Sincerely, Joel C. Swisher

Joel C. Swisher in uniform

Dear Helen,

Your letter reached me about a week ago. It had been forwarded to Ft. Slocum but got there after I left and they held my mail down there sometime before they forwarded it on to here.

I enlisted in Lancaster on the evening of Oct. 2, was sent that night to Harrisburg and the next day was sent to Ft. Slocum, N.Y. That is a recruit depot for several eastern states. It is on an island on Long Island Sound about 15 or 20 miles NE of New York City. The nearest small town is New Rochelle, N.Y. You may know about where it is. On Oct 4 I got my final physical exam and passed. On the same day was sworn in to the service, was vaccinated for small pox and inoculated for typhoid and was given part of my clothing. They give us three inoculations for typhoid each 10 days apart. I have had two now. They make the arm a trifle sore for a day.

I was kept at Ft. Slocum for a week and on Oct. 11, 17 of us were sent up here. We came by way of New Haven, Hartford, and Worcester. This place is about 40 miles NW of Boston. It is the cantonment for the drafted men of all the New England States. As far as I can learn ours is the only regiment of enlisted men in the camp. How they happened to put us up here is more than I can figure. The camp tract contains 10,000 acres. There are about 2000 buildings now erected, and there are about 40,000 men quartered here now. I understand the full capacity of the camp is supposed to be 80,000. All around here was a woods of second growth oak and pine this spring. There are a lot of stumps to pull yet. This may be a nice place when it is finished but is far from complete now. The heating system has not been installed yet and there is no hot water except on the kitchen stoves. I am not sorry we are going to leave here before zero weather. The air is cool up here but all our clothing is wool so we really enjoy the frost.

This regiment is recruited from all parts of the country, It has men from every state in the Union. In fact since I enlisted I have met men from every state and almost every nation. Have also met fellows who have seen service in this war and have been wounded.

Two of the companies of this regiment are now at war strength. We now have practically all our clothes and equipment. The officers have been working night and day for the past week to get us fitted out. They have gotten the names of our nearest relatives, have given a chance to make allotments of our wages and to take out government insurance. Sent a special messenger to Washington last night to get the insurance blanks. So far we have been given no definite information as to when or how we leave and would not be allowed to repeat it if we knew, but we can make our own conclusions. When I left home I told them I would try to get off at Xmas. Now I would be willing to bet I spend Xmas across the pond, perhaps Thanksgiving, too.

Of course, this is all supposition, I don’t care how soon we go as I want to get all out of this thing that is possible. The battalion I am in is supposed to do railroad and general construction work in France. An optimist who has cousins in the British army and claims to know, told us the other night that the average life of a fellow in this work is 11 days. I have a pretty good amount of insurance, so “I should worry.”

Now as to our daily life here: We rise at 5:45 and line up for roll call at 5:55. Breakfast is about 6:15, from 7 to 11:30 we drill most of the time. Dinner at 12, and a couple hours drill in the afternoon. At 5:15 we line up for another roll call and stand at attention while the flag is lowered and the National Anthem is played. Supper at 5:30 and the rest of the night till 9 free to go about camp. We get good grub and plenty of it. Haven’t been hungry once since I joined the army but it may be different on the other side.

Our eating utensils constitute what is called a “mess-kit”. It consists of an aluminum pan with lid, an aluminum cup that holds about a pint, knife, fork, and spoon. When meal, or mess time, as it is called in the army, comes we line up and pass single file into the mess hall. The meat, potatoes, corn, etc. is put in the aluminum pan, dessert on the lid and tea or coffee in the cup. We sit at long wooden tables and dispose of the grub, sometimes in a manner that would not be approved in the best of society. We get second helpings if we want them. When we get done we go outside and wash our “dishes” each man taking care of his own.

For about 10 days we have been quarantined on account of a couple cases of measles. A guard patrols the place and we are not allowed to go more than 20 ft from the barracks. Sunday is visitors day in this camp. Friends and relatives of the drafted men come to visit them. Our barracks is on the main street of the camp. Sunday before last the whole company sat on boxes on the quarantine line and sang songs all afternoon. Mostly sang “We’re going to give the Kaiser the measles.” It seemed to amuse the people going by as they would stop and take our picture and throw us candy, fruit and cigarettes. Sometimes these things would fall outside the line and the guards had to use their bayonets to hold us back.

This Sunday the officers thought a little exercise would do us more good than a concert so they took us for a hike for about 3 miles over hills and stones till they found a level field and there put us to playing ball. Some saw an orchard and slipped off to it but were chased back by the owner of the orchard. Then the officers lined us up and marched us back to camp.

Last Sat. night a building burned down about a mile up the road. The fire engine went past. Some poor nut had nothing to do but to yell, “Fire! All out!” and woke us all up. We started to pile out of the building with all the personal property we could carry. At the door the guard met us with a leveled rifle and ordered us back. We went back even tho we knew the rifle was empty. Some of the fellows swore a trifle before they went to sleep again.

This is a great life. I am very well satisfied that I enlisted. If I had waited for the draft I would have had to go anyhow. I might have gotten an exemption⁽¹⁾That is, as a conscientious objector, due to being a Quaker. but I decided not to try for it. Since I am in this thing I wish I had gotten into it last May. I might have had a pretty good job by this time.

Well, here’s hoping you have a good time this winter.

As I said before, I don’t know when we leave here or what my address will be when we do leave but I imagine that mail sent to this address would be forwarded to wherever I happen to be.

Sincerely your friend,
Joel C. Swisher