History of Ambulance Company Number 139 — A Closer Reading

From Recruiting Office to Wesserling Sector

The opening chapters trace the company’s formation in April 1917, when Dr. Edwin R. Tenney of Kansas City was appointed to organize the first national guard ambulance company in Kansas. The recruiting office in the press room at city hall was busy, and by April 25 the company reached its full strength of sixty-four men. The narrative then moves through training at Camp Doniphan, the Atlantic crossing, a flying trip through England, and arrival in France. The first action comes on the Wesserling Sector, where the company begins its work of evacuating wounded. The text is matter-of-fact, listing locations and movements without embellishment, but the cumulative effect is one of steady, unglamorous labor.

The Meuse-Argonne: Mud, Gas, and Mule Ambulances

The longest excerpt covers the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, and it is here that the catalog subject of medical care becomes concrete. The dressing station is described as protected by a hill, but shells still send dust onto the wounded. Mule ambulances are used to clear regimental stations, and empty ammunition trucks carry the wounded to triage. Bearer parties go forward under heavy fire; one driver is mortally wounded, and mules are killed. The work is laborious due to mud and long carries. The text notes that Pvt. Lloyd Richmond was wounded while remaining with wounded at Chaudron Farm. The evacuation is continuous, and the company is ordered to Varennes, running a gauntlet of high explosives, gas, and shrapnel.

Voice and Structure: A Collective Memoir

The book is written in the first-person plural, with phrases like “our experiences” and “we were forced to run a gauntlet.” This collective voice is consistent with the foreword’s claim that it was written by the men themselves. The structure is chronological, moving from organization through training, deployment, and specific actions, then to furloughs and the journey home. The catalog subjects list regimental histories and directories, but the excerpts show a narrative that is less a formal history and more a shared recollection. The inclusion of a company roster and chapters like “Fickle Women” suggest the book also served as a memento for the men, blending operational detail with the informal tone of a unit scrapbook.

Readers should approach this book as a primary source document rather than a polished regimental history. The catalog subjects emphasize its value for studying medical transport and the 35th Division, but the text itself offers a ground-level view of how an ambulance company actually functioned—improvised, exhausting, and often dangerous. The collective authorship and the circumstances of its composition (written in barn-loft billets while awaiting sailing orders) give it an immediacy that official histories lack. Pay attention to the small details: the mule ambulances, the dust from artillery, the empty ammunition trucks pressed into service. These are the textures of a unit’s war.

Reading the ambulance men’s quiet recollections of the Meuse-Argonne, I kept thinking of how each small moment—a muddy track, a whispered plea—carried the whole war’s weight. Later, An Onlooker in France 1917-1919 — Edition Insights offered a similar hush, but from the other side of the field, watching rather than carrying. Same rain, different hands.