Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1916-08-16
TRAINING FOR U. S. r.RMY.
Ralph Powell Writes Interesting
Letter Telling About Camp
Life at Fort Smelling.

Minneapolis, Mimi, 8-9-16.
Dear Father
I received your letter yesterday
and was glad to hear from you. I
. am getting pretty we'll used to camp
life by this time and I like it fine.
We get up at S o'clock in the morn
ing and go out and run about mile
and come back, have roll call and
eat breakfast. We have oatmeal,
meat and potatoes with bread and
syrup. After breakfast we lay
around about an hour and then go
out and have a foot drill for an
hour, then we practice loading
cannons on flat cars and this morn
ing we each had to saddle up a
horse and ride and drill on horses.
We rode out in the country or 10
miles and back. I am pretty
awkward at harnessing up horses to
cannons and riding horseback, but I
have got to learn it. Then we have
been practising firing and loading
cannons. We get thru about eleven
o'clock.
! We have mess again at IL noon
and then we don't have anything to
do until mess again at 6 o'clock un-
less we are in the guard house or
are working as kitchen police. A
kitchen police is one who does all
kinds of work around the cook house
such as peel potatoes, split and saw
wood and haul water and do all
kinds of odd jobs helping the cooks.
We form in line for mess single file,
about 200 in our line and two other
lines like this with same number of
men. Each battery has separate
tables and cook houses. was on
guard duty yesterday, we have each
separate beat to walk back and
forth. We are on 2 hours and off 4
for "a hours. The bunch of 600
that have been in these batteries
since June got their pay day before
yesterday. Of course a good many
of them went on a spree. The guard
house is plum full of men. Some
had to be carried into camp, they
got so full. I meet new fellows
every day. There are lots of fell
lows, some good and some bad.
There is "a lot of gambling since
they got their pay and some of the
fellows are broke already. They
play poker, black jack, rummy and
shoot craps, so that you see almost
every form of gambling is used.
Davis likes it fine too. Herman
Anderson couldn't pass the examina-
tion on account of poor eye sight.
It seems just like going to school.
I think we will leave for the border
next Monday but there are so many
stories going around about leaving
that it is hard to tell. I think we
will go to Mercedes, where the dough
boys went. The dough boys are the
infantry. They have twice as much
foot drilling as we do. A fellow in
Battery B from Minneapolis gave
me this stationery. He is getting
$125.00 a month besides his $500 a
month in the army. I learned this
morning that our camp is in Mime
apolis because it is all plated right
up to camp and I saw one of the
streets marked East 59th street.
The houses are not built up around
camp tho. We policed camp this
morning, picking up all the scraps
of paper that get thrown around and
then picked up At empty pint whiskey
bottles and 7 empty quart whiskey
bottles that had been thrown out
behind the tents. We get our mail
every day at II o'clock and at P
! M. l was out swimming at Calhoun
Beach in Minneapolis Sunday and
there were over 5000 people in at
once. Have seen some good shows
Nothing is said about what time we
come in at night just so we are
quiet and do not make a disturbance
They call our battery the e Irish
brigade as there are a lot of Irish
young fellows from st. Paul, such
as O'Brien, Nc Currdy, O'Grady
Sheehee, Shabley, O'Leary, OToole
In the tent I sleep in there is a
Norwegian, Bohemian, a German
an 1rishman, an Englishman and
think the. other two fellows are
1rishmen, besides myself. This
makes 8 with myself. We have tc
sleep on the ground yet as they
haven't any more cots. We have
two blankets apiece. Well I shall
close for this time hoping you are
all we'll, l remain, AS ever,
Ralph,
Give my regards to all the boys
The weather here still keeps pretty
warm. I don't think we will stay al
the border over a year. We have
two band concerts every day, one il
the morning and one at night. They
play lots Of the latest popular music
and some of the national airs