Primary Source Analysis #2 Solon Borglum Letters ( Photo 21)

To read transcription visit https://transcription.si.edu/view/25437/AAA-borgsolo00021-000046

What do you notice? What do you wonder?

The first thing that we can notice about this letter is the fact this is one of the few letters in the collection of Solon Borglum’s letters to his family members that are written on a piece of paper with the text “On Active Service With the American Expeditionary Force.” I wonder between July and August of 1918, when did he write this letter? Since the majority, if not all of these letters are not dated. Not only that, Borglum must have a good chunk of time to rest because this letter looks fairly long, detailed, and complete. There’s also the word “Sectary” underneath his name on the top left-hand corner, and underneath that is the letters “A.E.F,” which stand for the American Expeditionary Force.” The word words “sec’tary A.E.F” might be where he has to send his letters to for his family members to receive it. It made me curious and want to know more about what he was going to tell his family about what he was experiencing. Since he’s writing to his wife and children, I wonder if they received the majority of his letter? And was he able to return home safely to his family members? But most of all, what made Borglum join the military since he was just a sculptor?

Source:

This is one of the many letters in “Solon Borglum Letters to Emma Borglum and Children,” which was written between July to August of 1918. During World War I, Solon Borglum was the Director of Sculpture at the specially-organized American Expeditionary Forces Art Training Center, who served in the Third and Fifth French Army in France. At the time that he was writing this letter, it was June 7th. It was the day a friend of his friend, Jims, died from a wound that he got the previous day. Not only that, he was somewhere in Paris since he had to leave at 4:30 the next morning somewhere in France.

This letter was meant to “update” his wife and children on how Borglum was going, near the top of the letter, “My dear Emma & Children” was written to address to them, and at the end of the letter he wrote, “lots of love & kisses to you all.” This indicates how strong of a bond that he has with his family since they’re the only ones who were going to read this letter so why would he need to put in sweet, flowery words to make himself look like a loving father and husband.

Context:

Before World War I began, a complex alliance system was put into play since there was a fight for power in Europe. There were two groups the Allies (Great Britain, Russia, France, Japan, and Italy) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Ottoman Turkey). The others were neutral towards both sides. The assassination of the Austrian heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in June of 1914, set off the War of the Nations. Russia backed up Serbia, Germany backed up Austria-Hungary. Seeing the possible threat of Germany, France, and Great Britain helped out Russia. During the war, between 8 to 10 million soldiers were killed along with 7 million civilians. The battles were intense and gruesome. At the outset of the war, President Wilson issued a declaration of neutrality. The U.S. sent out non-military goods to all of the nations that were at war and had its citizens evacuate on passenger ships owned by warring nations. But then Britain imposed a blockage on all neutral ships connected to German-control ports which cause Germany to send out a message declaring that they would attack any ship around the ocean of Britain and France. How is the U.S. going to evacuate the citizens now?

The Allies borrowed billions of dollars from American banks to buy vital raw materials. In 1914, Britain and France have borrowed about $754 million from the U.S. It more than tripled to $2.75 billion in 1916. The U.S. stay out of the war from 1914 to 1917 but America became divided. In 1916, President Wilson signed the National Defense Act and deployed military forces to the Caribbean and Latin America, sending Marines and naval vessels to intervene in Nicaragua, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, which were where U.S. investment was threatened. Wilson fears that Germany will seize control. From then on the U.S. did everything that it can to prevent Germany from gaining more strength. On April 2, 1917, Wilson requested Congress to allow the U.S. to go to war against Germany. By 1917, Congress instituted the draft with Selective Service Act, which required 24 million to fill out and report to their local draft boards. Families with only one male provider aren’t going to be happy about this decision. The Espionage of 1917 was put into place to prohibit spying, interfering with the draft, “false statements” that might impede military success. And the 1918 Sedition Act made it a crime to ‘contempt, scorn, or disrepute’ on the ‘form of government,’ or that advocated interference with the war effort.

With all that had been said about WWI, it allowed African Americans to claim their “democracy,” “rights,” and “liberties.” They hope that this would apply to the racial equality and justice that they will get at home but the white southerners didn’t like that idea. Then in 1919, African Americans were lynched. The U.S. can never agree to free or give equality to the slaves even though slavery was abolished in 1865.

Implications/Conclusions:

This primary source reveals the war conditions and the experiences of a non-premilitary soldier in glorifying trench warfare, to show a “meaningless" battle between both sides, the Allies and the Central Powers since both sides suffer a large number of casualties. The people or citizens that are stuck in the middle, including the soldier who fought in the war, were the ones who are suffering the most. Solon Borglum, like all of the other soldiers, wants to return home, he’ll have so many stories to tell everyone. Some nurses were there with the soldiers, they were working very hard. Even before the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was established, women had already “fought” in a war.

This helps the people to sympathize with the soldiers and the citizen who was where the fight is happening since the fight isn’t in the U.S., the people aren’t that afraid or care about the people that are over there. With documents like these letters, American citizens know that this war isn’t just affecting the people around Europe but the U.S. as well. Our men are over there, fighting with their lives on the line so we need to support them in whatever way we can to end this war quickly. It set the citizens in that kind of mindset. Today, we get to examine this source so that we can understand what kind of misfortune that can be strung from a warlike WWI, to prevent us from letting another war like that from happening. Sadly in the past, we couldn’t avoid WWII, but maybe now we can prevent WWIII from occurring.

Discussion Question:

Here is something to think about. If these kinds of letters weren’t found or weren’t sent back to the family members, would Americans not care about the situation over in Europe? Would they remain in the dark? Would they call their soldiers back/step out of the war?