The Triage of the 90th Division handled in the St. Mihiel sector, from all sources, a total of 7417
wounded, gassed, and sick, of which number 4758 were 90th Division battle casualties.
Upon being relieved in the St. Mihiel sector, the ambulance and field hospital companies were
assembled at Blenod-les-Toul for a week of rest. The medical detachments of various regiments
accompanied their organizations to various towns and villages in the vicinity of Toul for the same
purpose. After moving to the Meuse-Argonne front, the Triage was established on October 19 at
Béthincourt. Field Hospital No. 357 assisted by two officers and sixty men of Ambulance Company No.
360, was combined with Field Hospital No. 358, which acted as a gas department, and the divisional
Triage. This was a change in procedure, in compliance with corps orders, from that followed in the St.
Mihiel sector. Field Hospital No. 359 was established at Sivry-la-Perche to receive the sick and to act as
relay station to the rear for the slightly wounded. Field Hospital No. 360, on October 20, reported to the
179th Brigade and opened an advance rest station at Nantillois, with a dressing station at Madeleine
Farm.
In the Meuse-Argonne sector all four field hospitals were established under tentage, as no
buildings were available, and the rapid advance necessitated the use of mobile equipment.
Owing to the narrowness of the Division front, only one ambulance dressing station was
established. On the night of October 21 Ambulance Companies Nos. 357 and 359 established a joint
dressing station under tentage at Nantillois. On the following day Ambulance Company No. 357 moved
to Romagne and established a dressing and gas treatment station. On November 3 Ambulance Company
No. 358, which had been at Septsarges, joined Ambulance Company No. 359 at the main dressing
station at Nantillois. All companies furnished details to the battalion aid stations. All motor
ambulances, thirty-eight in number, were pooled and operated from one “ambulance head.” The
“ambulance head” was first established at Nantillois and on November 5 was moved to Cunel. On this
same date Ambulance Company No. 359 moved its dressing station to Villers-devant-Dun, and
Ambulance Company No. 357 jumped from Romagne to Halles.
The problem of transportation in this sector was a very difficult one. Owing to the condition of
the roads and the length of the haul, only two round trips could be made in twenty-four hours. All
available substitutes had to be used to give the drivers an opportunity to snatch a bit of sleep. Here
again the ambulance men displayed great courage and devotion to duty. One driver, Wagoner Shely,
while driving an ambulance loaded with wounded from the advance dressing station to the ambulance
dressing station, had his left leg shattered by shrapnel; and though in great pain and weak from the loss
of blood, he continued with his load of wounded many kilometers to the dressing station. Upon
reaching his destination, he collapsed.
Regimental and battalion surgeons, together with their detachments, pressed forward with the
advance of the infantry. A paragraph from the diary of another battalion surgeon may give an
impression of what their work was like:
“On the night of October 30, 1918, myself and detachment moved up in support into the front
tine position, my battalion going in on the right flank. I established my aid station behind the
embankment of the road leading from Bantheville to Andevanne, about two kilometers northwest of
Bantheville, holding this position through the night and all of October 31 under a terrific shell fire, with
no protection whatever. On November 1 the first wave had gone over, and with the second wave my
stretcher-bearers and first-aid men advanced. My assistant, Lieutenant Morrisey, D. C., was killed.
About noon the same day I advanced my aid station two kilometers farther north, the infantry having
halted for the night at this point. With nightfall came rain, making it very difficult to care for the
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