Did you ever hear a bullet whiz,
       Or dodge a hand grenade? 
     Have you watched long lines of trenches dug
       By doughboys with a spade? 
     Have you seen the landscape lighted up
       At midnight by a shell? 
     Have you seen a hillside blazing forth
       Like a furnace room in hell?

     Have you stayed all night in a ruined town
       With a rafter for a bed? 
     With horses stamping underneath
       In the morning when they are fed? 
     Have you heard the crump-crump whistle? 
       Do you know the dud shell’s grunt? 
     Have you played rat in a dugout?—­
       Then you have surely seen the front.

     —­Lieut.  Blaine G. Alston, 370th U.8.  Troops.

CHAPTER XVII

NARRATIVE OF AN OFFICER

Special Article by Captain John H. Patton, Adjutant of 8th
Illinois—­Summarizes Operations of the Regiment—­From First Call to
Mustering Out—­An Eye Witness Account—­In Training Camps, at Sea, in
France—­Service in Argonne Forest—­Many Other Engagements—­A Thrilling
Record—­Battalion Operations in Detail—­Special Mention of Companies and
Individuals.

Captain John H. Patton, regimental adjutant of the 370th, who commanded the second battalion through most of its service, presents a summary of the operations of the regiment from the first call to the mustering out.  Being in charge of the organization’s records, his account is detailed, authentic and highly valuable as supplementing the data of the previous chapter; gleaned from departmental records and other sources.  It carries additional interest as being the testimony of an eye-witness, one who participated in the stirring events in a marked and valorous degree.  The recital in Captain Patton’s own words, the phrase of a highly trained and efficient military man, follows: 

Pursuant to the call of the President, under date of July 3, 1917, the 8th Illinois Infantry reported at the various rendezvous on July 25, 1917, as follows:  At Chicago, Illinois regimental headquarters; Headquarters company, Machine Gun company, Supply company, Detachment Medical Department, and Companies A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H; at Springfield, Illinois, Company I; at Peoria, Illinois, Company K; at Danville, Illinois, Company L; at Metropolis, Illinois, Company M.

On the date the regiment responded to the call Colonel Franklin A. Denison commanded the regiment, the other Field Officers being Lieutenant Colonel James H. Johnson, Major Rufus M. Stokes, Major Charles L. Hunt, Major Otis B. Duncan and Captain John H. Patton, regimental adjutant.