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{
    "localId": "17343226",
    "label": "The Memoirs of Sergeant Verne Chaney",
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{
    "id": "17343226",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17343226",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "The Memoirs of Sergeant Verne Chaney",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17343226",
    "collections": [
        "Verne E. Chaney Papers",
        "Subject Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972",
        "Spina, Frank E., 1887-1972",
        "Klemm, Karl D., 1880-",
        "Wooldridge, Glenwood F., 1893-1977",
        "Pershing, John J. (John Joseph), 1860-1948",
        "Thacher, John H., 1872-1960",
        "Miles, John L., 1878-1961",
        "Soldiers",
        "World War, 1914-1918",
        "Artillery"
    ],
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            "logicalDate": "1919-01-01",
            "year": 1919
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{
    "seq": 37,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/26/3432/17343226/content/presidential-libraries/truman/648564/hst-vec-naid7453017-37.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "37\nfront lines. We could still see the wreckage of equipment, shell torn roads,\ndead horses and evidence of many a tragic death.\nPassing along a road on the side of a high hill had been a mine\nexplosion, causing a great breach in the roadway, but some \"colored boys\"\nwere on the job fixing it, so it wasn't long until we were passing thru shell\ntorn villages and wending our way to the rear. It wasn't long before signs of\nwar were soon left behind.105\nFrom the time we left the Vosges Mts. until now we have lost about a\nhundred head of horses, mostly killed from overwork, lack of feed and\nwater. And no doubt exposure to the weather was responsible for most of\nthe losses. With thirty five head of horses we pulled guns and caissons for\neighteen hours, and finally pulled into a big woods for rest. Here we could\nstill hear the roaring of guns and there were thousands of troops quartered\nhere.106\nHere we made camp along side the road and stayed the rest of the\nday and left the next noon. The entire remains of the division was camped.\nWe had an opportunity to visit some of our friends. I was fortunate in\nseeing Sgt. Bill of the 110th Eng. and he gave me more detail of Sgt.\n105\nThe editor cannot determine if the \"colored boys\" were United States Army, Service of Supply\n(SOS) troops or French Engineers. The French had Black infantry (Seneglese) and Black engineering battalions\nand supported the Americans on the both flanks of the American army. Black Americans were generally used\nas stevedores and rear echelon heavy labor. The \"colored boys\" were probably French. Several Black National\nGuard regiments served under French command and received many French awards.\n106\nthe fourguus, of\nNormally a gun is pulled by six horses. This requires 24 horses at any one time to pull/la battery.\nThere was other horse requirements such as water cart, kitchen, and caissons Thirty five horses was at the critical\nedge. The AEF purchased 243,039horses and mules and never had enough. As crucial a role that the internal\ncombustion engine played in the war, it was the horses and mules that moved the supplies and guns on the\nbattlefield. The big woods Sergeant Chaney refers to is the Bois Cheihemin in the in the Very-Cheppy area where\nthe 35th division reassembled before moving out of the Meuse-Argonne sector."
}