Letter from Phares Miller Holdeman, World War I, shared by Karen Colvin
Phares Miller Holdeman was a chaplain with the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I. His granddaughter, Karen Colvin, who lived for many years in Elmhurst, said his letters were always mysteriously headlined "Somewhere in France." He ministered to American soldiers and to German POWs.
This letter, dated Oct. 17, 1918, was written to his wife, Carrie, son Lawrence and daughter Mary by a man eager to go home - less than a month before the Armistice of Nov. 11, but after fighting had ceased in his area. He dares hope to be home by the New Year, but steels himself to the practicalities and settles on Easter as a more likely date. He is haunted by the slaughter of so many friends and comrades, yet eager to begin a new life, choosing names for babies not yet born. Here are excerpts from an extraordinary letter:
My Dear Loved Ones at Home:
It is now almost one o'clock Sunday and while I write this you are about eating your breakfast as you have only about 8 a.m. That's the difference in time between here and home ... The days now are just so short - it is not daylight til eight and gets dark by four. The nights certainly are early but I have a nice place to be with a good bed and plenty of cover and a stove in my room and an orderly to brings me my meals and keep the fires. We are located on a high hill in a brand new house that the Germans had just finished and planned for their winter quarters. Well, not 10 hours before the end we drove them off the hill and now we expect to stay for awhile. But I hope not so very long as well hope to be on our way to see the Statue of Liberty before long.
... When the big guns stopped firing, a wonderful sensation crept over us all. All was still and the men looked at one another and not a word was said, Instead of shouting as you might think, many fell on their knees and thanked God. Even now we cannot realize it as we stay in the place and walk around the shell-holes and the wire entanglements, trenches and dug-outs. The Germans, however, made a great demonstration and came out at once and offered us all kinds of treats and said they would never fight again. In the evening they fired rockets and flares most all night, Our boys, for the first time built campfires all over the hillside.
... I came through two drives without a scratch of harm while others were wounded and killed ... and just how I got thru so well is simply a matter of a kind Providence. Certainly I was under it all - shell fire, shrapnel, gas, bombing and machine-gun fire. ... Yes, my good friend Major Allen was killed in our first drive, known as the Argonne drive on the west side of the River Meuse. My friend Ser. Painter ... was also killed in the drive and my other friend Captain Freeman. There are others whose names are not familiar to you. You cannot understand how hard it is to see one's best friends fall by one's side but so it is in war. For 58 days we were not out of reach of shell fire and for 18 days we were in the front line, what we endured no one can ever imagine and folks will not believe it when we tell them. But thank God it is all over.
... You spoke about a name some time ago, well I have one now for a boy or girl. If a boy, Joseph, for three reasons. The commander of our division is Joseph Kuhn. The commander of all the Ex. Forces is John Joseph Pershing and it is also your father's name. Now if a girl, Joan, in honor of Joan of Arc.
I am enclosing a letter to you written by the sister of one of the boys who died of pneumonia. I wrote her a letter as she was the one to be notified. I want you to save it as I think it shows a little how my work is appreciated.