TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ASHLEY COUNTY EAGLE JUNE 28, 1917 P. 2
El Paso, Texas, June 14.
Dear Father and Mother:
I received your letters, and was glad to hear from you all, am in fine health, and am well pleased with army life. I think the army is the place for every young man, especially when Uncle Sam needs us as he does now, and I am ready to go wherever I am ordered.
This is a very dusty country, the wind blowing all the time. There is no grass near our camps, nothing but sand and rock. We are about seven miles from old Mexico. I have been on the banks of the Rio Grande once. We have to march to ElPaso and back every Friday, and we are very tired when we get back. We are the only calvary here now. We enjoy ourselves, as we have a free moving picture show every night, boxing gloves and a baseball team. We can go to town any time we want to, but must be back by eleven o’clock. We can get mounted passes every Sunday afternoon and ride, but it is so hot down here we can’t get much pleasure out of riding.
I will give you some idea how busy we are every day. At five o’clock in the morning the band plays, which is the signal for us to get up and at 5:30 we have breakfast; at 6:30 we drill athletic exercises thirty minutes and then dismount, drill thirty minutes and then ride drill until 8 o’clock and we go on mounted drill at 8:30 until 11, then we come in, unsaddle, water, feed and groom our horses. After dinner we rest until 1:30 and then comes the pistol drill until 2 o’clock and next target practice and then we rest until supper at 5 o’clock. After supper we are required to shine our shoes and leggings for roll call at six o’clock; the band plays “Star Spangled Banner” and we salute the flag, after that we are through until 9 o’clock; at the sound of the bugle we all retire for the night.
We have to sing as we march to ElPaso, the soldier’s song, “Good-bye little girl, good-bye,” also “The regular army,” and some others.
I send you one of my pictures in my uniform, mounted, ready for action. We don’t know at what time we will be called upon to go to France and I stand ready to go. I am so glad to get the Hamburg papers, also your letters every week, and would be glad to hear from any of my friends there.
Your loving son,
J. W. Brown
Camp Stewart, 5th Calvary, F. Troop.
NOTES: This letter was written by J. W. “Willie” Brown to his father Judge J. C. Brown of Hamburg, Arkansas. Brown was one of the first local men to enlist in the military.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATTHEWS
El Paso, Texas, June 14.
Dear Father and Mother:
I received your letters, and was glad to hear from you all, am in fine health, and am well pleased with army life. I think the army is the place for every young man, especially when Uncle Sam needs us as he does now, and I am ready to go wherever I am ordered.
This is a very dusty country, the wind blowing all the time. There is no grass near our camps, nothing but sand and rock. We are about seven miles from old Mexico. I have been on the banks of the Rio Grande once. We have to march to ElPaso and back every Friday, and we are very tired when we get back. We are the only calvary here now. We enjoy ourselves, as we have a free moving picture show every night, boxing gloves and a baseball team. We can go to town any time we want to, but must be back by eleven o’clock. We can get mounted passes every Sunday afternoon and ride, but it is so hot down here we can’t get much pleasure out of riding.
I will give you some idea how busy we are every day. At five o’clock in the morning the band plays, which is the signal for us to get up and at 5:30 we have breakfast; at 6:30 we drill athletic exercises thirty minutes and then dismount, drill thirty minutes and then ride drill until 8 o’clock and we go on mounted drill at 8:30 until 11, then we come in, unsaddle, water, feed and groom our horses. After dinner we rest until 1:30 and then comes the pistol drill until 2 o’clock and next target practice and then we rest until supper at 5 o’clock. After supper we are required to shine our shoes and leggings for roll call at six o’clock; the band plays “Star Spangled Banner” and we salute the flag, after that we are through until 9 o’clock; at the sound of the bugle we all retire for the night.
We have to sing as we march to ElPaso, the soldier’s song, “Good-bye little girl, good-bye,” also “The regular army,” and some others.
I send you one of my pictures in my uniform, mounted, ready for action. We don’t know at what time we will be called upon to go to France and I stand ready to go. I am so glad to get the Hamburg papers, also your letters every week, and would be glad to hear from any of my friends there.
Your loving son,
J. W. Brown
Camp Stewart, 5th Calvary, F. Troop.
NOTES: This letter was written by J. W. “Willie” Brown to his father Judge J. C. Brown of Hamburg, Arkansas. Brown was one of the first local men to enlist in the military.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATTHEWS