Introduction
On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson delivered his War Message. Four days later, war was officially declared on Germany. Joseph J. Jones Sr. was still a bit more than six months shy of his 18th birthday when he joined the Fighting 69th Rainbow Division on April 13, 1917.

The regimental chaplain of the Fighting 69th was Father Duffy. For information about Father Duffy, visit
http://www.sixtyninth.net/duffy.html
Another renowned member of this famous regiment was the American poet, Joyce Kilmer. It was Joyce who advised Joe to keep a diary during the war. A sniper's bullet ended Joyce Kilmer's life on July 30, 1918. For more information about Joyce Kilmer, visit
http://www.risingdove.com/Kilmer/Trees.asp

About Joe's Diary
Much of the diary was written in pencil and has greatly faded. Some entries are indecipherable. A great many cities and towns are mentioned in the diary, but many of the names were not clear. The names of cities that could not be deciphered are followed by a question mark (?) within parenthesis.

The diary was a one-year book that had preprinted dates for the year 1918. Joe's starting entries, because they occurred prior to 1918, were written on the inside cover of the diary. The first of these entries was for Nov 4, 1917.

Because Joe was still overseas when 1919 began, he went back to the front of the diary and wrote in the new dates below entries he had made in 1918. There were many dates in 1919 where no entries were recorded. There were probably two reasons for this. One was that some pages for the same date in 1918 already had entries. The other reason is that the war was starting to wind down and Joe did not expect to be there that much longer. His last entry was for Apr 2nd, 1919, the day he received a telegram with orders to start home.

The entries at the beginning of the diary were written with dashes between related words. They are displayed in this same fashion on the following pages.

Summary of Contents
For the purpose of this Web site, journal entries were divided into 15 sections covering the dates indicated:

WWI Poster from firstworldwar.com		Section	Entry Dates
		Travel	Nov 4, 1917 - Jan 4, 1918
		In France	Feb 20 - Mar 21, 1918
		In Hospital	Mar 22 - May 2, 1918
		Back To Duty	May 3 - May 13, 1918
		In Baccarat	May 14 - Jun 17, 1918
		Left Baccarat	Jun 18 - Jul 7, 1918
		Back To The Front	Jul 8 - Aug 2, 1918
		To Tismes	Aug 3 - Sep 7, 1918
		Wounded	Sep 12 - Oct 10, 1918
		Intense Action	Oct 11 - Nov 7, 1918
		Relieved By French	Nov 8 - Nov 19, 1918
		Into Belgium	Nov 21 - Nov 30, 1918
		Hiking Again	Dec 1 - Dec 31, 1918
		Year 1919	Jan 1 - Feb 24, 1919
		Final Moves	Mar 13 - Apr 2, 1919

For other veterans' personal accounts of World War I click here.

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