TRANSCRIBED FROM THE PINE BLUFF DAILY GRAPHIC OCTOBER 28, 1918 P. 6
Somewhere in France, Sept. 29th.
Mr. M. L. Case.
Pine Bluff, Ark.
Dear Sir and Father:
Your most welcome letter of August the 4th just received and I was glad to hear from you. We do not get our mail as regular since the “drive” commenced, but it is welcome at all times.
I have not heard from Mary and the kiddie for three months, but I know that it is not her fault. You always give me the news, so I don’t worry about it.
Well, Daddy, I guess you are better posted about the war than I am, as I seldom get a paper until it is old-sometimes we get rumors that there is nothing to. What we rarely know we see with our own eye, and it is enough. And, at times, there are things that I would rather not see.
Maybe I can tell you about them some fine day.
Daddy, it is a common sight to see a poor, thinly clad woman walking along the road pushing a baby buggy and leading a poor old cow, with her own clothes tied up in a towel.
While writing this the mail man came up with another letter, so i will answer them both now, as it may be some times before I get another chance to write. I am enclosing an order for some things that I need.
I need a fountain pen, as I am writing this with a pencil two inches long! I also want more leather gloves and a home-knit sweater, and Bull Durham tobacco. If you can’t get the tobacco tell Chris Yauch to bring me a fruit cake.
Daddy, tell Mr. George Adams, of the Graphic, that I was walking over the last battlefield of the American buys and found a copy of the Graphic. It was wet and had been tromped on, but I took it to camp and dried it. It had the account of the drive in it written by Mrs. Taylor of Pine Bluff. She is now in Paris with the Red Cross. In the article she acknowledged receiving an Ambulance robe through the Schober-Martin Drygoods Co. What she told was only a small part of what really happened. You should have been with us, we did not sleep for four nights and days. They would shoot shells at us all day and try to drop them on us all night! We would be lonesome if we did not hear the big guns.
Daddy, please give my address to Mustach boys and other boys of Pine Bluff and tell them to write to me when they get to France, as they might be right close by me and we would never know it. It certainly would be a welcome sight to me to find a Pine Bluff boy over here. I have not seen a man that I know since I arrived in France.
I wish I could tell you what we have accomplished and what we are still doing in this man’s country, but it is against regulations.
I will close for this time. Write often to your little soldier boy.
As ever, your son,
CHARLES E. CASE.
12th Engineers Co, C. American Expeditionary Forces, France. No 162143
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY CHLOE SMITH
Somewhere in France, Sept. 29th.
Mr. M. L. Case.
Pine Bluff, Ark.
Dear Sir and Father:
Your most welcome letter of August the 4th just received and I was glad to hear from you. We do not get our mail as regular since the “drive” commenced, but it is welcome at all times.
I have not heard from Mary and the kiddie for three months, but I know that it is not her fault. You always give me the news, so I don’t worry about it.
Well, Daddy, I guess you are better posted about the war than I am, as I seldom get a paper until it is old-sometimes we get rumors that there is nothing to. What we rarely know we see with our own eye, and it is enough. And, at times, there are things that I would rather not see.
Maybe I can tell you about them some fine day.
Daddy, it is a common sight to see a poor, thinly clad woman walking along the road pushing a baby buggy and leading a poor old cow, with her own clothes tied up in a towel.
While writing this the mail man came up with another letter, so i will answer them both now, as it may be some times before I get another chance to write. I am enclosing an order for some things that I need.
I need a fountain pen, as I am writing this with a pencil two inches long! I also want more leather gloves and a home-knit sweater, and Bull Durham tobacco. If you can’t get the tobacco tell Chris Yauch to bring me a fruit cake.
Daddy, tell Mr. George Adams, of the Graphic, that I was walking over the last battlefield of the American buys and found a copy of the Graphic. It was wet and had been tromped on, but I took it to camp and dried it. It had the account of the drive in it written by Mrs. Taylor of Pine Bluff. She is now in Paris with the Red Cross. In the article she acknowledged receiving an Ambulance robe through the Schober-Martin Drygoods Co. What she told was only a small part of what really happened. You should have been with us, we did not sleep for four nights and days. They would shoot shells at us all day and try to drop them on us all night! We would be lonesome if we did not hear the big guns.
Daddy, please give my address to Mustach boys and other boys of Pine Bluff and tell them to write to me when they get to France, as they might be right close by me and we would never know it. It certainly would be a welcome sight to me to find a Pine Bluff boy over here. I have not seen a man that I know since I arrived in France.
I wish I could tell you what we have accomplished and what we are still doing in this man’s country, but it is against regulations.
I will close for this time. Write often to your little soldier boy.
As ever, your son,
CHARLES E. CASE.
12th Engineers Co, C. American Expeditionary Forces, France. No 162143
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY CHLOE SMITH