Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Malone Brothers Letters, Accession #2935-p, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was donated to the Library on May 27, 1987, by Ralph B. Slipper, President, Joseph the Provider, of Santa Barbara, California.

Scope and Content Information

The majority of this correspondence, 1917-1919, is from Dumas, Kemp, and Miles S. Malone to their mother, Lilian (Kemp) Malone, and pertains to their military service during World War I. In addition to the sixteen letters to their mother, there are three to their father, John W. Malone, three amongst themselves, and one to Sarah Heath Malone. There are also four letters, 1926-1953, of Kemp Malone while a member of the faculty at Johns Hopkins University. This correspondence complements a group of letters found in accession #10481.

Letters from Dumas arrived from the Marine Barracks in such places as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Paris Island, South Carolina, and Quantico, Virginia. During this first year, Dumas wrote of his transfer to Company 3 Signal Battalion and learning the "signaling game," his training schedules, seeing a dreadnought in the harbor, his belief that his sister, Lillian, should be sent to Randolph-Macon Woman's College, and his first drill with rifles. There were few letters written by him in 1918, but he did mention the worst of training being over, receiving his "greens," and being squad leader of some 50 men. Following a visit home, Dumas wrote an interesting letter on January 2, 1919, discussing the rest of his holiday in Lynchburg, Virginia and New York City. In Lynchburg, he visited Randolph-Macon, which he referred to as "a delightful place," and spent time with Dr. Webb and his family. The excitement over his trip to New York shows in his discussion of touring and talking with his brother Kemp and his friend Henry [Johnson] Toombs, who later became a renowned architect. He mentioned seeing the sites with "Henry pointing out a thousand small points of architectural beauty..." In the spring of that year, Dumas described a brief period of leave in Philadelphia and again wrote his belief of Randolph-Macon Woman's College being the best place for Lilian.

As a member of the American Expeditionary Forces, Miles was sent to France and Germany after being trained in the Fourth Officers Training Camp at Camp Sevier, South Carolina, and Camp Gordon, Atlanta, Georgia. It is obvious from his letters that he was proud to serve his country, and, on seeing the troops bound for the front in July 1918, he referred to them as happy and cheering, exhibiting what he describes as the "spirit of the U.S. Army." By October 1918 he was bound for Europe to do some "real soldering"; the American ships were cheered along their route upon their arrival in France. He described the countryside of France as he saw it from the sea, and gave his impression of the people after landing. By December he was a member of one of the "American crack regiments on the field" in Germany, and told of their arrival by marching through northern France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Germany, and described the countryside and the people. An interesting letter of January 18, 1919 provides a lengthy description of a parade in which the colors of the 23rd Infantry were decorated by the French in honor of the regiment's conduct at the Battle of Soissons. In February he wrote of having comfortable surroundings in the home of a German couple, traveling to Neuweid to a football game between the 1st and 2nd Divisions, and the rank of command in his regiment. A letter in April from Pleckhausen, Germany contains a description of the countryside and a tale of his patrol into the neutral zone. By this time he is looking forward to going home and receiving a "great welcome" from the American public, as they are anticipating peace in May.

There are very few letters from Kemp during this period. In September 1918 he wrote from the Personnel Office about the family's move to Tennessee, one of his articles being published in Modern Philology , and not anticipating being sent overseas. And, in a letter dated "Wednesday," he wrote to his brother Miles concerning his (the former's) dilemma of accepting a National Guard comission as opposed to a National Army comission. In addition, there are three letters, 1948-1953, from Kemp to his mother, including some mention of his work as a philologist.