1918 WW1 illustrated letter from Camp Jackson, Columbia S.C.

$30.00 CAD

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Nice World War I illustrated envelope and pages from Camp Jackson in South Carolina.

Envelope has image of signals soldiers on top of hill, one surveying scene, one using semaphores.

Letter is three sheets of paper, each with large nice illustrated letterhead on one side. Photo image of soldiers around a campfire eating, labeled ‘CAMP JACKSON, COLUMBIA, S.C.

Envelope addressed to Miss Grace Watters, Joliet IL.

Letter dated July 4th 1918:

My dearest Grace,…I got a pass to go down town…Powers From Joliet leaves here tomorrow for the Officers Training camp  in  Louisville Kentucky and a few more of the Bradley Boys are going with him, they again called for  Radio and Telephone men the other night and I told them I”d go but they said that they didn’t think I could be taken in on account of going to that special school..I go to school for two more months they said it was the most active part in the Game and that  we would be right up on the front line with infantry all the time…rumor around here about us  special men…going to be sent home again…The bunch of us go downtown mainly every night and get ice-cream, for tea, and every thing else that is cold, there was some bunch of women down there  last night, they must have been form Illinois because they were pretty neat looking…
Yours ever,
Syd
 

6 pages, 4 written

Envelope has tear right border, some creases. Letter has two horizontal folds.

3 ½" x 6"

 

When World War I broke out in 1914, the War Department, concerned that the U.S. would eventually enter, began to look for locations to set up training camps. The Army's positive experiences in Columbia in 1898 had not been forgotten. Maj. Douglas MacArthur was sent to survey the area.

MacArthur chose the area that is now Fort Jackson as a location and, when the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, Camp Jackson was established. More than 40,000 troops were posted here at a time when the population of Columbia was less than 30,000. Later, in 1918, worldwide flu epidemic killed 20 million people worldwide, and at one time more than 2,000 Soldiers were hospitalized at Fort Jackson.

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