TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SPRINGDALE NEWS SEPTEMBER 23, 1918 P. 3
Somewhere in France
Aug. 17 1918.
Dear Aunt:
I received your letter and I must indeed say that it was a grea tpleasure to get it. I got one from home at the same time and the nextday one from Uncle Pitts and Jim written in one so you can have a faint idea of how I felt to get them as they were the first for me to receive since landing in this war ridden country and when I say this, it is all true for I have already found out that there is a real war going on as I am on the firing line now and this is the second time. The first time I had ten days of it.
Aunt Meg you people over there can’t start to imagine the awfulness of it. When you can go through what was once large beautiful cities but now are a huge pile of ruins, cities that had buildings in them that were hundreds of years old and now lying in ruins to say nothing of other things, it sure is awful.
While I am writing this letter big guns from both sides are at a continuous roar of fire. I sat for an hour yesterday evening and watched the big shells from the Germans guns bursting near a small town which they were trying to shell but they were missing it quite a good deal.
I tell you Aunt Meg when one gets in the places I have been in and see what I have seen, the dead lying on the battlefield and the wounded being carried to the hospital and other things too numerous to mention in a letter, it makes one think how sweet home, piece and liberty are and I do hope this war will soon be over.
You have got to give it to the French, they sure are good fighters but don’t push things like our boys do if they had the war would have been over or at least I think so.
Well must make my letter short as I can instead of as long as I can so will bring it to a close, hoping that I can soon land in the dear old U.S.A. then I can tell you more than I ever can in a letter. Will try and write you again soon but where I am it is hard to get a letter mailed so write me soon. With love to you and all the rest, I am your loving nephew,
Dave Sturdy.
NOTES: Sturdy was born in Goshen, Arkansas on October 25, 1885 and died on April 28, 1967. He is buried in the Little Rock National Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas. His headstone identifies him as an Arkansas Private serving in Co. C, 27th Engineers in WWI.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATHEWS
Somewhere in France
Aug. 17 1918.
Dear Aunt:
I received your letter and I must indeed say that it was a grea tpleasure to get it. I got one from home at the same time and the nextday one from Uncle Pitts and Jim written in one so you can have a faint idea of how I felt to get them as they were the first for me to receive since landing in this war ridden country and when I say this, it is all true for I have already found out that there is a real war going on as I am on the firing line now and this is the second time. The first time I had ten days of it.
Aunt Meg you people over there can’t start to imagine the awfulness of it. When you can go through what was once large beautiful cities but now are a huge pile of ruins, cities that had buildings in them that were hundreds of years old and now lying in ruins to say nothing of other things, it sure is awful.
While I am writing this letter big guns from both sides are at a continuous roar of fire. I sat for an hour yesterday evening and watched the big shells from the Germans guns bursting near a small town which they were trying to shell but they were missing it quite a good deal.
I tell you Aunt Meg when one gets in the places I have been in and see what I have seen, the dead lying on the battlefield and the wounded being carried to the hospital and other things too numerous to mention in a letter, it makes one think how sweet home, piece and liberty are and I do hope this war will soon be over.
You have got to give it to the French, they sure are good fighters but don’t push things like our boys do if they had the war would have been over or at least I think so.
Well must make my letter short as I can instead of as long as I can so will bring it to a close, hoping that I can soon land in the dear old U.S.A. then I can tell you more than I ever can in a letter. Will try and write you again soon but where I am it is hard to get a letter mailed so write me soon. With love to you and all the rest, I am your loving nephew,
Dave Sturdy.
NOTES: Sturdy was born in Goshen, Arkansas on October 25, 1885 and died on April 28, 1967. He is buried in the Little Rock National Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas. His headstone identifies him as an Arkansas Private serving in Co. C, 27th Engineers in WWI.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATHEWS