From Regimental Sergeant Major Willis Osborne
(pp. 116-117)
Camp Taylor, Ky., August 26, 1918.
"We are located in the Field Artillery Replacement Depot,
so we may be here six months and maybe only six minutes.
In our battery we have 21 native sons of Alabama and their
manners and accent are a continuous laugh for us. However, they
have that southern hospitable manner and aren't half bad.
"Camp Taylor, which houses 65,000 men, is mostly a replacement
depot for the artillery so the men come and go in
droves. Our officers so far, have been A1 men, in fact, our
newest lieutenant is a Wisconsin man and is mighty glad to work
with Badger boys, whom he declares make the best soldiers of
them all.
"Last Saturday I spent in Louisville. I walked through
the old market section of slavery times, which has changed but
little. One sees few negroes in the man business section.
Our train, however, on entering our camp, went through the negro
section and I never have beheld such squalor and poverty. One
can hardly say poverty as they seem content to live that way.
Great rows of shacks, far inferior to the tumble down pig, shanties
of Green County, held their quota of 'chocolate drops' all smiling."
Camp Kearney, Tuesday, October 28th.
"Since arriving here at Camp Kearney, our detachment
was at once placed under quarantine, and then on top of that
the
camp was put in quarantine and we have not been able to step
outside of our area, except to go to our twice daily medical
inspection. By this method of catching flu victims in the bud,
the death rate at this camp has been remarkably low. As it was,
each day there was a big funeral of several men and a solemn
procession to the camp depot.
"My work is all in the headquarters office of the 321st
Ammunition Train and is very important and, of course, exacting.
It is our duty, when in action, to serve ammunition from
the base of supplies to the firing lines. Half of our train is
motorized and half is horsed.
"We are about twelve miles from San Diego. The government
has just ordered the enlarging of this camp by one-third.
This will make it about the largest of any of the camps.
"I have been here long enough to test out the wonderful
climate of southern California, and believe me, the fellow that
spends his winters here and then goes back to Wisconsin and
tells how wonderful it is, is just telling that because he got
stung along with everybody else. Of course we don't have the
extreme cold here, but it is very dam p here for a southernly
located place, and every fellow here from the east has a cough,
and nothing will stop it. The soil is a sort of clay and is a
good substitute for concrete.
"On our way down here we came over the Sante Fe road
and we passed countless villages of the Indians, all with adobe
huts. And on each hut was a string of red peppers. I guess
they all eat down here is chile con carne."