{"id":6188,"date":"2017-11-25T20:55:06","date_gmt":"2017-11-25T20:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=6188"},"modified":"2017-12-15T16:10:33","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T16:10:33","slug":"camp-lee-great-war-november-25-1917-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/camp-lee-great-war-november-25-1917-podcast","title":{"rendered":"From Camp Lee to the Great War: November 25, 1917 – Lester Scott"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cYou wanted to know what I was going to do Thanksgiving. I am going to get my teeth fixed. I got one pulled. I only have two to fix\u2026\u201d<\/h2>\n
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In his tenth letter home from Camp Lee, Virginia, to his sister Minnie Riggle, US Army Wagoner (mule team driver) Lester Scott, a World War I soldier from Wheeling, West Virginia, writes that he still isn\u2019t sure if he\u2019ll get furlough a few days later for Thanksgiving on the 29th. Although November 29 seems late to celebrate\u00a0Thanksgiving<\/span>, this would have been typical for the age. Lincoln, in 1863, declared that the holiday was to be held on the last Thursday of November. It wasn\u2019t until 1939,\u00a0when the last Thursday happened to fall on the last day of the month, that the date was changed. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, concerned that the shortened Christmas shopping season might dampen the economic recovery during the Great Depression, issued a Presidential Proclamation moving\u00a0Thanksgiving<\/span>\u00a0to the second to last Thursday of November. Congress, however, arguing that some years November has five Thursdays when other years have only four, decided to set a fixed-date for the holiday, and in 1941 established the fourth Thursday in November as the Federal\u00a0Thanksgiving<\/span>\u00a0Day holiday. If Lester doesn\u2019t make it home, he plans to get his teeth fixed for the holiday. He only has two to fix, he notes. He says that he and the men asked for a transfer to France and were told they would be there soon. As his brother-in-law Dutch Riggle mentioned in his letter of the previous day (see Podcast #13<\/a>), Lester talks about the transfer of the infantrymen, including Wheeling friend Walter Toland (W.T.). Lester doesn\u2019t miss Walter but says Dutch seems happy. Lester also mentions the snow but disagrees with Dutch about how cold it is. Les still only needs a shirt. Lester promises to let Minnie know when he arrives at Elm Grove so she can meet him. Finally, as he so often does in his letters home, he mentions Cleo, a friend of his sister and a person of great importance to Lester. Stay tuned for more about the mysterious Cleo, who will have her own podcast in this series next spring.<\/p>\n

Lester Scott was drafted in 1917 and trained at Camp Lee, where so many Wheeling soldiers were trained. And, like so many of his Ohio Valley comrades, he served in the 314th Field Artillery Supply Company, Battery \u201cA,\u201d 80th (Blue Ridge) Division in France. This is his tenth letter from Camp Lee, dated 100 years ago today, November 25, 1917.<\/p>\n

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To listen to the podcast, visit our SoundCloud page<\/a>, or subscribe through your favorite podcast app.<\/p>\n

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November 25, 1917 Letter \u2013 Lester Scott to his sister, Minnie Riggle<\/h2>\n
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Letter to Minnie Riggle from Lester Scott, November 25, 1917.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n