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BRYAN JOHNSON W. Bryan Johnson, of Woodville, spent the first Armistice.-day'aiding *00,** switch engine -up l»w« the railroad yard in front, of the hospital at Nevairs, Prance, where he was recuperating from chest wounds. One of the American nurses at the hospital was the daughter of a railroad engineer from Port Chester, N. Y.. and had learned how to operate a locomotive. When news was received on November 11, 1918, that the war was over, she took Bryan and serveral of his buddies on a joy ride he will never forget.
Bryan was born July 23, 1897, in Rappahannock county. He was in Richmond when war was declared, and enlisted in the Army cavalry. Shortly after reporting to Ft. Oglethorpe, Ga., his cavalry unit was disbanded and became an artillery branch, with most of the men going to Hawaii for duty.
Bryan, however, stayed with his horse, and together they began training for scout and dispatch rider duties, and sailed for France aboard the converted passenger liner Martha Washington.
Their S-ship convoy landed in Brest, where 28,000 men and their animals were moved in box cars (designated for "40 men or 8 horses") for the overland trip to Paris.
Enroute, it was so cold, Bryan recalls finding a sheet of metal, and building a fire inside the box car on it. The fire was so hot it burned through the floor, but Bryan still came down with penumonia, and was hospitalized upon arrival in Versailles.
After two months in the hospital. Sergeant Johnson went AWOL, found his unit, and was reunited with his horse. They served as liaison with the 77th and 81st companies of the 6th Marines, on the front, then just 1^ miles from Paris.
During the German advance on Paris, his unit suffered 81 percent casualties. Bryan himself was wounded twice, and his horse was killed out from under him by a shell explosion, which left Bryan unconscious for 10 days. Once piece of shrapnel entered under his right arm and exited from his left chest. A second piece entered at the base of his spine, striking his left hip joint before exiting. Bryan was recovering from these wounds when the
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