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Alexander Garrigue letters

Call Number

MS 3198

Date

1917-1918, inclusive

Creator

Garrigue, Alexander, 1887-1943

Extent

.42 Linear feet in one document box

Language of Materials

The documents in the collection are in English.

Abstract

The collection includes 56 letters written by Alexander Garrigue (1887-1943) written to his family from October 1917 to November 1918 while he was stationed at Camp Upton on Long Island during World War I. Using a frequently jocular tone, Garrigue describes his experiences at camp, including military drills, camp pranks, rumors, efforts to obtain passes, hospital stays, and other subjects. His writing often takes an imaginary or metaphorical turn, including in relation to the impact of the Spanish influenza on the camp.

Biographical / Historical

Alexander Garrigue, Jr., was born in Mt. Vernon, New York, on 15 December 1887 to Alexander Garrigue and Jessie (Williams) Garrigue. The couple also had a daughter, Adelaide, who is one of three recipients of the letters in this collection. By the time of these letters, Garrigue's mother had died and his father had remarried to Jessie's sister, Maude, who is a second recipient of letters here. A third recipient, Ruth Garrigue, was the daughter of the elder Alexander and his second wife, Maude. Except for the father, who died in 1909, the Garrigues all appear to have lived together at this time as, regardless of the addressee, the letters are all mailed to the same address: 1046 East 8th Street in Brooklyn. Many of the letters refer to Garrigue's girlfriend, Lillian Witzell; she and Garrigue would marry about 1920. Garrigue died on 4 June 1943 in Manhattan.

All the letters were written while Garrigue was stationed at Camp Upton in Yaphank, Suffolk County, New York, during World War I. He was a member of the 305th Field Artillery National Army (FANA). He arrived in camp for training in October 1917 and remained in the camp for the duration of the war. His initial assignment was to Battery E, where he shortly advanced from the rank of private to corporal. But possibly because of poor health or other condition, Garrigue was transferred to Battery F and then to the "depot brigade," as he called it, where he apparently performed various service roles, such as being assigned to duty with the mule-pulled ambulances. His letters frequently refer to his illnesses, stays in the base hospital, and surgery on a serious nasal condition. Along the way, he lost his rank, being demoted back to private.

Arrangement

Letters are arranged in chronological order.

Scope and Contents

The collection holds 56 letters written by Alexander Garrigue, Jr. to the three family members of his household in Brooklyn: to his stepmother Maude (21 letters), sister Adelaide (19 letters), and stepsister Ruth (16 letters). Although addressed to specific individuals, Garrigue clearly expected, and encouraged, that they be shared among all three. All the letters date from Garrigue's time in military service at Camp Upton on Long Island during World War I. They begin shortly after his arrival in camp in October 1917 and extend to the end of the war in November 1918. Various stationery letterhead is used: Army and Navy Young Men's Christian Association, War Work Council; Camp Upton, Long Island, N.Y.; 305th Regiment Field Artillery; and Knights of Columbus, War Activities. Most of the original mailing envelopes are with the letters.

Throughout the letters, Garrigue often adopts a jocular, even flippant, tone as he describes his experiences at the camp. His tone often meshes well with such absurdities as being put on kitchen duty to peel potatoes, thereby missing artillery lessons, or of the formalities of guard duty. He commonly goes into extended, amused descriptions of events in camp, such as his first experience in saddling and riding a horse, the unit's artillery drills, and an audience at a film shown in camp improvising songs to sing in response to the movie's scenes. But Garrigue's amused tone can be jarring as he describes being kicked repeatedly by a mule he is trying to hitch to an ambulance, soldiers injured when thrown from their horses, or, referring in racist terms to a hospitalized African-American man seemingly unaware of the prank, he recounts how the man was mocked silently behind his back by other patients (14 November 1917).

Garrigue occasionally goes into imaginary musings, such as creating new rules for conducting drills in icy weather, conducting "interviews" of soldiers about camp life, and writing a letter at the end of the war to President Woodrow Wilson asking to be released from the military. He takes metaphorical flights, such as when he writes humorously and at length on the battle within himself between overeating and eating healthfully (23 June 1918). In his 21 September 1918 letter Garrigue discusses the impact of the Spanish influenza on the camp, referring to it as a dancer taking partners to the castle (i.e., the base hospital), though his tone darkens noticeably in a subsequent letter when deaths begin to occur.

His letters often tease the women about their grammar, spelling, curiosity, and, in Maude's case, about losing a tooth. Responding to a sister's interest in his relationship with his girlfriend, Lillian, Garrigue includes a purported transcription of what at first appears to be an awkward marriage proposal to Lillian but proves by the close to be just a jest. And he recounts various rumors, such as when units are expected to be shipped to France, the reasons behind the vagaries of getting or not getting passes to go home, and, in September 1918, that all whites will be transferred from Upton and the camp used only for Black soldiers.

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers.

Use Restrictions

Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to 20 exposures of stable, unbound material per day. Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation

The collection should be cited as: Alexander Garrigue letters, MS 3198, New-York Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Brad Dobski, 2020.

Collection processed by

Larry Weimer

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:08 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information

Processed by archivist Larry Weimer, 2020.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024