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Wilberforce, Ohio, Jan. 21, 1918. 

Sgt. Oscar W. Price,
42nd Co., 11th Trg Batt.,
Camp Sherman, Ohio.

My dear Oscar:

I thank you for your very good letter giving news of yourself. It is a blooming shame that you all were not appointed to the ROTC. Allowing for a difference of opinion and putting the most liberal construction upon the reasons for your non-appointment, I think somebody has blundered and Uncle Sam is loser. But hit the line hard and keep the thing going and everything will be well. If after doing our level best and putting our minds upon the things we desire, the Eternal Goodness does not allow our wishes to materialize, then it is for the best. Possibly our lives hung upon the decision pronounced in our favor. I would rather have you go and come back a brave sergeant than to have you not come back as a dead Lieutenant. The ways of Divine Providence are mysterious and always for the best to those that trust IT.

I note what you say about the "Credo" of Black Democracy. Thanking you for hanging the picture. And what did the captain say?

With regard to your Xenia sweetheart, I can sympathize with you. Beat your dog and leave her alone to the United States. The trenches are no place for the women. War hasn't changed since Sherman defined it. Suppose you had your sweetheart in the trenches and the tools were useless because of frost-bite, you would be in a hell of a fix. Then you can't tell from day to day what is going to happen in those trenches, and you know my dear Oscar the world is nothing to a man when his wife is a widow.

I am glad that the colored officers and the colored men in the camp are all measuring up to the high expectations the country has of them.

I haven't lost patience and am waiting.

Mrs. Young joins me in love to yourself, and the Xenia and Wilberforce boys.

Your affectionate friend,

Transcription Notes:
A portion of the bottom of the document has been damaged. The word "Xenia" is partially gone, and the signature is missing.