TRANSCRIBED FROM THE GREEN FOREST TRIBUNE SEPTEMBER 27, 1918 P. 2
Camp Pike, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 1918.
Dear Homefolks:
I am fine and dandy. Hope you are all well. I haven’t heard from you yet.
We moved yesterday from the mule sheds to barracks. Cue Buell is in another company and Robert White is in another barrack, so you see we are scattered some.
I like this place much better than the one we left. Over there we had to go one-half mile for our meals. Since I moved I am out of quarantine, but have not had time to go anywhere.
Guess I will take the measles before long. There was a boy broke out with them in my shed last Sunday morning.
We went to church last Sunday. The preacher was a captain of another company. He stood upon a table and we all sat flat upon the ground.
We had to eat our dinner on the ground at the other place but we have tables in the barrack here. My dishes are aluminum. One knife, one fork, one spoon, one canteen and one mess kit. We line up and pass by the cooks and they dish us up so much. If we want more we go back. I like the eats all right.
Tell all the boys not to dread army life. It will make better men out of them. Tell Jess Cope not to worry about going with some one he knows because he would soon be separated from them.
I have just come in from drill. Our first drill was this morning.
We have a bath house here. I am sleeping upstairs on a cot. We carry all our bunks (as they call them down here) down stairs and sun them. I get one of my squad mates to help me and I help him.
Say, I can send my clothes home now. I can get paper at the Y. M. C. A. to wrap them up in.
I have not been on guard duty or had kitchen work yet, but my time is close at hand.
Tell all the boys to go to Business College and get an education. It is worth more in the army than anywhere else.
We were lined up according to our heigth and divided into squads of 8 each. One of the boys standing by me was appointed corporal so I did not lack much. Robert is a corporal. My squad is No. 20. I have got 12 of the sentinel’s general orders to learn so guess I had better close. I have also got to learn all my officer’s names and what rank they are. Write me at once.
Your son,
Private Bennie B. Orrell.
NOTES: Orrell was born on May 2, 1897 in Green Forest Carroll County, Arkansas and died in May 1971. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Hugo, Colorado.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATTHEWS
Camp Pike, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 1918.
Dear Homefolks:
I am fine and dandy. Hope you are all well. I haven’t heard from you yet.
We moved yesterday from the mule sheds to barracks. Cue Buell is in another company and Robert White is in another barrack, so you see we are scattered some.
I like this place much better than the one we left. Over there we had to go one-half mile for our meals. Since I moved I am out of quarantine, but have not had time to go anywhere.
Guess I will take the measles before long. There was a boy broke out with them in my shed last Sunday morning.
We went to church last Sunday. The preacher was a captain of another company. He stood upon a table and we all sat flat upon the ground.
We had to eat our dinner on the ground at the other place but we have tables in the barrack here. My dishes are aluminum. One knife, one fork, one spoon, one canteen and one mess kit. We line up and pass by the cooks and they dish us up so much. If we want more we go back. I like the eats all right.
Tell all the boys not to dread army life. It will make better men out of them. Tell Jess Cope not to worry about going with some one he knows because he would soon be separated from them.
I have just come in from drill. Our first drill was this morning.
We have a bath house here. I am sleeping upstairs on a cot. We carry all our bunks (as they call them down here) down stairs and sun them. I get one of my squad mates to help me and I help him.
Say, I can send my clothes home now. I can get paper at the Y. M. C. A. to wrap them up in.
I have not been on guard duty or had kitchen work yet, but my time is close at hand.
Tell all the boys to go to Business College and get an education. It is worth more in the army than anywhere else.
We were lined up according to our heigth and divided into squads of 8 each. One of the boys standing by me was appointed corporal so I did not lack much. Robert is a corporal. My squad is No. 20. I have got 12 of the sentinel’s general orders to learn so guess I had better close. I have also got to learn all my officer’s names and what rank they are. Write me at once.
Your son,
Private Bennie B. Orrell.
NOTES: Orrell was born on May 2, 1897 in Green Forest Carroll County, Arkansas and died in May 1971. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Hugo, Colorado.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATTHEWS