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WWI
German Prisoners Astonished
McLean County, Illinois
(Transcribed by: Teri Moncelle Colglazier)

Herbert Livingston, son of the late Mayer Livingston, proprietor of the Newmarket in Bloomington, wrote a Mothers Day letter to Mrs. Allie his mother on May 12, 1918, telling of his location in France at that time. He told how just before that time there had passed through that part of France a great body of American troops on their way to the front. All were fine men, in the pink of physical condition, well clothed and indicating a splendidly equipped army. Near that place are a large number of German prisoners, some working on the roads and in other capacities. Young Livingston says that the expressions on the faces of the Germans when they beheld this splendid army of American fighters was a study. They had never dreamed of so great a force of such fine fighting men, having been kept in ignorance of the real power the Americans were putting into the struggle. Probably a lot of the prisoners exclaimed in unison, when they saw the Americans: "Mein Gott im Himmel. " [McLean County, Illinois, in the World War, 1917-1918; by Edward E. Pierson & Jacob Louis Hasbrouck c 1921]

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