Information
Sheet
R Welter, Edward Leo, 1894‑1975.
312 Diary, 1918‑1919.
One folder,
photocopies
This is a diary of overseas service by a
native of Kelso, Scott County, Missouri, and an enlisted member of Co. F, 110th
Engineers, 35th Division, U.S. Army. E. L. Welter served in France along the Somme
River and in the Vosges Mountains,
was part of the reserve during the St. Mihiel offensive, and came under fire
during the Meuse‑Argonne offensive.
Edward L. Welter was born in Kelso, Missouri. He attended St. Augustine Catholic Church and
school, and was employed by the Kelso Milling Corp. when the United States
entered World War One. He had been
married only three weeks to Caroline Pfefferkorn when he was inducted into the
U.S. Army. Welter trained at Camp Funston, Kansas, and
Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he was assigned to the 110th
Engineers.
The 110th Engineers were shipped to France as part
of the 35th Division.
Arriving at Brest on 10 May 1918, the
engineers spent the first month in France
in a quiet sector along the Somme
River. They were transferred to the Vosges Mountains
sector in July. The engineers were part
of the reserve force during the St. Mihiel offensive, and followed in support
of the infantry in the drive through the Argonne Forest,
the last major thrust of the war.
Although they were pinned under fire for two days in the Argonne, the men were more commonly occupied by
repairing roads, rebuilding collapsed trenches, and stringing barbed wire. The unit camped near St. Mihiel after the
armistice was signed. The unit left for
the seaport at Brest in February 1919, and
sailed for New York
on 11 April 1919. The men landed at Hoboken, New
Jersey, on 19 April.
Welter returned to the Kelso Mill after
he left the army. He became manager in
1919, and sole owner in 1937. He retired
in 1959, and lived in Kelso until his death in 1975.
Welter’s diary of military service begins
on 10 May 1918, when the 110th Engineers landed in France. The brief entries record the unit’s transfers
from one sector to another, observations on life in the trenches, and a brief
description of Welter’s baptism of fire in the Argonne Forest. The diary continues through April 22,
1919. The last entries are followed by
copies of miscellaneous patriotic verse and army ballads.
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