Funkhouser Memorial
Albert Craig Funkhouser
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ALBERT C. FUNKHOUSER 1916

FRENCH REFUGEES, LIBERATED FROM HUN SLAVERY,
PRESENTS SORRY SIGHT TO TROOPS, WRITES FUNKHOUSER
Evansville Journal-News, October 27, 1918.

ENJOYS EXPERIENCE OF CHASING THE GERMANS
Evansville Courier, November 9, 1918

WILL DIG HOLES AT HOME FOR BED
Evansville Press, November 14, 1918.

LETTERS FROM SOLDIERS - DIDN'T BELIEVE REPORT
Evansville Courier, December 18, 1918.

YOUNG FUNKHOUSER IS COMMISSIONED CAPTAIN
Evansville Journal-News, January 5, 1919

FUNKHOUSER'S REGIMENT ORDERED TO PROCEED HOME
Evansville Journal-News, March 2, 1919,

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EVANSVILLE OFFICER MEETS VETERAN BROTHER IN FRANCE
Evansville Journal-News, Sept. 29, 1918.

The meeting of two brothers, both Evansville officers, in France, is told of
in the following letters from Lieut. Albert C. Funkhouser, the older of the
two officer sons of Mr. and Mrs. Albert W. Funkhouser.

The parents of the young men infer from the letter of Sept. 4 that both of the
officers participated in the St. Mihiel drive.

Sunday, Aug. 25, 1918.
Dear Parents:
What do you think? Paul and I are quartered about ten
kilometers (7 1/2 miles) apart, and I talked to him over
the telephone this morning. He is to come to see me this
afternoon.

I am now attending a school for special instruction in
infantry warfare. It is quite a little honor to have been
selected and I am inclined to feel just a little bit
"puffed up" about it. I am the only "shave-tail"
(second lieutenant) in the regiment selected to attend.
The school is something like our officers' training
schools, and I have a rifle and bayonet, and expect to do
a little close order, but I can certainly do it.

For dinner today we had lettuce, radishes, oyster soup,
steak, French fried potatoes, pumpkin pie and lots of
other good things so you can see I am well fed.

Met some real American girls yesterday - Red Cross nurses.
They were some traders and saved me ten francs on the
purchase of a little equipment bag from an old French lady.

May not get to write very often, as I expect to be very busy.
Your son,
ALBERT C.

Sunday Evening, Aug. 25.
Dear Parents:
Paul came over this afternoon and he and I spent the
afternoon together. It sure was fine to see him. He looks
a real veteran. He was right there when the big drive
started, as you know. He has seen much real fighting, and
I know you are as proud of him as I am. Just felt good
and honored to shake his hand, for to me, and I know he
is to you, a real soldier and a real hero. He is looking
fine, and is with a splendid bunch of officers. I had the
privilege and pleasure of meeting his major and his new
captain and most of the lieutenants in his battalion.

Don't know much more about my infantry school except that
if I make good - and I will - I can be more useful, and
probably will merit promotion. Paul and I are hoping to be
able to get in the same company. Would very much like to be
in his outfit, for they are the prize troops of the United
States Army in France. Anyway, we will be together here, and
can see each other each weekend for about four weeks. The
school will last about that long. Wish I could have shared
seeing old Paul T. with all of you.
Lots of love,
ALBERT C.

Aug. 26, 1918.
School opened today, and it has been a busy day for me.
I have enjoyed every minute of it. Back to carrying a rifle
and fighting a bayonet. Most of the students here are
two-service stripe men, and they certainly command my
respect. They surely have some wonderful experiences to
tell, and I wouldn't take anything for my associations and
opportunities. I am get ting much information and training
of real value. The school is the best in the world, for we
have the highest class officers as our instructors, the
pick in all France. I intend to work my head off, for it
is the opportunity of my life.

Funny what a little world this is, after all. This morning
at breakfast I ran "slap-dab" into Capt. "Lige" Worsham.
He is in the machine gun department of our school here. He
certainly is a fine looking soldier, and he is making good,
you may be sure. He asked me to send his best regards to you
all. Don't know who that I know I will next bump into, but
the best thing I know is that Paul and I can be together
weekends for some time.
Sending lots of love.
ALBERT.

Sept. 4, 1918.
Dear Parents:
Paul and I are separated and I did not get to see him last
Sunday. Anyhow we got to spend one afternoon together. Have
not written much lately, but haven't had very much spare
time. I have been working so hard that I enjoy eating goulash,
boiled cabbage, potatoes fried with onions, mutton and
everything else I didn't like before. Every time I eat it
I think how rotten I used to act when mother had it on the
table. She would enjoy seeing me gobble it down and growl
because there is not more.

Anyway, I am getting fat, or heavier, and weigh 180 pounds.
Will be as big as dad if I keep on. Haven't had any mail
from the States since Aug. 22. It seems like years. Hope I
have enough when it does catch up with me that I will have
to haul it away in a cart, and take two weeks off to read
it. Wish you would send me some kodak pictures of all of
you; some I can carry around in my pocketbook. I have one
of mother, but it doesn't do her justice. Have not been on
the immediate front yet, but by the time this reaches you
will have a chance to get my Boche. The slogan of the Army
is "G. A. B." (get a Boche). Wish I could tell you some of
the things that are going on over here, but I cannot, but
will say that when you watch American soldiers, you thank
God you are an American.

Will try to write oftener and send much love.
ALBERT.

Sept. 6, 1918.
Dear Parents:
I heard from home today for the first time in about three
weeks. I have been very busy, and am ashamed of myself that
I have not written oftener. I have not had time to write
for about ten days. I am now in a new sector. I saw Albert
C. Sunday a week ago. Believe me, I was certainly glad to
find him. I have moved since seeing him and do not know
when I will see him again. I cannot tell you what sector
I am in at present. I do not think I should do so yet.
Albert is in a school of musketry. He must be thirty pounds
heavier than he was when I last saw him at the L. & N.
station at Evansville in December. He is certainly looking
good and is in fine spirits. I would very much like to be
with him during the war, but it does not look like I will
be able to do so. We expect to be in action on our new sector
before very long. I am about all in, just having finished
moving, so this needs must be short.
Will write more tomorrow.
PAUL

FRENCH REFUGEES, LIBERATED FROM HUN SLAVERY,
PRESENTS SORRY SIGHT TO TROOPS, WRITES FUNKHOUSER
Evansville Journal-News, Oct. 27, 1918.

The impression a young officer, just out of the training camps of America, has when
he meets his brother, a regular veteran at the game, is typified in the letters of
Lieut. Albert C. Funkhouser to his parents.

Lieut. Paul Funkhouser has seen some of the hardest fighting on the Western front and was
one of the first American officers to enter Chateau Thierry, when that town was wrenched
from the Hun grasp and the tide of battle turned against the invaders of fair France.

Mr. Albert W. Funkhouser, father of the two young officers, queried Gen. March, chief of
staff, as to where the divisions in which his sons hold commands were located at the time
designated in the letters written by them, and in that way he ascertained that Lieut.
Paul's division (Third) was in the Verdun sector and Albert's (36th) in the Champagne.

The letters from Lieut. Albert Funkhouser, in excerpt, follows:

Sept. 14, 1918.
Dear Parents:
By the time this gets to you I expect the big show, started
yesterday, will be over, with a big victory for the United
States. Know you will want to know that Paul is in it and
I am hoping and praying that he gets out all right, and I know
he will. I am sure proud of him, as I know you are, and we
have a right to be. I felt like a young rookie when I was
talking to him, and you can bet I was proud to know that he
was my brother and I know that I will have all the more reason
to be proud of him after the show ends that is going on now.

I don't think I will have the opportunity or the good fortune
to get into it, but every evening I go out and watch the big
fireworks. From where I am I can see the flash of the guns and
see the rockets, etc., sent up; it looks just like a big Fourth
of July celebration. The school I am in ends next week. I don't
know where I will be sent and the chances are I will be put
in some other division.

It has been raining almost constantly here for the past week
and a half, and is some muddy and sloppy. Rain or wind, we
never stop training, and spend some of the nights crawling
around like a worm, learning how to slip up on a Boche.

Sept. 21, 1918.

I am leaving the school tonight, going south, but don't
know much more about it myself. Learned a lot here at the
school and got worlds of valuable experience. I even got
up to the front on a pass and had a little sensation of
being under fire, at the same time old Paulie was out in
the thick of it, making the place where I was seem like
a little Fourth of July celebration. I just had a little
taste of it and I could not help thinking of Paul out
where they were getting pig iron and lead by the ton.
I mean the last big American show which started on Sept. 12,
and which Paul took a part in. I don't know where he is
now, I have not been able to locate his division, but I
hope he and I can see each other occasionally. Believe me,
I am sure proud that he is my brother, and know you cannot
be too proud of him. I saw a lot of French refugees released,
after four years, by this last American drive, and they
were in a horrible shape. Both the men and the women were
so thin and every woman carried a small child in her arms.
Believe me, I sure am thankful I was born in America.

It is only a question of time until we will be in Berlin,
for the Boche are whipped at heart now, and it is the good
old U.S. soldier doughboys that are doing it - fellows like
Paul. The Boche soldier is simply scared to death of an
American, but I don't blame him, for the American doesn't
fear a thing.

ALBERT.

ENJOYS EXPERIENCE OF CHASING THE GERMANS
Evansville Courier, Nov. 9, 1918

Albert C. Funkhouser, son of Mr. and Mrs. Albert W. Funkhouser, who is with the American
troops in France, writes he has had his initiation chasing the Boche. In two letters.
dated Oct. 1 and Oct. 18, he tells his parents he will be a first lieutenant before the
letters reached Evansville and that he has been acting as first lieutenant with Company F,
144th Infantry.

"Am well and having lots of fun and am just dropping you
a line to let you know about it," he wrote Oct. 1, 'I have
been transferred to Company F, performing duties of first
lieutenant, and will be wearing silver bar before this
reaches you.'"

"I am in a town lately occupied by the Boches and they
certainly left their marks. Rode about fifteen kilometers
after my mail on a bicycle and was rewarded."

"I have a lot of Boche souvenirs and will send them home
the first chance I get. It looks now I will be able to bring
them home myself, for the old Boche is sure getting his
hands full of Americans."

"I have not seen or heard from Paul since Sept. 15.
He and I will run across each other again going in and
out of the line."

" We are laying up in support. Just came out of the first line
for a few hours' rest. I will be a first lieutenant before
this reaches you.

"We had some initiation; we chased the Boche thirty
kilometers and still on his trail. I am now in support
and every time a big gun fires it nearly blows the paper
out of my lap. Have been up on the line fourteen days."

WILL DIG HOLES AT HOME FOR BED
Evansville Press, Nov. 14, 1918.

After fourteen days of "chasing the Boche," during which time they "ran" him thirty
kilometers, "my outfit has come through it in fine shape," writes Lieut. Albert C.
Funkhouser under date of Oct. 19, from the front lines in the Champagne
sector, to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Albert W. Funkhouser, 920 Washington Avenue.

"I am now in the front line sitting in my platoon post command which is about four feet
deep, two feet wide and six feet long," Funkhouser wrote.

"After chasing the Boches we feel more like veterans. Have learned many of his tricks but
we are always on the look out for new ones."

"When I get home I ought to be good at digging in the garden, for we have dug holes all
over France in double quick time. All of my men, including myself, carry a rifle and shovel,
one being lust as essential as the other. We are all coated with mud and it will be a great
day when I can get a good bath. I am in the best of health and feeling better than ever before
in all my life. Imagine me sleeping out on the front lawn in the rain. Well we do that here and
should we do it at home we would die of pneumonia."

"Suppose when I get home and get ready to retire, I get a shovel, go out in the backyard
and dig me a hole for a bed! That's what we do here."

LETTERS FROM SOLDIERS DIDN'T BELIEVE REPORT
Evansville Courier, Dec. 18, 1918.

Lieut. Albert Funkhouser didn't put much faith in the armistice celebration, according
to letters received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Albert W. Funkhouser, 920 Washington
Avenue.

He wrote on Nov. 11:

"Dear Parents Still in rest billets, and this is another of
my daily letters. It doesn't seem like it does much good for
me to write if none of my mail reaches home, but anyway I
will keep on giving them more letters to lose.

"The bells and whistles are blowing outside and they say that
hostilities have ceased at 11 A. M. today. Somehow I have
no faith in it and made a little bet that hostilities would
open up before noon tomorrow. Of course, all the soldiers
would like to get home, but I don't think we ought to let
Germany off so light. It might cost a few more lives to get
through Germany maybe mine but it would save far more lives
later on. I want to see the Boche crushed worse than Austria
was crushed.

"Anyway, the war is over and Paul and I will soon come home,
to a home we both love and appreciate more than ever.
Lots of love,
"ALBERT."

" Dear Parents Another of my daily notes, some of which may
reach you. They say war is finished and now I believe it
is, so it won't be long before Paul and I will plant our
number 15's under the old table for some sure-enough eats,
but best of all, will be getting home to the best mother
and father in the world.

"They may have stopped fighting, but our Army is not
to be caught napping, and we are working hard every day,
keeping ourselves and men in fighting shape. We got some
replacements today and yesterday; I am not allowed to
tell how many or where from, but I can say I have been
on the lookout for Lieuts. Clyde Baugh, Austin Loer and
Robert Stilwell, and a few others that we all know.

"I have been appointed, in addition to my regular duties,
summary court officer, range officer and instructor in
musketry for our battalion, so you can guess I have my hands
full, but I enjoy every bit of it, and have never yet found
time to grumble.

"I hope to see you real soon, and send lots of love.
"ALBERT."

YOUNG FUNKHOUSER IS COMMISSIONED CAPTAIN
Evansville Journal-News, January 5, 1919

Albert W. Funkhouser is in receipt of some letters from his son, Lieut. Albert C.
Funkhouser, who is still in France, and who will, if he guesses right, remain over
there for some months as a part of the Army of Occupation. Albert received a field
commission as captain, but is not sanguine that it will be gazetted from Washington,
since with the signing of the armistice orders have gone forth that there will be
no more commissions issued on recommendations received from the front.

Albert had command of his company through the battle of the Meuse. His division
was in the action at the Argonne and in Champagne from Oct. 6 to Nov. 2. His
division was with the Fourth French army corps under Gen. Gouraud, and according
to newspaper accounts distinguished itself greatly. His division is composed of
Texas and Oklahoma guards.

The letters follow:

Dec. 1, 1918.
Dear Parents:
We have hiked just about all over France, from Oisne River near
Atigny, where 1 am now billeted, for how long I don't know. Rugny
is seventeen kilometers north east of Tonnerre and twenty-five
northwest of Chatillion and almost directly south of Troyes. The
hike was about 175 to 200 miles and we made it in fourteen days.
My feet are a little sore, but outside of that I am all right and
gained flesh on the trip. I don't know what our future will be
over here, but I hope they send us into Germany. As you know, we
are in the First American Army (of which I am proud) and a part
of the First is in Germany now. I think Paul's outfit is there.

It is getting cold over here and lots of rain, but being out in
the weather all of the time I have gotten used to it and don't
mind it. Haven't even a slight cold.

I am billeted with an old Frenchman and his wife, and today my
striker, who is a Frenchman, fixed me up for my first bath in
many weeks. Yesterday I hired a two-wheel cart and drove seventeen
kilos to Tonnerre and got myself a new outfit, so I now feel
pretty keen.

I am still in command of my company and was in command during the
scrap on the Meuse River front. Just when they were ready to give
me captaincy commission the war stopped and promotions stopped
also. They are issuing no new commissions unless the recommendation
reached Washington before Nov. 11. Mine left France Oct. 27, so
it will not arrive in time. Anyway, "I should worry," for I hope
to get home soon.
Sending lots of love,
ALBERT.

P. S.- Have not had any mail from the States for nearly three weeks.
Here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas, and wish Paul and I were
there to be with you.

Dec. 8, 1918.

Dear Parents:
Received two letters from you today, post marked Nov. 5 and 7,
the first ones from the states for a long time, and you may be
sure I was glad to get them. I am still stationed at Rugny. Sent
Ruth and Alta some postal card pictures of the town. If they
arrive you can get some idea of a typical small French village.

I don't know any more when I will get to come home than you do, but
it cannot be too soon for me. It looks now like I will spend
Christmas in France.

Have not heard from Paul lately. You have heard later than I have.
He was up in the worst of the fight and I hope he is lucky as
myself. I got one little scratch (enough to entitle me to a wound
chevron which I am not wearing) but that is all. If I don't get
home I hope old Paulie does, for he is more entitled to get home
than I am.
This will let you know that I am well.
Love to all,
ALBERT.

Dear Parents:
It has been raining here for nearly five days and nights straight,
but we play just like the sun was shining all of the time and
drill from daylight to dark. Whoever hung "sunny" onto France
had a glorious dream.

I thought yesterday I would be able to come home real soon, but
I saw an order today that leads me to believe I will be here quite
a few months, at least it looks that way, but you never can tell
what will happen over here.

With lots of love,
ALBERT.

FUNKHOUSER'S REGIMENT ORDERED TO PROCEED HOME
Evansville Journal-News, March 2, 1919

Albert W. Funkhouser is in receipt of a letter from his son, Lieut. Albert C.
Funkhouser, dated at Rugny, near Switzerland, in which it is stated that the
36th division, to which his regiment is attached, has orders to move to LeMans,
France, where it will be quartered until ordered home. The letter is accompanied
by the newspaper printed by the division called "The Arrow" in which
there is notice that the division will be ordered to Brest for sailing so that
the troops will arrive home about the first of July. The 36th Division is
composed mainly of Texas and Oklahoma troops, and it is possible that Lieut.
Funkhouser will have to go to Ft. Worth and be mustered out. If that be true,
he will not reach home until the middle of July.

Source:
Funkhouser Memorial
c. 1920
pp. 25 - 40

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Christopher D. Myers
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September 14, 2000