To Bertha from C.C. Ballou – October 27, 1918
[Note: He is unaware that his daughter Reba died four days earlier.]
My dear Specks,
Are you up today? I received the telegram ordering me to organize the 92nd Division. I wired Mamma and left Camp Dodge without a regret. I am much more comfortable here than I was doing last October.
I received your letter postcard October 3rd today and will at once mail Sally a pocketbook like the one _____ Bertha took Mamma. General Pétain gave me several little cupcakes, including these two ladies articles, a cigarette case, a jack knife and a pipe. [Note: Pétain would later become the head of Vichy France]. I don’t expect to command the 6th corps very long, as I fancy it will be thought that the 92nd _____ me worse than the corps does. In fact, the 92nd is likely to prove a hindrance to my advancement rather than a help.
I am well, have a good appetite, a good French Chef, and plenty to eat. Also, a very comfortable bed to sleep in. The big guns are booming tonight, but that is so much a matter of course that it has ceased to be a novelty, as have the attacks of dozens of anti-aircraft guns on the enemy’s planes or our own. I have never yet seem an airplane combat, though many have taken place on our front. In one our aviator got the _____. We found two officers in the wreck, a cavalry man and an artillery man, and the next day when the debris was moved a third of officer was found under it.
Everybody you know in the division is well. One of my War College classmates is my corps Chief of Staff. The war is not over yet by any means but I think Austria is crumbling. Turkey is bound to knock under soon. Austria will, I think, go to pieces. Charles will be the last Hapsburg Emperor and perhaps Wilhelm will be the last of the Hohenzollerns. It is the twilight of Kings and Emperors.
_____ these are wonderful days. Old John Bull is, as always, coming in strong on the homestretch. For bulldog tenacity, he can’t be beaten. The 92nd has not done anything very noteworthy, but it keeps on going. I have no idea where _____ is now. It is a big army that we now have ______ _____, more than two million, and one can’t keep track of people. Though constantly running into them.
I saw today in a magazine the photos of practically of all of the corps and Division Commanders of last summer except mine. Some old ones, in Captain’s uniforms of years and years ago. A motley crowd. I hope the Corcoran will prove more satisfactory this year. Don’t suppose Senn will get back to the Point [Note: West Point military academy], but still hope for the best. My letter to General Ireland was last card. The rest depends on Senn.
Love to all.
Your loving old dad.