The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-11-20
HOW LETTERS TO SOLDIERS
AT CAMP FIND THEIR OWNERS
(Greenville Daily News)

/ nave addressed lelIeIS W soiuiSA" g
Camp Sewer have ever stopped to
think of the various hands through
which their letter passes to reach
the one person in the whole 27,OOO
for whom it is intended, or the me-
thods used in securing its delivery?
Very few it is safe to say, for the
American public is used to depend
ing on the postal authorities to see
that mail reaches its destination,
address or no address, and it conf
dence is not often misplaced.
Not by any means all of the credit
for the handling of the soldiers
mail goes to the postal authorities,
however, and indeed the more diff
cult part of the task, that of locat-
ing men whose letters or parcels
bear an insufficient address, is done
by soldiers themselves, members of
the statistical department of the di-
vision, or else especially detailed
for this work. e..
Mail for any person at the camp
and attached units, such as the base
hospital and the remount station, is
sent to the camp postoffice, located
Just to the north of the P. & N.
tracks about halfway between Paris
and Camp Sewer stations. Here it is
sorted according to the addresses
organization, and three times daily
the mail orderlies from each outfit
come and get their mail. There is
a mail orderly for each regiment or
smaller detached unit, and if the
article of mail matter carries the
soldiers company as well as his reg
iment, the rest of the letters travel
is simple. The regimental orderly
turns over to the mail officer for
each company all its mail, and he in
turn distributes it directly to the
soldiers. If the address shows only
the regiment, whether or not the
letter reaches it's destination prompt
ly depends chiefly on the orderly.
If he is Jealous, he can generally
find the mans company in the re-
cords on hand, but if he is lazy the
letter goes back without further
ado to the camp postofice.
Here the divisional statistical de-
partment has established and main
tains a department for the handling
of all articles of mail which for any
reason could not be delivered at
once through the regular channels.
One man for this work is detailed
from each organization, making six
teen in all, and when for any rea-
son, such as the dismemberment of
the depot brigade, or the influx of
large number of selectmen, the
amount of mail with insufficient or
incorrect address has been tempor-
arily greatly increased, it has been
necessary to detail more men dur
ing the rush.
The postoffice branch of the sta
tistical department maintains con-
stantly up to date an alphabetical
card index of every man in the di-
vision. Not only is the indexing
carried to the last name, but men
of the same surname are indexed2 ae-
cording to their given names. Fer
example, Private Smith comes be-
fore Private Smyth; Private James
Smith before Private John Smith,
and Private James A. Smith before
Private James I. Smith. The pre-
paration of such list. envolved an
enormous amount of work, but the
amount of time which is saved in
the finding of names more than pays
for it.
To the cage of the statistical div
ision in a corner of the camp post
office come all sorts of mail; letters
addressed merely to Peter Jones,
Camp Sewer; letters or packages
with the address written in pencil,
and too much blurred to be legible
articles with the address partially
or wholly torn away, but sometimes
with the address of the sender still
intact. When the man can be found
the address is completed, and the
article turned back to the postal au.