Papers, 1917-1927, of Lee F. Pickett, 2nd Lieutenant, Company I, 102nd Infantry, in World War I. These papers consist of correspondence, military orders, citations for bravery, and other records connected with his participation in the war and his death, and the marking of his grave in France.
Most of the letters are those written by Lieutenant Pickett to his mother and sisters at Spencer, Wisconsin. The earliest letters in the collection are those written from Fort Sheridan, Illinois in June, 1917. Beginning in February, 1918, there are letters from France in which he describes, insofar as the rules of censorship permitted, his impressions of France and the French people, and his life at a training camp and on the battlefront. During the summer and early fall his letters speak frequently of military engagements, and of events while he was on leave at a hospital base at Nantes, for treatment of wounds received in action at the battle of Belleau Woods.
There are a number of letters written to his mother, Mrs. Agnes Pickett, after her son's death on October 30, 1918. These letters were written primarily to reconstruct for Mrs. Pickett, as far as possible, the events in the last few weeks of her son's life. Among the writers are the secretary in charge of the surgical department of the hospital unit, another lieutenant, and a Frenchman who served as interpreter.
