The hospital visitation work was started by "Ma" in the Paris hospitals
while she was in that city for several months regaining her strength after
a physical break-down at the front. She was idolized by the wounded. If
she walked along any hospital passageway or through any ward, a crowd of
men were sure to call her by name. They knew her as "Ma," and frequently,
overworked nurses have called up the Paris Salvation Army Headquarters
asking if Ma could not find time to come down and sit with a dying boy who
was calling for her. She observed their birthdays with books and other
small presents, wrote to their mothers, wives and sweethearts, and
performed a multitude of invaluable, precious little services of love. For
weeks after she left Paris, returning to the front, the wounded called for
her. She is one of the outstanding figures of the Salvation Army's work
with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. She is indelibly
enshrined in the hearts of hundreds of American soldiers.

A Salvation Army lassie bent over the bed of a wounded boy recently
arrived in the Paris hospital from the front, and gave him an orange and a
little sack of candy.

"I know the Salvation Army," he said with a faint smile, "I knew I should
find you here."

She asked him his division and he told her he belonged to one that had
been coöperating with the French.

"But how can that be?" she asked in surprise, "we have never worked with
your division. How do you know about us?"

"I only saw the Salvation Army once," he replied, "but I'll never forget
it. It was when I came back to consciousness in the Dressing Station at
Cheppy, and the first thing I saw was a Salvation Army girl bending over
me washing the blood and dirt off my face with cold water. She looked like
an angel and she was that to me. She gave me a drink of cold lemonade when
I was burning up with fever, and she lifted my head to pour it between my
lips when I had not strength to move myself. No, I shall not forget!"

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