Coming full circle, a war story:
From Wikipedia:
Antoine Carre (fl. 1786-1808) was a French explorer and fur trader. After marrying the daughter of an Ottawa chieftain, he himself became founder and leader of the Bear River Ottawas during the mid-18th century as Neaatooshing (or Nee-i-too-shing).
His son Chief Petosegay and grandson Ignatius Petoskey were prominent Ottawa leaders throughout the 19th century, the land of the Bear River Ottawas being the site of the present day town Petoskey, Michigan.Biography:
A Frenchman reportedly of aristocratic origins, Carre arrived from France in the 1770s or early 1780s according to traditional accounts. While working as a fur trader for the John Jacob Astor Fur Company, he explored much of northern Illinois and Michigan living among the local tribes. He eventually married the daughter of an Ottawa chieftain and, adopted by the tribe, Carre was given the name Neaatooshing. During the late 1780s, he founded his own tribe along the Bear River. His lodge was established about seven miles northwest of Harbor Springs, near Middle Village.
Now jump forward to 3 Oct 1918, Brooklyn NY, at a Liberty Loan rally.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 6, quoted excerpt follows:
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Wounded Marines Here, Tell of Fight in Belleau Wood
“We attacked on June 2 and stopped them and held them until June 6. Then we decided they’d been here long enough and we’d drive ’em back. So we did.”
That was the story of the U. S. Marine Corps at Chateau-Thierry as summed up by Pvt. Howard Petoskey of Marian, Mich., in whose veins flows the blood of Indian chiefs. His grandfather was Chief Petoskey and his Indian forebears date back beyond the very dawn of American history: but their shades have reason to be well satisfied by the manner in which their descendant upheld the fighting traditions of their race. Wounded in five places in both legs, three of the wounds being inflicted by machine gun and two by rifle fire, Petoskey was invalided home. He still walks with a decided limp, and finds it necessary to use a cane, but he hopes to be able to go back once more, after “doing his bit” for the Liberty Loan.
Pvt. Petoskey and Pvt. William DeGrow of Whittlemore, Mich., also of the Marine Corps, took part in the fighting at Chateau-Thierry, where the Marines turned the high tide of the German rush for Paris and transformed an Allied retreat into an Allied advance. It was in the fighting in Belleau Wood–Devil Wood is the name the Marines know it by–where Petoskey was wounded. DeGrow managed to escape unscathed, only to be knocked out by a high-power shell at Soissons a few weeks later. He was wounded in the left shoulder and part of his left hand carried away, but he, too, does not despair of getting back to get another crack at the Hun.
How the marinesmade their famous fight at Chateau-Thierry and in Belleau Wood was told by Petoskey and DeGrow at the Liberty Loan Rally held in The Eagle Auditorium last night, under the auspices of the Brooklyn Committee of Publishing, Printing, Advertising and Allied Interests, for the Loan. Herbert F. Gunnison, chairman of the committee, after outlining the work of the Publishers, Printers and Advertisers Division, turned the meeting over to Andrew McLean, editor of the Brooklyn Citizen. Other speakers included W. E. Bell, general manager of Harris, Forbes & Co, Addison Wheeler, Ralph Waldo Bowman and Park Commissioner John N. Harman. A musical program of exceptional merit was furnished by H. J. Donaghy, soloist, accompanied by Mrs. Donaghy; and by Miss Mabel Hopkinson of The Eagle staff, accompanied by Martin Weyrauch, also of the Eagle.
It was at 3:30 p.m. on Decoration Day that the Marine Corps got its orders to leave for Chateau-Thierry. The marines had just completed a forty-one day spell in the trenches at Verdun, had been out two days and were on their way to Flanders when the summons came. At 3:45 p.m. they were packed and on their way.
“We walked all night,” declared Petoskey, “and in the morning we were met by French camions. We decided then that it must be urgent or they wouldn’t have sent us automobiles. We’d been doing too much walking previously. We rode all that day but the next day we walked and in the afternoon we came upon the French army in retreat. They said the Germans were about four miles behind them, but we walked the rest of the day and well on into the night and didn’t see them. At 2:30 a.m. we lay down in a clover field to rest and then we got our first sign of Fritz. One of his airplanes discovered us and began to drop bombs. We were on one side of a fence and they dropped the bombs on the other side. That’s all that saved us. At 4:30 we moved out of the field and then we met them.”
The Marines were armed with nothing but their Springfield rifles and some machine guns. They had proceeded so fast they had outstripped their artillery and they didn’t even have a supply of bombs on had. The Germans fought with desperation, but for four days their most furious rushes were broken on the defense before them. Then the Marines decided to counterattck and moved forward on the morning of June 6 into Belleau Wood.
“It is called a ‘wood,'” continued Petoskey, “but it is nothing but rocks, rocks as big as the end of this room. The Germans saw us coming and peered out to have a look. About 300 rifles cracked at once and those that didn’t fall began to run. It wasn’t till we struck a wheat field beyond that we met with real resistance. The wheat field was packed with machine gun nests and the minute we appeared on the edge of it they opened up. About sixty or seventy of our men dropped in the next ten seconds. I went on a little bit and then I was hit. I thought afterwards that it didn’t amount to so much and I told the doctor I had a little wound. He looked me over and said: ‘Back to the States for your.’ I didn’t stop to argue with him.”
Details of the further fighting of the Marines at Soissons and of the great work of the French whippet tanks were told by Pvt De Grow. Due to the assistance of the tanks, he declared, the casualties in the latter fighting were comparatively slight; nothing to those suffered at Belleau Wood.
Before introducing the speakers Mr. McLean referred to the cheering accounts of Allied successes in the news dispatches, but warned his hearers against the danger of relaxing their efforts…
Recliner Commando 