Mississippians in the Great War

Selected Letters

Anne L. Webster

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781496802804
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Even Mississippi textbooks rarely mention the part Mississippi men and women played in World War I. Mississippians in the Great War presents in their own words the story of Mississippians and their roles. This body of work divides into five sections, each associated with crucial dates of American action. Comments relating to various military actions are interspersed throughout to give the reader a context of the wide variety of experiences. Additionally, where possible, Anne L. Webster provides information on the soldier or sailor to show what became of him after his service. Webster examined newspapers from all corners of the state for "letters home, " most appearing in newspapers from Natchez, Greenville, and Pontotoc. The authors of the letters gathered here are from soldiers, aviators, sailors, and relief workers engaged in the service of their country. Letter writing skills varied from citizens of minimal literacy to those who would later become published authors and journalists. These letters reflect the experiences of green, young Mississippians as they endured training camp, voyaged across the Atlantic to France, and participated in horrific battles leaving some scarred for life. To round out the picture, Webster includes correspondence from nurses and YMCA workers who describe drills, uniforms, parades, and celebrations.

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AMERICANS ENTER THE WAR

WHILE THOUSANDS OF MISSISSIPPI MEN STEPPED UP AND VOLUNTEERED their services, the state did have to deal with shirkers who sought to avoid their duty.

J. W. GEORGE, US ATTORNEY, TO WILLIAM J. BUCK, PRIVATE SECRETARY TO GOVERNOR THEODORE BILBO, JUNE 20, 1917 (MISSISSIPPI, GOVERNOR, [1916–1920: BILBO], WORLD WAR I CORRESPONDENCE AND PAPERS, SERIES 878, BOX 1321)

Dear Will:

In compliance with your request in regard to the prosecution of slackers, I would state the following:

Except in the case of emergency, and this is rare, all slackers must be arrested upon complaint and warrant. Such complaint will be made by this office upon the following information: reliable witnesses as to the age of the alleged slackers, and as to the precinct at which they should have registered. The chief service which the local officers render is in the verifying of the two items of precinct-residence and age, and they should furnish you this advice with the names of some witnesses as to each of these.

Very truly yours,

J. W. George

DOUGAL KITTERMASTER, E BATTERY, CANADIAN ANTI-AIRCRAFT, FRANCE, TO PARENTS, JULY 11, 1917 (NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT, AUGUST 19, 1917)

Canada native Dougal Kittermaster (1894–1973) moved to Chicago as a young boy and was a student at the University of Illinois when war broke out. He officially joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in May 1917 and was promoted to captain prior to sailing for Europe the following month (Chicago Examiner, June 7, 1917). His uncle, Natchez resident George E. Gurd, shared this letter with the newspaper.

Dear Mother and Dad:

I mailed you a note yesterday morn telling you I was all OK, as I haven’t had time to write a letter since arriving in France, but will do so now.

There are a number of large Canadian hospitals there, each one capable of taking care of twenty-five hundred cases, you will see that there are plenty of nurses. Friday morn we had to censor mail all morn, but before lunch we set out for a very fashionable watering place about five miles from camp. Street cars run there every half hour, so we got there in time to have a swim before lunch; that night after we got back we were issued with our gas helmets and went through the lachrymatory gas chamber to make sure that the helmets were all in efficient working order. The following day we had to march a party of men to the gas school about five miles away, where we all received instructions on gas, lectures on how it is used, and finally we had to go through the chlorine gas chamber as a final test for the helmets.¹ We got back to camp that night about five P.M. and found that we were to leave the following morn to come here.

Our train left at eight A.M. Sunday and we got to our destination about two P.M., a point about [censored] miles behind the line. From there we phoned to the battery who sent back a car for us and we finally got up to the battery headquarters at seven P.M. Found that “Viv” Bishop, who was one of my seniors at RMC and who is the Canadian Permanent Force, is the major commanding the battery, and the acting captain (he is still a subaltern) is a fellow named McLelland, who I came over with from Canada on the old Hesperian in June 1915. The only other officer I knew before is Geoff Hale, who was at UCC when I was there.

Monday morn Mack and I were posted to our sections and we came up the same afternoon. I am with the left of most northern section and our position is about [censored] yards behind the front line. That is about [censored] miles you see, so we are out of range of all but the longest range guns that Fritz has, and he doesn’t bother using them back this far. Of course, we are farther back than a section usually is, but for tactical reasons, which I cannot mention, we have to stay here. The other officer with this section is a fellow called MacNaughton, from Toronto, and seems to be a very decent chap.

Yesterday I started my duties as a section officer. As it rained during the morning there was no flying so we did not go out until three P.M., when it had cleared up. We then waited all afternoon and never saw a Hun plane until eight P.M., when one came within extreme range. I took my first shot then and let him have it. To all appearances my twelfth round seemed to get him as he fluttered down about five hundred feet, but he then got control and ran for his own lines. He was about four miles away when I fired, so I was rather pleased having at least taken a few feathers out of him on my first shoot.

Today is my long duty day, which means that I got up at 3 A.M. this morn, took the guns into action at 3:30 (just before dawn) and stayed there until 10 A.M. when I was relieved by MacNaughton. I came back here and had breakfast and am now writing this (11:30 A.M.) I have lunch at 12:30 and go back to the guns at 1:30 and stay there till dark (now about 9:30), when I come back and have dinner. Tomorrow I am only on from 10:00 to 1:30, when I relieve MacNaughton, and I have the rest of the day to myself. This morn we only saw about four Hun planes and none of them came within fifteen thousand yards of us, so we had no shooting at all. Of course, the Hun isn’t usually as inactive as this, but I think it is because he is very active on some other part of the front as announced in this morn’s Official Communique.

Will tell you about the country, etc., in my next.

All my love, as ever,

Your loving son,

Dougal

PS Don’t forget to send the parcels out each month as I asked you to in my last letter from England. My address is simply, “E” Battery, Canadian Anti-Aircraft, BEF France. If you see Char tell her that I haven’t had a moment to write her yet but will try to do so today.

1. Gas was used as a weapon in warfare for the first time on August 22, 1915, when German forces deployed chlorine gas against French troops during the Second Battle of Ypres. For the remainder of the war, both the Allies and the Central Powers used gas against their enemies. Soldiers in the trenches hated it, and its unpredictable nature, especially if the wind shifted, made it as potentially dangerous to the sender as well as to the intended target (Welsh, USA in World War I, 21).

F. R. PRICE, COMPANY C, 8TH US ENGINEERS, FORT BLISS, TEXAS, TO A. F. HERMAN, EDITOR, PONTOTOC SENTINEL, AUGUST 5, 1917 (PONTOTOC SENTINEL, AUGUST 16, 1917)

My dear Mr. Herman:

Please change the address on my Sentinel to Frank R. Price, Co. “C,” 8th US Engineers, mounted, Camp Stewart, Fort Bliss, Texas.

Our battalion name has been changed to the 8th regiment of US Engineers Mounted, and mail must be addressed that way to insure prompt delivery.

I haven’t gotten my copy of The Sentinel for the last week in July and I don’t want to miss any more for I want to keep up with the Pontotoc happenings as closely as possible.

We are still camped near El Paso but are expecting to be moved to some other camp some time soon. There is no timber here and as we use round timber for building military bridges we have no material handy for use in engineer drills. For that reason we need to be moved to some place where we can get to growing timber. We are getting accustomed to the sand and heat now though and don’t mind that so much. We are all ready for a move however, we want to see some trees and grass again for the desert grows nothing but sage and mesquite brush besides, of course, the cactus. We are not bothered with centipedes or tarantulas for we are not in a new camp and they don’t come into camp very often. I’m glad of it, for they make rather disagreeable “pets.”

I have been to the Masonic temple in El Paso several times now and enjoy my visits there very much, they have a fine library with a writing room attached, then there are game tables of all kinds that are free to visiting brothers. It is surely a privilege to be able to go in and use the library and writing rooms and I go in every time I am in town. I haven’t attended any of the meetings yet but expect to go in for some of them as soon as we get through on the target range. Our regiment started shooting this morning and we won’t be allowed to go to town until we get through with target practice. Will be on the range for at least three weeks and I’m going to be good and ready for something to break the monotony of camp life before our time is up.

As Frank Price writes, engineers had to use round timber for bridge-building drills because no other material was available in the vicinity. (Camp Shelby Photograph Collection, Box 22, Folder 52, No. 3)

Quite a number of us are taking lessons in French now so as to be able to talk to the girls when we get to France. There is no telling when that will be though we hope it will be some time soon for we are all tired of the monotony of camp life and want to see some excitement. We have quite a job cut out for us when we get there though. We are to take charge of the railroads, mines, power houses, water plants and the engineering work of every class and there’ll be enough to keep us all busy. There’ll always be military engineering work such as laying out trenches, building barbed wire entanglements, bridges, roads and electric lines also. We will be busy enough to keep out of mischief alright. The regulars don’t get into much mischief though. It’s the militia that set the civilians against the soldiers nearly every time. The bunch down here last year so worked on the feelings of the El Paso people that they will never have any use for a soldier again. They like the soldier only as long as his money lasts and the men are all pretty well disgusted with the El Paso people over it.

We had a big review and parade in honor of a Russian count who is over here in the interest of the Russian government last Tuesday and it was quite an affair. Every soldier in the El Paso district was in it and as there are about twenty thousand of us here there was quite an imposing parade. I wish the people back home could have seen it for it was a pretty parade.

Please change the address to the one I have given and keep The Sentinel coming.

With best regards, I am

Yours truly,

F. R. Price

THE WAR EFFORT INVOLVED MORE THAN JUST MEN VOLUNTEERING TO fight: the folks at home were encouraged to get involved in some way. Everyone was challenged to “Do Something,” as in this 1917 song by Edward Laska:

Everybody isn’t built to go and fight;

But we always want to do the thing that’s right.

Trenches need brave men of health,

And war loans need the people’s wealth,

But ev’ry Yankee Doodle can do something to help.

For when we hear our duty call us, we never lag.

All that Uncle Sam must do is just wave the flag;

And every mother’s son or daughter

Tries to help on land or water,

Someway, it doesn’t matter how.

Just go and do something, do something do what you can,

It’s up to you, every woman or man,

If you can fight, then go do your share,

Or do something here that will help them out there,

A thousand jobs now have to be done;

And if we do them, the war will be won,

So go and do something, do somethin...