{"id":7436,"date":"2018-09-06T23:52:30","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T23:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=7436"},"modified":"2018-09-07T10:55:32","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T10:55:32","slug":"from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-september-6-1918-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-september-6-1918-podcast","title":{"rendered":"From Camp Lee to the Great War: September 6, 1918 – Lester Scott"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSomewhere in France\u2026\u201d<\/h1>\n
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In his thirty-ninth letter home to his sister Minnie Riggle, US Army Wagoner (mule team driver) Lester Scott, a World War I soldier from Wheeling, West Virginia,\u00a0says he sees Charles [Riggle] every day. He received a card from Walter Toland, who is in England. They\u2019ve had some frost in France. Lester has rubber boots and warm clothes for winter. He hopes Minnie has received his Liberty Bonds<\/a>. He\u2019s sending Minnie and Jim half his allotment [$20] and he hopes they will use it.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the same day, the German army remained in full retreat from the Somme, American troops reached the south bank of the Aisne river, and \u201cThe Stars and Stripes<\/a>\u201d (an American Expeditionary Forces soldiers\u2019 newspaper<\/a> published in Paris) announced that an \u201cAll Star Nine in Olive Drab\u201d would tour to play club teams and hospital staff teams to entertain the A.E.F. troops. The all-stars would feature Major League baseball players including pitchers \u201cDots\u201d Miller<\/a> of the Pittsburgh Pirates and future Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander<\/a>, who played for the Chicago Cubs at the time.<\/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 thirty-ninth letter home, dated 100 years ago today, September 6, 1918.
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September 6, 1918 \u2013 Lester Scott Letter to Minnie Riggle<\/h2>\n