This is Friday noon, so will get busy and answer or rather fill my promise to write. This is a hilly, sandy country. It gets very hot here during the day but at night it is always cool. This camp is for artillery only, light and heavy, that means 3 inch guns and 47 10 inch guns. I am with the 3 inch guns. we were out drilling all morning. There are 6 horses to each gun. There are 190 men in our battery, but we lack 20 men so we now have 170. We get $70 a week from the U.S.A. to run the battery on. There are boys here from every state in the Union. There are about 4,000 men here now, more coming in every day. Harry Petrie and Ed Metcalf arrived the other morning. They are both in my battery. We drill between 7 1/2 and 8 1/2 hours. Everybody likes the drill, so we are coming fast. I am 6 miles east of Sparta, 20 miles east of LaCrosse, 172 miles west of Milwaukee and 252 miles from Chicago. This is a summer camp. I feel fine, get plenty to eat.
Have more time, so can write more. We were out drilling again this afternoon. We now have carriage drill. That means 6 horses, 3 men riding and driving the horse beside them, 3 men riding the gun.
We had baked beans, cold slaw, rice pudding and lemonade for dinner. Everybody is washing up, because tomorrow, Saturday, is inspection. We hold the record for being the cleanest in the mess hall and fastest drill men here. The mayor takes his hat off to us, so we feel real proud. All our big officers are to be transferred to Ft. Bill, Okla. They are all fine men, so the boys hate to have them go. My char is the ground, my table a 1x6 about 18 inches long. It is getting too dark to write. The new guard went on some time ago, so that means past 8 o'clock. Tell everybody hello for me. Send me the paper. Good night.
HARVEY LEO WINDBIGLER
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