(MILITARY WORLD WAR ONE) McGee Merl A Pair of letters by a

Sale 2503 - Lot 330

Price Realized: $ 1,000

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Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(MILITARY--WORLD WAR ONE.) McGee, Merl A. Pair of letters by a soldier in France. Autograph Letters Signed to friend LeEtta Sanders of Seattle, WA (see her diary, lot 400). 11 pages on 8 sheets of YMCA American Expeditionary Force stationery, 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches; folds and light toning. With one original postmarked envelope, 3 copy prints of photographs of Sanders with soldier friends, and a copy of Sanders's typescript memoir on one page. France, 9 February and 13 April 1919

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These letters were written by an African-American soldier in France during the months after the fighting ended. Merl Alick McGee (1892-1967) was a South Dakotan native; when war broke out, he was working in a fish cannery in Blaine, WA, on the Canadian border. In the first letter written from Haudimont, McGee reminisces about Seattle, and asks "How would you like to live in a dug-out about six and a half feet wide and ten feet long, just high enough to stand up in? Two of us live in a mansion of this size. We have a little heater, a table, one chair, two benches, one for company, and two beds. . . . They are blowing up the mines which were left by the Germans." The second letter, written from nearby Étain, describes his new tent accommodations and the difficulty of marching with a heavy pack. He adds a recollection of "the farewell dance given by your local Red Cross. Even yet the boys comment on that memorable evening."