lovely Letter from war
July 31, 1918
My Dearest Mary,
Well, I have had another letter from you since I wrote last. This one was dated June 30. It takes about that much time, it seems, for a letter to get to us. Also, I had one from Mother of about the same date. You two seem to write about the same dates every time and when I get a letter from one, I can almost always expect one from the other right soon.
We have moved again but not far this time. Moved on my favorite moving day, Sunday, or rather the day the Army has picked for me so many times. We have our office in an old barn of some sort. Quite a drop from sorting mail on a billiard table. The floor is so rickety here that we are in danger of going through every time we make any movements. Also, I may say the ventilating system is good -- extra good -- and the elevator going down is in perfect working order. I forgot to state our office was on the second floor. The lighting system is rather poor, though. I intend to see the landlord about it soon but I am afraid we would have a hard time "comprening" each other and I don't know the sign language for more light yet.
I just came from K Co. and everyone there seems to be in good health and the best of spirits. Brought a letter back for Shoemaker, to go out tomorrow. Shoey is working in the kitchen now and, from all appearances, he is getting lots to eat. I suppose they will be moving up to the trenches again as soon as they have been out the usual time.
I am going to send you an issue of the Stars and Stripes as soon as I have finished reading it. This is the A.E.F. paper and I think that you will be pleased to see what sort of a paper it is. This paper is not the regular newspapers we get but sort of a sheet that reflects the A.E.F. spirit. Our news sources are the Paris edition of the N.Y. Herald, Chicago Tribune, and the Daily Mail. The last is an English paper put out by the London Daily Mail.
Found where there is a ruin of an old castle and as soon as I find the time I am going to see what there is to see there. It is on a small hill that rises rather abruptly out of the valley and, from the looks of things from the ground, it is indeed a hard place to reach even now. Those old timers were fond of such sites I have been told. The fellow that picked this place, picked a good one, too.
Heard from Doug a few days before I got your last letter. He seems to be in the best of spirits and he hears from Joe I. occasionally, too. He says she is in Washington D.C. working for my able employer. Well, he has a lot of jobs open, it seems, from the way the revised draft classification looks. That one took a lot of boys that were not expecting anything just yet.
Oh! I must tell you I saw Becker a night or so ago. He showed me a letter he had from Robert and, as a return favor, I gave him the one I had from Doug. Don't misunderstand me and think that is our regular custom in the Army. That is the exception rather than the rule.
Well, it is getting late so I suppose it would be best for me to ring off for this time. So, goodnight once again, little girl. I have often wondered how long these goodnights will be said this way, but it is all for the best and one of these days... Well, it will be some day. So, goodnight to my own little sweetheart.
Yours with sincerest love, Lloyd
Comments (2)
Love letters of the Civil War
I know I shall be thinking all the time "if it was just my darling Loulie how different it wd be."
My Precious Loulie
Your sweet and welcome letter of the 22nd came on Friday. I was highly amused at your flirtations with the widower or rather at the combination of it. The occasion in which Miss M. made the unfortunate remark reminds me very much of a certain occasion in Wmsburg when Kate made a charge against you, at which you blushed very much + which you denied very vehemently. It was with reference to John M. you remember it I reckon. There Miss M came out with the most agreeable + assuring piece of information she could have given me namely that it was all a mistake - that you were not engaged to John M at all. I have a most vivid recollection of this scene + I have no doubt that just such another occurred where Miss M made the unfortunate remark you blushed, a bright red, which told on you + in your excitement said it was not so. I can imagine it all. But the poor widower, his heart was not made as glad as mine was I know, tho he did laugh. So you think he is in earnest. Well, I have no doubt he is. I have thought so all along + I am sorry he is. As I told you tho you must use your own discretion + your own way in setting him right on this delicate subject. You know better than I do how to do it + when to do it. I hope he will not allow himself to get too much involved tho. how he can associate with you without loving you, I don't know. Still, he has been kind to you + enabled you to pass some pleasant hours, so that I would not like for him to suffer anything from the association. But I know you will be gentle with him, my darling + if he does address you he will love you more after you have rejected him than he did before. I do not know the Dr. Dulaney to whom you refer + can't imagine where his brother could have heard of me, or of our affairs. Miss Mary Waller must have been at the bottom of it as Miss M. suggested.
I am going this evening to call on three young ladies - Misses Lynch's, who live on the farm on which we are camped. I do not want to go at all, as I still have as great a repugnance as ever to visiting, but their mother has been kind to me + I knew a brother of theirs at the Seminary, who has died since the war begun + I am made obligatious to call on them. I know I shall be thinking all the time "if it was just my darling Loulie how different it wd be." This is the day for the great Chicago Convention. I do pray that God may so order their counsels as to bring about peace, but I am very doubtful as to the result of their labors & very much afraid that we are all of us expecting too much of them.
The shelling of Petersburg has commenced again more vigorously than ever. I suppose Grant has found that he has gained nothing by his occupation of the Weldon RR. We still use the road, but have to wagon our supplies further than we did before.
I am more than ever anxious to see you darling, but still undecided about when I shall come. Look for me when you see me, is as near as I can come to it. Love to Miss M, Kate, Miss Lila + the Dr. I trust your neuralgia is better. May God ever bless you my precious one prays
yr own loving + devoted
D.B.
If I had not gone to sleep this morning I would have written a longer letter, but now it is too late in the evening I am afraid we will have more rain tonight but I hope not. Every time it rains at night I get a ducking, as my poor flimsy old fly is not protection to me at all. Mosquitoes are terrible too. Do you have them?
My Dearest Mary,
I have at last settled down in one place for a few days and, as I have about rested up, I suspect that I had better write you.
We came here by way of England as most all do. There was some little journey on the English railway through a very pretty country. When it comes to beauty in arrangement of the farms, these people here certainly have any surpassed. There is a very noticeable lack of men in both England and France. This little village has just a few men and they are old and decrepit. This place doesn't seem to be inhabited by the original number of families. Anyway there are a number of empty houses. It was not at all hard to find room for several companies and this is just a little country village. I am staying in a pretty good house. It is a brick house as all of them are. Even the floor on the ground is of brick. In one room there is a large fireplace where we keep a fire when it is cool. I occupy a few square feet of floor in the loft or the second floor -- whichever it is.
Some of the houses are right on the street and others are back a little way. The ones back from the street have a barn lot in front of the house and sheds all around the courtyard-like place that seems to be that particular person's allotted property. When these people make a garden, they surely make a beautiful place. I saw one place that attracted my attention particularly. It is surrounded by a wall, as usual, and inside the wall are flowerbeds of all sorts. The trees are trimmed into various forms. Everything is kept in the best of shape.
The people are glad to see us and they try to talk with us some. Once in a while there is one who understands a little English and we can get along fairly well. I met a boy about thirteen at one of the camps here who had taken English in the schools here. If I could have a person like that around, it would not take long to get a fairly good idea of the language. What little French I have had helps wonderfully in getting a good start.
Well, I suspect I have written enough already -- maybe too much. It is rather hard to write under the restrictions. I have not received any mail and I don't expect to for some time yet. We are some distance from the lines. How far, I don't know. Anyway, the country here looks peaceful enough.
Well, goodbye for this time. I will write as often as possible but how soon they will reach you is decidedly uncertain.
With truest love,
Your own, Lloyd Staley