TRANSCRIBED FROM THE NEWARK JOURNAL MAY 1, 1919 P. 6
March 27, 1919.
My Dear Aunt
Will write you a few lines to let you know I am still alive and well.
I sure would like to come over and stay all night with you but don't guess I can come for a few nights yet. I just can't forget the good old times that we boys and girls used to have at your house. I think of it every day of the world, and then think of me being away over here in this God-forsaken country. I sure do have the blues and I am not by myself either. Every boy over here is in the same shape. We boys all want to come home. That is all you can hear out of the boys. We came over here willingly and went through H---- to win this war and now that the war is won, we want to go home. Do you blame us? But instead of going home, we are building up these blamed French roads. They say we have got to leave the roads in as good shape as we found them. I guess it is right, but you can't make us boys believe it. They tell us that we will go back like we came over--first over, first back. That is fair alright, but I think they could send us a little faster if they wanted to. I am sure the rulers of the country oguht to fix things so there fill be no more wars, because war is Hell and I am a boy that wants to get out of it and get back to the god old U.S.A. and get to doing something worth while, for I am tired of looking at these blamed old Frenchmen. We boys call them frogs, but I will have to admit they have some pretty girls over here. But still they are nothing like our girls. I am getting to where I can speak this language pretty well, but still I am not satisfied over here.
I have just seen Vird once since I have been over here and that was before war ended. I got his address that you sent me and wrote him the next day, so I guess I will hear from him in a few days. There is not even one boy with me that left home with me. But there are a few boys from Arkansas in this company. But my best pal is from Corinth, Miss., a boy by the name of Perkins. He sure is a good boy. I told him about you and mamma coming from Mississippi.
My Corporal is sitting here reading a book and has the blues so bad he can hardly see. He's waiting for me to get this letter wrote so he can get in an argument with me for he is a Baptist and I am a Campbellite. He carries his Bible in his pocket and some times we have it up one side and down the other. But he is a pretty smart kind of boy, so I have a pretty hard time getting ahead of him.
Tell Mr. Magness I saw old Tohe over here, and they had hi to a wagon loaded with shells and the driver was walking after him with a pitch fork. He knows that mule that I tried to haul hay with.
I can't find time nor paper enough to tel you all I have seen or went through with since I left home, so I will just have to wait until I come home and tell you about it. I think we will get home about July.
Give my love to everybody.
Your Nephew,
ODELL RUTLEDGE.
Co. M 141 Inf. A.P.O. 796, A.E.F.
NOTES: Rutledge was writing to his Aunt Etta Mahan.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
March 27, 1919.
My Dear Aunt
Will write you a few lines to let you know I am still alive and well.
I sure would like to come over and stay all night with you but don't guess I can come for a few nights yet. I just can't forget the good old times that we boys and girls used to have at your house. I think of it every day of the world, and then think of me being away over here in this God-forsaken country. I sure do have the blues and I am not by myself either. Every boy over here is in the same shape. We boys all want to come home. That is all you can hear out of the boys. We came over here willingly and went through H---- to win this war and now that the war is won, we want to go home. Do you blame us? But instead of going home, we are building up these blamed French roads. They say we have got to leave the roads in as good shape as we found them. I guess it is right, but you can't make us boys believe it. They tell us that we will go back like we came over--first over, first back. That is fair alright, but I think they could send us a little faster if they wanted to. I am sure the rulers of the country oguht to fix things so there fill be no more wars, because war is Hell and I am a boy that wants to get out of it and get back to the god old U.S.A. and get to doing something worth while, for I am tired of looking at these blamed old Frenchmen. We boys call them frogs, but I will have to admit they have some pretty girls over here. But still they are nothing like our girls. I am getting to where I can speak this language pretty well, but still I am not satisfied over here.
I have just seen Vird once since I have been over here and that was before war ended. I got his address that you sent me and wrote him the next day, so I guess I will hear from him in a few days. There is not even one boy with me that left home with me. But there are a few boys from Arkansas in this company. But my best pal is from Corinth, Miss., a boy by the name of Perkins. He sure is a good boy. I told him about you and mamma coming from Mississippi.
My Corporal is sitting here reading a book and has the blues so bad he can hardly see. He's waiting for me to get this letter wrote so he can get in an argument with me for he is a Baptist and I am a Campbellite. He carries his Bible in his pocket and some times we have it up one side and down the other. But he is a pretty smart kind of boy, so I have a pretty hard time getting ahead of him.
Tell Mr. Magness I saw old Tohe over here, and they had hi to a wagon loaded with shells and the driver was walking after him with a pitch fork. He knows that mule that I tried to haul hay with.
I can't find time nor paper enough to tel you all I have seen or went through with since I left home, so I will just have to wait until I come home and tell you about it. I think we will get home about July.
Give my love to everybody.
Your Nephew,
ODELL RUTLEDGE.
Co. M 141 Inf. A.P.O. 796, A.E.F.
NOTES: Rutledge was writing to his Aunt Etta Mahan.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD