100 years ago in Spokane: Troops on standby after attack on New Mexican town

From our archives, 100 years ago

The troops at Fort George Wright received orders to be ready to depart for war – but not the war you might guess.

The troops were ordered to be ready to head to the Mexican border to counter an incursion by Pancho Villa in New Mexico.

Meanwhile, the U.S. had still not entered the European war – although sentiment was growing to intervene.

From the European war beat: Lt. Charles Sweeny, a hero of the French Foreign Legion, returned to his home in Spokane to rest for a few weeks. He was recently awarded the French Medal of Honor.

He spoke at the Chamber of Commerce about his experiences at the front. He said that “living in a trench is like living in the excavation of a water or gas main, with the exception that the trench is usually waist deep in water.”

He said the first night in a trench “is an ordeal, as there are no lights and no one knows how close the enemy is.” He said that the work in building and maintaining trenches is so hard that “soldiers ask to be allowed to attack as a relief from hard work.”

Sweeny also made a few statements that, with benefit of hindsight, were far too optimistic. He said that the “percentage of killed is small,” that there “are practically no losses from sickness,” and that gas attacks “are being successfully combated.”

He also said that modern “high-power bullets cauterize the wounds as they make them and recovery is rapid.”