Friday, May 25, 2012

A Veteran Returns, a Veteran Departs

In early June 1919, Edward Sauter set sail from France, homeward bound.

His mother, Augusta Sauter Fiester, was showing around Hobart a memento he had sent her — "a handsome beaded hand-bag" purchased in France, which she "prize[d] very highly." That Friday the 13th was no unlucky day for her, as she received a telegram from Edward, announcing that his boat had docked in American waters. Ten days later — having made a detour to Camp Taylor in Kentucky for his discharge — Edward was back home in Hobart. According to the Gazette, he had spent nearly a year as a gunner in France, and had seen "much active service, likewise great hardships," but now he returned in triumph, bearing "numerous souvenirs." The News crowed: "Edward Sauter … is looking the picture of health. He weighs more than 200 pounds and stands more than six feet in height."

♦    ♦    ♦

As new veterans returned, old veterans were leaving — the whole generation that had fought the Civil War was passing, more and more of them, as we are now losing the generation that fought World War II.

Charles Estelle obituary
(Click on image to enlarge)


Sources:
♦ "Chas. W. Estelle." Hobart Gazette 20 June 1919.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 12 June 1919; 19 June 1919; 26 June 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 27 June 1919.

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