The War Diary of Cpl H. Fletcher Davidson, USMC
TRAINING AT QUANTICO
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Jul 31st - Arrived in Quantico this
morning and spent the day in getting settled.
Aug 1st - Organized 81st Company this
morning. Glad to be in a machine gun company. Took a swim and scrubbed
clothes in the Potomac.
Aug 2nd - Received pay today and drew
some new clothes.
Aug 4th - Have been granted a furlough
4th to 13th inclusive and left Quantico on noon `special'.
Arrived in N.Y. about 5:30 and had to wait till 3 AM train.
Aug 5th - Arrived home at noon before
people were home from church. Walked in from Bloomville.
Aug 7th - Went to Delhi on `bike'. Was
up to Harkness' to spend the evening where I met Bill Mable and stayed
with him all night in his rooms over the garage.
Aug 8th - Was raining this morning but
came home. Homer Burgin took me up from his place in his car.
Aug 10th - Went down to see Florence in
evening. Bill, Madge, Floss, and I went to Andes in Ford for a ride. I
drove over and Bill drove back.
Aug 11th - Spent evening with Edith
Liddle.
Aug 12th - Went to church in AM. Billy
Thomson took me to Bloomville for afternoon train. Vera, Father, and
Mother went along.
Aug 13th - Arrived back in Quantico in
time for supper.
Aug 14th-16th - Infantry drill under
Army regulations.
Aug 17th - Liberty - went for a walk in
the woods.
Aug 18th-23rd - Drill as infantry. Bomb
throwing and bayonet practise.
Aug 26th -Sunday - Went for a walk to
Dumphries. Services in Y.M.C.A. at night.
Aug 27th - Received Lewis machine guns.
Spent day in unpacking the guns and carts and setting up
carts.
Aug 28th - Started nomenclature on gun
under direction of Capt Curtiss.
Aug 29th-30th - Maneuvered with carts in
AM. Nomenclature in PM.
Sept 1st-26th - General routine of
drill, hikes and nomenclature.
Sept 27th - Was made Corporal with
technical warrant and started to work in machine shop.
Oct 7th - Drawing clothing and equipment.
Oct 8th - Disassembled carts and crated
them.
Oct 11th - Gen. LeJeune presented colors
to 6th Reg.
Oct 15th - Went to new rifle range with
machine guns, but returned at noon with orders to pack sea bags and
load train. While eating chow orders resinded so we had to unpack and
reassemble carts.
Oct 29th - Assembled in heavy marching
order to pass in review before Sec. Daniels.
Nov 8th - No police or drill all day.
Drill call 5:30 PM. Went to trenches with gun carts loaded with
concrete boxes and spent night building emplacements. Recall at 4 AM.
Nov 11th - Pete Wood and I took a
hike to Dumphries and found an old pyrite mine. Near mine was an old
beech tree with J.R. Hoy and J. Murray carved in bark.
Pete and I put our names on opposite side of tree.
~~ Editor's note: John Robertson Hoy was a grandfather of HF
Davidson. JR Hoy enlisted for service in the Civil War on 26th day of
August 1864 and was discharged on 25th day of June 1865. J. Murray
was a Bovina boy who enlisted in 1862 and was killed in 1863.
[ Letter home]
Sunday night Nov 11,1917
Dearest All,
I have two letters to answer tonight as I got your Friday's
letter this morning. Pete and I have been off for a walk all day, we
started right after breakfast and did not get back until suppertime.
We went over to the town of Dumphries, six miles from here. It was
built the same year as Jamestown, (don't think they have built much
since) so is one of the oldest places in the country. From there we
went on about three miles farther to a pyrites mine. The mine shaft
they told us there goes down 1700 ft. We went through a ploughed
field and noticed pieces of different colored flint laying around.
I just remarked this would have been a good place for the Indians to
get flint when Pete leaned over and picked up an arrowhead. So we
started to look around an[d] inside a half hour we each had
a pocketful of them apiece. They were nearly all white flint, we each
brought about half a dozen in with us. I have one that is pink.
Then we came across an old family graveyard that was kept up in
fine shape. The oldest grave was 1686 and the latest 1810.
Next we ran across an old mill with a great big, old fashioned
overshot wheel and the gear wheels inside had wooden cogs. It also had
the hooper and great big granite millstones.
On the way back we ran across several old beech trees all
carved up with names, put on a long while ago. I found one that had
J.R. Hoy, W. Murray, and about fifty more names on but those
were the only two that was legible. I put HFDavidson right over
the Hoy and Pete put P.P.Wood, U.S.M.C. on the other
side of the tree. This is just about halfway between Washington and
Fredricksburg on ground that was fought over during the Civil War.
Was it possible that grandfather was in this section and that might
have been his inscription? Was there a W. Murray in his company
or regiment? It seems a strange coincidence that I should run
across it so many years later if it is his, so far from home, and in
uniform too.
The weather has been fine here, warm and clear in the day time
but cold at nights. You certainly must have had some rain there to
make such a flood at this time of year when the water is usually so
low and no snow to melt. We have had no rain now for weeks.
No, I didn't [get] a chance to vote at all, but you
know I certainly would have voted for both suffrage and prohibition if
I had had the chance.
There is such a hub-dub going on around that I can't think of
anything so I may as well stop. I wish father a happy birthday and
many returns. I hunted yesterday for a remembrance
but couldn't find even a suitable postcard.
Lots of love
/s/ Fletcher
[ Letter home]
Quantico, Virginia
Nov 18, 1917
Dearest All,
Just a few line to say that all is well here. The weather is
certainly something wonderful,
just a long stretch of Indian summer.
Yesterday I went out for another hike. Another fellow and I started
out about one o'clock and went to Dumphries and then about eight miles
farther along the road to Mannassas, then cut across to a little town
by the name of Minnieville and then back to Dumphries at seven and took
in a church supper. It only cost us fifty cents and they sure did give
us all we could eat. There were also two other Marines there, they
happened to be fellows from our company so of course we knew them and
it made things more pleasant. They entertained us fine and ended up by
them asking me to auction off the cakes and coffee that were left
over, of course I had to accept. Can you imagine me as an auctioneer.
They ought to have no kick coming as I got $4.45 for four cakes
and thirty-five cents for a pound of coffee.
I am enclosing a copy of the marines paper they have just started
to print. They call the marines `Leathernecks' because they used to
have leather in the collars of their uniforms. The `gobs' are the navy
or sailors. There is a piece in it that tells a little about
Quantico's history. I have heard lots more from the old natives out in
the country about the war days. They all like to tell us about it and
some are real interesting. Yesterday we met one who as a boy saw
Stewart charge Mannassas and lots others of those battles in the
Wilderness. He would have talked to us all day if we had had the time.
He pointed out the places on the actual ground where this and that
happened.
After supper the other fellow and I walked back to camp and
got in at just midnight. The other two stayed over there all night. I
had to work down at the shop this forenoon.
Don't think of any more news so will close for this time.
Lots of love
/s/ Fletcher
DIARY CONTINUES---
Nov 24th - 81st Co gave an exhibition
drill at Washington before a football game between Marines and a Fort
Lee team.
Nov 28th - Left Quantico for home on
evening train.
Nov 29th - Arrived in Bloomville about
11 AM and walked over the hill to Gladstone's where the community
dinner was being held. Went home from there with Father and Mother.
Nov 30th - Father, John Robertson and I
went to Delhi in the Ford. Had dinner up at Harkness'. After dinner
took Madge downtown. Picked up John and Father and came home. In PM
was up and helped prepare for county fair to be held in hall. Went to
fair that night with Edith.
Dec 1st - Will [Storie] took
me to Delhi to afternoon train. Arrived in N.Y. that night.
Dec 2nd - Left N.Y. this morning and
caught noon train down from Washington to Quantico.
Dec 7th - Packed sea bags and all
equipment loaded ready to shove off in the morning. Packed
equipment and loaded it on freight cars.
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