{"id":6462,"date":"2018-02-23T18:07:12","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T18:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=6462"},"modified":"2018-02-25T13:12:28","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T13:12:28","slug":"from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-february-23-1918-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-february-23-1918-podcast","title":{"rendered":"From Camp Lee to the Great War: February 23, 1918 – Charles Riggle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cI would like to be in one battle before [the war] is over any way. For all I know, I might be in several of them before it is over\u2026.\u201d<\/h2>\n
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In his ninth letter home from Camp Lee, Virginia, dated February 23, 1918, PFC Charles \u201cDutch\u201d Riggle, a WWI soldier from Wheeling, WV, tells his brother James \u201cAbe\u201d Riggle that he\u2019s just starting to feel like he did before he left [apparently to go home for a visit]. The weather is like spring and he hasn\u2019t drilled a bit since returning. Les [our second letter writer] is out of the hospital and doing well. The two are planning to go to the show in Lakemont. Les thinks going home isn\u2019t worth the trouble for a short visit. He heard the Captain say they wouldn\u2019t go to France before October, and Dutch thinks the war will be over before then. Dutch likes the army but prefers farm work. His first sergeant was paid $62.00 a month \u2014 good money. He can\u2019t wait to husk corn. It only took 19 hours to get back to Petersburg [the trip would take about 7 hours by car today].<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the same day, the socialist parties of the allied nations concluded one of several wartime Inter-Allied Socialist Conferences in London. The parties adopted a war aims resolution that included territorial goals; planned actions to prevent famine and refugees and punish war crimes; endorsement of a League of Nations; an International Legislature; and the abolition of secret treaties, diplomacy, and compulsory military service.<\/p>\n

Charles \u201cDutch\u201d Riggle was drafted into the US Army in 1917 and trained at Camp Lee, Virginia, where so many Wheeling draftees and volunteers\u2014including his sister-in-law Minnie Riggle\u2019s brother, Lester Scott\u2014were trained. Dutch Riggle was a Private First Class in the 314th Field Artillery Supply Company, in France. Riggle was a farm boy with little formal education who grew up in the hills of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He spelled many of his words phonetically. His letters have been transcribed exactly as they were written. This is his ninth letter from Camp Lee, dated 100 years ago today, February 23, 1918.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

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February 23, 1918 Letter Home \u2013 Charles Riggle to his brother James Riggle<\/h2>\n
\"February<\/a>
Letter to James Riggle from Dutch Riggle, February 23, 1918.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n