"I guess you remember the Battle of the Appomattox Court House. There are still old forts and trenches there yet that were built when the North and South fought. We found some spurs yesterday that were lost during the Civil War and found a bone of a man's arm and a canteen too..."

In his thirty-first letter home from Camp Lee, Virginia, to his sister Minnie Riggle, US Army Wagoner (mule team driver) Lester Scott, a World War I soldier from Wheeling, West Virginia, again refers to the Dutch Gap, a canal dug during the Civil War by freed African American workers pressed into service by Union troops [see episode 36 from March 6, 1918 - https://bit.ly/2GynS81]. Les says four mule teams rode to the firing range there and will be making the twelve-mile trek again tomorrow. He notes that it's close to the Appomattox Court House Civil War battlefield. Remarkably, the wagoners have found Civil War relics, including a human arm bone. He says Silvess Merriner wants to buy Bill [Les's horse] back. Les says it's up to Minnie and Jim. Les says, "Silvess says he had the most sense of any horse they ever had."

Elsewhere on the same day, food riots began in Amsterdam, German forces attacked near the Somme River, a British destroyer was sunk in a collision, a German U-boat attacked a convoy of US transports and was sunk, and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George returned home from a visit to the front.

Lester Scott was drafted in 1917 and trained at Camp Lee, where so many Wheeling soldiers were trained. And, like so many of his Ohio Valley comrades, he served in the 314th Field Artillery Supply Company, Battery “A,” 80th (Blue Ridge) Division in France. This is his thirty-first letter from Camp Lee, dated 100 years ago today, April 4, 1918.

Digital scans and a transcript of Lester Scott's April 4, 1918 letter can be viewed at: http://www.archivingwheeling.org/blog/from-camp-lee-to-the-great-war-april-4-1918-podcastCredits: "From Camp Lee to the Great War: The letters of Lester Scott and Charles Riggle" is brought to you by http://archivingwheeling.org in partnership with the Ohio County Public Library (http://www.ohiocountylibrary.org) and the WALS Foundation (http://walswheeling.com).

Jeremy Richter is the voice of Lester Scott. The letters of Lester Scott and Charles Riggle were transcribed by Jon-Erik Gilot. This podcast was edited and written by Sean Duffy, audio edited by Erin Rothenbuehler.

Music: "Medley of Southern airs," Fred J. Bacon, banjo, 1920, courtesy Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/item/00694032/