TRANSCRIBED FROM THE MOUNTAIN WAVE SEPTEMBER 27, 1918 P. 2
Somewhere in France, with the A. E. F.,
August 27, 1918.
Editor Wave:
Will write today, as I have a breathing spell. How is everything in dear old Marshall? Fine I trust. I am O. K. and doing fine, and the Dutch haven’t got me yet. I have been in France four months and in the trenches forty two days. So, you see, I have been quiet busy. I am in my dugout writing this and the big guns are roaring, the shells falling all around, and it keeps me guessing where the next one will hit, but so far I have been lucky.
How are my friends? Give them all my best regards, and tell them I am O. K. I guess it is lonesome in Marshall, with everyone gone to war. I, too, get lonesome sometimes, but it soon wears off. And then I am so busy most of the time I haven’t time to get lonesome. I don’t think the war will last much longer. I think it will be over by Christmas. I would like to tell you of my trip, but I can’t write it in a letter, so you will have to wait until I see you and then I’ll tell you about it. But I sure had an interesting trip and lots of fun.
Very truly,
Clay Allen,
Co. A., 130th M. G. B. N., A. E. F., France. Via New York.
NOTES: Clay C. Allen was born in 1896 in Nashville, Tennessee. He registered for the service in Missouri but was living in Snowball, Arkansas. He departed for France from New York, New York on May 3, 1918 onboard the Carpathia. He was a Private in Co. A, 130th Machine Gun Bat, 35th Infantry Division. Shortly after this letter was published his father, James H. Allen, received a telegram notifying the family that Clay had been seriously wounded on August 31. In fact he had died of wounds on August 30. He is buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery at Romagne, France.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATTHEWS
Somewhere in France, with the A. E. F.,
August 27, 1918.
Editor Wave:
Will write today, as I have a breathing spell. How is everything in dear old Marshall? Fine I trust. I am O. K. and doing fine, and the Dutch haven’t got me yet. I have been in France four months and in the trenches forty two days. So, you see, I have been quiet busy. I am in my dugout writing this and the big guns are roaring, the shells falling all around, and it keeps me guessing where the next one will hit, but so far I have been lucky.
How are my friends? Give them all my best regards, and tell them I am O. K. I guess it is lonesome in Marshall, with everyone gone to war. I, too, get lonesome sometimes, but it soon wears off. And then I am so busy most of the time I haven’t time to get lonesome. I don’t think the war will last much longer. I think it will be over by Christmas. I would like to tell you of my trip, but I can’t write it in a letter, so you will have to wait until I see you and then I’ll tell you about it. But I sure had an interesting trip and lots of fun.
Very truly,
Clay Allen,
Co. A., 130th M. G. B. N., A. E. F., France. Via New York.
NOTES: Clay C. Allen was born in 1896 in Nashville, Tennessee. He registered for the service in Missouri but was living in Snowball, Arkansas. He departed for France from New York, New York on May 3, 1918 onboard the Carpathia. He was a Private in Co. A, 130th Machine Gun Bat, 35th Infantry Division. Shortly after this letter was published his father, James H. Allen, received a telegram notifying the family that Clay had been seriously wounded on August 31. In fact he had died of wounds on August 30. He is buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery at Romagne, France.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATTHEWS