“Dear PoPville,
I found these more than 20 years ago when I was first restoring my house and held onto them. I encountered them again this weekend, cleaning the basement. As I recall, they had fallen behind a baseboard or someplace like that.
The letter is from Corporal Robert Bouvie (?), who was stationed overseas and sent it in December 1942, just one year after the US entry into the war. The recipient was Mr. Ernest Grosse (?), likely a former owner of my house on Harvard St NW.
I think the two articles might be related, that is, that the (tiny) letter was delivered by the Holiday Messenger Service (an early FedEx!). Maybe a reader will know.
You can see how small the letter is — hardly larger than the postcard. It would be interesting to know how they reduced its size.
Nothing too revealing in the letter, except for an obvious yearning to be home for the holidays!
However, the sender’s address shows him to be a member of the 823rd Engineering Battalion. There is discussion of the 823rd in this article, saying that it was one of a small number of black engineering battalions sent overseas, and that they built the Ledo Road between Burma and India. A look back at black aviation engineer units of World War II.”
If you have a photo of a neat find from your house, place of work or neighborhood please send an email to [email protected] thanks. Please let me know where/what neighborhood you found it in too. Thanks.