"Letter, Harrel Burke to his family, 1917 December 18"

Jefferson Barracks
Dec 18 1917
Dearest Mama[,] Papa & all
Well the two days
I have been fairing pretty well
since my name was called
I have been assigned to a
regular bunk at least for
a little while.
The vaccination for
Typhoid made my arm pretty
sore for about 12 hours but it
is feeling all ok again. I haven't
been to town but [illegible]
once we (or section 11) have
been waiting for our Finger
prints to be made since
Monday morning. We will
not get our uniforms untill [sic]
we have our finger prints
made and maybe we will
have to wait one or two
days after we get our finger
prints made.
They tell me that there
is about five thousand
drafted men coming into
this camp to be trained
here. Last night they made us
give up our cots and put air
mattresses on the floor. They
put the cots in two or three
toilets and made the ex-
tra men in there.
If they begin to send
those drafted men in here
that way it will mean
that we will be shiped [sic] out
pretty soon. I believe I told
you all about being split
from my crowd. I have
located both of them now.
I was called in section 11
and Lee was called in
section 12 and Matkin was
called in section 25 that was
getting split up pretty
well. We were not the
only ones that got all
split up tho [sic] it seems as if
most every one that had a
pal got split away from them
Since we three have found
out where each other is
we can manage to get
transferred to one company
"maybe" we are going to
try it anyway.
It is pretty muddy
up here. They have got
some of our Arkansas
clay out here on these hills
that sticks tight to ones [sic] shoes
especially have to just
skoot [sic] your feet along on
the ground to help them
from sliping [sic] off[.] other
wise the weather is very
pleasant.
When we come back
from the mess hall
(and that a very good name
for it) after supper every
night we have a quartett [sic]
& is it "spelt" right that gongs
around in our Barrack
and sings for about an
hour or more and then
we all go to bed and
get up at six the next
morning.
When we came in
here last Friday we had to
stack all our grips in
building and haven't been
able to get to them since
so there has been a regular
laundry out in the toiler
there is a special prepared place
for it. I got my first shave
this evening since Friday night
and he was or seemed to be
a green barber and to like to have
pulled all the skin off of
my face.
I am lieing [sic] dowing on
my cot writting [sic] this.
Will close for
this time. I am your
Son & Bro
Hello Clyde what are you
doing. going to school every
day. Have you sliped [sic] up
in the mud or snow
yet. I did this morning
and just cleaned up the
walk and mud was just
about an inch deep on it
so I had to go to the fire
and scrape mud for a while
Harrell

World War I Arkansas

Title

Creator

Files

Date Original

Description

Biographical/Historical Note

Transcription

Physical Description

Subjects

Contributor

Geographical Area

Language

Identifier

Resource Type

Collection

Publisher

Contributing Entity

Recommended Citation

Rights

Disciplines

Preview

Additional Content

Included in

Browse

Search

Author Corner

Links