Chapter 4

Camp Mills, N.Y.

May 13, 1918 – May 17, 1918

Camp Mills, New York
May 13, 1918
My dearest Hazel,
	I am pretty tired this morning, but I am going to write you a few lines for I know you are longing for a letter from me.  We arrived here last night at 10 o’clock, and we unloaded all our freight, and it was 4 o’clock before we got to bed, but we are all feeling fine after the trip, and dear, we had a splendid trip.  We left Doniphan Wednesday noon and went through Kansas City and St. Louis over the Rock Island.  There we changed to the Wabash through Danville and Decatur, Illinois to Huntington, Indiana, where we were given Pullman Cars.  We took the Erie R.R. out of there going through Ohio and Pennsylvania into New York State.  We reached Jersey City, N.J. yesterday morning and took the ferry across the Hudson River to Long Island.  We passed under Brooklyn Bridge.  We are 18 miles from New York City, and Sweetheart, this is the finest camp we have ever been in.  All the way from New York to the camp are located the finest residences in the country.  We are right on the edge of Garden City, a suburb of New York, and it is named right for here we find some of the most beautiful gardens in America.  This is not all new to me, for I have been here before.
	There are not many troops here now.  We are looking for the rest of the 35th Division to come in soon.  They were getting ready to leave when we left.
	I got your 2 letters an hour before I left Doniphan, and I was certainly glad to have them.  I would have written you on the train but we were not allowed to write letters at all.  I did not have a chance to see Toussaint before I left Oklahoma.  I was very busy there the last few days we were there.  
	I am going to try to go to New York while we are here.  There are so many places around here ??? of our camp and for miles around here are located some of the largest greenhouses and nurseries in the world, and I am anxious to see as many of them as I can.  There is one greenhouse here that covers 40 acres and there are thousands of acres where they ????.
	. . . thinking of you, my own dearest litle girl.  All my love to you, dearest Hazel.
						Your Carl
	137 Amb. Co. 110 San Train, New York

Camp Mills, New York
May 14, 1918
My dearest Hazel,
	Your letter dated the 8th came to me this morning, forwarded from Ft. Sill, and you wrote me just the best letter ever.  Hazel, you are just the finest and bravest litle girl in all the world, and I am so proud of you, and it makes my burden so much lighter to know that you love me and that I have you to come back to.
	It is raining hard here this morning, and the mud is knee deep, but we don’t mind a litle thing like mud.  Our Boys are the happiest lot of Boys you ever saw, for they all know that soon they are to see actual service.
	I told you in my letter yesterday that there were only a few troops here, but I went out through the camp yesterday and I found the camp is much larger than it looked at first, and there are perhaps 60,000 soldiers here, and there is soldiers here from all over the country, and I looked them all over, and Hazel, let me tell you, we are not a bit ashamed of the 35th Division.  In fact, we are very proud of it, for I am telling you the truth when I tell you that they are better men and better soldiers than any I have seen here yet.  And you can tell a 35th Division man wherever you see him.  The New Yorkers call us the “Hooting, Rooting, Chinstrap Boys from the West”.  You know, we all wear chin straps and we are the only Division that wears the strap on the Campaign Hat.  The civilian people here say we are the huskiest Boys they have seen yet, and we are cheered wherever we go.  A great many people from New York comes out here every day and visit with us, and they tell us that the City of New York belongs to the soldiers nowadays.
	I had company yesterday.  A family from New York. I went to school with the man and his wife in Denmark, and we all played together when we were children, and we had a nice time.  I am going in to visit them as soon as I can get away from camp.  He is a doctor.
	Beginning tomorrow, we will all get 18 hours leave to go to New York, but I get 24 hours because I didn’t have a furlough, and my friends have promised to take me out and show me the sights of the town, and how I wish you were here, dear.  We would have a fine time.  I am going to Central Park and I am going up inside the Liberty Statue.  By the way, I forgot to tell you, we passed within a stone’s throw of Liberty Statue Sunday when we crossed the Hudson River on the ferry.
	Sweetheart, I will have to close.  We are on inspection this ???.
	With all my love to you, my own dearest Hazel.
						Your own
						Carl 

Camp Mills, New York
May 15, 1918
My dearest Hazel,
	I have just come back from New York City and I have had a splendid time.  I got an 18 hour pass last night and I called my friends over the phone and they met me at the station, and we started out to see the City.  We took a sightseeing car and took in the Post Office, Public Library, then we went out Broadway to the Hudson River to the Sailors and Soldiers Monument.  From there to Grant’s Tomb, then through Central Park and then out Riverside Drive.  There we passed the homes of the wealthiest people in New York, and dearest, I wish you could have been with me.
	From Riverside Drive, we went back down town and saw the tall buildings, and by that time it was midnight and we went home.  I got up 6 o’clock this morning and went out to Liberty Statue, and when I got back it was time to come back to camp.  And Sweetheart, I didn’t get time to have a picture taken but I think I will have another chance to go to New York this week and I will try not to disappoint you.
	I mailed you a picture book of New York City this morning, and I hope it will reach you in good condition.  New York is a wonderful large city, but that is about all I can say for it.  And for all the nice places I have seen lately, I still love good old Missouri the best.  
	I don’t know how long we will be here yet.  If I did, I would not be allowed to tell you, but we do not expect to be here very long.  I don’t know if Toussaint has come yet, but if he hasn’t, I am sure he is on the way.  The 128th and 129th Artillery came in yesterday.
	But Sweetheart, the mail is just going out and I must close and send this.  I will write you again tomorrow.  I want to tell you that I love you so in the last snapshot you sent me.  Send me a snapshot once in a while.
	All my love to you dearest.
						Your own
						Carl

Camp Mills, New York
May 16, 1918
My dearest Hazel,
	I had intended to go to New York today, and have a picture made for you, but an order has just come from Headquarters stopping all passes, and so I think our time will be short here.  I have just drawn my tin hat and I am now ready to go in to No Man’s Land.
	I went over to Garden City this morning (just outside camp) and I went through the plant of Doubleday – Page Publishers.  The “World’s Work”, “Country Life in America”, and the “Garden Magazine” is published here, and it was a very interesting trip for me.  
	We have the finest weather here.  We are just a few miles from the ocean, and the salt water breezes are fine, and just think dear, we have no dust.  For once we are able to keep ourselves clean.
	I forgot to tell you that while going through Doubleday – Page, I saw the Red Cross Magazine being printed.  I saw it from the time it was cut up from large sheets and watched it go through hundreds of different machines.  In 4 minutes from the time it starts, it comes out in book form, and they are turned out by the hundreds of thousands.  
	We have orders to be prepared to have our barrack bag packed, ready for shipment by tonight or some time tomorrow.
	I will close for this time.  If I am here tomorrow, I will write again.
	With all my love to you, my dearest litle girl.
						Your own
						Carl
[Note:  Postcard with embroidered American Flag, medical symbol, and second flag enclosed in this letter.]

Camp Mills, New York
	May 17, 1918
My dearest Hazel,
	I have just sent my barrack bag off and rolled my blanket roll, and I guess you know what that means.  And dearest, if you do not hear from me for some time, you will know the reason why, and I just want to say this.  Don’t worry.  I am all right, and always remember, no matter where I go or what may happen, I will always be true to you and always be thinking of you as the dearest, sweetest girl in all the world.  I would write more, but the last mail is going out now and I have been very busy.  I was hoping to get a letter from you here, but I don’t think I will.
	The weather is fine here and the Boys are all feeling fine.  I will be waiting for news from you.
	Good by, dearest.  Think of me always as your loving and believing
						Carl
	137 Amb Co, 110 Sanitary Train
	American Expeditionary Forces
	Via New York
	(X)  (Carl’s “X” indicating he was leaving the country.)