Between the Covers

Hardcover. Small quarto measuring 7" x 9". Flexible paper over board journal. Contains 300 sepia-toned gelatin silver photographs measuring between 1½" x 2½" and 3" x 5½" with captions. Additionally included are 25 handwritten pages detailing the battalion's wartime service. Good only album with almost detached front board, worn edges, and small tears with very good or better photographs with some edgewear.

The photos show life at the 413th Telegraph Battalion unit's various campsites including images of tents, and shots of soldiers. One of the soldiers is pictured in his tent writing a letter home; another shows “washing morning.” Also featured are men erecting poles, linemen on poles stringing wire, a mule train, trucks and locomotives, operating equipment, views of towns and villages, some with war damage. An interesting group of images shows supplies being transported over the River Charente at Rochefort via a transbordeur aerial bridge. Additionally laid-in are a post-war letter and calling card. About 15 images are of family at home.

The handwritten text begins with names, ranks, and addresses of fellow soldiers and popular military song lyrics. One of these entitled “The Way to Win” which reads, “If you think you are beaten, you are. If your think you dare not, you don’t. ...Success begins with a fellow’s will – It’s all in the state of mind.” Another includes a chorus with the lyrics, “It’s home boys, home, it’s home we ought to be.” Most interesting are 13 unit-specific verses to Hinky-Dinky Parlez Vous that humorously chronicle the 413th's ongoing wartime service. One verse reads, “The 413th has gone to war / With pick and shovel, drill, and bar / They have no guns with which to fight / Dig all day and sleep all night.”

The 413th was one of the earliest U.S. telegraph units to be formed and claimed to have been the first to arrive in France. Its mission was to help establish the backbone of communications within the AEF. It was mostly composed of telegraph professionals including linemen, electricians, telegraphers, train dispatchers, and signal operators from the Pennsylvania Railroad.

An extensive and interesting collection of an important early telegraph battalion in World War I.

Item #453158