“You were speaking of the 314 Co….coming to wheeling for the third Liberty Loan. There will be one from each county, Ohio and Brooke… They just go to talk the people into buying them…”
In his twenty-ninth 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 about a teacher at No. 2 school named Roy Strickland. He then explains the process by which men of the 314th were elected to go to Wheeling to push Liberty Loans — war bonds sold by the US government to finance the war effort. Buying Liberty Loans came to be viewed as one’s patriotic duty.
Elsewhere on the same day, the German army raided northeast of Verdun, and the British launched a daylight air-raid on Kaiserslautern in southwest Germany near the Palatinate Forest. Unexploded ordinance from both World Wars is still occasionally found in the area.
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 twenty-ninth letter from Camp Lee, dated 100 years ago today, March 17, 1918.
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March 17, 1918 Letter – Lester Scott to his sister, Minnie Riggle
Camp Lee,
V.a.
March 17, 1918
Dear Sister,
I just rec’d your other letter. I had just ans your other one so I will write again and settle your disputes. you were speaking of who taught school at No 2 when we played. it was Roy Strickland. you was right once. and in regards to the buggy, he bought the buggy from powel and sold it to Bill shook and as I am not much interested in those things any more I forget who bought the buggy from that Clark has but I do know he didn’t get it at Claysville, so you see you are always wrong. and you were speaking of the 314 Co. as you say coming to wheeling for the third Liberty Loan. there will be one from each county, Ohio and Brook Co. we nominated four or five and which ever one get the most votes goes. they just go to talk the people into buying them. do you see. will close hoping to hear from you soon and see the spot.
Listen to Episode 39 of “From Camp Lee to the Great War: The Letters of Lester Scott and Charles Riggle”
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From Camp Lee to the Great War: The letters of Lester Scott and Charles Riggle” is brought to you by Archiving Wheeling in partnership with the Ohio County Public Library (Wheeling, WV) and the Wheeling Academy of Law & Science (WALS) Foundation.
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 with music courtesy the Library of Congress.
[Music for March 17, 1918 episode: “Poor butterfly,” Jaudas, Eugene. (performer)Jaudas’ Band (performer), 1917, https://www.loc.gov/item/00694036/]
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.
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REALLY ENJOY THE LETTERS. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.