From Camp Lee to the Great War: Episode 24 [January 6, 1918]

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

"I don't know what time I will get to Wheeling. The trains have been so late..." In his seventeenth 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 that he's just gotten out of the hospital after his bout with measles. He's feeling better and is eager to get to Wheeling for a two day visit. The weather has been "fierce" in Virginia, so he assumes it's worse in Wheeling, and he's not sure a "machine" [automobile] will be able to make it the train station to pick him up. Elsewhere on the same day, France and Germany recognized Finland’s independence (the latter after Bolshevik Russia, with whom the German Empire was negotiating peace, had done so) and the Italian army had some success in Albania. 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 seventeenth letter from Camp Lee, dated 100 years ago today, January 6, 1918. Digital scans and a transcript of Lester Scott's September 24, 1917 letter can be viewed at: http://www.archivingwheeling.org/blog/from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-january-6-1918-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: "Junk Man Rag," Roberts, [Luckyeth] (composer), Victor Military Band (performer), 1913, courtesy Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.100010646/ 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.