The story of Alpheus Appenheimer, a young Illinois farmer who left his fiancé, his widowed mother and his farm to go off to war on the Western Front. The year was 1917, he was 26, and America had just declared war on Germany. There was never any doubt that he would go, but you can't just walk away from a farm in the midst of spring planting. The spring work would have to be completed and arrangements made for the running of the farm in his absence. And then, hardest of all-- announcing to the two women in his life that he was about to leave and wouldn't be back until the war was over. Alpheus Appenheimer served with Headquarters Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion, 4th Brigade of Marines, 2nd Division, AEF in France during 1918-1919. He was decorated for valor under fire at Belleau Wood and Blanc Mont. MULESKINNER WITH THE MARINE BRIGADE-- Volume One: From before the War to the Eve of Belleau Wood. By BJ Omanson. 8.5x11. 264 photographs, 26 maps, 15 drawings, 379 pages. (Morgantown, WV: Monongahela Books, 2024).