{"id":6465,"date":"2018-02-24T22:49:42","date_gmt":"2018-02-24T22:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=6465"},"modified":"2018-02-25T04:55:13","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T04:55:13","slug":"from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-february-24-1918-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-february-24-1918-podcast","title":{"rendered":"From Camp Lee to the Great War: February 24, 1918 – Lester Scott"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cI got a gold inlay put in my front tooth. Cost me $5.00. I am going to get the rest fixed in town. The dentists [at Camp Lee] don\u2019t suit me\u2026\u201d<\/h2>\n
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In his twenty-fifth 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 it\u2019s \u201cwarm as summer.\u201d He took a trip in the country with four other soldiers on some mules. Two \u201cgot throwed off\u201d but were uninjured. He paid $5.00 for a gold inlay in his front tooth. He\u2019ll get the rest fixed in town, away from the army dentists. He says he can\u2019t figure out why his teeth keep decaying. He takes good care of them. He\u2019s also going bald and getting fat eating veal and pork. He hasn\u2019t heard from his girlfriend Cleo lately. The men shaved off half of a new man\u2019s mustache, forcing him to shave the rest. The fellows in the other squads call Les and his boys \u201chard boiled mule skinners.\u201d They have a new Victrola, a football, and boxing gloves. Les doesn\u2019t want to leave the army now.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the same day, Russia accepted Germany\u2019s peace terms (they would sign on March 3<\/a>), and the German cruiser \u201cWolf\u201d<\/a> returned to port after having sunk 11 ships.<\/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 twenty-fifth letter from Camp Lee, dated 100 years ago today, February 24, 1918.<\/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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February 24, 1918 Letter \u2013 Lester Scott to his sister, Minnie Riggle<\/h2>\n
\"Letter<\/a>
Letter to Minnie Riggle from Lester Scott, February 23, 1918.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n