News
Events
Blogs
Francis L. Wilt diary
Francis L. Wilt, in this single diary dated 1918 to 1919, recorded his yearlong sojourn to the French countryside while serving during the First World War. Of the time spent there, he recorded nearly every single day of interesting details of the places he visited or passed through, the people encou...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Collection: | Francis L. Wilt Diary |
| Collection Number: | 4005 |
| Format: | Manuscript |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Link to finding aid |
| Physical Description: |
0.05 Linear feet ; 1 volume |
|---|---|
| Access: |
This collection is available for research. |
| Summary: |
Francis L. Wilt, in this single diary dated 1918 to 1919, recorded his yearlong sojourn to the French countryside while serving during the First World War. Of the time spent there, he recorded nearly every single day of interesting details of the places he visited or passed through, the people encountered, the sickness he experienced, and the work he completed. While the entries in the diary are composed with a strict hand of brevity, it does not fail to offer its reader a deeply affective experience of longing for home in the face of ill treatment and poor living standards of the rough military life. As the recordings are incredibly place-centric - encountering more that 32 camps, provinces, and stations in Germany and France - it is also possible to track every movement of the company he served from Altoona, Pennsylvania, to Erden, France, and back.
Along the way -- leaving Altoona on September 5, 1918 -- the reader is allowed to witness some aspect of Camp Greenleaf in Georgia, the three day train from there to Camp Merritt in New York, to the Rochambeau (a French ship) and departure from the NY harbor. On leaving he wrote, "This was the hardest thing to do to see the Statue of Liberty fade away." They arrived at Bordeaux, France on November 4, 1918.
In France they slept in barns, abandoned buildings and houses, and made beds and cots out of anything they could find. From Wilt's perspective, France was not very hospitable, as he might have thought. Initially, he didn't quite seem to realize that this was life in a war torn country, but he would eventually come to bore as much as he possibly could, suffer some, and succumb to the rest. So much so that his bathing would be a major subject of celebration in the events of the diary: he recorded every one that he was allowed (although few), and the first since arriving in France came on January 8, 1919. He mourns the death of Theodore Roosevelt, records his encounters with illness and “cooties," perceptions of the people living among the rubble in spite of the war - those who treat him well and otherwise, the mourning of his two friends who were transferred to other units, scavenging for war relics, the food he appreciated and hated, the Germans, the girls, noting the letters he wrote home including the one he wrotes to his mother to "make an appeal to Washington, D.C. for discharge", and the varied work assignments he had including serving as the orderly for a Lt. Johnson.
The compositions at the rear of the book are recorded with what seems to be a bit of frantic, as the handwriting becomes more difficult to read, appearing as though it was rushed or written with an unsteady, anxious hand. But he was happy to leave France. They set sail aboard the U.S.S. Mongolia on Wednesday, May 28, 1919. As they set out about 2AM that morning he wrote, "This morning things are going fine. This ship is nice, American boys are running it." Coming back to America, they docked at Boston on June 7, 1919. From there he noted train stops in Conneticutt, New York City, Long Island, Camp Dix in New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Making his way from there to Altoona, arriving on June 14th, he was finally greeted with the embraces of his mother, aunt, and Walter and Earl - one of whom did not seem to appreciate that Francis made it back home. They partook in a breakfast at the Logan House before retiring for much needed rest. The volume closes with an entry on June 31, 1919, stating, "I went back to work again. Because I had no money." Francis L. Wilt of Altoona, Pennsylvania, served in the medical detachment of the 360th Infantry during and after World War I. The diary provides a detailed account of Wilt's experiences in the Army, including his induction, basic training in Georgia, service in France just before and after the Armistice, and return home. |