An American Crusader at Verdun
Philip Sidney Rice
An American Crusader atVerdun
By
Philip Sidney Rice
Published by the Author,
at Princeton, N. J.
1918
Copyright, 1918,
By Philip Sidney Rice
Published October, 1918
Printed in the United States of America
Foreword
I hesitate to write of my experiences because somany books have been written about the war, andthe story of the ambulancier has been told before.
Many young Americans in sympathy with theAllied cause, and particularly the cause of France,and many Americans anxious to uphold the honorof their own country, when others were holdingback the flag, went over as “crusaders” in advanceof the American Army. Many had gone over beforeI went; some have come back and told theirstory and told it well—and so, although I went asa “crusader,” I am not the first to tell the story.
But if my story interests a few of my friends andkin I shall be satisfied with the telling of it.
Philip Sidney Rice.
Rhodes Tavern,
Harvey’s Lake, Pa.
Introduction
A citation in general orders, by the CommandingGeneral of the 69th Division of Infantry of theFrench Army, which declares that Driver Philip S.Rice “has always set an example of the greatestcourage and devotion in the most trying circumstancesduring the evacuation of wounded in theattacks of August and September, 1917, beforeVerdun,”[1]ought to be sufficient introduction initself to this story of an American AmbulanceDriver who bore himself valiantly in those days ofthe great tragedy at Verdun. And yet for thestory itself, and for the man who has written it,something can be said by one of his friends in appreciationof both the story and the man.
The literature that is coming out, and which willcome out, of the great war, will never cease as longas history shall recite the efforts of the GermanSpoiler to gain the mastery of the world, and fillthe world with hate and hunger. Therefore, everybit of evidence that shall touch even so lightly onevery phase of the conditions, and reveal even in theslightest sense a picture of what happened, willhave its value.
Of Mr. Rice, I can say that as a youngster thespirit of adventure was strong in him. He triedhis best to break into the War with Spain in 1898,but his weight and heart action compelled his rejectionby the surgeons. He later, however, servedwith credit under my command, as an enlisted man,and as an officer of the Ninth Infantry, NationalGuard of Pennsylvania.
When the United States entered the conflict onthe side of the Entente Allies in the present war,Mr. Rice, knowing that he could not gain a place inthe fighting forces, volunteered for service in theAmerican Ambulance Corps in France. Hereinis written the story of that service simply to