Dumb Luck, Good Fortune, the 30th Division, AEF, and the Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel

The True Love referred to is of the famous French Soixante-Quinze, the 75.
The True Love referred to is of the famous French Soixante-Quinze, the 75.

Maybe dumb luck and good fortune are the same thing. I seem to be blessed with them. For example. I often visit antique malls when I travel. I have several collections I keep up, two for myself, one for my wife, and one for my daughter. When I am in Staunton, Virginia to see plays at the American Shakespeare Theater, I stop at the Verona Antique Mall. Every time I look through one vendor’s paper ephemera. On the most recent visit I bought three copies of Leslie’s Magazine from the time of World War I. Even though I bought them last winter, I just got to read them. Much to my amazement, the one dated April 20 has an artist’s rendering of the first artillery being fired by Americans. As it happens, the first American soldiers to go to Europe and fight were National Guardsmen from two divisions—the 30th and the 27th. The book I am now writing, The Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel: A Novel features soldiers from the 30th , men from South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Dumb luck? I think so. Good fortune? Definitely. Incidents like this happened throughout my writing life. May they continue to occur. I need all the help I can get.

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