TRANSCRIBED FROM THE DAILY ARKANSAS GAZETTE OCTOBER 23, 1918 P. 6
No one except we who have front seats will ever appreciate the show as it is rendered in this theater. There is nothing in the world with which it can be compared and it is wholly beyond adequate description. We were here before the battle turned in our favor and our existence depended upon the supplies and troops to follow. We have, with the others who were at the front, known a kind of feeling that will never again be experienced. Now we have enough to make absolutely certain the successful termination we desire. We get the news that you “over there” are in shape to take care of us in every way. So when the pioneers make new boxes we don’t grieve because we know those who paid the greatest price have not done so in vain. Justice and decency shall live.
I have taken down the photographs from my dug-out wall and have pinned them securely in my left shirt pocket in my leather case, (The one the consistory gave me.) I have a bundle of French banknotes, a few hard tack and some cigarettes. This is my worldly possession just at this time. I will sleep in my hob-nailed boots tonight with a gas masks tied under my nose. The boom, boom, boom, boom goes on incessantly night and day until it seems every human being in the whole world must soon be dead. While I have been writing, as many shells as there are words here, have exploded—one battery just now, “150 in five minutes.”
(Letter ends abruptly)
NOTES: This partial letter was written by Lt. Samuel George Boyce M. D. He was a well known surgeon in Little Rock, Arkansas before the war. He was born on May 27, 1887 in Franklin County, Kansas and died on May 3, 1951 in Little Rock. He was discharged from the service on February 26, 1919 at Camp Pike, Arkansas and resumed his medical practice in Little Rock. He is buried in the Little Rock National Cemetery in Little Rock. His military headstone identifies him a as Kansas 1st Lt. 110 San Train 35th Div.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
No one except we who have front seats will ever appreciate the show as it is rendered in this theater. There is nothing in the world with which it can be compared and it is wholly beyond adequate description. We were here before the battle turned in our favor and our existence depended upon the supplies and troops to follow. We have, with the others who were at the front, known a kind of feeling that will never again be experienced. Now we have enough to make absolutely certain the successful termination we desire. We get the news that you “over there” are in shape to take care of us in every way. So when the pioneers make new boxes we don’t grieve because we know those who paid the greatest price have not done so in vain. Justice and decency shall live.
I have taken down the photographs from my dug-out wall and have pinned them securely in my left shirt pocket in my leather case, (The one the consistory gave me.) I have a bundle of French banknotes, a few hard tack and some cigarettes. This is my worldly possession just at this time. I will sleep in my hob-nailed boots tonight with a gas masks tied under my nose. The boom, boom, boom, boom goes on incessantly night and day until it seems every human being in the whole world must soon be dead. While I have been writing, as many shells as there are words here, have exploded—one battery just now, “150 in five minutes.”
(Letter ends abruptly)
NOTES: This partial letter was written by Lt. Samuel George Boyce M. D. He was a well known surgeon in Little Rock, Arkansas before the war. He was born on May 27, 1887 in Franklin County, Kansas and died on May 3, 1951 in Little Rock. He was discharged from the service on February 26, 1919 at Camp Pike, Arkansas and resumed his medical practice in Little Rock. He is buried in the Little Rock National Cemetery in Little Rock. His military headstone identifies him a as Kansas 1st Lt. 110 San Train 35th Div.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT