Sgt Fred Amstutz

April 17, 1897 — August 5, 1918

A copy of a letter from Fred Amstutz to his sister just prior to July 4th  1918. Amstutz was killed in action weeks later, making him the first WWI soldier from Monticello to be killed in battle. 

From the book, Letters from the Boys: Wisconsin World War I Soldiers Write Home written by Carrie A. Meyer

Per his obituary: “His remains were brought home, to be buried, on Easter Sunday 1922, in Monticello, Wisconsin, where comrades from Monroe, Juda, and New Glarus, and many other friends and relatives attended.”

“We just got back from the trenches and are all cleaned up for the Fourth. No place to celebrate, however. We are in a small village, and they don’t’ seem to understand that this is our national Independence Day.

Well, our company was in the trenches for [censored] nights and [censored] days. It sure was sport for us. The first night I was in charge of the munitions. I would make the rounds about once every hour and every time I went out through the trenches I would hear a few rats, and I thought there was a Bosche [German] around. I would walk a few steps and stop, and I’ll admit there was a funny sensation playing up and down my spinal column. But I soon got over it. I finally came to relieve another sergeant, and I got some laughs from the privates who had been in the trenches for [censored] days.

I was out on a patrol one night and it put me in mind of hunting rabbits. We’d go sneaking along with our pistols in our hands, always on the lookout for “big game.” Why, it isn’t half bad. But you think we have rats in the States. The rats are as thick over here, as cats and dogs are at home. At night the rats run in the wire and sometimes we think the Bosches are coming, so we throw over a hand grenade merely to play safe.”

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www.monticellohistoricalsociety.org.