From Camp Lee to the Great War: Episode 22 [January 1, 1918]

From Camp Lee to the Great War: The Letters of Lester Scott & Charles Riggle

"Believe me we got some fine looking nurses here. One looks just like Cleo. I wouldn’t mind staying here for awhile." In his sixteenth 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, on base hospital stationary, that he's in the hospital with the German measles, but is doing fine. He plans to come home as soon as he's out. He wants to make sure his girlfriend Cleo is there when he arrives. Like Dutch [Scott's brother-in-law and our second letter writer Charles Riggle] had noted in a previous letter, Lester has read that the farm boys would get to come home for the spring to get the crops planted. Lester would just as soon stay in the army. There's a soldier next to him from White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia. He's a hunter with deer hounds and promised to send Jim [Minnie's husband James Riggle] a pup. Lester thinks the nurses are good looking at the base camp hospital. One looks just like Cleo. He wouldn't mind staying for awhile. Elsewhere on the same day, German raids near Mericourt on the Western Front failed, the French held back a raid at Verdun, the Austrians bombed Venice Italy, and the Mare Island US Marine Corp football team defeated the Camp Lewis US Army team 19-7 in the 4th Rose Bowl, which featured squads from military bases in 1918 and 1919. 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 “A,” 80th (Blue Ridge) Division in France. This is his twelfth letter from Camp Lee, dated 100 years ago today, January 1, 1918. Digital scans and a transcript of Lester Scott's January 1, 1918 letter can be viewed at: http://www.archivingwheeling.org/blog/from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-january-1-1918-podcast Credits: "From Camp Lee to the Great War: The letters of Lester Scott and Charles Riggle" is brought to you by http://archivingwheeling.org in partnership with the Ohio County Public Library (http://www.ohiocountylibrary.org) and the WALS Foundation (http://walswheeling.com). Jeremy Richter is the voice of Lester Scott. The letters of Lester Scott and Charles Riggle were transcribed by Jon-Erik Gilot. This podcast was edited and written by Sean Duffy, audio edited by Erin Rothenbuehler. Music: "True to the Flag March," United States Marine Band, 1922, courtesy Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/00694039/ Many thanks to Marjorie Richey for sharing family letters and the stories of her uncles, Lester Scott and Charles “Dutch” Riggle, WWI soldiers from West Virginia.