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us, those under 25 years of age, were second lieutenants. Three or four men still in the battery had not been commissioned. They were offered an option. If they chose, they could stay on at the camp for a second try. Or they could have an outright discharge and take their chances with the draft.

Then Sands broke another bit of news. He had been directed to name 15 of us to be sent overseas immediately. He asked all those who wanted that assignment to step forward one pace. All but four or five of us stepped forward. Sands let it be known that he felt those few had disgraced him. Then he said that the list would be posted later, and we were dismissed.

Six of us, Tennesseeans, held a hurried conference. We decided to follow Sands to the officers' quarters, until then off bounds to us, and put in a direct plea for the assignment. We found Sands lying on his cot. He seemed pleased at our intrusion, glad to find us so eager. He made no promises, but when the list was posted later that afternoon all our names were on it.

During our two months in Battery 8 the six of us had gradually formed a clique. It now included three first and three second lieutenants. The senior rank included Merritt Guthrie, a Virginia Military Institute graduate who had been a travelling salesman for his family's furniture plant in Nashville: Joe Thompson, gentleman farmer and agricultural graduate from the University of Tennessee; and Morton Adams, a lawyer and Vanderbilt graduate. The second lieutenants, besides myself, were both Vanderbilt undergraduates. Charlie Price had alternated with Rabbit Curry as quarterback on the football team. Herbert Jones was a pitcher on the baseball team.

We could not then foresee it, but we were destined to spend the rest of 1917 together. And the three first lieutenants were all destined to come through the war unscathed, while the three second lieutenants all became casualties (2 dead, 1 severely wounded).

Love,
Dad

Note: Local peculiarities of speech, such as those of the Charleston area, were much more noticeable in 1917 then they are today. We now have radio, TV, and the tomobile.

Transcription Notes:
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