• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

^0' .40, ^^'^ / .*« ^o 5^^^u^. ,^' -«^' - ^ /^v..% .. -^z ..^, -^^^z THE HARVARD VOLUNTEERS IN EUROPE PERSONAL RECORDS OF EXPERIENCE IN MILITARY, AMBULANCE, AND HOSPITAL SERVICE !! V* ^^^DtTED BY MP^Arf)EWOLFE HOWE CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OxfOBD University Press I916 COPYMGHT, I916 HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 8 1316 'C1.A445552 THE VOLUNTEERS From fields of toil and fields of play, Wherever surged the game of life. All eager for the mightier fray, They sped them to the clashing strife — To fight the fight, to heal the hurt. To sail the chartless tracts of air. Eyes forward, head and heart alert. To pay their undemanded share. For so their Ancient Mother taught, And so they learned it at her knee — Where mercy, peril, death are wrought, There, in the ruck of things, to he. And thus they wage, with euery nerve. The great day's work — nor that alone, But, ^neath what flag soever they serve, Brighten the colors of their own. PREFATORY AT the outbreak of the European war, during the season of summer travel in 19 14, many Harvard men were in Europe. Not a few of them were attached to the United States embassies and legations in the various capitals. The business of these offices immediately became pressing in the extreme. The labors of those officially connected with them were shared at once by volunteers — the first of the Harvard fellowship to offer a helping hand where it was needed in the sudden disorganiza- tion of an orderly world. The call to the colors of the various warring nations quickly drew into the conflict those who owed allegiance to one or another flag. In mihtary service, such as that of the For- eign Legion and Flying Corps of the French Army, others have expressed the allegiance of sympathy if not of birth. But it has been in the organization of hospital service and in the work of ambulance corps engaged in the dangerous task of bringing wounded men with all possible speed to the minis- vi PREFATORY trations of surgeons and nurses that Harvard has had by far the largest numerical representation. In hospital work it has been even an official repre- sentation, for the Surgical Units sent in the spring of 191 5 to the American Ambulance Hospital in Paris, and in the summer of the same year to equip a British military hospital in France — a service undertaken originally for three months, but con- tinued until the present time — were Units bearing the name and sanction of the University, through its Medical School. From the Medical School also Professor Strong was detached for his service of world-wide importance in combatting, successfully, the plague of typhus in Servia. At the end of this volume a list of the Harvard men who have participated in various forms of ser- vice, in Europe, in connection with the War— a list for which it is impossible to claim completeness — is printed. It would doubtless be longer if our own affairs on the Mexican border in the summer of 1 916 had not drawn thither many young Harvard men of the type chiefly represented among the am- bulance drivers in France. A Hst of those, young and old, who have identified themselves, to not- PREFATORY vii able purpose, with relief work in America would be quite unwieldy in its proportions. Of the more than four hundred men recorded as rendering their personal services in Europe, all but four have helped the cause of the Allies. From this fact it is not fair to draw the overwhelming conclusion that is most obvious. The Harvard Medical School is known to have been ready to undertake the organization of a Surgical Unit for service in Germany, in the event of the German government asking for it as the British govern- ment asked for the Unit maintained in France. That Harvard men of German birth and sym- pathies, led by a spirit of idealism and loyalty, would have given their services to Germany if access to the Teutonic countries had been possible, there can be no doubt. It is, however, with those who have served, or are serving, in Europe that this volume must deal. From them have proceeded inmmierable letters, diaries, and other records, a few of which have been available for the present purpose. The passages here brought together will be found to illustrate both the wide variety of the work in which Harvard viii PREFATORY men have been engaged and the zeal they have brought to its performance. It is a matter of regret that, although letters from the German side have been desired and definitely sought, they have not been obtainable. But the collection now offered does not aim at completeness. That must await the end of the War, and a scheme of encyclopedic dimensions. Meanwhile the following pages may contribute something to a knowledge of what has been going on in Europe, and of the part that Harvard men have played in it. Boston, October, 1916. CONTENTS Prefatory v Early in Belgium 3 Francis T. Colby, '05. Life and Death in the Trenches 14 A. C. Champollion, '02. H. G. Byng, '13. An Illustrated Letter 25 Pierre Alexandre Gouvy. A Zeppelin over Paris 28 Francis Jaques, ^03. At the American Ambulance Hospital 32 Robert B. Greenough, '92. Harvey Gushing, M.D., '95. George Benet, M.D.,'13. At a French Hospital Near the Line SS George Benet, M.D., '13. The Work in Serbia. 61 George C. Shattuck, '01. With the American Ambulance Hospital Motors . 77 John Paulding Brown, '14. Dallas D. L. McGrew, '03. The American Volunteer Motor-Ambulance Corps 84 Richard Norton, '92. A Laborer in the Trenches 105 F. C. Baker, '12. is X CONTENTS I^E American Distributing Service 109 Langdon Warner, '03. A Harvard Club at the Front 115 Stephen Galatti, '10. A Scene in Alsace 118 Waldo Peirce, '07. The Death of a Comrade 122 Tracy J. Putnam, '15. With the Foreign Legion 133 Alan Seeger, ' 10. David W. King, '16. Henry W. Farnsworth, '12. From A Royal Field Artillery Lieutenant ... 161 Charles D. Morgan, '06. The Military Hospital Units 171 David Cheever, '97. Frank H. Cushman, D.M.D., '15. W. R. Morrison, '10. The Day's Work in an Ambulance Corps .... 189 Richard Norton, '92. Undergraduates in the Ambulance Service .... 203 Philip C. Lewis, '17. John F. Brown, Jr., '18. From the Letters of Two Ambulance Drivers . 215 C. S. Forbes, '00. C. R. Codman, 2d, '15. " " Le Roi de l'Air est Royalement Mort . 229 Victor Chapman, '13. Harvard Men in the European War 241 THE HARVARD VOLUNTEERS IN EUROPE 4 EARLY IN BELGIUM COLONNE D'AmbULANCE, i^re DIVISION, CAVALERIE BeLGE, December 19, 1914.^ We left Paris on December 7, loaded with every pound we could carry in relief gifts to the Belgian refugees, given by Mrs. H. P. Whitney. We carried two car- loads of sweaters, one carload of underclothes, one carload of chocolate and socks, and one car loaded with all the fixings and necessaries for an operating room, given by Mr. Bacon. Altogether it was a splen- did freight of American gifts, and I never felt like so real a Santa Claus before. I have six cars all told. One 20-horsepower Daimler, and supply car for this; food and spare tires. One 30-horsepower Daimler ambulance, i. e., the big one you have a picture of, carrying six litters or ten sitting cases. Four 15-horsepower Daimlers, taking four litters or six sitting cases. We went to Beauvais the first night, and Samer, near Boulogne, the second, in heavy rain and with a good deal of tire trouble because of our heavy loads. We reached Dunkirk on Tuesday, the 9th, and gave our cargo to the Belgian authorities, who were very ^ Reprinted from Boston Evening Transcript. FRANCIS T. COLBY, '05 5 much pleased indeed. The operating room was, I believe, put to immediate use. I tendered the services of myself and my ambulance detachment and was accepted and ordered to report to the premiere division of cavalry. This I at once did. The i^" Division is made up of the very flower of the Belgian army, largely officered by noblemen. We have been received with the greatest courtesy, and have been assured that the ambulance detachment was a thing of which they were in the greatest need, and that it should have a large number of men who would otherwise have to be left on the field of battle. This, unfortunately, has often happened in the past. For several days we have been carrying French wounded for a neighboring hospital, and find that our cars are in every way fitted for the work on these northern roads, which are worse than anything we have met before. It rains every day — just like Southern Alaska — and everywhere except the centre of the road, which is apt to be of cobble-stones, is a foot deep in mud. Of course you have got to get off the cobble- stones when you meet artillery or big motor trucks, and it takes a good driver not to stall his car. 6 EARLY IN BELGIUM FuRNES, Belge, December 25, 1914.* This is Christmas night, or rather was, for it is now after midnight, and strangely enough I've had a Christ- mas dinner. The town is filled with soldiers of many •regiments, some marching in from the trenches and others going out. All very quiet but very determined. The main square is a dehghtful place, with old churches of 1562 and a charming old Hotel de Ville of the best Flemish architecture.

Load more

  284

Copy Link