{"id":7853,"date":"2019-01-26T01:34:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T01:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=7853"},"modified":"2019-02-27T01:39:03","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T01:39:03","slug":"from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-january-26-1919-charles-riggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-january-26-1919-charles-riggle","title":{"rendered":"From Camp Lee to the Great War: January 26, 1919 – Charles Riggle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI am getting all the wine I want over here. It is cheap here. 60 cent a quart. It wont hardly make a fellow light-headed but it is good-tasting. The whiskey is no good here. I never drink a drop of it\u2026..\u201d<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
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In his twentieth letter home since leaving for Camp Lee, and his fifth letter home from France, dated January 26, 1919, PFC Charles \u201cDutch\u201d Riggle, a WWI soldier from Wheeling, WV, tells his brother James \u201cAbe\u201d Riggle that, despite being homesick, he is well and hearty and feeling fine. They are stuck in France taking care of 107 horses and mules. Dutch wants to get back to farming by spring. He is getting all the cheap wine he wants but the French whiskey is no good. He still hasn\u2019t heard anything about Les [the family back home received a death notice<\/a> by telegram dated January 8]. He\u2019s heard a rumor that Les died, and another rumor from Tib Meriner that Les was back at Camp Lee. He\u2019s not sure when he\u2019ll get to leave for home.<\/p>\n\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 Battery F of 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 twentieth letter home, dated 100 years ago today, January 26, 1919.<\/p>\n

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January 26, 1919 Letter Home \u2013 Charles Riggle to his brother James Riggle<\/span><\/h2>\n\n
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Letter to James Riggle from Dutch Riggle, January 26, 1919.<\/figcaption><\/figure>