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I have very little schooling. When I was a
child, you wasn't compelled to go to school, and I
did go to school a little bit, but a very little.
So my public schooling is not very much. All the
learning that I have was things that I picked up
and read for myself and studied so myself.
After we had been in the home guard, or the
local guard, from May until a month or two later,
and was bustled into federal service. Then we
became company L, 116th infantry, 29th division,
and there we trained, we took our training in Camp
McClellan, they call it Fort McClellan now, but it
was Camp McClellan then. And then in the spring we
left there and went overseas and landed in this
town called St. Nazaire, France. And there we
worked our way on through, on through, days at a
time, day at a time, and so on till we got up into
the front.
We was in a place called, I believe I may not
have the names correctly, a town called Gueugnon,
near a town called Gueugnon, and there was trench
warfare. We was in trenches there a while, and
there I got shot through the leg, and was carried
to the hospital. For I reckon about sixteen days,
then I got well enough, I went back to my company,
same one which I left from, and there we was
together on then for support for different places,
support for different drives as we went.
By the time we got to our destination which we
was heading for at the time I reckon was a place
called the Argonne Forest, and there we went into
battle there. If I can remember correctly, on the
eighth day of October, 1918, if my memory serves me
right, and there we stayed we was in that drive
there in Argonne until the twenty-forth. Then I got
wounded, I got my hand shot to pieces, and there I
had to leave the front, seventeen days before the
armistice was signed. So naturally I never got back
into battle anymore, so that's the end of my
fighting days, on I think on the twenty-forth of
October. Rested then till the eleventh of November,
when the armistice was signed, so naturally I never
got back to the front anymore after I got wounded
there.
See, so all of it worked out to be very well.
God's been good to us, he makes a way for us, to
know how to use our things that we have, and we
have to learn to use it of course, it don't come
naturally to use things that's not right, but it
will learn, you'll get used to it and you'll do
pretty good with it, keep going. (talking about his
injured hand)
Well, and then when I got twenty-three years
old, I was like a lot of other people, I was, I was
a rough sort of a man growing up you seen a sort of
a rough little man, and lived a sort of a rough
life a little bit but not to bad. Never did any
crimes or murders or what have you or anything. I
got under conviction, I saw how wrong I was, so I
turned my life over to God. I came to know the lord
at 23 years old, in 1923, I was 23, and I came to
the lord in 1923.
So I've lived a Christian life the best I could.
I haven't done a perfect job, but I've lived a
Christian life since 1923. Now in 1997, I've lived
a Christian life that many years, or tried to. And
I've had some happy days in that, I've worked in
church work. I did some ministry, some work, some
speaking, I used to be able to hold a crowd for a
little while, talk to them about the lord. I've
worked with several churches down through the
years. I pastored a church for two years, one time,
till they could get somebody. I never did call
myself a pastor because I didn't train for a
pastor, but I could preach the gospel, because I
knew the lord.
Well, I'm not able to give anybody much advice
on things. If a person will recognize their maker,
and understand that we are not ourselves, but we
are created, we are made, God made us. And our life
is in the hands of almighty God, and so we have to
be careful how we treat his name, and honor his
name where we can, and trust him. In any place
where you are in danger or what ever it may be if
you are sick, trust him.
If you got to go somewhere where it is
dangerous, exceedingly, still trust him. If you are
laying in bed sick and think you are going to pass
away, which I have had it happen to me, still trust
him. That's advice I'd give to anybody, in the
world, because that's when you're going to need
him, is those spots where we may neglect him too
long, before we can get ourselves in shape to, you
know, in our right mind and everything, to accept
his name, and call upon him.
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Name: Cary Campbell, 98 years
Presently resides: Salem Va.
Born: Amherst County, May 17, 1899
Moved to present hometown: Lived in
Lynchburg his whole life
Type of work after the war: Mechanic,
part-time minister
Family: Raised 7 children with his late
wife
Branch of service: Army, 29th Division
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