Notes From The Trenches: A Musician's Journey Through World War I

By Gary H. Foster

The Terror and Triumph of WWI in a Soldier's Own Words... The Foster family of Wisconsin were vibrant and happy in the early years of the 20th century. Like many families in the area, they were descended from German immigrants and had a healthy appetite for hard work and beer. Barbara Foster, widowed early in life, created a loving home for her children Leo, Ottilia, Mary, and Kunigunda. They were all musicians, forming their own orchestra and playing in regional and local venues. But despite Woodrow Wilson's promises, America found itself drawn into the Great War overseas, and Leo Foster, bugler for the Wisconsin National Guard, was sent to the front lines. Nearly a century later, this book reconstructs Leo's World War I experience from letters, newspaper clippings, and photographs from Leo's footlocker. Nothing compares to the immediacy of the war experience in a soldier's own words. Notes from the Trenches follows Leo from stateside training to the horror of the Meuse-Argonne offensive and his battle-weary return home in May of 1919. Full of wit, good humor, and honesty, these letters provide a fascinating window into the War to End All Wars, with insightful organization and context from Leo's grandson, Gary Foster.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Release date: Jan 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781478795674

Gary H. Foster

Gary Foster, Leo Foster's grandson, was inspired by his grandfather's legacy and served for 27 years in the US Navy as a naval flight officer.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

In recent years, our country has been referred to by members of our own government as arrogant, dismissive, and derisive. I took that as a direct insult to the men and women who had fought for freedom overseas and served our country over the years through major and minor conflicts. Members of my family have fought for this country, including myself, and it all began with my grandfather, Leo Foster, who fought in World War I.

There were times when our country needed to act with arrogance, be dismissive, and operate with derision. World Wars I and II were two such periods where we needed these attributes to punish the enemy and win the war. I learned that in my formative years when history was taught correctly, and patriotism wasn’t just another word, and by studying history and military operations later in life at the Naval War College. My grandfather was a member of the US Army’s infamous 32nd Division. My dad John Foster trained as a Naval Aviator in World War II, and my father-in-law Louis Zschernitz served in the 32nd Division in World War II. My older brother Jeff Foster carried on the Foster military service line in the Air Force as a Weapons System Officer in F-111’s, and I followed serving as an officer in the Navy in the airborne nuclear command and control arena.

The comments made about our country were disappointing, annoying, and personally insulting—at least, they were to me. How could anyone in a leadership capacity in our United States be so naïve about our country’s long history of defending freedom? The Statue of Liberty standing watch over New York City carries the torch that lights the way to freedom and liberty for all nations, and we respond to any threat to those ideals. Surely anyone serving in an elected capacity in our government would understand this.

It was in 2010 that my dad, in the waning years of his life, gave me a footlocker that belonged to his dad and my grandfather. It had stayed relatively intact through the years, but had white paint splotches on the top, and normal wear and tear. It contained over 100 letters that Leo had written or received during his training and participation in World War I. It also contained old newspapers and pictures that had been saved by his mother Barbara, and his sisters Mary and Kunigunda, (Kuni). His oldest sister, Ottilia (Tillie), was married and living in South Dakota at the time of Leo’s training and deployment to France. She was dealing with her own issues, as her husband Ambrose Haag had joined the Marines and had gone off to training in Arizona. Every healthy man of age would either join or be drafted to participate in this war. It was a national emergency that unified the country. That’s how it was in 1917.

The footlocker had an invaluable amount of history, a story that needed to be told. With the 100-year anniversary of America’s entry into World War I coming up in 2017, the timing was right to reconstruct the adventures of Leo through those letters.

(Gary Foster photo)

Leo W. Foster’s footlocker. The top of the footlocker reads:

MUSC. LEO W. FOSTER

CO. M, 3RD WISCONSIN NG U.S. ARMY

His sister Kuni had transcribed several of the letters in the footlocker and mentioned to Leo in one of those letters about writing a book about his war experience. She never accomplished that task after the war ended, as she pursued her own career and interests and eventually married.

I set out to finish what my great-Aunt Kuni had started and write this story. I wanted to remember the forgotten, the men they called Doughboys who went over there to defeat the German army and their quest for world dominance. How dare anyone trample the memory of what these brave men accomplished! They were young, arrogant, dismissive, and derisive, the necessary qualities that define a fierce fighting force built to win.

I have been working on this project for approximately three years as of this writing. It has involved several major undertakings. My very first task was to organize the letters, pictures, and newspapers, and categorize the contents of the footlocker. I spent considerable time transcribing the letters from faded letters into Word documents. Upon completion of that task, I started looking through those old newspapers for clippings about my grandfather. Some of the newspapers in the footlocker had been marked by my great-grandmother or my great-aunts. I signed up for an online newspaper archive service and sifted through the old newspapers that were not in the footlocker. Finally, I researched the campaign battles that my grandfather had participated in.

This book is not a detailed description of the World War I campaigns or battles that Leo Foster experienced. To begin with, the formation of what eventually became the US Army’s 32nd Red Arrow Division has its roots in the early part of World War I. My grandfather had enlisted in the Wisconsin National Guard and been assigned to Company M of the Old Wisconsin 3rd Regiment. I am not a historian nor World War I expert by any means, but I did provide some of the pertinent details of the engagements my grandfather’s unit fought in. This story is a chronological history of Leo’s war life, from enlistment in the Wisconsin National Guard in 1917 to his release from active duty in 1919. It is completely based on ninety-six letters that he had written and a half-dozen letters or cards written to him or by other people in his life. Along with the letters there were numerous La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press newspapers from that era, and I sifted through those to provide details about Leo’s journey. There are in my estimation a few letters that are missing, and more than likely the critical ones that would clear up some of the confusion between family lore and what is captured in ink that are discussed in this book.

I found his letters to be very entertaining. He was, in his own right, a comedian, and by trade he was a musician assigned as an Army Bugler. He often referred to himself as Little Lord Fauntleroy. He signed his letters Kid, which I am sure was a term his older sisters called him often. He used expressions such as say, gee, gosh, holy smokes, Jake, h _ _ _, and other innocent terms you will see in his letters. I edited many of the letters to correct some of the spelling and punctuation, but I left a number untouched to give the reader a sense of how he wrote. As I have found out by reading sections of the newspaper that published letters from soldiers, he was not necessarily unique in his writing style. The soldiers often wrote in comedic prose to either humor themselves in the seemingly endless quagmire of their deployment, or to put their loved ones at ease and keep them from worrying about their fate.

His sister Mary he nicknamed Jack, and I assume she must have called him Jack or Kid a lot, so he referred to her as either, also. Perhaps the one thing that stands out the most in his letters is his love for his widowed mother. He felt enormous guilt for leaving the family to go to war, as the man of the house and the major wage-earner. Many of the soldiers who fought in the war had both parents to write home to. Though this was not unique, my grandfather wrote home to his mom and sisters. He never knew his dad, as he passed away early in Leo’s life. His mother had maintained her sanity through the years after suffering through several tragedies. She wanted her daughters and son to be successful. Leo’s love for his mother and sisters is one of the strengths that carried him through the war.

Talking in terms of mere dollars, he bragged about his pay of roughly $25 a month. His frugality was a product of the day and age of the depressed economy. To put aside any money was something, and Leo ran his own loan service enterprise for other soldiers. He sent what he could back home to his mom. Occasionally he would send a dollar or two to his sisters to go out on the town. It is fascinating what a dollar could buy during that timeframe. Through his own business dealings selling sweets and tobacco products while in charge of the Canteen, a name given to the Army snack bar, he accumulated the bookkeeping experience that he would use after the war in a variety of like occupations.

World War I has been described as a war about families. For La Crosse, Wisconsin residents, this was especially true. Many of the local men had enlisted in the National Guard, known as Old Company M. Their families knew each other well. As you will read in the letters, acquaintances and friends pop in and out of his life while serving in the Army.

Leo Foster’s mother, Barbara, was well known in social circles throughout the city as she was involved in many women’s groups. Tillie, Mary, and Kuni were music teachers and played the violin as well as other instruments. They performed at numerous social gatherings and performed around the city at various venues. The Foster family was well-known throughout certain music and social circles in the city.

The boys, as they were referred to, were hungry. They were hungry to kick the Germans back to Germany. They were hungry for candy that was in short supply in France. They were hungry for good old US tobacco. More than anything else, however, they longed for news from home during their training and deployment to Europe. They would learn of their family and friends’ triumphs and tragedies back in their hometown more often by letters they received or from copies of the newspapers that arrived in the mail. They shared stories about their sisters and brothers, their girlfriends or wives, cousins, or acquaintances. Talking about home was a way to relieve the homesickness that hung mercilessly over the troops through the years they were gone.

My grandfather had some close female friends. One was Beaulah, and the other was Tillie (not to be confused with his sister Ottilia). There was mention of one or the other or both in many of his letters. Leo was the subject of a tug-of-war for attention between these two women, both of whom had a grip on his heart. I left out of the conversations many of the private comments Leo made concerning these two loves. While he often talked about the beauty that Beaulah apparently was, he did say he was engaged to Tillie at one point. His letters point to a rift between the two that eventually ruined both relationships. Suffice it to say, the Leo prize was not won by either of these young ladies.

The city of La Crosse was composed of many descendants of German immigrants. Leo’s mother Barbara spoke German, and accordingly her children picked up some or most of the language as well. Leo’s proficiency in the German language would serve him well during the war, especially when he was assigned to the Army of Occupation in Germany at the end of the war. Many of the other boys had the same gift, and while in France managed to pick up that language as well.

The Germans in that country were despised by Americans, especially by those of German descent. The tactics used by German troops beginning in 1914, especially those used against women and children, coupled with the deaths of hundreds of Americans at sea due to submarine attacks, turned the tide against the German homeland. The boys referred to their enemy as the Boche (Bosche), the Huns, the Heinies, or Fritz. Boche was commonly used by newspapers of the time and was a French term meaning rascal, whereas the other terms of endearment were used mainly by the soldiers.

My grandfather’s family was a strict Catholic family. As a result, Leo often made acquaintances with the local French or German Catholic priests. He served as an altar boy at several Catholic masses performed by a family priest serving with the 32nd Division, by the name of Father Eilers. Leo’s faith would be his greatest asset throughout the war. It kept him morally grounded and dedicated to his family back home.

Buglers were extremely vulnerable to enemy fire during the war. They exposed themselves as they trumpeted battle calls, waved signal flags, or ran across the front lines to deliver messages. As communicators, they were primary targets for the enemy.

Leo was wounded several times during the war. His first wound he calls a scratch but does not go into much detail. He was severely wounded in the Second Battle of the Marne on August 1st 1917. According to a newspaper article in 1968, he was reported killed in action (KIA) in France, and his family was notified of his death by telegram from the War Department. Several weeks later, the family received almost simultaneously a letter from the Red Cross stating he was erroneously reported as killed in action, and a letter from him stating he was alive. The local newspaper printed a few related stories of other individuals that had been erroneously reported KIA, but I could not find a similar story involving Leo. There may be several reasons why this was so. Perhaps the Foster family was so bereaved by the reported loss of their loved one that they did not want this published, or maybe it just was not that newsworthy at the time. American troops sustained heavy losses during the late summer and early fall of 1918, and sorting out the deaths from the injured and missing was a challenging task for the military services to report. My grandfather’s serious wounding was not reported in the newspaper’s Roll of Honor until February of 1919, almost seven months later. The lag time of transmitting information and the confusion otherwise known as the fog of war additionally contributed to erroneous reporting. Nonetheless, Leo Foster sustained some serious injuries during the war, including shell shock. I did my best to explain these circumstances in the ensuing chapters.

This book is a tribute to the men like my grandfather who fought as Doughboys in the First World War. The term Doughboy and its origin are unknown, but there are several theories discussed about the origin available on the internet. Regardless, it was a term given to the members of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). The men are all gone now, but as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Armistice in 1918, we need to remember the selfless sacrifice they made. Over 18 million military and civilian lives were lost during the war. Combat deaths alone for American troops surpassed 53,000. Deaths from all causes, including disease and from wounds suffered, were approximately 116,000. A heavy price was paid in the war to end all wars. My grandfather was in the thick of this war. He blew his bugle commands as a patriot, and he paid a heavy price, one that he recounts in his notes from the trenches.

CHAPTER 1

(Gary Foster photo)

Page six of the La Crosse Tribune from Wednesday, May 17th, 1916, listed a short column with the headline:

House is Packed for Vaudeville in School Hall

‘Performing before an enthusiastic crowd, the Young Men’s Society at St. Joseph’s Church ventured into its third annual vaudeville show. A feature of the evening was a marimba solo by Leo Foster, drummer, who played the peculiar African instrument with great effect. Further on down the article states: ‘Nic Serres was Stage Manager, and the orchestra consisted of Miss Helen Miller, Pianist, Miss Mary Foster, Violinist, and Leo Foster, Drums.’

(Reprinted with permission of the La Crosse Tribune)

Leo Foster was twenty-two years old when he performed in this show. He and his sister, Mary, were accomplished musicians. By day, Leo worked for the Colman Lumber Company and had worked for the La Crosse Tribune newspaper, and Mary was a music teacher in the city of La Crosse, Wisconsin. During the evenings, Leo, Mary, and another sister, Kuni, performed as the Foster Orchestra, a musical trio at various venues around the city. A fourth sister, Tillie, was the oldest sibling and played violin with her sisters in an orchestra with a very unusual name in the early years of the 20th century. She married in 1909 and eventually moved away to South Dakota.

Tillie was an avid hunter as much as she was a musician. Along with the other two Foster sisters, she was an accomplished violinist in the Foster clan. Before Leo joined the Foster Orchestra, Tillie, Mary, and Kuni played in a group that went by the name Swastika. In the early 1900s, this term was innocently known as a symbol of well-being and spirituality. It would gain sinister notoriety some twenty years later when it was adopted as a symbol by the Nazi Party.

Tillie was a victim of what is in this present day and age known as domestic terrorism during a horrific encounter on a train in August of 1906. While traveling from La Crosse to Jefferson to see relatives, a man attacked the conductor and attempted to kill him. In the ensuing mêlée, Tillie was injured in the head and arms by the knife-wielding man. She continued to Jefferson but then fell ill to her injuries from blood poisoning. Barbara had to travel to Jefferson because of the seriousness of the situation, as Tillie was apparently near death at one point. She did eventually recover from those injuries. A short blurb in the local paper in January of 1907 stated that she was very much improved and getting along nicely.

Gary Foster photo

One of Ottilia Tillie Foster’s favorite past times was hunting

Mary went by several first names of the times: Mamie, Marie, and Mary. She was by all accounts an extraordinary violinist. She played solo at many events in and around La Crosse and traveled to Chicago to perform. Mary took a trip to the East Coast in 1914 attempting to make her dreams of becoming a renowned musician come true, but she returned home, possibly due to homesickness, or maybe as the oldest unmarried sister she suffered the guilt of leaving her mother, sister, and brother behind. Leo would suffer the same fate as he went away to fight in the war.

(Gary Foster photo)

Mary Mamie Foster

1913 Ad in the La Crosse Tribune and Leader Press

(Reprinted with permission of the La Crosse Tribune)

Kuni’s unusual name comes from Saint Kunigunda in the Catholic faith. Kuni was also a violinist and pianist and sang in the Foster Orchestra. She seemed to be the wild one of the bunch, as she was very much into the social drinking scene. Leo would tease her often in his letters to not touch a drop of the stores she was collecting for his welcome home from the war celebration.

Leo was the man of the family and worked hard to support his widowed mother, Barbara, and his sisters. When Tillie married and moved away in 1909, the burden on Leo to provide for the family increased. Leo was content with his daily chores, his job, and his musical night life, and provided what he could for the household. He may have gained notoriety and something of a hero complex in 1906. He stopped a team of runaway horses and a wagon that were spooked when the wagon tongue dropped. The driver of the wagon was thrown off and run over, breaking his leg in the process. Leo ran after the horses and stopped them by grabbing their bits. Horses would become a large part of Leo’s war experience.

Fueled by ambition and searching for opportunities to improve his family’s living conditions in the depressed economy of the time, he was primed to venture out after new experiences. Little did he know that his musical skills and talents would be required by the United States Army in 1917 when American participation in World War I became unavoidable.

The Foster family ancestors had emigrated under the surname of Forster from the region of Beiern, Germany prior to the beginning of the American Civil War. Leo’s grandfather, George Forster and grandmother Annie, like so many Europeans, eagerly sought the American dream. Settling in Jefferson, Wisconsin, they had two sons, John in 1859, and Adam in 1861. This city had seen the first German immigrants arrive in 1842. Many of those early settlers became involved with the logging industry in Wisconsin. Jefferson was an ideal city for the lumber industry, situated on the junction of Craw Fish and Rock Rivers, and Wisconsin’s forests were primed for the construction industries. The building of a saw mill provided the catalyst for the rapid growth of the city due to the influx of (mostly German) immigrants with lumber skills. In 1845, the main businesses in the area included a blacksmith shop, a gunsmith shop, several carpentry shops, and some other businesses to include of course, a Wisconsin staple—a cheese factory.

The Forster name in origin is a variant of Forester, a name for someone who lived and worked in the woods. In the Foster family history, George Forster may very well have found employment in the lumber industry upon arrival in Jefferson. However, by the time the George Forster family settled in this city, there were numerous opportunities for work. One of the earliest manufacturing plants to draw immigrant workers was a wool manufacturing company. It produced many of the products necessary to survive brutal northern winters, such as flannels, cashmeres, and blankets.

By 1860, a furniture company was producing various products, but the most important output was chairs. Other industries that sprang up after the Civil War included an evaporated milk company, an upholstering company, several tanneries, and three breweries. The mention of the breweries is of significance in the life of Leo’s father, John. At the age of twenty-one, in the 1880 census, he is listed as a Brewery Servant for the Neillsville Brewery in the Wisconsin city of the same name. Neillsville, Wisconsin, would figure prominently in the Forster/Foster family legacy in the 20th century.

Of greater significance though, perhaps George Forster himself was a Brewery Servant in one of the Jefferson, Wisconsin breweries, and had taught his oldest son John the art of making famously German beer. The lives of George and his wife Annie Forster may be one of my future research projects.

John Forster married another German immigrant by the name of Barbara Schimmel from Jefferson in 1881, and they headed into the wilderness in the