Kate’s Notes: I have not been able to find any particulars for a “Lawrence C. Gilliland” of Dayton but there was a Lawrence W. Gilliland, born 1894 at Dayton, Ohio, who in 1917 enlisted for service in WWI. After serving the Aer Squadron of the American Expeditionary Forces he was honorably discharged in 1919. Shortly after the war he was recorded as living in San Francisco, CA. Confirmation of these records is needed to positively identify the Lawrence Gilliland of the article below.

From The Portsmouth Daily Times
Portsmouth, Ohio
9 December, 1915

WORKED AS A “SCAVENGER” ON BATTLE FIELDS

Graphic  Story Of
BrutalityOf War
Related By Young
Soldier Of Fortune
_________

   The city building harbored within its confines Wednesday night a lodger, who has seen active service in the trenches and scavenger duty on the battlefields of Europe and who talked as though he might go back for another try.
   The young soldier of fortune was Lawrence C. Gilliland, a loose-hung lad about 23 years of age, whose home is at 427 Haynes St., Dayton, O.
   Gilliland carried in his pocket a copy of the Dayton News which chronicled his return home and the account of which was accompanied by an excellent likeness of the young man. He is referred to as one of those “guys” who wander around the little old world looking for occasional jobs and specialize in long chances and big risks. It means when the great sea of fate rolls up a chance wave with the prospect of easy money and excitement on its crost chest Gilliland is right there for a boat ride on it, no matter how motely the crew, the course, the captain or cause.
RODE BUMPERS TO NEW YORK
   “Things were dull in Dayton in April,” said Gilliland, “so I picked up and went to war. I had but two dollars in my pockets and I made the bumpers to New York and stowed away on the ‘Missourian,’ a tramp freighter bound for France. Two days out I reported to the captain and was set to stocking. This is some adventure in itself, working 4-hour shifts in the dark bottom of a boat with the temperature at 130. Ten days later I was sitting in front of a cafe at  St. Nuzare*, France. A French recruting officer stepped up and through an interpreter offered me 15 francs per day as an ammunition tender. Several days later I was at the front, six miles from Lorain.* I got a job hunting among the dead and fatally wounded for belt guns, bayonets or anything of value to the French army.
SEARCHED DEAD FOR WEAPONS
   It was brutal work. Sometimes we would turn a “body” over on its face and jerk loose the gun and it would stir and moan. Decency demanded we stop and give what help we could but military necessity demanded that we should not. We had to hurry and if they looked past fighting they were left to die.
   Gilliland said that one day one of the three men on a scavenger wagon with him was struck in the shoulder by a bullet and the next instant a shell struck near the wagon, killing the horses. Gilliland said he was attached to the 28th company of the 147 infantry regiment. This company had been practically wiped out in trench charges and recruited again. He said in one trench alone he counted 100 dead.
DIGGING AND WAITING FOR CHARGES
   Gilliland said after awhile he was relieved from scavenger duty and set to work in the trenches, not fighting but digging and waiting for a charge that might mean death. “Three times a day the soldiers are given a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine,” he continued, “and strangely enough no meat was supplied them. That’s all they were getting then but they were putting up a fiendish fight and if Germany ever gets through with them she will be so weakened that she cannot hold what she gains.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?
   Constantly we heard about us the question ‘What is it all about, anyway.’ A comrade, Simon Frischman, translated this question to me so often that I got so that I understood it.
GETS BACK ON MISSOURIAN
   After several such weeks at the front Gilliland said he stowed away on two boats and was kicked off. Then he managed to get back on the Missourian again. On the return trip, he said, two German stowaways were discovered in the hold of the vessel. They pleaded to be permitted to come to the states but were transferred on the high seas to another ship and taken back as prisoners. Gilliland said he got back to Dayton about the middle of July and since then had received a letter from Frischman telling him that he would have been in line for a medal had he stuck to his post longer.
   “I don’t know but what I will take another shot at it,” said he smilingly as he withdrew for a quiet snooze on the steel barred bunks of the cell room.

-- transcription by Kate Maynard, 2010

*Perhaps some spellings have changed over time, but I believe the place name “St. Nuzare” to be St. Nuzaire and “Lorain” to be Lorraine.