“The Coast Artillery will never go across the pond. They may never see a battle unless the Germans come across an they hant much danger of them doing that…”
In his sixth letter home from Camp Lee, Virginia, dated December 23, 1917, PFC Charles “Dutch” Riggle, a WWI soldier from Wheeling, WV, tells his brother James “Abe” Riggle that his name was drawn 104th for furlough, so it will be a good while before he gets to come home — probably February. He’d like to come home with Less [our second letter writer, Wagoner Lester Scott] but thinks that won’t be possible. He says he saw in the newspaper that Bill Riggle was sent to the U.S. Coast Artillery in Georgia [established in 1901 to defend the U.S. coastline and harbors in case of attack]. He thinks that’s good because he doesn’t think they will be sent to France. A few cooks have been sent over. He also read that all the farmers would be sent home in the spring. Charles isn’t sure he wants to go. He feels army life has done him good. He’s heartier than ever. He says the expect a big dinner for Christmas in camp and a lot of stuff from the Red Cross. He says they had nine inches of snow. He asks Abe to save him some apples as they are too expensive at a nickel a piece at Camp Lee.
Elsewhere, peace talks between Soviet (Bolshevik) Russia and the Central Powers had been initiated the previous day at Brest-Litovsk, a city near the Polish border in what is now Belarus. The negotiations would continue for two months and would lead to, among other things, the ceding of the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) to Germany as well as the release of Russian claims in Poland, Ukraine, and Finland. The Bolsheviks were involved in a civil war for control of Russia and were willing to agree to harsh peace terms to free up resources.
Charles “Dutch” Riggle was drafted into the US Army in 1917 and trained at Camp Lee, Virginia, where so many Wheeling draftees and volunteers—including his sister-in-law Minnie Riggle’s brother, Lester Scott—were trained. Dutch Riggle was a Private First Class in 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 sixth letter from Camp Lee, dated 100 years ago today, December 23, 1917.
