§ 73 With All Good Wishes
The colonel of one of our negro regiments serving in France during the world war impressed it upon the rank and file of his command that in the field a soldier addressing his superior officer invariably should have regard for correct military procedure and for correct military language. The lesson must have gone home, because now among the treasured possessions of that colonel is a certain document sent by runner from a forward trench to company headquarters back of the second line of defense.
On a scrap of paper, with a stub of pencil, the author of the communication, a much-harried black corporal then undergoing his baptism of shelling, wrote as follows:
“To Lieutenant Seth B. McClintock,
“Commanding Company F.
—Blank Regimen’
“Blank Division, A. E. F., U. S. A.
“Dear Sir—I am being fired on heavily from the left. I await your instructions.
“Trusting these few lines will find you the same, I remain,
“Yours truly,
“James Jordon.”