Today in Appalachian Moments, we celebrate the end of World War I (November 2018) by reliving a fascinating first-hand account of a farm boy from Ashe County, North Carolina in our 3-part series “Over the Top with the 80th.”
Rush Young, who was raised in Grassy Creek, NC, was 23 years old when America entered World War I and he soon found himself at Camp Lee, Virginia. He had no idea what he was getting into, nor could he imagine writing a book “Over the Top with the 80th by a buck private” which detailed his adventures!
Trumpet reveille replaced the warm chime of a mantle clock, and he went from feather beds to naked bed springs, from handmade quilts to one thin wool blanket per soldier in an unheated barracks. Lads like Young went from Momma’s homemade buckwheat pancakes, fresh butter and honey to overcooked and unrecognizable mush and fried horse meat.
Speaking of that exotic fare, at first, the garbage cans at the mess hall would be filled with this inedible Army fare, until guards were posted at each can forbidding the tossing away of uneaten food!
There were not enough uniforms ready so the first recruits were drilled in their overalls and brogan shoes for two weeks! The grounds at Camp Lee weren’t ready either and had to be cleared of planted corn and stumps. They made double time in clearing because in less than a year 50,000 troops would be there.
Young made special note that boys from the North and South were back together in an Army even though memories of the Civil War were still fresh, but where did these troops first march in front of the public? Richmond, Virginia, the original Confederate capitol. And as they marched down Monument Avenue, Young reported that they saluted a statue of Jefferson Davis!
From North and South, the Army was a great equalizer as farmers, lawyers, school teachers and doctors all became rookies. Many of the fresh faces had never seen a needle before and several fainted dead away while standing in line for inoculations, not a good start for a lean, mean fighting machine.
Young’s sweet naivete was showing when he first heard, and was appalled by, the marching song that goes, “You’re in the Army now, you’re not behind the plow, you’ll never get rich, you…SOB, you’re in the Army now!” He said, and I quote, “Gee whiz that song was terrible, but there was one worse called ‘Lulu.’” Dear readers, you’ll have to look that one up for yourself.
Six months of training and this North Carolina mountain boy was on a train to New York City and then a transport ship for a 12-day crossing of the Atlantic. Just before the ship made port in France, several soldiers were on deck exclaiming, “Look fellas, it’s a whale breaching the surface.” Surprise turned to dread when they recognized a German U-boat! The four escort Destroyers chased the submarine away.
The first thing the soldiers went for upon reaching terra firma was fresh water, but not to drink! Why? After nearly two weeks of cold salt water showers, their skin was both sticky and dry and their hair, as Young described it, was a stiff as hog bristles.
In the next episode of Over the Top with the 80th, Young finds that his first battles won’t be with the Germans, please like, comment and share your thoughts in the section below, thanks again for reading Appalachian Moments!