Robert Walton, Jr. Letters, 1917 - 1919. No.93-29.

Reese Library, Manuscript Collections. Augusta State University, Augusta, Ga.

Summary. Correspondence, telegrams, postcard, and printed memorabilia.

Access.No Restrictions.

Microfilmed.2000

Citation.Robert Walton, Jr. Letters (1917 - 1919), No. 93-29, Reese Library Manuscripts Collection, Augusta State University, Augusta, Georgia.

Biographical/Historical Note.

Robert Walton, Jr. was born in Augusta, Georgia, on January 22, 1894 (Died November 1, 1987) and entered the U. S. Army at the age of 23 in 1917. He received his initial training at Camp Gordon, [Atlanta], Georgia and was ultimately commissioned a Second Lieutenant on August 15, 1917 in the Infantry of the 82^{nd "}All American"  Division. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on December 31, 1917. Camp Gordon was removed to Augusta, Georgia, in 1918.

His war service saw him shipped with his company to England, for staging and training, and arrived in France on May 16, 1918.He remained with Company "M", 328^th Infantry, 3^rd Regiment, 82^nd Division of the American Expeditionary Force throughout the war and until he was released in May 1919. He assumed temporary command of Company "A" at intervals and assumed full command of this company on his promotion to Captain on November 11, 1918.

In January 1919 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross of gallantry in action (along with four other men in his platoon). His official citation (U. S. Army General Order No., 48, Headquarters 82^nd Division, December 28, 1918) reads:

"Robert Walton, Jr., First Lieutenant, 328^th Infantry, for extraordinary heroism in action at Cornay, France, October 9-10, 1918. After fighting for six hours, he volunteered to lead sixteen men in a night patrol of the Town of Cornay, which was held by many enemy machine-gun posts. The party worked at clearing the town of the enemy from 11 o'clock at night until the next morning, capturing 65 prisoners and two machine guns with three soldiers, he entered an enemy dugout and captured 23 prisoners. His daring leadership and devotion to duty reflect great credit upon First Lieutenant Walton and the United States Army.”
He also received the Croix la Guerre with Palm for gallantry in action (General Headquarters, French Armies of the East, General Staff, Order No. 16045, DExt.).

Correspondence.
The letters include, with a few exceptions, Robert Walton, Jr.'s letters to his mother Lucy Eleanor Wilson Walton. His letters include personal observations of people, places and things he encountered while in the U. S. Army. His letters did not contain detail of Army operations because all mail was censored prior to leaving France. This is especially notable because Walton was the Censor Officer for his company. Despite the lack of overall detail they do provide a unique insight of a junior officer involved in the trench warfare of the era.

His mother saved the letters and they remained in storage until his youngest sister, Eleanor Walton Upshur, retrieved them and began to transcribe them. Since she corrected spelling and grammar and inserted missing words without making notation, the collection was re-transcribed to include the spelling, grammar and syntax used by the original author. This was done to re-create the flavor and tone of the letters.
There were numerous folded letters. On bi-folded letters, Walton wrote the first page on the front then the second on the rear fold. He would then open the bi-fold and either write the length of the paper vertically, or horizontally or begin on the reverse of page one, making it page three and then write page four on the reverse of page two. This somewhat confusing style of flow necessitated the annotation, in pencil, of hand written page numbers by the arranger of the collection.

List of Records. The bulk of the material is letters.

Folder 1.       (May - July 1917). 2 inch. Arranged chronologically. 

Folder 2 - 3.  (April - June 1918). 3 inch.Arranged chronologically.

Folder 4 - 5.   (July - August 1918). 3 inch.Arranged chronologically.

Folder 6.        (September 1918). 3 inch. Arranged chronologically.

Folder 7 - 8.   (October - November 1918).3 inch. Arranged chronologically. 

Folder 9.         (December 1918).3 inch. Arranged chronologically.

Folder 10 - 11.(January - February 1919).3 inch. Arranged chronologically.

Folder 12 - 13.(March - July 1919).3 inch.Arranged chronologically. 

Collection assembled and inventoried by William R. Wells, II BA, MEd. Augusta State University. July - August, 2000.