{"id":6959,"date":"2018-04-07T16:59:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T16:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=6959"},"modified":"2018-04-09T03:12:58","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T03:12:58","slug":"from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-april-7-1918-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-april-7-1918-podcast","title":{"rendered":"From Camp Lee to the Great War: April 7, 1918 – Charles Riggle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cI think the Germans is getting about all the fighting they want now. They surely have lost a lot of men since the big battle began\u2026\u201d<\/h2>\n
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In his twelfth letter home from Camp Lee, Virginia, dated April 7, 1918, PFC Charles \u201cDutch\u201d Riggle, a WWI soldier from Wheeling, WV, tells his brother James \u201cAbe\u201d Riggle that he is at Dutch Gap near the Appomattox Court House<\/a> Civil War battlefield [see Lester Scott\u2019s description in episode 42<\/a>], training at the firing range. This would have been about 53 years to the day since the Civil War battle of April 8-9, 1865. He is having a \u201cdandy time\u201d living in a tent. They\u2019ve brought about 300 horses and mules with them. He says Les is there with him and \u201clooking good.\u201d They are being kept away from newly arriving soldiers to prevent yet another round of contagious diseases [like the mumps and measles that afflicted Les]. Dutch thinks it will be at least six months before he\u2019s sent to France. He describes the trenches left from the Civil War still extant at Dutch Gap, as well as tombstones for Civil War officers.<\/p>\n

Dutch refers to the \u201cbig battle\u201d during which the Germans have lost a lot of men. This is probably a reference to the 1918 Spring Offensive or Kaiserschlacht<\/a> (Kaiser\u2019s Battle), also known as the Ludendorff Offensive<\/a>, which began on 21 March 21, 1918. The offensive was launched as a last ditch attempt to break the Allies before the arrival of fresh troops from the United States.<\/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 twelfth letter from Camp Lee, dated 100 years ago today, April 7, 1918.<\/p>\n

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April 7, 1918 Letter Home \u2013 Charles Riggle to his brother James Riggle<\/h2>\n
\"April<\/a>
Letter to James Riggle from Dutch Riggle, April 7, 1918.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n