Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 304, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1917 — Remington Boy Writes Of Trip [ARTICLE]

Remington Boy Writes Of Trip

Mr. and Mrs. Butcher, of RemingI ton, have received the following letter from their son who is in the army, and stationed at Morrison, Va., at present: Morrison, Va., Dec. 21, 1917. Dear Folks—Well, I’m somewhat recuperated after my five days and a half ride. We left Kelly field Saturday noon, December 15 and landed in Huston Sunday morning and were there about an hoar. I was on duty and didn’t get to march through the' city with the boys. We traveled all day and night and crossed the Mississippi river at Baton' Rouge Sunday night. I was asleep, but some of the boys who were awake said our train was cut in two and a section at a time was pulled on the ferry boat and ferried across. We landed in New Orleans the next forenoon and marched through the city. Here the people gave us a warm welcome and treated us ffiore like soldiers. We traveled the rest of the day along the gulf or bay. Half of the time we were on trestle work over water. We stopped a few minutes at a little town and I was near the rear of the train which was yet over the water£ now this is quite a fish story, but it is a true one. A fish about twelve or fourteen feet long came to the top of the water and swam quite a distance with about half of its body above the water, it made waves like a boat and all at once it gave a flounder and disappeared. When it did this it made the water wave as though a box car had been thrown in the water. It looked like a whale to me. We landed in Mobile about fivethirty in the evening, and marched through the city. Mobile is a far nicer city than New Orleans. Here people were eager to talk to us and very glad to see us and cheered as we marched by. We were there three-quarters of an hour. After leaving there we traveled along Mobile bay. This is a great oyster bay and we saw manv oyster smacks. We traveled all night and day before getting off again, which brought us to . Nashville, Tennessee, about four in the evening. Here the boys drilled in the big union depot. I didn’t drill here but went upstairs and was leaning over the railing talking to an officer, I chanced to meet and watching the boys drill as a thousand others were doing. While I was standing there looking down at the bovs I noticed a young lady had pushed into the railing next to me. I sorta pushed ovdY so she could see the boys drill and takes a slant at her and she did likewise at me and here it was Blanche Inman, from Laurens, la. Believe me, we were both so surprised **we couldn’t say anything. She was just married about a month ago, and she and her husband were on their way to Florida to spend the winter. We were at Nashville about an hour. Then we didn’t stop any length of time until the next night about 9 o’clock when we arrived in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Here there was a mob at the station to meet us as one of the boys wired ahead from Mobile to a girl friend there, with whom he had been corresponding and who had knitted his sweater and put her name and address in it. This is the town that sent the 63rd squaddron their sweaters while we were at Kelly field. We were sure treated royal there. Old men and women turned out, as well as the young. I think everyone in the whole city was there to meet us as they knew it was the squadron they had sent the sweaters to. When the train started to pull out several old codgers waved the American flag and their wives stood by waving good bye with one hand and wiping away tears with the other. We made several stops in small towns in Kentucky, but only for a few minutes, but every one waved and shouted good bye to us from the windows or doors. We stopped next and last at Huntington, Va., Wednesday evening. Here I. met a girl by the name of Mary Butcher and she insisted that we must be related in some way but she couldn’t explain how. I told her that I had no relatives in Virginia that I knew of. No, this wasn’t the last stop either; we stopped again about 10 o’clock that evening in a town for half an hour and a crowd gathered along the train and we leaned out the train windows and talked to them.

We arrived here in Morrison about I 8 o’clock "last night and worked until 12 unloading oUr stuff. Morrison I is just a little town of perhaps a I hundred people. We have fine bar-1 racks, with electric lights and furnace to heat them. But we can t get out without sinking in the mud. I It is just a/new field and only twelve or fifteen squadrons here and no I road nor walk and a foot and I below sea level, but it is going to I be a swell place when it is fixed up. I One of our boys broke out with I the measles on the way down here and we are under strict quarantine, I not allowed away from our barracks. I I haven’t the least idea when we will start across, but I don’t think I it will be for at least a month or six I weeks, although the captain didn 11 think it would be but a short time until we started across. When 11 took the trade test I tried for wireless and passed the exams for schooling, and my transfer came in the day I before I left Kelly field, but was revoked by the lieutenant, as we were I leaving the next day. but is might Ibe I’ll be transferred or sent to school from here. lam going to try i to get a pass home from here, but I’m afraid I won’t have much luck. Now, dear folks, don’t worry one bit about me for I’m feeling fine and I

like it all right here and am getting plenty to eat and have a good place to sleep. My address is 63rd Aero Squadron, Concentration Camp, Morrison, Va. With love to all. Youg son, HARRY BUTCHER p. S.—Morrison is only seven miles from Newport News. This is on the coast and is where we load I when we start across. Morrison i isn’t given on . the map, I don’t think, but Newport News is, and we are just seven miles west—Harry.