From the Daily Times, Wilson, N.C., April 10,
1919
American Troops
Refuse to Fight the Bolshevik on the Archangel Front Until Appealed to by Their
Commander Who Told Them It Might Mean Their Very Lives Were at Stake
Archangel, April 10—A company of American troops who
recently showed some hesitation in returning to the fighting front south of
Archangel declared that the war with Germany was over and that the United
States was not at war with the Bolsheviki.
The Regimental commander in the speech to them informed them
that they were fighting a desperate defensive battle and advised them to stick
out. He explained to them their very lives were in danger.
In their criticism of the course of their country in the
waging of war against Germany and that was finished now and that America is not
at war with the Bolsheviki, and that furthermore the entire Bolsheviki question
with its principles involved was a debatable question even in the United
States, and so far as they were concerned they were unable to see why they were
fighting when there was no war.
In addition to telling his men that they were fighting a
desperate defensive, probably in order to save their own lives and those of
their comrades, he appealed to them as men and as American soldiers whose valor
and patriotism had never been sullied by defeat or insubordination.
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