icon for Home page
icon for Kid's Home page
icon for Digital Collection
icon for Activities
icon for Turns Exhibit
icon for In the Classroom
icon for Chronologies
icon for My Collection

Online Collection
Select a page:

Page 1
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.



label levels:

By January, 1919, when Edward Wirt wrote this letter the First World War was over. In the summer of 1918, Wirt had been reassigned to the 18th Machine Gun Battalion of the 6th Division. The 6th became known as the "Sight Seeing Sixth" because it spent most of the war marching from position to position. Fortunately, it saw little action, losing only 227 men out of the total 20,000. Successful offensives pushed Germany out of much of France from July to November, 1918. In early November, elements of the German military mutinied and the government was forced to ask for a cease-fire. On November, 8th, 1918, the warring parties signed an Armistice that ended shooting on November 11th (at 11am). On the 9th of November the German Kaiser (Emperor) abdicated (although it was not official until November 28) and a republic was proclaimed. In all the Allied countries exuberant celebrations ensued, including the "wild manifestations of joy" in the town Wirt's fiancée lived, Greenfield, Massachusetts (as noted in the local newspaper). Despite the end of hostilities much of the U.S. army remained in France awaiting a peace treaty.

There are ninety letters from Mr. Wirt to Miss Bartlett in the PVMA collection; twelve of them are reproduced here.

 

top of page

WWI letter to Emily Gladys Bartlett

author   Edward Roswell Wirt (1891-1942)
date   Jan 12, 1919
location   France
height   8.5"
width   5.25"
process/materials   manuscript, paper, ink
item type   Personal Documents/Letter
accession #   #L01.017


Look Closer icon My Collection icon Transcription icon Detailed info icon


ecard icon Send an e-Postcard of this object



See Also...

Y.M.C.A., East Deerfield, Mass.

WWI letter to Emily Gladys Bartlett

German Prisoners


button for Side by Side Viewingbutton for Glossarybutton for Printing Helpbutton for How to Read Old Documents

 

Home | Online Collection | Things To Do | Turns Exhibit | Classroom | Chronologies | My Collection
About This Site | Site Index | Site Search | Feedback