{"id":7458,"date":"2018-09-08T21:05:23","date_gmt":"2018-09-08T21:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=7458"},"modified":"2018-09-08T21:05:23","modified_gmt":"2018-09-08T21:05:23","slug":"from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-september-8-1918-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-september-8-1918-podcast","title":{"rendered":"From Camp Lee to the Great War: September 8, 1918 – Lester Scott"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMinnie I often think to myself that it certainly must be a lonesome old place around their now since all of the boys have left. But I feel that there is a day coming and not far away when we will all be together again\u2026\u201d<\/h2>\n
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In his fortieth 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 it\u2019s a rainy day but all are in good spirits and happy. He talks with Charles [Riggle] and Tib [Meriner] every day. Tib has been promoted to sergeant. Les would like to hear from their father and is planning to write to him. He\u2019s surprised that Tom [Riggle] didn\u2019t pass the [draft] exam. he thinks Wheeling must be a lonesome place since all the boys are in France. But he feels they will all be together again soon.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the same day, fighting along the front increased in violence and intensity as the German army made a stand. The New York Times<\/em> declared, on a full page of photographs<\/a>: \u201cWin-the-War Spirit Runs High in Labor\u2019s Greatest New York Parade.\u201d And Derek Barton<\/a>, a British chemist who would win the Nobel Prize in 1969, was born.<\/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 fortieth letter home, dated 100 years ago today, September 8, 1918.<\/p>\n

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September 8, 1918 \u2013 Lester Scott Letter to Minnie Riggle<\/h2>\n