[ NOTE: IF YOU ARE READING THIS SERIES FOR THR FIRST TIME, IT'S BEST TO START AT THE BEGINNING]

Diary entries -

Sept. 25, 1917, Tues., Cold - cloudy

Up at 5:00. Took down day tent, made rolls, cleaned up. Left camp 10 a.m. Started down subway 10:45, went to Penn Sta. Ferry. Entrained about 3:00. Left N.Y. about 5:15. On Pullman. Bunked with Decker & Briery. No dinner, but had supper.

Train - 1st Section HQ Co. - Hosp. Corps - Supp. Co. - M.G. Co. - & Band. 2, 3, &4 sect. - 1st., 2nd & 3rd battalions. 3 cars per Co.

Sept. 26, 1917, Wed., Fair - warm

Up 6:30, shaved. Train is in Wash., D.C., been here about an hour. Laid over sometime in No. Phil. last night - had fine trip. Bkfst. at 7:30. Saw Capitol Dome at 8:40. Saw Wash. Monument at 8:43. Crossed Potomac at 8:45. Passed Cavalry camp & rifle range at 9:15. Passed big camp of wooden barracks at 10:00. Crossed Rappahanok River & then Frederickstown at 10:50. Dinner 12:15. Richmond at 1:25. Went around west side. Was in Emporia, Va. by 4. Went out for exercise. Sent cards. Crossed boundary into North Carolina about 5:08. Bum eats. Didn't leave Rocky Mount until after 8:00 (arrived at 6:15). Bed early.

Sept. 27, 1917, Thurs., Cloudy - warm

Up at 6:30. We're at a town called Eastover. Slept fine. Began train 7:35. Long layover in Columbia, S.C. Left Columbia at 9:45. Stopped raining. Began raining again at 11:23. Stopped rain. Fine dinner at noon. Stopped 12:30 - 1:30 in Clinton, S.C. Big mills here. Lots of girls. Changed engines at Laurence 1:20 - 2:45. Crossed the Enoree River - 3:35. At Enoree - 26 miles to S. at Woodruff, S.C. 4:10-4:30. Girls gave us fruit & milk. Arrived in yards -S- 5:15. 48 hr. ride. Supper soon after we arrived. Read until 9:00 Bed early.

Sept. 28, 1917, Frid., Cloudy - warm -rain.

Up at 6:00. Breakfast on train. Marched about 3 miles through mud to camp. Arrived about 11. Put equipment in mess hall. Everybody busy. Pitched tents and dug holes & worked like H--- all day. Mail came - cots at 8 or 9 at night. Mess poor. Rain! Cleared woods, etc. Some work! Bed & asleep 11 p.m.

Sept. 29, 1917, Sat., Rain - warm

Mess 7:30. Rain like H. Took sick to hosp. Cared for all minor ailments myself. Pitched tent. Went to field hosp. (a mile away to care for Benedict.) Payroll work. Rifle inspection at 3:00. Tents are all up, ditches have the place pretty well drained. Most of the stumps are out of the co. street. Sent newsletter. Wrote letters. Cool.

Sept. 30, 1917, Sun., Fair, sun warm, stiff breeze

Up early. Cleaned up, bathed, & shaved. Read & smoked all forenoon. Went out with "Al" this afternoon. Wrote letters. Sun is bright. Has dried up considerably. No mail. Cool night.

1st Inf. Sergeants - Camp Wadsworth

Letter to Aunt Nell -

Camp Wadsworth,

Spartanburg, S.C.

September 30th, 1917  Dear Aunt Nell:-

Well, here we are in South Carolina, and it isn't so bad! Can't exactly say it's good - so say "not so bad."

We left New York Tues. morning. We left camp at 10 a.m. and went to the 242nd St. Sta. and down the sub. to Fulton St. and across to the Penn. Ferry and aboard trains at the Jersey City Terminal. Our trains were in four sections. The first train had H.Q. Co., Machine Gun Co., Supply Co., Regimental Band, and the Hosp. Corps. The other three were occupied by the three battalions. We went via Newark, New Brunswick, Trenton, Baltimore into Washington. We arrived in Wash. D.C. 5:30 a.m. and left at 8:30. While there didn't see much, but the Capitol Dome, Congressional library, new treasury building, and a 5 min. view of Wash's Monument. Our view of the monument as we crossed the Potomac was wonderful.

I haven't the space or time, to describe the beauty and interest of our trip through Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. It wasn't a bit mountainous. The variety of scenes, as we changed from immense fields of corn, then cotton, then perhaps woodland that was beautiful followed by big marshes and swamps. All the way from Washington to S.C. it was upgrade! So we are surely in high country.

We traveled in tourist Pullman sleepers. Surely troop train deluxe! Our feed - however- was rotten - as it is yet! We're half starved. You see in Van Cortlandt Park we bought lots of milk and our mess Sergeant saved money - and now - he is trying to save just as much - with the result that 2 hours after each meal we feel starved and 2 hours before next mess we are too weak to work. And the grub we do get - is rotten. Bitter coffee - no sugar - rice with no sugar or milk, potatoes boiled in dirty skins, no bread sometimes and hardly any meat. Our men mobbed tonight for more grub. I knocked the mess sergt. down, skinned my knuckles, got reported to the capt. and may be reduced to private! Ha! Ha!

Have you read anything about our regt. being transferred to the 7th? They are rumoring it here. Haven't seen a newspaper since Monday, the 24th. Everyone is gossiping that we are to be broke up. No official announcement though!

How much I'd like to tell you all bout making camp. Our ground was a piece of woodland swamp. We had to cut the trees, dig out the stumps, drain the water and kill all reptiles & insects before we pitched our tents. And the H--- of it was, it was raining and - rained all night (Frid. is the day we arrived) and it rained today (Sat.) most of the day.

The achievement we have accomplished in 36 hours, or less, is a wonder. Already our camp is a wonder. It's incomprehensible, the wonderful result of our work - but - we've worked more than hard - and tonight we're all in.

I've about an inch of candle left to undress by, so I'll close for this time, hoping I hear from you soon.

With love / Clyde

Camp Wadsworth, Co. M., 1st. N.Y. Inf.

[General information on Camp Wadsworth] - 

[Camp Wadsworth was a World War I-era training facility for the United States Army. Located near Spartanburg, South Carolina, the post was in operation from its opening in July 1917 until it was inactivated in March 1919, following the Armistice that ended the war.

As the United States began to expand the United States Army in preparation for entry into World War I, the United States Department of War planned to enlarge the peacetime Regular Army through a combination of mobilizing units of the National Guard and drafting men into the wartime National Army. This plan called for the creation of 32 new mobilization and training centers, evenly split between the National Army and the National Guard. Each post was to be responsible for organizing and training a complete army division. The National Army camps were equipped with heated barracks and other facilities, while the plan called for National Guard camps, which were needed sooner because National Guard members could be available for training more quickly than draftees, to consist primarily of tents and a small number of temporary structures. As a result of these construction requirements, the War Department intended for most National Guard training sites to be located in the southern United States, where milder winters and warmer temperatures were more prevalent than in the north.

Many cities and towns lobbied to have one of the wartime encampments located nearby, anticipating the temporary economic boom such a facility might bring to the local area. The city leaders of Spartanburg were among those who vied for one of these training facilities; their lobbying and marketing efforts were successful, and Newton D. Baker, the Secretary of War, and Leonard Wood, the commander of the Army's Eastern Department, approved Spartanburg for a National Guard camp in May 1917, after having made personal inspection tours of the area.]

Observations - No longer in NY, the 1st Inf. is now in SC. Surprised to hear that Clyde got into a brawl with the mess Sgt. I wonder what the repercussions will be.

Next up - Making camp in Camp Wadsworth and training resumes. We learn if Clyde was demoted.