TRANSCRIBED FROM THE TEXARKANIAN OCTOBER 26, 1917 P. 2
We drilled as usual Monday and Tuesday. The horses behaved well during the firing. Today (Wednesday) my section, the first, had to go over to the old post with our gun to the school of fire. It is an officers’ training school. We had to take our gun apart and show them the different parts and we sure had a time putting it back together. We did not get back to our camp until 5 o’clock.
Tomorrow is field day and we are not going to have any drill. We are going to have a program at the 11th field artillery parade ground. There will be 100 yard dashes, 220 yard relay races, trotting race with ____, tug of war, football game, shot race and other events.
Friday was Liberty Bond day here and we all bought Liberty Bonds. We pay for them out of our pay every month, $5 per month for 10 months. I bought one. I thought I might just as well. Our battery E bought $21,000 worth, and all three batteries of the 8th that are here took $42,000, and the first battalion of the 8th, which is in Chicago now, took $61,000 worth, so the 8 th altogether took more than $100,000 worth of the bonds.
NOTES: Richard Anthony Burgess of the Battery E 8th Field Artillery was writing from Fort Still, Oklahoma to his mother Mrs. Charles Burgess of Texarkana, Arkansas. He was born on October 5, 1883 in Rushville, Indiana and died on July 21, 196 in Arkansas. He is buried in the Hill Crest Cemetery in Texarkana, Texas. His military headstone identifies him as an Indiana, Cpl. serving in the US Army during World War I.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
We drilled as usual Monday and Tuesday. The horses behaved well during the firing. Today (Wednesday) my section, the first, had to go over to the old post with our gun to the school of fire. It is an officers’ training school. We had to take our gun apart and show them the different parts and we sure had a time putting it back together. We did not get back to our camp until 5 o’clock.
Tomorrow is field day and we are not going to have any drill. We are going to have a program at the 11th field artillery parade ground. There will be 100 yard dashes, 220 yard relay races, trotting race with ____, tug of war, football game, shot race and other events.
Friday was Liberty Bond day here and we all bought Liberty Bonds. We pay for them out of our pay every month, $5 per month for 10 months. I bought one. I thought I might just as well. Our battery E bought $21,000 worth, and all three batteries of the 8th that are here took $42,000, and the first battalion of the 8th, which is in Chicago now, took $61,000 worth, so the 8 th altogether took more than $100,000 worth of the bonds.
NOTES: Richard Anthony Burgess of the Battery E 8th Field Artillery was writing from Fort Still, Oklahoma to his mother Mrs. Charles Burgess of Texarkana, Arkansas. He was born on October 5, 1883 in Rushville, Indiana and died on July 21, 196 in Arkansas. He is buried in the Hill Crest Cemetery in Texarkana, Texas. His military headstone identifies him as an Indiana, Cpl. serving in the US Army during World War I.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT