TRANSCRIBED FROM THE GRAND PRAIRIE NEWS SEPTEMBER 5, 1918 P. 1
Camp Shelby, Miss.
Medical Detachment.
September 1, 1918.
Mr. J. M. Grimes
Stuttgart, Ark.
My dear Dad:
I am in receipt of your good letter this morning and was not very much surprised to get it as I had been expecting it. Everything connected with myself is fine and there is absolutely no complaint to be made. I do not believe that any man is wrapped up in army life or has an especial delight for the business of war, but so far as such life is enjoyable I am making the most of it. Indeed, a soldier’s life is not made up of the comfort and ease of a drawing room, but I am a soldier now and I tell you there is a sunny side to it, if you will but look for it. When I was over in the Infantry, things truly got dark sometimes, but I did not pay much heed to those accustomed moods of the soldier, but in my new situation over here, things are so different that they are almost the converse of what they were over there. There was an intense drill all the time with but few hours of respite and relaxation and the non-commissioned officers were not always too generous to recruits and more especially those who were drafted. But it has been my experience that many of the best blood and brain of our America is in the lists of drafted men, men who shuddered at the thought of leaving home and loved ones, but who were not necessarily unpatriotic and who loved their native land dearly. I have now become accustomed to the ways and manners of the military life and you have to conform to a great measure to those ways and customs and pay but little attention to your comrades in arms and speak words of encouragement and hope to them but little, still I never see a man in uniform but what I think of the tremendous sacrifice that some mother and father has made to give their son as a bloodly offering to the God of war and of battle that we freemen may make the world over again and place the rights of men upon the solid and enduring foundations of political liberty and righteousness. It is a great and momentuous thing to have a part, however humble it may be in the prodigy of this great age, the reconstruction of governments upon the model of our America.
Dad, army life has its poetical side, you seem to keep step with everything around you. You are up at five o’clock promptly with the sound of the bugle, and that is about the only time that I do not think that the bugle call is musical. i was always fond of sleeping in the morning but here for some reason they do not let you follow the line of least resistance. And you must adopt a uniform plan of doing things. Well, I am not so fond of that bugle call, for it always seems to send forth its silver sounds directly in the midst of my slumbers and at a time when I am most sleepy. The parades, which are held twice each week, are beautiful. And when I look at those magnificent parades uniformly beautiful keeping time to the wild, grand music of the army band, I think of the might and majesty of our arms and of the earnestness of these brave soldiers who are going to set the world aright and then come back home and have some share in the great life of the tomorrows. I am not proud of that army because it is invincible, not because it can succeed in making our nation a militaristic nation, but I am proud of it for the reason you are and every true patriot is, because it has behind it the forces of justice and peace and the liberty of mankind, and I hope that the old banner which Washington carried serenely forward and which Lincoln defended with his blood will never fall among its enemies but that it will be flung to the breezes as it has upon so many glorious occasions as the beckoning finger of hope and of promise to all those who believe in democracy and in the self-government of peoples. I realize that the part which I am playing and am to play in this terrific world struggle is comparatively small and insignificant. Almost every private would be prompted to think the same way. But the nucleus of the army is the private soldier and upon his efficiency or inefficiency depends the fate and the destiny of nations.
I had the opportunity to go to Camp Taylor to be trained in an Officer’s School, because I passed the examination easily with a grade of 100%, but on the same day I was given a place in the office and after thinking over the proposition, of the dangers and the hardships of an artillery officer under the enemy’s fire almost constantly, I determined to remain a private and stay where I could do the most good. Not because I am afraid to be under fire, for I will be, when I go over, but because I do not seek high position in the army. All I want to be is a simple American soldier. My place here is very pleasant. I have been thrown into the midst of a fine bunch of fellows who are mostly masons and college men and they are truely good companions. Why should we not be companions together when we are all soldiers and fighting for the same sacred causes.
I spoke of my office work, but that is not all I do or am supposed to do. The detachment is composed of forty-seven soldiers, who have above High School training and who know something of science. One of its principal features is first aid, ministering to soldiers who have been stricken down in battle. Each morning we take an hour of physical drill and an hour of military drill, and then we are done until one o’clock, and from one until two we answer sick calls, and then we are done. The rest of the day is ours to improve in whatever way we wish. I have been enabled since I transferred to read a great deal at the army library, where you can obtain almost any book you desire. I have been re-reading my old intellectual companion in leisure hours, Shakespeare, and there is much delight and pleasure to be found in that world of Shakespeare’s if one but has an eye for it.
But in my description of the beauties of my new situation do not think that it is a paradise, because there is no such word in the dictionary of the army nor are there soft-sounding and honeyed phrases. It is rough and has no smack of culture, altho it has morality and just a little consideration for the rights of others, and you will expect that a part of that will be taken into my system. I have already scorched a dark tan on my face and hands and have a touch of the rough life of the soldier, who wins his spurs on the tented field.
The news from overseas is more encouraging each day and the time does not seem so far distant when the lion, who swept the world with the scourge of war will be driven beyond the Rhine and finally beyond dread or fear. There are Americans who despond even now over the outcome and still think that the contest will be long-drawn-out but I think in truth that every American patriot can now take hope because the lips of the dawn are surely reddening, and the rainbow of promise has already begun to color the sky of tomorrow. We hope with ever lover of liberty that it will be settled right and I believe it will. If it is not, what we we get will not be worth the price. The only justification of our entrance into the war is to make the people of the world sure that such a conflagration shall never overwhelm the world again.
My letter has been rather long, but I hope that you will at least derive some pleasure from it, and whenever you write, be sure to attach 152 Infantry, for that is the regiment to which I belong.
With impressions of the highest esteem and admiration for you, I am,
Your son,
Mark.
NOTES: This letter was written by Mark Blandell Grimes.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATTHEWS
Camp Shelby, Miss.
Medical Detachment.
September 1, 1918.
Mr. J. M. Grimes
Stuttgart, Ark.
My dear Dad:
I am in receipt of your good letter this morning and was not very much surprised to get it as I had been expecting it. Everything connected with myself is fine and there is absolutely no complaint to be made. I do not believe that any man is wrapped up in army life or has an especial delight for the business of war, but so far as such life is enjoyable I am making the most of it. Indeed, a soldier’s life is not made up of the comfort and ease of a drawing room, but I am a soldier now and I tell you there is a sunny side to it, if you will but look for it. When I was over in the Infantry, things truly got dark sometimes, but I did not pay much heed to those accustomed moods of the soldier, but in my new situation over here, things are so different that they are almost the converse of what they were over there. There was an intense drill all the time with but few hours of respite and relaxation and the non-commissioned officers were not always too generous to recruits and more especially those who were drafted. But it has been my experience that many of the best blood and brain of our America is in the lists of drafted men, men who shuddered at the thought of leaving home and loved ones, but who were not necessarily unpatriotic and who loved their native land dearly. I have now become accustomed to the ways and manners of the military life and you have to conform to a great measure to those ways and customs and pay but little attention to your comrades in arms and speak words of encouragement and hope to them but little, still I never see a man in uniform but what I think of the tremendous sacrifice that some mother and father has made to give their son as a bloodly offering to the God of war and of battle that we freemen may make the world over again and place the rights of men upon the solid and enduring foundations of political liberty and righteousness. It is a great and momentuous thing to have a part, however humble it may be in the prodigy of this great age, the reconstruction of governments upon the model of our America.
Dad, army life has its poetical side, you seem to keep step with everything around you. You are up at five o’clock promptly with the sound of the bugle, and that is about the only time that I do not think that the bugle call is musical. i was always fond of sleeping in the morning but here for some reason they do not let you follow the line of least resistance. And you must adopt a uniform plan of doing things. Well, I am not so fond of that bugle call, for it always seems to send forth its silver sounds directly in the midst of my slumbers and at a time when I am most sleepy. The parades, which are held twice each week, are beautiful. And when I look at those magnificent parades uniformly beautiful keeping time to the wild, grand music of the army band, I think of the might and majesty of our arms and of the earnestness of these brave soldiers who are going to set the world aright and then come back home and have some share in the great life of the tomorrows. I am not proud of that army because it is invincible, not because it can succeed in making our nation a militaristic nation, but I am proud of it for the reason you are and every true patriot is, because it has behind it the forces of justice and peace and the liberty of mankind, and I hope that the old banner which Washington carried serenely forward and which Lincoln defended with his blood will never fall among its enemies but that it will be flung to the breezes as it has upon so many glorious occasions as the beckoning finger of hope and of promise to all those who believe in democracy and in the self-government of peoples. I realize that the part which I am playing and am to play in this terrific world struggle is comparatively small and insignificant. Almost every private would be prompted to think the same way. But the nucleus of the army is the private soldier and upon his efficiency or inefficiency depends the fate and the destiny of nations.
I had the opportunity to go to Camp Taylor to be trained in an Officer’s School, because I passed the examination easily with a grade of 100%, but on the same day I was given a place in the office and after thinking over the proposition, of the dangers and the hardships of an artillery officer under the enemy’s fire almost constantly, I determined to remain a private and stay where I could do the most good. Not because I am afraid to be under fire, for I will be, when I go over, but because I do not seek high position in the army. All I want to be is a simple American soldier. My place here is very pleasant. I have been thrown into the midst of a fine bunch of fellows who are mostly masons and college men and they are truely good companions. Why should we not be companions together when we are all soldiers and fighting for the same sacred causes.
I spoke of my office work, but that is not all I do or am supposed to do. The detachment is composed of forty-seven soldiers, who have above High School training and who know something of science. One of its principal features is first aid, ministering to soldiers who have been stricken down in battle. Each morning we take an hour of physical drill and an hour of military drill, and then we are done until one o’clock, and from one until two we answer sick calls, and then we are done. The rest of the day is ours to improve in whatever way we wish. I have been enabled since I transferred to read a great deal at the army library, where you can obtain almost any book you desire. I have been re-reading my old intellectual companion in leisure hours, Shakespeare, and there is much delight and pleasure to be found in that world of Shakespeare’s if one but has an eye for it.
But in my description of the beauties of my new situation do not think that it is a paradise, because there is no such word in the dictionary of the army nor are there soft-sounding and honeyed phrases. It is rough and has no smack of culture, altho it has morality and just a little consideration for the rights of others, and you will expect that a part of that will be taken into my system. I have already scorched a dark tan on my face and hands and have a touch of the rough life of the soldier, who wins his spurs on the tented field.
The news from overseas is more encouraging each day and the time does not seem so far distant when the lion, who swept the world with the scourge of war will be driven beyond the Rhine and finally beyond dread or fear. There are Americans who despond even now over the outcome and still think that the contest will be long-drawn-out but I think in truth that every American patriot can now take hope because the lips of the dawn are surely reddening, and the rainbow of promise has already begun to color the sky of tomorrow. We hope with ever lover of liberty that it will be settled right and I believe it will. If it is not, what we we get will not be worth the price. The only justification of our entrance into the war is to make the people of the world sure that such a conflagration shall never overwhelm the world again.
My letter has been rather long, but I hope that you will at least derive some pleasure from it, and whenever you write, be sure to attach 152 Infantry, for that is the regiment to which I belong.
With impressions of the highest esteem and admiration for you, I am,
Your son,
Mark.
NOTES: This letter was written by Mark Blandell Grimes.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATTHEWS