Dear Bess: January 3, 1919
Transcript
Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for January 3, 2023, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.
Today’s letter from Captain Harry S Truman to Miss Bess Wallace was written on this date in 1919. Captain Truman and his men are still in France, following the surrender of Germany and the end of World War I. No doubt Truman was anxious to get home, especially to be with his fiancée, Miss Wallace. Notice that Truman shares that there is a chance that farmers will be separated so that they can come home and prepare their crops for the season. In January, 1919, did Harry Truman envision returning to the family farm as before? Or did he have other plans once he took Miss Wallace’s hand in marriage?
Thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.
Camp La Baholle, near Verdun January 3, 1919
Dear Bess:
I intended writing you yesterday as I agreed to do, but things happened so quickly and the day went so fast I couldn't do it. Had a basketball game in Verdun in the forenoon, in which I got defeated or my team did, rather, by a bunch of noncombatant engineers. In the evening we pulled off a boxing bout in which my Sergeant Meisburger lost the decision over a gorilla named Hamby, and I lost 1,000 francs. Of course being the loser I should say it was a rotten decision. I won't say it, but the other fellow had to be carried from the ring and my man walked out-so you can judge for yourself what I think of the decision. Also he's been going to the doctor every day since and my man was for duty the next morning. As I told you before, I think more of that sergeant than if he were a boy of mine and I'd rather have been beaten by anyone on earth than one of Salisbury's outfit. But as the French say, "It is the war," and somebody had to lose. I've paid fifteen dollars to see a fight that wasn't worth half as much as that one was though. It was a fight from start to finish and was really a show.
Oh! Loads of joy, my Christmas box came this evening. I started this letter yesterday and had to leave before I got it finished. This pen is a humdinger-writes better than any I ever owned, and those handkerchiefs are certainly the most beautiful I ever ordered. They are certainly grand and I shall use them when I go on state affairs, such as a dinner with the colonel or a trip to Paris, if ever I get another. I'll also save one of 'em to wear to my wedding-which shall it be? I can't decide which is the best looking.
You've no idea what a lot of comfort getting that box was. It was exactly like a small piece of God's country arriving in this forsaken place. Even if it was late, it made no difference because all the days are nearly alike and we can make any one of them Christmas. I just had a horrible rumor imparted to me today--that we go to Germany. There were so many F&I's (full and immediate separation) in the Brigade that all of us have to stick so they say. The Colonel has turned us in as a regiment of farmers from Western Missouri hoping that they'll send us home in time to put in our spring crops. I hope it works. Can't you notice an improvement in my penmanship since I started in with this new pen? I wouldn't take $40.00 for it. Going back to that fight Battery D lost about 8000 francs on it and we had a Y.M.C.A. show here last evening and one of the girls pulled a joke about D Bty's Hack Drivers all being broken but the Ladies of Good Old K.C. were sending a bushel of francs to help us out. They did too send me 3112 francs. A bunch of the sisters of D Bty sold a quilt for $570.00. It was a sorely needed donation too. I tell you after paying 1281 francs for a hog and dispensing all those francs on that fight. Am I immoral to induce my battery to bet on a prize fight? The Chaplain says not. Says if he'd been here he'd have bet on my sergeant.
I am enclosing you some pictures taken on my leave and one especially interesting one of a shell bursting in Verdun. I have seen several burst there but I didn't see this particular one. It is a very good picture.
I hope I can write you a better letter next time. But remember I certainly appreciate all the things in the box and especially the pen and handkerchiefs. Keep writing.
Yours always, Harry
Captain Harry S Truman, Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, wrote this letter to his fiancee, Miss Bess Wallace, on this date in 1919. He wrote about a boxing match he lost a few bucks on, and writes about a Christmas box he received from Miss Wallace. And he refers to his impending marriage to the young lady he fell in love with 29 years earlier.
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/january-3-1919