TRANSCRIBED FROM THE HOT SPRINGS NEW ERA DECEMBER 24, 1918 P. 5
Phelan le Grand
Thursday Nov. 22, 1918
Dear Dad:
This is mail day again and in the collection was one from mother written October 28. By mail day I don’t mean that we have mail on certain days, but only when it comes it always comes in bunches and then we go for a week or ten days without any and I believe as much as the average soldier like to eat, you could break up any mess line with a bunch of mail. I feel sorry for the man that doesn’t “draw” on an occasion like that. About the best thing the people can do for their boys here is to write to them often.
Now that the war is all over, we are all wondering whether we will have an opportunity of becoming a part of the army of occupation or will we be sent home. Of course every one is anxious to get back to the only country in the world but I really believe that if the proposition was put to the men they would vote __ for moving eastward. All of them wanted to get into the big show and since we were not fortunate enough to do so they want to do the next best thing.
As I have written you several times bathing has been a big problem all along. Well, at last we have solved the problem as far as my battalion is concerned. The room we where eating in had a concrete floor with a natural slope toward one side. This side was near a ditch. So I got my landlord, the mayor, one morning took him over, showed him the proposition and asked permission to drill a hole 1.16 inches in diameter (MISSING TEXT) could be disposed of. He consented.
The wall was two feet thick and we had no tools of any kind for a job like that. But being a motorized outfit we had a lot of good mechanics. So a rock drill was soon produced and the hole put through.
I figured that with 650 men in the battalion if we arrange to give each man a bath once a week that was all we could hope for. Fuel and water both are scarce and hard to get. But four showers each, bathing a man every 20 minutes would bathe 12 men an hour or 108 men in nine hours, which was all that was necessary.
So we got some old oil cans made some shower sprays out of them fixed a faucet with cut off value on each one so a man could turn the water off when he wasn’t using it thereby saving as much as possible. Then rigged up two old kettles of about 20 gallons capacity to heat the water. They worked fine heating quickly and with little fuel.
Water had to be hauled a mile and a half but the quartermaster let us have an old unserviceable water cart. The mechanics came in handy again and fixed it up with a pump like you see on threshing machine water wagons. Also made a coupling for hooking it onto the touring ___ of the truck, then borrowed a 200 gallon wine barrel from a wine dealer for our reservoir.
So the water wagon is hauled to the lake by a truck in five minutes two more pumps and it is full. It comes back and by an interchangeable arrangement of the hose, the water is pumped out of tank into the wine barrel which is in the bath house. Then the tank is ready to make another trip.
The heat from the kettles keeps the room warm and you should see how much those boys enjoy a real American shower bath. You have no idea how much they appreciate it. They like tobacco, wine, etc., but I have never seen them show as much appreciation over anything as they do over their new bath house. So I figure it was well worth all the trouble and what little expense was for the few things which the government didn’t furnish and we had to buy.
This is the 28th of the month so you see my letter is being rather drawn out. Haven’t had much spare time the last few days as we have received orders to prepare to move to a base port to take ship for the U.S. Of course we are all glad for there is no use being in the army if there isn’t going to be some fighting. It seems to me New York will look mighty good when we strike there.
Right now we are ready to move and are awaiting transportation. Think if they started us out with the knowledge we were heading for home we could walk to the port in a very short time everyone anxious to go.
Today is Thanksgiving, my first without turkey, but we have so many things to be thankful for this time that a shortage of the long legged bird doesn’t matter.
For nearly three years now I have been in the army and so far have not seen action. Have been able to get close to two scraps, but never in one. My only exciting experience came one day when a Lt Colonel and I were going out on the artillery range looking up some observation posts. We happened to get on a road which crossed between some targets which were being fired on, well we were out in the target area about 500 yards before there were any firing or we knew anything about it. Just then a shell whizzed over our heads and struck about 200 yards away that caused us to look around and when we saw where we were it didn’t take us long to decide to retreat with all possible speed. While we were turning around a big Howitzer shell was heard coming over you, hear them a few seconds before they arrive, and it exploded about 250 yards on the opposite side of the road.
A motorcycle will run pretty fast and we had down hill going but for the next half mile, 50 miles an hour was too slow for me. Shells were popping on both sides of us and one had plowed a hole in the road ahead of us. Fortunately it was only a 75 and had not made a very large hole or we would probably have wrecked the machine right there. Well we got back safely but I can’t say that I want to go back on that range again while firing is going on.
Hope to see you again real soon. Lots of love to all of you.
Brikett.
NOTES: Major Birkett L Williams was writing to his father A.U. Williams, of Hot Springs. Arkansas. At about the same time the letter arrived A.U. Williams received a cable from Brest, France that Birkett expected to sail for the US. about Dec 19 and should be home by January 1, 1919. Birkett was born on February 5, 1890 in Hot Springs, Arkansas and died on August 4, 1980 in Shaker Heights. Ohio. Before the war he had spent 7 years in the National Guard and had reached the rank of Captain. At the time of the letter he was serving as a Major of Motor Battalion, 114th Amo. Train. He was described as being of medium height and slender with brown eyes and hair. He is buried in the Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
Phelan le Grand
Thursday Nov. 22, 1918
Dear Dad:
This is mail day again and in the collection was one from mother written October 28. By mail day I don’t mean that we have mail on certain days, but only when it comes it always comes in bunches and then we go for a week or ten days without any and I believe as much as the average soldier like to eat, you could break up any mess line with a bunch of mail. I feel sorry for the man that doesn’t “draw” on an occasion like that. About the best thing the people can do for their boys here is to write to them often.
Now that the war is all over, we are all wondering whether we will have an opportunity of becoming a part of the army of occupation or will we be sent home. Of course every one is anxious to get back to the only country in the world but I really believe that if the proposition was put to the men they would vote __ for moving eastward. All of them wanted to get into the big show and since we were not fortunate enough to do so they want to do the next best thing.
As I have written you several times bathing has been a big problem all along. Well, at last we have solved the problem as far as my battalion is concerned. The room we where eating in had a concrete floor with a natural slope toward one side. This side was near a ditch. So I got my landlord, the mayor, one morning took him over, showed him the proposition and asked permission to drill a hole 1.16 inches in diameter (MISSING TEXT) could be disposed of. He consented.
The wall was two feet thick and we had no tools of any kind for a job like that. But being a motorized outfit we had a lot of good mechanics. So a rock drill was soon produced and the hole put through.
I figured that with 650 men in the battalion if we arrange to give each man a bath once a week that was all we could hope for. Fuel and water both are scarce and hard to get. But four showers each, bathing a man every 20 minutes would bathe 12 men an hour or 108 men in nine hours, which was all that was necessary.
So we got some old oil cans made some shower sprays out of them fixed a faucet with cut off value on each one so a man could turn the water off when he wasn’t using it thereby saving as much as possible. Then rigged up two old kettles of about 20 gallons capacity to heat the water. They worked fine heating quickly and with little fuel.
Water had to be hauled a mile and a half but the quartermaster let us have an old unserviceable water cart. The mechanics came in handy again and fixed it up with a pump like you see on threshing machine water wagons. Also made a coupling for hooking it onto the touring ___ of the truck, then borrowed a 200 gallon wine barrel from a wine dealer for our reservoir.
So the water wagon is hauled to the lake by a truck in five minutes two more pumps and it is full. It comes back and by an interchangeable arrangement of the hose, the water is pumped out of tank into the wine barrel which is in the bath house. Then the tank is ready to make another trip.
The heat from the kettles keeps the room warm and you should see how much those boys enjoy a real American shower bath. You have no idea how much they appreciate it. They like tobacco, wine, etc., but I have never seen them show as much appreciation over anything as they do over their new bath house. So I figure it was well worth all the trouble and what little expense was for the few things which the government didn’t furnish and we had to buy.
This is the 28th of the month so you see my letter is being rather drawn out. Haven’t had much spare time the last few days as we have received orders to prepare to move to a base port to take ship for the U.S. Of course we are all glad for there is no use being in the army if there isn’t going to be some fighting. It seems to me New York will look mighty good when we strike there.
Right now we are ready to move and are awaiting transportation. Think if they started us out with the knowledge we were heading for home we could walk to the port in a very short time everyone anxious to go.
Today is Thanksgiving, my first without turkey, but we have so many things to be thankful for this time that a shortage of the long legged bird doesn’t matter.
For nearly three years now I have been in the army and so far have not seen action. Have been able to get close to two scraps, but never in one. My only exciting experience came one day when a Lt Colonel and I were going out on the artillery range looking up some observation posts. We happened to get on a road which crossed between some targets which were being fired on, well we were out in the target area about 500 yards before there were any firing or we knew anything about it. Just then a shell whizzed over our heads and struck about 200 yards away that caused us to look around and when we saw where we were it didn’t take us long to decide to retreat with all possible speed. While we were turning around a big Howitzer shell was heard coming over you, hear them a few seconds before they arrive, and it exploded about 250 yards on the opposite side of the road.
A motorcycle will run pretty fast and we had down hill going but for the next half mile, 50 miles an hour was too slow for me. Shells were popping on both sides of us and one had plowed a hole in the road ahead of us. Fortunately it was only a 75 and had not made a very large hole or we would probably have wrecked the machine right there. Well we got back safely but I can’t say that I want to go back on that range again while firing is going on.
Hope to see you again real soon. Lots of love to all of you.
Brikett.
NOTES: Major Birkett L Williams was writing to his father A.U. Williams, of Hot Springs. Arkansas. At about the same time the letter arrived A.U. Williams received a cable from Brest, France that Birkett expected to sail for the US. about Dec 19 and should be home by January 1, 1919. Birkett was born on February 5, 1890 in Hot Springs, Arkansas and died on August 4, 1980 in Shaker Heights. Ohio. Before the war he had spent 7 years in the National Guard and had reached the rank of Captain. At the time of the letter he was serving as a Major of Motor Battalion, 114th Amo. Train. He was described as being of medium height and slender with brown eyes and hair. He is buried in the Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT