TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ARKANSAS GAZETTE SEPTEMBER 28, 1917 P. 11
Dear Brother:
Well it has been raining here for a week now, and believe me, I am up to my neck in mud. I wish you would get me a pair of boots and send them to me. Mark them “Boots for Soldier.” We need them bad, and can’t get them here. Get laced ones—army style if possible, and if B wants to send anything tell her to send woolen wristlets.
They brought in a bunch of German prisoners last night and they are all kids, 16 and 17 years old, except for a few old men. When I get back I will tell you something that you can’t believe. I hardly can, and you will never be able to realize how bad they are, unless you could see them. Sunday we were in a town recently evacuated by the German’s; everything was totally destroyed, the graves in the graveyards had been opened and left open and all metal taken from the caskets, and it is said the dead were robbed of jewelry buried with them.
The railway equipment is mostly a joke to us—we laugh every time we see it; first, second and third class coaches, and they don’t have freight cars. They have wagons, and that is about what they are, too; one pair of trucks on each end, and will haul about as much as a good two-horse wagon. But engines, they have them; anything from a Shay to a Superheated Malley, but not any of them have a pilot, and no cabs, only a—well, I call it sunshade. The road bed is either the best or the worst I ever saw. They have both. We have a hard time trying to talk to the French people. However, I like it, and am enjoying things very much.
Give my regards to everyone I know, especially J. B. Dickinson, and tell them we are always glad to get a letter or card from someone back home.
NOTES: Cpl. Horace Green Whyte Jr. was writing to his brother W. M. Whyte of the H. J. Heinz Co. Horace was born on March 29, 1890 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and died on September 5, 1957 at the VA hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas He was buried in the Bellwood Cemetery at Pine Bluff. His military headstone identifies him as an Arkansas Corp. serving in Co. B 12 Railway Engineers during World War 1. He was wounded in France and was discharged ahead of his unit and returned home to Pine Bluff.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
Dear Brother:
Well it has been raining here for a week now, and believe me, I am up to my neck in mud. I wish you would get me a pair of boots and send them to me. Mark them “Boots for Soldier.” We need them bad, and can’t get them here. Get laced ones—army style if possible, and if B wants to send anything tell her to send woolen wristlets.
They brought in a bunch of German prisoners last night and they are all kids, 16 and 17 years old, except for a few old men. When I get back I will tell you something that you can’t believe. I hardly can, and you will never be able to realize how bad they are, unless you could see them. Sunday we were in a town recently evacuated by the German’s; everything was totally destroyed, the graves in the graveyards had been opened and left open and all metal taken from the caskets, and it is said the dead were robbed of jewelry buried with them.
The railway equipment is mostly a joke to us—we laugh every time we see it; first, second and third class coaches, and they don’t have freight cars. They have wagons, and that is about what they are, too; one pair of trucks on each end, and will haul about as much as a good two-horse wagon. But engines, they have them; anything from a Shay to a Superheated Malley, but not any of them have a pilot, and no cabs, only a—well, I call it sunshade. The road bed is either the best or the worst I ever saw. They have both. We have a hard time trying to talk to the French people. However, I like it, and am enjoying things very much.
Give my regards to everyone I know, especially J. B. Dickinson, and tell them we are always glad to get a letter or card from someone back home.
NOTES: Cpl. Horace Green Whyte Jr. was writing to his brother W. M. Whyte of the H. J. Heinz Co. Horace was born on March 29, 1890 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and died on September 5, 1957 at the VA hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas He was buried in the Bellwood Cemetery at Pine Bluff. His military headstone identifies him as an Arkansas Corp. serving in Co. B 12 Railway Engineers during World War 1. He was wounded in France and was discharged ahead of his unit and returned home to Pine Bluff.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT