TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SPECTATOR MARCH 7,1919 P. 2
October 17, 1918
Dear Mother and Daddy:
Will try to answer your letter received the other day. Was glad to hear you were all well. I am O.K. Wish you could see me haven’t shaved for fourteen days, but believe me, thE Hun will have to hustle if he ever shaves again in France.
Pershing is putting them over the plate and the Hun is fielding poorly. His luck is broken, and we will cross the plate in Berlin by Xmas or I miss my guess. And, believe me, we are going to prove beyond a doubt that the Yank’s team work wins.
Daddy, you can have no idea how we feel. Could the American people see the work of the fiendish thugs as we do, they would gasp with horror; Oh, how we lean forward as the work thickens, and in the minds of all seems to be the same thought, to finish the game quickly.
As we exchange thoughts among ourselves in moments of rest, let me say, Mother, that I am not the only one that longs to see and hear that dear voice, which has made of the American lad the greatest fighting man in the world, as well as the kindest. It is of you that I think oftenest as we face the work.
This must have been a beautiful country before the war. The French are kind and hopeful. They certainly gave us the glad hand, as we joyously try to cancel the debt to them, and the fact that they brought cheer to Washington in his darkest hour we can never forget. And as the book of Esther tell of the defeats of Thermoplea and Marathon, so will future history tell of the Hun’s overthrow by the Allies, and that the American boys know how to fight and die. We are not backing up for anything the dirty Hun has.
Your loving son,
Arch Lingenfelter,
111 Engineers, A.E.F.
NOTES: This letter was written by Arch Daniel Lingenfelter. He was born on February 8, 1896 in Alix, Arkansas and died on December 24, 1968. He enlisted on September 5, 1917 and was discharged on June 13, 1919. He departed Brest, France on May 23, 1919 onboard the Great Northern and arrived in the Hoboken, NJ on May 30, 1919. He was serving as a Private in Co B 111th Engineers.
TRANSCRIBED BY ALEXA KIMBROUGH
October 17, 1918
Dear Mother and Daddy:
Will try to answer your letter received the other day. Was glad to hear you were all well. I am O.K. Wish you could see me haven’t shaved for fourteen days, but believe me, thE Hun will have to hustle if he ever shaves again in France.
Pershing is putting them over the plate and the Hun is fielding poorly. His luck is broken, and we will cross the plate in Berlin by Xmas or I miss my guess. And, believe me, we are going to prove beyond a doubt that the Yank’s team work wins.
Daddy, you can have no idea how we feel. Could the American people see the work of the fiendish thugs as we do, they would gasp with horror; Oh, how we lean forward as the work thickens, and in the minds of all seems to be the same thought, to finish the game quickly.
As we exchange thoughts among ourselves in moments of rest, let me say, Mother, that I am not the only one that longs to see and hear that dear voice, which has made of the American lad the greatest fighting man in the world, as well as the kindest. It is of you that I think oftenest as we face the work.
This must have been a beautiful country before the war. The French are kind and hopeful. They certainly gave us the glad hand, as we joyously try to cancel the debt to them, and the fact that they brought cheer to Washington in his darkest hour we can never forget. And as the book of Esther tell of the defeats of Thermoplea and Marathon, so will future history tell of the Hun’s overthrow by the Allies, and that the American boys know how to fight and die. We are not backing up for anything the dirty Hun has.
Your loving son,
Arch Lingenfelter,
111 Engineers, A.E.F.
NOTES: This letter was written by Arch Daniel Lingenfelter. He was born on February 8, 1896 in Alix, Arkansas and died on December 24, 1968. He enlisted on September 5, 1917 and was discharged on June 13, 1919. He departed Brest, France on May 23, 1919 onboard the Great Northern and arrived in the Hoboken, NJ on May 30, 1919. He was serving as a Private in Co B 111th Engineers.
TRANSCRIBED BY ALEXA KIMBROUGH