I thought I would share one of my Christmas presents with the forum. My mother found this letter somewhere and gave it to me. It was written by my great grandfather, who served in WWI, to my great great grandfather. I have a few things he brought back and this of course is a great piece of family history. It was written just after the war ended and has some interesting content. I've copied it and included all errors and, apparently, run on sentences. If you notice the difference in spelling the last name for father and son, it's because sometime in the late 1800s (I think) they started using an "e" at the end, but the writer preferred the original spelling.
Rosieres en Haye, France
Nov 24, 1918
Mr. Robert Forsythe,
East Fultonham, Ohio
Dear Dad:- - -
Will endeavor to write you a letter today, as this is Fathers day, and every American Soldier “Over Here” is asked to write a letter to his Dad, you will probably get this about Christmas, it is intended to be a Christmas letter, so here goes will tell you something of my trip since I left Camp Kearny, Cal, the nearest I was to home was at Akron Ohio we we went on through to N.Y. and stayed there a few days until we got our overseas equippment then we entrained again and went to Montreal Canada, there we walked up the gang planks on to the good ship Victoria and embarked for England, we sailed down the St. Lawrence river past Quebec, out through the bay past Nova Scotia, there we met our convoy and headed across the Atlantic being all the time on the lookout for Submarines, but we didn’t see a one, I sure was dissappointed, well we had fine weather all the way across the sea was smooth, and that made the voyage all the more pleasant, so after being on the water for eighteen (18) days, we landed safely right side up at Liverpool England, there we our got our feet on solid ground once more and most of us was glad of it too, for boat riding was beginning to grow tiresome, well being interested in automobiles I geo began looking around to see what kind of cars they had and what do you think? the first one I saw was a Ford a real Ford in England, the next thing I saw was an English band coming down to meet us, they greeted us with the world famous piece entitled “The Yanks are Coming”, and ended up with the National Anthem. Well Liverpool is quite a town (don’t you know) after staying their a few hours we boarded the train and highballed for South Hampton I saw many interesting sights, we passed through Manchester, that is where England’s famous Steel works is located, it is quite a large manufacturing city, well we arrived at South Hampton about midnight unloaded our baggage and hiked about three miles to a rest camp, got our supper and being sleepy we then rolled up in our blankets and flopped for the night, and oh how did sleep, the next morning we got up feeling fine, so we scrubbed the dirt off and got a good shave then ate lunch on the afternoon we hiked back to the wharf and got on another boat and started across the Channel for France, landed at Le Havre, on Monday morning, Sept. 2, then the largest part of our journey was over for we were in France, the land that the Huns were trying to take, but they failed.
I am now stationed just south of Metz and northwest of Nancy if you have a map you can see just where I’m at, the towns all around here are shot to pieces and the land is full of trenches and shell holes, it is a wonderful sight can tell you all about it when I get home, I think the Germans got their bellys full of fighting and were darned glad to sign the an Armistace, we were sure giving them all they wanted, at night the flash of guns and bursting shells made it look like a Hell on earth and sounded worse, we are glad its over, when we received word that the Armistice was signed we threw up our hats and yelled like a bunch of wild Indians. I don’t know how soon I’ll be home but I sure hope before long, have seen all the sights over here I think. I know I’ve saw more mud since I landed in France than I ever saw before in my life, I wish I had some good old [unreadable letter (H?)]. Mex. Sand to mix with it, think it would help a whole lot.
Well how is everything in the States by this time? suppose you are having some real old winter by this time? most all the boys from around there are in camp or over Here I suppose. have never saw Sherman or even heard tell of his regiment, he is probably farther back than this. there are beaucoup Soldiers over here and it is pretty hard to find out where anyone is. Well I will ring off for this time give everyone my best and tell them hello for one and that I hope to see them all someday soon you and Mother take good care of yourselves this cold weather, for the Spanish Flu is bad in the States now. Write me real soon and tell me all the news.
I am as ever
Pvt 1st Cl. Edward A Forsyth
159 Field Hospital
American E.[unreadable (Fe?)].
France
Rosieres en Haye, France
Nov 24, 1918
Mr. Robert Forsythe,
East Fultonham, Ohio
Dear Dad:- - -
Will endeavor to write you a letter today, as this is Fathers day, and every American Soldier “Over Here” is asked to write a letter to his Dad, you will probably get this about Christmas, it is intended to be a Christmas letter, so here goes will tell you something of my trip since I left Camp Kearny, Cal, the nearest I was to home was at Akron Ohio we we went on through to N.Y. and stayed there a few days until we got our overseas equippment then we entrained again and went to Montreal Canada, there we walked up the gang planks on to the good ship Victoria and embarked for England, we sailed down the St. Lawrence river past Quebec, out through the bay past Nova Scotia, there we met our convoy and headed across the Atlantic being all the time on the lookout for Submarines, but we didn’t see a one, I sure was dissappointed, well we had fine weather all the way across the sea was smooth, and that made the voyage all the more pleasant, so after being on the water for eighteen (18) days, we landed safely right side up at Liverpool England, there we our got our feet on solid ground once more and most of us was glad of it too, for boat riding was beginning to grow tiresome, well being interested in automobiles I geo began looking around to see what kind of cars they had and what do you think? the first one I saw was a Ford a real Ford in England, the next thing I saw was an English band coming down to meet us, they greeted us with the world famous piece entitled “The Yanks are Coming”, and ended up with the National Anthem. Well Liverpool is quite a town (don’t you know) after staying their a few hours we boarded the train and highballed for South Hampton I saw many interesting sights, we passed through Manchester, that is where England’s famous Steel works is located, it is quite a large manufacturing city, well we arrived at South Hampton about midnight unloaded our baggage and hiked about three miles to a rest camp, got our supper and being sleepy we then rolled up in our blankets and flopped for the night, and oh how did sleep, the next morning we got up feeling fine, so we scrubbed the dirt off and got a good shave then ate lunch on the afternoon we hiked back to the wharf and got on another boat and started across the Channel for France, landed at Le Havre, on Monday morning, Sept. 2, then the largest part of our journey was over for we were in France, the land that the Huns were trying to take, but they failed.
I am now stationed just south of Metz and northwest of Nancy if you have a map you can see just where I’m at, the towns all around here are shot to pieces and the land is full of trenches and shell holes, it is a wonderful sight can tell you all about it when I get home, I think the Germans got their bellys full of fighting and were darned glad to sign the an Armistace, we were sure giving them all they wanted, at night the flash of guns and bursting shells made it look like a Hell on earth and sounded worse, we are glad its over, when we received word that the Armistice was signed we threw up our hats and yelled like a bunch of wild Indians. I don’t know how soon I’ll be home but I sure hope before long, have seen all the sights over here I think. I know I’ve saw more mud since I landed in France than I ever saw before in my life, I wish I had some good old [unreadable letter (H?)]. Mex. Sand to mix with it, think it would help a whole lot.
Well how is everything in the States by this time? suppose you are having some real old winter by this time? most all the boys from around there are in camp or over Here I suppose. have never saw Sherman or even heard tell of his regiment, he is probably farther back than this. there are beaucoup Soldiers over here and it is pretty hard to find out where anyone is. Well I will ring off for this time give everyone my best and tell them hello for one and that I hope to see them all someday soon you and Mother take good care of yourselves this cold weather, for the Spanish Flu is bad in the States now. Write me real soon and tell me all the news.
I am as ever
Pvt 1st Cl. Edward A Forsyth
159 Field Hospital
American E.[unreadable (Fe?)].
France
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