I Hope This Reaches You: An American Soldier's Account of World War I by Hilary Connor

Abstract

Reviewed by: I Hope This Reaches You: An American Soldier's Account of World War I by Hilary Connor Michael S. Neiberg Hilary Connor. I Hope This Reaches You: An American Soldier's Account of World War I. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2020. Pp. 404. Bibliography. Illustrations. Notes. Paper: $32.99. The story of Byron Field of Jackson, Michigan, seems at first glance deceptively typical. A young man whose life plans, in this case to be a Methodist missionary, were interrupted by the First World War, he left a sweetheart behind to become an ambulance driver and medic. The letters he and his girlfriend exchanged remained in an attic for decades before one of his descendants decided to assemble them into a book. Although stories such as these tell the same general story, no two stories are ever alike, as we discover by the end of this book. Hilary Connor, the editor of this collection, is an experienced fiction writer and decided to write most of the narrative himself. Most of the text, therefore, recounts the history of these years, weaving in Field's own words rather sparingly in most places. We follow his war experience through mobilization, training, combat, and return to the United States. We also get a glimpse into the relationship between the fighting front and the home front, as well as how the war changed both Field and his girlfriend, Estelle Cozine. One of the book's most important contributions centers on the discussion between the two young people on the issues of the day, including the war and women's suffrage. Field was part of the legendary Forty-Second "Rainbow" Division, so named because, unlike most divisions, its men came from all over the country. Field served alongside men from Iowa, New York, and Alabama and in the same unit as some of the war's most famous heroes, including Father Duffy, "Wild Bill" Donovan, Joyce Kilmer, and the division's chief of staff, Douglas MacArthur. The unit served in the critical battles of Château-Thierry, the Second Marne, and the Meuse-Argonne—the latter the largest battle ever fought by the United States Army at that time. As a medic, he most likely saw some truly horrifying sights, although he only hinted at these horrors in his letters home. Though the author has done extensive research, the treatment of the war itself is too thin in a few places and relies too much on old [End Page 146] understandings in others. Moreover, there are some errors in the book. French General Henri Gouraud's name is consistently misspelled. Field's division was part of Gouraud's French Fourth Army that the author identifies by confusingly mixing French and English to form the "4th Armée." These small mistakes are not fatal, but they do reflect occasional weaknesses in the presentation of Field's experiences within the context of the war. Connor adds a sad epilogue that traces Field's self-imposed silence about his wartime experiences, his estrangement from Estelle, his marriage to and divorce from another woman, his descent into alcoholism, his wanderings around the country, and his difficulty holding on to steady employment. One certainly wonders if his experiences in the war lay at the root of some of the problems that this one-time Methodist seminarian experienced later in life. Connor only hints at the connection that, admittedly, we can never know for sure. We can, however, see clear evidence of undiagnosed and untreated PTSD in Connor's description of Field's later life. A final photograph of him, taken in 1966, shows him still wearing the ring that he bought in France and always associated with his wartime experience. Michael S. Neiberg US Army War College Copyright © 2021 Historical Society of Michigan