{"id":6221,"date":"2017-12-04T02:53:48","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T02:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=6221"},"modified":"2017-12-05T00:15:18","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T00:15:18","slug":"camp-lee-great-war-december-4-1917-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/camp-lee-great-war-december-4-1917-podcast","title":{"rendered":"From Camp Lee to the Great War: December 4, 1917 – Lester Scott"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cWell I will see you Christmas for sure\u2026I would not of come but I knew you would have a conniption fit if I didn\u2019t\u2026\u201d<\/h2>\n
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In his twelfth 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 expects to be home for Christmas for three or four days. He wants the visit to be a surprise but he wants to make sure that his best girl, Minnie\u2019s friend Cleo, will be there. He\u2019s glad he\u2019s not one of the boys who won\u2019t get to go home because they were caught playing poker. As usual, Les mentions his mules as well as his brother-in-law Dutch Riggle.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the same day, British psychiatrist W.H. Rivers presented his report titled, \u201cThe Repression of War Experience,\u201d to the Royal School of Medicine. The report focused on the phenomenon dubbed \u201cshell shock,\u201d the disturbing psychological and physical effects on soldiers subjected to the horrors of long-term combat in the trenches during the Great War. We now refer to similar effects as \u201cpost-traumatic stress disorder.\u201d<\/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 twelfth letter from Camp Lee, dated 100 years ago today, December 4, 1917.<\/p>\n

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December 4, 1917 Letter \u2013 Lester Scott to his sister, Minnie Riggle<\/h2>\n
\"December<\/a>
Letter to Minnie Riggle from Lester Scott, December 4, 1917.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n