Elmer E. Tinsley and wife Fidelia Ward Tinsley were so happy to receive a letter from their son talking about the day prior to, and Armistice Day, when all firing of World War I stopped.  It was the end of the war and everyone was gloriously happy.  The family lived in Ohio County, in western Kentucky.

The Hartford Republic, Ohio County, Kentucky

Friday, January 24, 1919

Harlan Tinsley Now In Germany

Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Tinsley, of Route 5, recently received a letter from their son, Harlan E., written from Layn, Germany, near Coblenz.  He is much impressed with the country there, which is made up of big hills, valleys and small rivers.  All of the Ohio County boys in his regiment, the 322, Division 32, with the exception of Carl Wilson, or Rockport, who was in the hospital from slight effects of gas, were well and doing fine.  The 322nd crossed the German and Luxemburg line December 1st, having marched through from near Verdun, France, which point they left November 17, crossing the Rhine December 13.  He says, ‘the hardest work I ever did was the night before the armistice was signed, we were running a telephone line up to the front and the shells and bullets were whistling all around us.  I was in an old barn the next morning trying to take a nap when the Sergeant called me and said the firing would cease at 11 o’clock.  I could hardly believe it, but at the end of the last minute all firing ceased.  I had been under shell fire so long I felt like a bird out of a cage and count myself lucky to get out at all.’