TRANSCRIBED FROM THE VAN BUREN COUNTY DEMOCRAT FEBRUARY 23, 1918 P. 1
Ft. Riley, Kan. Feb. 17, '18.
Friends of Van Buren Co;
As in my previous letter I promised to give you an idea of a barrack scene, I shall this morning try and fulfill that request.
To begin with I will say that after a hard day's work and three good army meals, this gathering in the barracks after supper is, to some extent, very much like the gathering of a large family around the fireplace at home. Only this family consists of about seventy-five members and all boys. Likely I should say men for we have very few under thirty years of age, while a few are more than fifty. Only about six in our barracks are single men and from this you may rightly say that the Medical Division is composed of Volunteer men who are making great sacrifices for our Uncle Sam.
To describe the personnel of our Company would take a write up for each man which would be of no interest to you. However I will say that we have representatives from twenty states, Ill., Wis., and Iowa being in the lead. Dear old Arkansas is represented by two boys from Mississippi county and myself. They are both good fellows and by that I do not mean that the fellows from the other states are not all right for they are an excellent bunch, and you never know where a fellow is from unless you ask him. Many of them have the peculiar accent of their section however and you know whether they are from North or South. One thing I do notice and that is if a fellow North lives within a hundred or two miles of some city of prominenec they give that as their home. To come in and hear them talk you would suppose about one-third of our Company were from Chicago, when in fact only two or three live in that city.
Quite a few of our boys though, were raised in the city and some of them had never been on a horse before, so it is amusing to hear them talk about horses and see them ride. A number of them hate horses like a snake and can't ride a little bit. some of them fell off and some wear themselves out trying to hold on. One boy begged to be let out of ranks stating that if his mother knew it she would not sleep all night. Best of all however was a little Jew from New York. When we first mounted and started off in a quiet walk he thought it just fine, but when we struck the prairie and were commanded to hit a trot and then a run, that Jew talked with his Lord as never before. He did not fall off but he has not ridden since. Of course they will find out that he is shirking and he will have to ride some more. One boy from Chicago says he will be perfectly willing to eat horses but he don't want to ride them.
Now I haven't described our indoor scenes but probably with what I have written you will like another letter.
1st Lieut. R.M. Hunter
Co. 19, M.O.T.C.
NOTES: Robert Marvin Hunter was born on January 10, 1979 in Van Buren County, Arkansas and died on February 20, 1960. He is buried in the Huie Cemetery in Clinton, Arkansas. His military headstone identifies him as an Arkansas Captain serving in the Medical Corps. He enlisted on January 17, 1918 and was discharged on July 7, 1919. He departed New York on June 11, 1918 onboard the Missanable. He was listed as 1st Lieut. serving in the Ft. Riley June Automatic Replacement Draft Medical.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
Ft. Riley, Kan. Feb. 17, '18.
Friends of Van Buren Co;
As in my previous letter I promised to give you an idea of a barrack scene, I shall this morning try and fulfill that request.
To begin with I will say that after a hard day's work and three good army meals, this gathering in the barracks after supper is, to some extent, very much like the gathering of a large family around the fireplace at home. Only this family consists of about seventy-five members and all boys. Likely I should say men for we have very few under thirty years of age, while a few are more than fifty. Only about six in our barracks are single men and from this you may rightly say that the Medical Division is composed of Volunteer men who are making great sacrifices for our Uncle Sam.
To describe the personnel of our Company would take a write up for each man which would be of no interest to you. However I will say that we have representatives from twenty states, Ill., Wis., and Iowa being in the lead. Dear old Arkansas is represented by two boys from Mississippi county and myself. They are both good fellows and by that I do not mean that the fellows from the other states are not all right for they are an excellent bunch, and you never know where a fellow is from unless you ask him. Many of them have the peculiar accent of their section however and you know whether they are from North or South. One thing I do notice and that is if a fellow North lives within a hundred or two miles of some city of prominenec they give that as their home. To come in and hear them talk you would suppose about one-third of our Company were from Chicago, when in fact only two or three live in that city.
Quite a few of our boys though, were raised in the city and some of them had never been on a horse before, so it is amusing to hear them talk about horses and see them ride. A number of them hate horses like a snake and can't ride a little bit. some of them fell off and some wear themselves out trying to hold on. One boy begged to be let out of ranks stating that if his mother knew it she would not sleep all night. Best of all however was a little Jew from New York. When we first mounted and started off in a quiet walk he thought it just fine, but when we struck the prairie and were commanded to hit a trot and then a run, that Jew talked with his Lord as never before. He did not fall off but he has not ridden since. Of course they will find out that he is shirking and he will have to ride some more. One boy from Chicago says he will be perfectly willing to eat horses but he don't want to ride them.
Now I haven't described our indoor scenes but probably with what I have written you will like another letter.
1st Lieut. R.M. Hunter
Co. 19, M.O.T.C.
NOTES: Robert Marvin Hunter was born on January 10, 1979 in Van Buren County, Arkansas and died on February 20, 1960. He is buried in the Huie Cemetery in Clinton, Arkansas. His military headstone identifies him as an Arkansas Captain serving in the Medical Corps. He enlisted on January 17, 1918 and was discharged on July 7, 1919. He departed New York on June 11, 1918 onboard the Missanable. He was listed as 1st Lieut. serving in the Ft. Riley June Automatic Replacement Draft Medical.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD