TRANSCRIBED FROM THE NEWPORT DAILY INDEPENDENT SEPTEMBER 4, 1918 P. 1
Dear Jimmie:
Your very nice letter was received the 18th. It was very kind of you to write to me. I surely do appreciate it.
You asked if I expected to go overseas. Yes, I do, but no one knows when. They are organizing a lot of new brigades; in fact, sixteen of them, and that will call for more than 600 officers of my grade and maybe more. If I am sent to one of these outfits I will not leave this country under three or four months, but one never knows.
They are enlarging the camp quite a lot; they have a “sausage” and twenty-one planes. Not all the planes have been up yet, but there are some of them “upstairs” most all the time. Then there is the artillery of 78 guns working on the target rings which with other activities here make quite a show.
I have only run into one man whom I knew in Arkansas. He was Ben Burchfield. They live on the Kinman place, in the corner house.
Give my regards to Mr. Jones, and tell him he should not be discouraged because he cannot get into service. There is so much to do at home, liberty bond sales, food conservation and many other things that he is well fitted for. Take my case --- I have been training men for the other fellow to command in battle, and I suppose I will have to tell people that I was a veteran of Camp Jackson, but there is consolation in the fact that I have sent over soldiers not men in uniform. You cannot imagine how badly I hate to see each lot go. You wrote something in your letter about “poor boys” ---Forget it--- if you have any sympathy use it for us who are left behind. I wish you could see and understand the spirit of these men; it is grand.
I see they are going to get the boys up to 45. Great stuff! I know a few birds that the quartermaster will be delighted to fit out with a new suit. I would like to get about thirty or forty I know and let them do some real men’s work. Of course I will not get the chance to get them, but may be they will be placed under some man who is interested in them and will see that they sweat the beer and booze out of their systems and learn what is inside of their potato skins by actual experience, and teach them what it takes to keep a horse fit for army services.
Regards to the folks,
L. S. Arnold,
Captain 16th Br. F. A. R. D.
NOTES: Arnold who was from Newark, Arkansas was writing to his niece, Miss Jimmie Church of Newport, Arkansas. He was writing from Camp Jackson, SC.
TRANSCRIBED BY CHLOE SMITH
Dear Jimmie:
Your very nice letter was received the 18th. It was very kind of you to write to me. I surely do appreciate it.
You asked if I expected to go overseas. Yes, I do, but no one knows when. They are organizing a lot of new brigades; in fact, sixteen of them, and that will call for more than 600 officers of my grade and maybe more. If I am sent to one of these outfits I will not leave this country under three or four months, but one never knows.
They are enlarging the camp quite a lot; they have a “sausage” and twenty-one planes. Not all the planes have been up yet, but there are some of them “upstairs” most all the time. Then there is the artillery of 78 guns working on the target rings which with other activities here make quite a show.
I have only run into one man whom I knew in Arkansas. He was Ben Burchfield. They live on the Kinman place, in the corner house.
Give my regards to Mr. Jones, and tell him he should not be discouraged because he cannot get into service. There is so much to do at home, liberty bond sales, food conservation and many other things that he is well fitted for. Take my case --- I have been training men for the other fellow to command in battle, and I suppose I will have to tell people that I was a veteran of Camp Jackson, but there is consolation in the fact that I have sent over soldiers not men in uniform. You cannot imagine how badly I hate to see each lot go. You wrote something in your letter about “poor boys” ---Forget it--- if you have any sympathy use it for us who are left behind. I wish you could see and understand the spirit of these men; it is grand.
I see they are going to get the boys up to 45. Great stuff! I know a few birds that the quartermaster will be delighted to fit out with a new suit. I would like to get about thirty or forty I know and let them do some real men’s work. Of course I will not get the chance to get them, but may be they will be placed under some man who is interested in them and will see that they sweat the beer and booze out of their systems and learn what is inside of their potato skins by actual experience, and teach them what it takes to keep a horse fit for army services.
Regards to the folks,
L. S. Arnold,
Captain 16th Br. F. A. R. D.
NOTES: Arnold who was from Newark, Arkansas was writing to his niece, Miss Jimmie Church of Newport, Arkansas. He was writing from Camp Jackson, SC.
TRANSCRIBED BY CHLOE SMITH