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New book features two area First World War soldiers

The pithiness of social media is sometimes seen as a new fad, but writer Jacqueline Carmichael knows the writing style isn't new.
Jacqueline Carmichael
Writer Jacqueline Carmichael recently released a book of writings by and dedicated to soldiers who fought in the First World War. Carmichael writes about two soldiers from the Battlefords-area — Alex Decoteau and Charles Chapman. Photo submitted

The pithiness of social media is sometimes seen as a new fad, but writer Jacqueline Carmichael knows the writing style isn't new.

Carmichael's new book, Tweets from the Trenches: Little True Stories of Life & Death on the Western Front, features 150 brief stories about the First World War "people who were at the front or connected to people at the front," Carmichael said.

"It's very much about the rank and file soldiers and nurses and the other people who were involved in the war," Carmichael said.

The book is creative non-fiction that uses journals, letters, memoirs, other pieces of memorabilia and poetry to tell the story, often in short memorable pieces of writing. Such material, Carmichael said, was the social media of the era, hence the book's name.

"I came to believe that these guys had social media, it was just a lot slower," Carmichael said.

The idea for a book project came after Carmichael received her grandfather's trench journals and letters, which had been "remarkably preserved."

Initially, Carmichael thought the project would be about her grandfather, although the scope expanded as she read more.

"There's so many other stories to be told and I got really curious about the other people [in the war]," Carmichael said. "Initially it seemed like it was all about guys, so many of them were white Anglo-Saxon Protestants with ties to Britain.

"And I started thinking, 'That can't be the whole story, because it was a world war.'"

Carmichael found stories of women dressed in drag, including a female journalist, and a woman pretending to be her brother so he wouldn't have to enlist.

"She didn't think he could take it," Carmichael said.

Carmichael has worked as a journalist for more than a quarter of a century. She was also editor and publisher of the weekly newspaper, the Tofino-Ucluelet Westerly News. Carmichael also attended the Writer's Studio program at Simon Fraser University, where she took up poetry.

"I came to deeply appreciate the ability that poetry has to say something in a really short little space," Carmichael said.

Tweets from the Trenches features writing of two people from the Battlefords area: Alex Decoteau and Charles Chapman.

Alex Wuttunee Decoteau has gained fame over the years. Born on Red Pheasant Indian Reserve in 1887, Decoteau attended Battleford Industrial School. He competed in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics and is said to be the first Indigenous police officer in Canada.

Decoteau was killed in Passchendale in 1917.

Decoteau wrote a letter Carmichael included in the book shortly before he died (the following passage is made of excerpts):

My dear sister,

A man has lots of time to think of his people and home out here, and one does get awfully lonesome at times. I know in my last trip to the front line, I dreamed of home, and about “all the mothers, sisters and sweethearts” I ever had.

Most of the boys turn (Fatalists)…

They believe that everything is prearranged by the Divine Power, and if it one’s time to die no matter what one does, one has to die. Their motto is “If my turn comes next, I can’t do anything to avoid it, so “I shouldn’t worry”. They don’t worry either.

Of course there are lots who suffer from shell shock or nervous breakdown, and they can’t fight against fear, but most of the boys have a keen sense of humour, and laugh at almost anything.

I am lying on the ground trying to finish this letter before dark. I hope I do for I don’t know when I’ll have another opportunity.

Charles Wellington Camden Chapman, meanwhile, spent time farming in the Battlefords area. According to Carmichael, he was a volunteer in 1914 and went to the front in 1915. He was in Europe throughout the war and came home in 1919 after having been part of the occupying army in Germany, in which he had "a splendid time," Carmichael said.

"[When] they got to occupy Germany it was almost like a reward," Carmichael said. "It was such a relief to not be shot at and not be shelled and gassed."

Chapman operated a gun as an artillery man, "probably loading and operating a gun that lobbed 18-pound shells at the enemy from a distance."

Carmichael said Chapman was wounded in 1915, with shrapnel from nearby shelling embedded in his back and he spent about 69 days in the hospital between 1915 and 1916. Carmichael added he was also gassed, "and always had a rumble in his laugh, and that was from his lungs being damaged."

Periodically, pieces of metal would surface and he would go to the hospital.

Carmichael said Chapman raised six kids around North Battleford during the Dust Bowl era.

"He sold his farm for the price of a used car and a few extra dollars," Carmichael said. "He loaded his kids in the car and tied mattresses to the roof and suitcases to the running boards and came out to Vancouver Island."

Despite the injuries sustained in the First World War, Chapman wanted to enlist in the Second World War, but he was considered too old, Carmichael said. He became a Legion man.

Before the book, Carmichael also set up a Twitter account and tweeted short excerpts from her other grandfather, George "Black Jack" Vowel.

PTSD is also a theme of the book.

Characterizing an experience of war, Carmichael said, "imagine falling into a shell hole in the dark and being very disoriented and trying to swim and stay alive."