TRANSCRIBED FROM THE POCAHONTAS STAR HERALD FEBRUARY 8, 1918 P. 2
Ft. Totten, N.Y., Jan 22
Dear Editor:
If you will spare me space in your paper I will write the boys of the good old town of Pocahontas and Randolph county, a few lines since I have arrived in New York.
Ninety-three recruits, myself included, left Jefferson Barracks on the sixteenth and arrived in New York the eighteenth, all feeling fine. The weather is much nicer than it was at Jefferson Barracks. There was no snow here when we arrived, but has snowed some since. We are 18 miles from the main city of New York, on Long Island Sound. This is a very fine fort, all the buildings here are of brick, and steam heated, so you can readily see that we are more comfortable than we were at St. Louis, where the cantonments were of wood.
Among the several hundred of us there are only three of us from the good old state of Arkansas and we have some struggle holding up for Arkansas, but we stand firm for her just the same. From this fort we figure our next trip will be across the pond. In this message I invite a line from all, a word from a friend means much to a soldier.
Why didn’t I wait to be drafted,
And be led to the train by the band,
Or fill out a claim for exemption,
Oh, why did I hold up my hand?
Why didn’t I wait for a banquet?
For the drafted men get the credit.
While I’m merely a volunteer,
Nobody gave me a banquet.
No one said a word; the puff of the engine and the grind of the wheels was all the goodbye I heard. Then off to the training camp, hustled to be drilled for half a year; then kind words and shuffle forgotten, for I’m only a volunteer. But perhaps, some day in the future, a little boy who will sit on my knee, will ask what I did in this great war, then I can look into those eyes that peer, and explain that I wasn’t drafted, I was only a volunteer.
Thomas H. Holt,
Long Island Sound
NOTES: Holt was born on April 9, 1892 and died on May 30, 1957 in Pocahontas, Arkansas. He is buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Pocahontas. His military headstone identifies him as a Pvt. in the US Army.
TRANSCRIBED BY DEBRA POLSTON
Ft. Totten, N.Y., Jan 22
Dear Editor:
If you will spare me space in your paper I will write the boys of the good old town of Pocahontas and Randolph county, a few lines since I have arrived in New York.
Ninety-three recruits, myself included, left Jefferson Barracks on the sixteenth and arrived in New York the eighteenth, all feeling fine. The weather is much nicer than it was at Jefferson Barracks. There was no snow here when we arrived, but has snowed some since. We are 18 miles from the main city of New York, on Long Island Sound. This is a very fine fort, all the buildings here are of brick, and steam heated, so you can readily see that we are more comfortable than we were at St. Louis, where the cantonments were of wood.
Among the several hundred of us there are only three of us from the good old state of Arkansas and we have some struggle holding up for Arkansas, but we stand firm for her just the same. From this fort we figure our next trip will be across the pond. In this message I invite a line from all, a word from a friend means much to a soldier.
Why didn’t I wait to be drafted,
And be led to the train by the band,
Or fill out a claim for exemption,
Oh, why did I hold up my hand?
Why didn’t I wait for a banquet?
For the drafted men get the credit.
While I’m merely a volunteer,
Nobody gave me a banquet.
No one said a word; the puff of the engine and the grind of the wheels was all the goodbye I heard. Then off to the training camp, hustled to be drilled for half a year; then kind words and shuffle forgotten, for I’m only a volunteer. But perhaps, some day in the future, a little boy who will sit on my knee, will ask what I did in this great war, then I can look into those eyes that peer, and explain that I wasn’t drafted, I was only a volunteer.
Thomas H. Holt,
Long Island Sound
NOTES: Holt was born on April 9, 1892 and died on May 30, 1957 in Pocahontas, Arkansas. He is buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Pocahontas. His military headstone identifies him as a Pvt. in the US Army.
TRANSCRIBED BY DEBRA POLSTON