Lift Up Your Hearts!

This is the first of the actual entries from Hezekiah's diary.  As a reminder, I (Porter) am posting two days of transcription each day, one for 100 years ago and one starting from October 9th (the beginning of the diary) and moving forward.

Hezekiah Scovil Porter WW I Diary Transcription

The following is the transcription of Hezekiah Scovil Porter’s diary of his time in the army until his death at Chateau Thierry on July 22, 1918.

Original is in black, annotations in red, horizontal lines indicate page breaks.

(Beginning pages)

H. S. Porter

101^st Machine G. Bat.  (Gun Battalion)

U.S.A.

(Places he went)

Niantic Conn.

Montreal, Canada

Halifax           "

Liverpool, England

Borden          "

Southampton "

Le Havre, France

Mont les Neufchateaux  "

Lifol le Grand  "

Vrigny  "

Pinon   "

Soissons  "

Brienne le Chateau

Bar sur Aube

Fontaine   Fr.  (This seems out of place as it is in southwest France, near Grenoble; could it be Hontaine?)

Colomby  "

Vignory  "

St. Blin  "

Menil la Tour  "

St. Agnan  "

Liouville   "  (It exists on Google, after you scroll down some from the famous person of the same name.)

Jouy  "  (Jouy is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France)

Menil la Tour  "

Bois de Hazelle

near Fleury  (During the Battle of Verdun in 1916 Fleury was captured and recaptured by the Germans and French sixteen times. Since then, it has been unoccupied.  During the war, the town was completely destroyed and the land was made uninhabitable to such an extent that a decision was made not to rebuild it. The area around the municipality was contaminated by corpses, explosives and poisonous gas, so no farmers could take up their work. The site of the commune is maintained as a testimony to war and is officially designated as a "village that died for France." It is managed by a municipal council of three members appointed by the prefect of the Meuse department.)

Foug   "

Void  "

Vitrey le François  "  (Vitry-le-François is a commune in the Marne department.)

Coulommes  "

La Ferte   "  (La Ferté-sous-Jouarre is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne département in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located at a crossing point over the River Marne between Meaux and Château-Thierry.)

Montreul ?  (Could not find in Google)

Bejou ?

Belleau Woods  (Actually spelled Belleau Wood)

(First entry)

(In Connecticut)

Oct. 9^th 1917

Left camp at Niantic at about 8 A.M.  Train late at station.  Started about 10 A.M.  Went north via Saybrook Junction.  Through Hig. (Higganum, Connecticut) Lyndonville Vt. last town went through while awake.  Good reception there.

(Skipping to 100 years ago today)

(In France)

Saturday Feb. 9^th

Up at 3:30 A.M.  Marched to station with junk & loaded it on cars.  Were off after breakfast at 6:30 A.M.  On box cars – 37 in ours.  Some crowd.  Rode all day. Slept but little