TRANSCRIBED FROM THE LOG CABIN DEMOCRAT NOVEMBER 29, 1917 P. 3
Editor Log Cabin Democrat:
I will write you a few lines and tell you how glad I am to get the daily Log Cabin Democrat, for I want to keep up with the news around Conway, and I feel lost without it for I have been reading it so long. All of the Sammies are glad to get any kind of reading matter and we don’t get much.
We are eight miles from Alexandria, but we haven’t been able to go to town yet because we have been in quarantine against measles since October 14, and we were moved down here under quarantine. This camp is a very pretty place, but I don’t like it a well as dear old Arkansas.
We have some Scotch, English and French officers that have just come over from the front to train us.
I saw Witt Gould, Sam Joslin and Allan Reid the other day, just after they came here and they tell me that they had seen Jamie Anderson and Guy Camp, but I haven’t been able to go across the quarantine line to see them. They are over in the first Arkansas camp and not in quarantine.
We left Fort Roots on November 3, and arrived here on the night of November 4, and all we had to eat on the way over here was just a sandwich of “horse” meat for each meal. We were a hungry bunch of men when we reached camp. Our battery has just had Saturday morning inspection which comes every Saturday morning, rain or shine. We have to wash every Wednesday so we will have clean clothes for inspection and it is quite funny to see some of the boys trying to wash, though I think I will be a pretty good laundry man by the time the war is over. This sure is a hard place to try to keep clean in, for everything that is burned here is pine knots and you can put on clean clothes in the morning and by noon every thing is as black and dirty as if they had been worn two or three weeks.
All of us are anxious to finish our training here and cross the pond to France and get into the fun. The officers from France tell us of the good times they have over there and also of the hardships.
We haven’t received our guns or horses yet. Our horses are here, but they are in quarantine also.
I can’t write all I would like to about our camp on account of the very strict orders from divisional headquarters forbidding us. There is a nice little city here of soldiers, but that also I can’t tell.
I have started a diary and put some thing in it every few days and after the war I can look back over it and tell you all about it.
All of the batteries helped Uncle Sam by buying liberty bonds, and we will pay them out in ten months on the installment plan.
The days are hot here and the nights are damp and cold. There is a good deal of sickness here and I believe the field hospital and also the base hospital is full to capacity.
I certainly like all of my officers and non-commissioned officers.
I will have to close for this time and go to “suppie”—what we call dinner in the army.
Pvt. C. E. Hoss, U.S.A.
Battery C, 142nd Field Artillery, 39th Division, Camp Beauregard, Alexandria, La.
P. S.—Please send me the paper regular so I will not miss an issue, as I have already missed two issues of the daily. I will write you more some time when I have more time, and will give you a routine of our daily work.
Clifton
NOTES: Clifton Embree Hoss was born in Conway, Arkansas on February 27, 1893 and died on October 1, 1965. He is buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Conway. His military headstone identifies him as a Pfc, serving in Co. C, 4 Bn. US Guards in WWI.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATTHEWS
Editor Log Cabin Democrat:
I will write you a few lines and tell you how glad I am to get the daily Log Cabin Democrat, for I want to keep up with the news around Conway, and I feel lost without it for I have been reading it so long. All of the Sammies are glad to get any kind of reading matter and we don’t get much.
We are eight miles from Alexandria, but we haven’t been able to go to town yet because we have been in quarantine against measles since October 14, and we were moved down here under quarantine. This camp is a very pretty place, but I don’t like it a well as dear old Arkansas.
We have some Scotch, English and French officers that have just come over from the front to train us.
I saw Witt Gould, Sam Joslin and Allan Reid the other day, just after they came here and they tell me that they had seen Jamie Anderson and Guy Camp, but I haven’t been able to go across the quarantine line to see them. They are over in the first Arkansas camp and not in quarantine.
We left Fort Roots on November 3, and arrived here on the night of November 4, and all we had to eat on the way over here was just a sandwich of “horse” meat for each meal. We were a hungry bunch of men when we reached camp. Our battery has just had Saturday morning inspection which comes every Saturday morning, rain or shine. We have to wash every Wednesday so we will have clean clothes for inspection and it is quite funny to see some of the boys trying to wash, though I think I will be a pretty good laundry man by the time the war is over. This sure is a hard place to try to keep clean in, for everything that is burned here is pine knots and you can put on clean clothes in the morning and by noon every thing is as black and dirty as if they had been worn two or three weeks.
All of us are anxious to finish our training here and cross the pond to France and get into the fun. The officers from France tell us of the good times they have over there and also of the hardships.
We haven’t received our guns or horses yet. Our horses are here, but they are in quarantine also.
I can’t write all I would like to about our camp on account of the very strict orders from divisional headquarters forbidding us. There is a nice little city here of soldiers, but that also I can’t tell.
I have started a diary and put some thing in it every few days and after the war I can look back over it and tell you all about it.
All of the batteries helped Uncle Sam by buying liberty bonds, and we will pay them out in ten months on the installment plan.
The days are hot here and the nights are damp and cold. There is a good deal of sickness here and I believe the field hospital and also the base hospital is full to capacity.
I certainly like all of my officers and non-commissioned officers.
I will have to close for this time and go to “suppie”—what we call dinner in the army.
Pvt. C. E. Hoss, U.S.A.
Battery C, 142nd Field Artillery, 39th Division, Camp Beauregard, Alexandria, La.
P. S.—Please send me the paper regular so I will not miss an issue, as I have already missed two issues of the daily. I will write you more some time when I have more time, and will give you a routine of our daily work.
Clifton
NOTES: Clifton Embree Hoss was born in Conway, Arkansas on February 27, 1893 and died on October 1, 1965. He is buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Conway. His military headstone identifies him as a Pfc, serving in Co. C, 4 Bn. US Guards in WWI.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATTHEWS