TRANSCRIBED FROM THE BENTON COURIER MAY 16, 1918 P. 1
Dear Parents and All:
I will drop you a few lines tonight as we are still in New Orleans. We have been expecting to move ever since we came but we are still here. This is just a station for several other camps. Boys are coming in and going out all the time. We have a fine bunch of officers, they are just as good as can be, and do everything possible to make it pleasant for us. I am awfully well pleased.
Have not got to go to New Orleans yet and do not suppose we will, for we are under moving orders now and may go at any time. They did not put us under quarantine as we supposed. We go any where in camp that we want to. We have plenty of excitement and do not get lonesome. Boys here from everywhere and a finer bunch never assembled.
Our camp is part of Jackson Barracks and we can New Orleans from here. Our camp joins the city park. We have quite a few visitors, and some awful pretty French girls. Most of the people here are decendant of the French.
The mosquitos are awful bad here. We have mosquito bars but they bite some anyway.
The best we can find out is that we are going to some place in Arizona for cavalry service. That suits me. The lieutenant told me that he thought I could make the band all right.
Don't worry over me for so far I am having a big time.
Wish you could see me with my uniform on. Believe me, I am some good looking soldier. Pink (Eggleston) and I have laughed at each other all day. Neither of us look like ourselves.
We have been examined and also vaccinated. My arm from the typhoid shot is a little sore, but it only lasts two days. The smallpox will take later on. I have taken out $7,500 of insurance. It costs me $4.95 per month. I am worth more dead than alive.
The feed is good here and we have fairly good bed.
There is sure a bunch of boys here at the Y.M.C.A. writing letters, some are talking, some singing, some whistling, and some playing the phonograph and piano. Nobody seems blue here. We will have a moving picture show here after a bit, and maybe a talk.
Roy Sanders
NOTES: Sanders who left Benton, Arkansas for New Orleans, Louisiana on May 3 was writing to his parents Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Sanders of Traskwood, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
Dear Parents and All:
I will drop you a few lines tonight as we are still in New Orleans. We have been expecting to move ever since we came but we are still here. This is just a station for several other camps. Boys are coming in and going out all the time. We have a fine bunch of officers, they are just as good as can be, and do everything possible to make it pleasant for us. I am awfully well pleased.
Have not got to go to New Orleans yet and do not suppose we will, for we are under moving orders now and may go at any time. They did not put us under quarantine as we supposed. We go any where in camp that we want to. We have plenty of excitement and do not get lonesome. Boys here from everywhere and a finer bunch never assembled.
Our camp is part of Jackson Barracks and we can New Orleans from here. Our camp joins the city park. We have quite a few visitors, and some awful pretty French girls. Most of the people here are decendant of the French.
The mosquitos are awful bad here. We have mosquito bars but they bite some anyway.
The best we can find out is that we are going to some place in Arizona for cavalry service. That suits me. The lieutenant told me that he thought I could make the band all right.
Don't worry over me for so far I am having a big time.
Wish you could see me with my uniform on. Believe me, I am some good looking soldier. Pink (Eggleston) and I have laughed at each other all day. Neither of us look like ourselves.
We have been examined and also vaccinated. My arm from the typhoid shot is a little sore, but it only lasts two days. The smallpox will take later on. I have taken out $7,500 of insurance. It costs me $4.95 per month. I am worth more dead than alive.
The feed is good here and we have fairly good bed.
There is sure a bunch of boys here at the Y.M.C.A. writing letters, some are talking, some singing, some whistling, and some playing the phonograph and piano. Nobody seems blue here. We will have a moving picture show here after a bit, and maybe a talk.
Roy Sanders
NOTES: Sanders who left Benton, Arkansas for New Orleans, Louisiana on May 3 was writing to his parents Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Sanders of Traskwood, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD