TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ARKANSAS GAZETTE JANUARY 27, 1918 P. 31
I simply can’t tell you how much I appreciate your letter. It came Monday but I have been working which is why I did not answer sooner. I am sick in quarters, but feeling some better today. I have a very bad cold. There was a 10-inch snow Sunday night and Monday, which hasn’t begun to melt yet. It is very disagreeable weather.
I have seen some awful sights since I wrote you last. Yesterday a month ago they started the big drive, and there was a steady roar of guns for more than a week. I was driving a tractor on a narrow guage railroad at the time, hauling ammunition to the front. We could go up there only at night, and on dark nights at that. I have been up against the real thing, but think we have been lucky. Only two in our regiment have been wounded, one of them from my company. I have seen them get wounded in ten feet of me.
I pulled a Red Cross train after the drive started. I am still railroading, but not the same work I was doing.
I went over on the battlefield the next day after the drive started and saw oodles of dead Germans. I could have walked on them for yards and yards without putting my foot on the ground. Of course I saw some dead Tommies, but not so many of them as the Germans. I can’t tell all about it, but will when I get back.
I would be mighty glad to take Christmas dinner with you. I heard we are going to have turkey, but don’t know how true it is. Don’t forget to send some of your fruit cake, for fruit cake and home-made candy is the best thing we get from home.
Many, many thanks for the letter and write as often as you can. That is the happiest time of my army life when I get letters.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by Henry Hilliard of North Little Rock, Arkansas to William McDonald. Hilliard was in the 12th Engineers (Ry). Before the war he was a railroad engineer. He was tall with a medium build with brown eyes and dark hair. He was born June 5, 1888 in North Carolina and died on November 2, 1955 in North Little Rock. He is buried in the Edgewood, Cemetery in North Little Rock.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
I simply can’t tell you how much I appreciate your letter. It came Monday but I have been working which is why I did not answer sooner. I am sick in quarters, but feeling some better today. I have a very bad cold. There was a 10-inch snow Sunday night and Monday, which hasn’t begun to melt yet. It is very disagreeable weather.
I have seen some awful sights since I wrote you last. Yesterday a month ago they started the big drive, and there was a steady roar of guns for more than a week. I was driving a tractor on a narrow guage railroad at the time, hauling ammunition to the front. We could go up there only at night, and on dark nights at that. I have been up against the real thing, but think we have been lucky. Only two in our regiment have been wounded, one of them from my company. I have seen them get wounded in ten feet of me.
I pulled a Red Cross train after the drive started. I am still railroading, but not the same work I was doing.
I went over on the battlefield the next day after the drive started and saw oodles of dead Germans. I could have walked on them for yards and yards without putting my foot on the ground. Of course I saw some dead Tommies, but not so many of them as the Germans. I can’t tell all about it, but will when I get back.
I would be mighty glad to take Christmas dinner with you. I heard we are going to have turkey, but don’t know how true it is. Don’t forget to send some of your fruit cake, for fruit cake and home-made candy is the best thing we get from home.
Many, many thanks for the letter and write as often as you can. That is the happiest time of my army life when I get letters.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by Henry Hilliard of North Little Rock, Arkansas to William McDonald. Hilliard was in the 12th Engineers (Ry). Before the war he was a railroad engineer. He was tall with a medium build with brown eyes and dark hair. He was born June 5, 1888 in North Carolina and died on November 2, 1955 in North Little Rock. He is buried in the Edgewood, Cemetery in North Little Rock.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT