The train was packed with men. Men lying as still as if they were
already dead. Men shaking with pain. One man raving, jabbering,
yelling, in delirium. Everywhere bandages . . . bandages . . .
bandages . . . and blood.
Those words describe the moment when Private John Lewis Barkley
first grasped the grim reality of the war he had entered. The rest
of Barkley's memoir, first published in 1930 as "No Hard Feelings"
and long out of print, provides a vivid ground-level look at World
War I through the eyes of a soldier whose exploits rivaled those of
Sergeant York.
A reconnaissance man and sniper, Barkley served in Company K of
the 4th Infantry Regiment, a unit that participated in almost every
major American battle. The York-like episode that earned Barkley
his Congressional Medal of Honor occurred on October 7, 1918, when
he climbed into an abandoned French tank and singlehandedly held
off an advancing German force, killing hundreds of enemy soldiers.
But Barkley's memoir abounds with other memorable moments and
vignettes, all in the words of a soldier who witnessed war's
dangers and degradations but was not at all fazed by them.
Unlike other writers identified with the "Lost Generation," he
relished combat and made no apology for having dispatched scores of
enemy soldiers; yet he was as much an innocent abroad as a killing
machine, as witnessed by second thoughts over his sniper's role, or
by his determination to protect a youthful German prisoner from
American soldiers eager for retribution. This Missouri backwoodsman
and sharpshooter was also a bit of a troublemaker who smuggled
liquor into camp, avoided promotions like the plague, and had a
soft heart for mademoiselles and frauleins alike.
In his valuable introduction to this stirring memoir, Steven
Trout helps readers to better grasp the historical context and
significance of this singular hero's tale from one of our most
courageous doughboys. Both haunting and heartfelt, inspiring and
entertaining, "Scarlet Fields" is a long overlooked gem that opens
a new window on our nation's experience in World War I and brings
back to life a bygone era.
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