Promotions and Cannings - 10/12/1917

Camp Sheridan,

Montgomery, Ala.

Oct. 12, 1917

My Dear Mother: -

Rec. a letter from Leona today, but have not heard from home but once.

Believe me we have had some busy time in camp since yesterday noon. The outlook of losing Shaffer was very bad however it has cleared up considerably. I think he will get to stay unless they change their minds again. Many of our telegrams were answered today and if they decide that he must go we feel sure that we shall have enough influencial men back of us to get up a petition to go to Sec. War Baker, urging his reinstatement, that will cause some action.

I guess there is no chance to get off of the Staff. one of the others tried to get off & Major Wilson said "Nothing Doing."

They made some promotions yesterday. I'll underline all of the men who were promoted. To Sergeants: Lloyd Walker, Robert Symons, Frank Fisher, Clyde Brown, Micheal Figy, Carl Forster. To Corporal: - Fred Johnson, Harry Manson, Warren Sherman, King Conkey, George Brownwell, Lynn Tarbell.

You see what the old men got out of it. Manson only got a corporalship. Clyde Brown, Lisle Elliot, some others & myself got nothing.

Well my job on the staff is pretty soft so I am satisfied to stick.

Tell Dad that if they cann Shaffer I'll look to him for some help.

Am feeling fine

Love to All

Howard

"Nobody has any pull around here except the horses" (Alabama Department of Archives and History)

I did a good amount of research to see what I could find about Shaffer but didn't land on much. There was a C.J. Shafer listed in the University of Cincinnati's Alumni directory at the Base Hospital at Camp Sherman, but I can't say whether it was him.

As far as Sec. War Baker goes, I found that, as an Ohioan, it looks like he was getting lots of requests from his Ohio cronies to pull strings. However, according to Lawrence Kaplan's thesis, it looks like he took the straight and narrow and generally went through the proper channels to get things done as they should have been.

Interestingly enough, Howard felt like his good ol' Dad could do something in this case. I really wish I knew what kind of pull that John had in the community and what was going on behind the scenes at this time. He must have been some kind of a big deal if Howard thought that he could get a guy his job back in the National Guard all the way in Alabama.