Amid mud and driving rain, Private Luke Higgins wrote a letter to his sister in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. The 35-year-old native of Schuylkill County was near the French town of St. Mihiel, a ruined town on the Meuse River that became the scene of a major offensive by the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in September 1918. It would become one of the most important American battles of the First World War.

Higgins served in an artillery unit, the 21st Field Artillery of the United States Army, and had been engaged in the offensive, seeing the carnage left in its wake firsthand.

In his letter to “sister Lizzie,” he described what he had seen and felt over the prior week: artillery barrages that turned the sky red, German and American dead in the trenches, swirling air battles overhead, and the smashed remains of French tanks and their mangled crews. He narrowly escaped death from a German shell while on the move as the offensive progressed.

Of war, Higgins reached back to something said during the Civil War decades earlier: “Sherman was right when he said war was hell.”

The letter is a valuable primary source documenting the harsh realities Coal Region soldiers faced on the Western Front in the final months of the First World War.

It was published in the Miners’ Journal of Pottsville, PA in October 1918:

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WAS IN DRIVE AT ST. MIHIEL

Luke Higgins of the 21st Field Artillery writes to his sister Mrs. W. J. Bankes of Mauch Chunk St. as follows:

France,

Sept. 19, 1918

Dear sister Lizzie:

We are now in action a week ago and we are still driving Fritz back on his own soil. We have advanced our guns three times since we started the drive.

On the 12th at 1:00 a.m. the guns roared for seven hours, the sky was all red and the ground shook under our feet.

The artillery chased the Huns from their trenches then the infantry went after them capturing them. I saw about 500 brought by our battery, some women also were among them. 

When the infantry went over the top they threw away the packs on their backs as did also the Marines and you can pick blankets and underwear up most any place in the woods. I saw a few American soldiers lying dead in the trenches, also some Germans. You can pick lots of German helmets, rifles, and ammunition up. 

We expect to be in an important city of Germany before this letter reaches you. I was as close to a bursting shell as I care to be. On Sunday the 15th at 7:00 a.m. we were getting ready to go to our new gun positions after stopping all night along the road. 

A lot of French troops came along the road they were going to a different sector. They had stopped as the road was blocked with so much traffic. A shell came over the hill and burst throwing rocks all around us. Then another one came which struck on the road only 15 or 20 feet from me killing five French horses and two of our horses, killing one Frenchman and wounding about five. We all ran for a dugout. When I got there it was full of French and American soldiers. I only could get my head in.

The same day we saw a German in a French airplane come over our heads and sent an observation balloon to the ground in flames, the man landing safe by means of a parachute.

I saw some air battles, they are exciting. 

Met a fellow from Pottsville, young Strause from East Norwegian St. He is in the machine gun company. He gave me two packs of Bull Durham and a box of matches. I was glad for them as I was out of both. 

Saw a French tank that was blown up by a mine. It was shattered to pieces and the operator was a sight to look at. They buried him about 20 yards away from where it happened. A young fellow went asleep along the road and a tractor ran over him and killed him. 

It is raining nearly all the time heavy firing is the cause of it. I have been wet through several times. I had a cold and my right eye is all swollen. It may be a cold or else I got bit with a bug of some kind while asleep in the woods. 

We are all on the move the last while back and I did not shave in 8 days and did not wash my face sometimes for 2 days. I could not eat hard tack in the states now it tastes like strawberry shortcake. I can eat all I can get. 

Sherman was right when he said war was hell. I could tell you a whole lot more news if I was feeling better. We are losing quite a few horses, some in action and some which are all in from overwork. We moved our guns up a muddy hill which took 26 horses to get them up.

I wish it soon would be over as this way of living being exposed to all kind of weather will sure ruin our health. I hope my health will be as good when I come home as when I enlisted. Had three letters from Martha yesterday.

Well sister, I have told you all for this time hoping you folks are all well and William has not lost his finger, hoping to hear from you soon. 

I remain your brother, Luke. 

Bye, Bye.

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Luke Higgins returned home to Pennsylvania’s Coal Region in 1920. He lived in Pottsville until his death on March 29, 1930 at the age of 46. He died of pneumonia.

His remains were interred at St. Patrick’s Cemetery #3 in Pottsville.

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Read more about Coal Region soldiers in World War I

Coal Region doctor became a British war hero in March 1918

Photograph captures recruits leaving Mahanoy City, PA during World War I | May 1917

Pennsylvania soldier killed on the Western Front | October 1918

“First Lykens Boy Enlisted in World War”

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