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Preferred Citation

Adolph Morbio, Letters, 1917-1919, in the Joseph M. Bruccoli Great War Collection, Accession #10875-ab, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

These letters were purchased by the University of Virginia Library from Charles Apfelbaum, Rare Books and Collections, Valley Stream, New York, on September 24, 1994.

Biographical/Historical Information

Morbio was a graduate of the California School of Mechanical Arts (1908) and a Mechanical Engineering graduate of Cornell University (1913), with a Certificate in Electrical Engineering. After graduation, he worked for the Engineering Department of the Panama-Pacific Exposition for a year, and then went to work for the Great Western Power Company for two years in charge of Industrial and Domestic Electric Heating Department for the San Francisco District. At the time Morbio entered the service, he was in business for himself in building construction.

Scope and Content Information

The earliest part of this collection consists of a handwritten carbon letterbook kept by Adolph Morbio, a member of Company "B", 115th Engineers, Pioneer Regiment, while stationed at the Second Engineer Officer Training Camp, Vancouver Barracks, Washington, from September 6, 1917, until the camp closed on November 27, 1917. Morbio had transferred to Vancouver from Camp Kearny, located about seventeen miles from San Diego, California, and begins his correspondence with a description of the camp and its routine to his sister on September 6.

The letters in the letterbook are chiefly written to his family and friends but do include a few letters concerning bills and business affairs. All of the letters emphasize the rigorous and tight training schedule of the camp created to produce engineering officers capable of serving with the Infantry on the front lines or as staff officers depending on the need.

Subjects in the letterbook include: a typical schedule, the probability of being assigned to an Infantry Regiment, vaccinations, and his regret that his brother, Carlo Morbio, is going with a machine gun company (Sep 9); his lack of free time (Sep 9); his experiences in drilling his men, the hikes and training (Sep 13); list of the seventeen volumes he has to master for his formal exams to become an officer and his fears in drilling his company (Sep 15); he holds the provisional commission of a West Point cadet (Sep 16); his progress in training, his difficulty with the semaphore classes, and the practice skirmish which was extremely physically demanding (Sep 22); the soldiers feel ignored by the people of Portland and Vancouver (Sep 25); Portland finally furnishes some entertainment for the soldiers at the Hotel Multnomah (Sep 30 & Oct 3); his study of mapping, infantry drill, and his experiences drilling his company (Oct 7); new work of making brush mats for the walls of trenches, drilling on the Columbia River in pontoon boats, and cutting brush with large Bowie knives (Oct 9); learning knots and hitches for bridge construction, his participation in the mock battle near a cornfield, involving the capture of barns, wood piles, etc. without prior explanation to the farmers (Oct 14); comments concerning army regulations, "Army Regulations is quite a volume and we have gone over it quite thoroughly. It prescribes and prohibits everything that everybody in the Army has been able to think of since the time of George Washington" (Oct 18); his work at the shooting range (Nov 5, 6, & 7); a dance in Portland and his stay at the hotel (Nov 11); and news that the Vancouver Barracks are to close on November 27th when he will come home on leave for a few days (Nov 14).

The rest of the collection consists of about 115 carbon copies (with some duplication), 1917-1919, of Morbio's letters to family and friends just prior to his departure overseas and during his tour of duty supervising the construction of electrical installations at Tours, France. Subjects in these letters include: the purchase of a Corona typewriter for Christmas to take with him overseas and his visit to the residential areas of Los Angeles (1917 Dec 25); and his explanation that the 115th Regiment of Engineers is a National Guard Unit of Pioneer Troops that goes ahead to build advance railroad lines and other preliminary work, his present work as the 2nd Platoon Leader, his scare concerning a soldier who experienced an epileptic seizure while under his command in the desert where they were attempting to assemble a railroad trestle, and the location of Camp Kearny about 17 miles from San Diego on a flat plain in the desert (1917 Dec 31).

Morbio begins his letters of 1918 with the news that he has contracted the German measles and must remain in isolation for two weeks at the Base Hospital (Jan 2 & 5); describes a brief "escape" from hospital quarantine to La Jolla without leave (Jan 6); includes "Beating the Submarines" (1918 Jan) which describes his trip overseas from New York to England on The Philadelphia , one of the American Line ships, and Boat Number 351 of the American Transport Service, departing on January 27th according to a later letter (May 22); his assignment with the Office of the Chief Engineer, Service of the Rear, A.E.F., France (Feb 17); mentions his lack of assignment and his congenial circumstances (Feb 24); reports that he has been ill, does not find French women attractive at close range, and mentions that the Americans are doing valuable civilian work as well as war preparation, such as operating street cars (Mar 4); has finally received mail from home and is busy with electrical work which consists of "getting power, designing, installing, and purchasing materials for wiring, and installing electrical apparatus" (Mar 7); and describes his earlier stay at the English and French "Rest Camps" and the trip over to France (Mar 10).

Subjects in additional letters include: the promotion of his brother Carlo S. Morbio, U.S.N.A., 166th Depot Brigade, 10th Battalion, 37th Company, Camp Lewis, American Lake, Washington, to 1st Lt. (Carlo had attended the 1st Training Camp at the Presidio), the inferiority of French cement which causes delays in the work, the good work of the Y.M.C.A. in France, and includes two poems about life in the Great War, "Recollections A.E.F." and "The Service of the Rear" (Mar 19); his new work being in charge of all electrical work in a factory (Mar 24); the name of his department changed to Department of Construction and Forestry, Service of Supplies (Mar 29 & Apr 14); urges his mother not to worry about the affairs of the store until after the war (Apr 16); furnishes a detailed description of the floating bathhouse at the [Loire River] where they bath periodically (Apr 22); a letter to Major Van Zile details Morbio's educational and practical experience (May 5); his "Mother's Day" letter sent express by the government (May 6); describes his work in detail and the need for liberal use of improvisation to get the job done (May 10 & 25); now is allowed to tell his family that he is in Tours, France (May 18); and gives his opinion concerning the various types of cars in use for war work, the best being the Cadillac, the huge demand for more electricity, and the superior hospitals now being built for the wounded (May 24).

Other topics include: his description of the increase in work with the second offensive under way and his methods of avoiding red tape and getting results (Jun 10); his visit to a French chateau near the Cher River at Tours, hearing the Cavalry Band playing for nearly 2,500 employees (French women) on Saturday at one of the places where he was installing electrical systems (Jun 23); the combined celebration with the French of July 4th & 14th and a few social events with French families (Jul 4); his visit to the Chateau of Chinon (Jul 8); his visit to Paris during Bastille Day, the new offensive apparently going well, sugar seems to be the only commodity lacking in Paris, description of the extent of his work building electric power plants in Tours, the necessity of swiping materials from plumbers and the steam men, avoiding red tape, and building without taking time to design (Jul 19, 22, & 28); furnishes an itinerary of his trip overseas back in January, arriving in Liverpool six months ago on February 4, reaching Havre on February 7, and describes his various assignments since his arrival in Europe when Tours became the General Headquarters of the whole Service of Supplies and continued to grow, gives his impressions of Major General Langfitt, Chief Engineer as a guest for lunch (with no warning!), and his present work on a P.O.W. camp electric transmission line to accommodate the influx of German prisoners (Aug 4); Morbio has almost completed his 11th installation and is ready to begin work on three more jobs, most of his men were physically unfit for duty or wounded, his appreciation for the work of the men at the front, and the success of the American offensive at [St. Mihiel ?] (Sep 7 & 15); description of the wedding of Carlo Morbio by Frank R. Wehe (Sep 17); his promotion to Captain a few days ago (Oct 20); his new job at Headquarters, Section Engineer, Gievres (Loire-et-Cher) near Romorantin (Nov 10); description of the American Intermediate Salvage Depot at St. Pierre des Corps, near Tours, one of his big electrical jobs, describing in detail the procedure of sorting the salvage material for reclamation, such as clothing and shoes, and a discussion of the chances he had to take to meet the urgent need for more electricity (Nov 24); his general disappointment with France as a country and the marital difficulties of his sister married to a Frenchman (1918 Dec 16; 1919 Jan 5 & 12); his impressions of President Woodrow Wilson visit to Paris (Dec 20); and the monotony of life now that the war is over and the death of his former roommate's wife on Christmas Eve (Dec 29).