TRANSCRIBED FROM THE PINE BLUFF DAILY GRAPHIC OCTOBER 16, 1917 P. 1
Please notify my father and send my uniform to him I don’t want to disgrace the uniform of my country by taking it into the water, so I must say farewell to all.
John R. Braden, Hdqrs. Co.
154 Inf. U.S.N.G.
Camp Beauregard, La.
Notify Capt. Galenzer, Tdqrs. Co.
154th Inf., Camp Beauregard, La., and tell all the boys to forgive me
Farewell to all.
ROY
NOTES: This letter was written by John Roy Braden to his father John Wesley Braden of Piggott, Arkansas. A boy took the letter from a uniform found on Tennessee Street near the Arkansas River in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on October 14. It was believed that the soldier who had left the uniform had committed suicide by jumping into the Arkansas River. However, on October 16 he was arrested in Pine Bluff on October 16 at the Short Leaf Lumber Company where he was working. He said he was so sad at leaving his wife that he considered suicide but could not do it. He was taken to Ft. Roots in North Little Rock shortly after his capture. He was court martialed at Camp Beauregard for desertion in late November. Braden was born on September 9, 1894 and died in 1953. He is buried in the Piggott Memorial Gardens. He was married to Flossie Dover on August 5, 1916 and divorced in 1923.
TRANSCRIBED BY MIKE POLSTON
Please notify my father and send my uniform to him I don’t want to disgrace the uniform of my country by taking it into the water, so I must say farewell to all.
John R. Braden, Hdqrs. Co.
154 Inf. U.S.N.G.
Camp Beauregard, La.
Notify Capt. Galenzer, Tdqrs. Co.
154th Inf., Camp Beauregard, La., and tell all the boys to forgive me
Farewell to all.
ROY
NOTES: This letter was written by John Roy Braden to his father John Wesley Braden of Piggott, Arkansas. A boy took the letter from a uniform found on Tennessee Street near the Arkansas River in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on October 14. It was believed that the soldier who had left the uniform had committed suicide by jumping into the Arkansas River. However, on October 16 he was arrested in Pine Bluff on October 16 at the Short Leaf Lumber Company where he was working. He said he was so sad at leaving his wife that he considered suicide but could not do it. He was taken to Ft. Roots in North Little Rock shortly after his capture. He was court martialed at Camp Beauregard for desertion in late November. Braden was born on September 9, 1894 and died in 1953. He is buried in the Piggott Memorial Gardens. He was married to Flossie Dover on August 5, 1916 and divorced in 1923.
TRANSCRIBED BY MIKE POLSTON