Letters from the Spanish-American War Most of the following dozen letters were written by some of our own Vermilion Parish men who experienced the adventures of being on foreign soil during and after some of the armed conflicts of the Spanish-American War. They speak to us from a distant past, but one familiar to many of us, thanks to the history books. These letters reflect the educational levels and attitudes of the men who wrote them, and they give us some idea of what our local soldiers experienced both in Cuba and in the Philippines. We will let the history books tell us about the war, its beginnings and the end results. Here, we will focus on the feelings of some our area men. Before presenting these letters, it would be appropriate to learn something about those who sent them, even though I have only a limited amount of information about them. Thanks to an article written in 1899, several of our local Spanish-American soldiers are named, giving me a place to begin my research. On June 17, 1899, the following article appeared in the Meridional. I’ll quote “The Boys Are Coming” directly. “The New Orleans Picayune says that the Second Regiment, United States Volunteers (Hood’s Immunes) have sailed from Cuba and reached Camp Mead near New York City, on the 29th of May. There the entire Regiment will be kept in quarantine at Camp Mead until Tuesday, the 20th of June, when the Command will be mustered out. The Regiment sailed from New Orleans on the 28th of July, 1899 [should read 1898] and reached Santiago de Cuba on the 4th of August. The boys have been in Cuba about ten months, and although they arrived too late for battles with the Spaniards, done splendid service as guards, and by having to stay in that climate have taken as many risks from disease as they would have had they participated in the Santiago campaign. [One of the diseases that they faced was Yellow Fever. It took the lives of many soldiers stationed in Cuba. It was at this time that it was discovered that a certain mosquito transmitted the disease. This discovery led to the control and virtual eradication of the dreaded disease]. Vermilion parish has furnished 3 soldier boys to this Command. Capt. Mike Pickard of Co K, orderly sergeant F. M. Leguenec, and Fred Dupuy who is a private in Capt Broussard’s company. The people will be glad to greet these defenders of their country’s flag and they may expect a royal welcome when they reach home.” I know nothing about Fred Dupuy--no relation to me--except that he was possibly the son of P. D. Dupuy, who had a residence and operated a store on Catholic church grounds for many years. Today, the site of that store and residence would be in front of the St. Mary Magdalen rectory. Captain Mike Pickard had left our area and had traveled to New Orleans to enlist--probably the first man from Vermilion Parish--in April 1898, shortly after war was declared. Almost immediately, he was honored with the appointment of First Lieutenant. As you can see from the above article, Pickard made the rank of Captain sometime before June 1899. One article that was quoted in the Meridional from the Crowley Signal, said that he had seen some “hot action,” whereas the article quoted above said that he hadn’t. I don’t know which account is correct. Somehow, Lieut. Pickard must have distinguished himself, since he did make the rank of Captain. In June 1899, almost as soon as he returned to Abbeville, Pickard was elected Master of Ceremonies by Abbeville’s Masonic Lodge. Sometime in August 1899, Capt. Pickard had visited someone in Jennings, having traveled from Washington, D.C. He worked in Abbeville for awhile; he was even drilling water wells in Abbeville. However, he sold his drilling outfit in late 1900 and was soon living in Jennings. As far as I candetermine, he never returned to Abbeville. Thanks to the Meridional, one of his descendants, and his tombstone, we are able to know a bit more about Francois M. Leguenec than we do about some of our other soldiers in the Spanish-American War. Leguenec was born on July 8, 1876, the son of Henri Leguenec and Emile Bernard. Henri immigrated from Breton, France. Francois enlisted about the same time as did Pickard: sometime in April or May 1898. He was discharged from Fort Meade in late June 1899. Leguenec was a Sergeant of Co K, 2nd Regt. of the U. S. Volunteers Infantry. He served as Abbeville’s mayor in 1920 and 1921. Francois Leguenec died on November 12, 1955, and he is buried in Graceland Cemetery, in Abbeville. Charles A. Lampman, unlike these first three soldiers, saw duty in California and the Philippines. He was born about 1870, the eldest son of M. V. Lampman, Sr. By June 1898, Lampman had been stationed at or near San Francisco. By July 30, 1898, he was listed as a sergeant in Battery B, Third U. S. Artillery, and was serving in Manila. As far as I could determine, Lampman was discharged in the Philippines where he remained until he set sail for San Francisco. He saw some military action, according to his own account, which you will be able to read about in one of his letters. Charles died on October 28, 1903, aboard an army transport bound from Manila to San Francisco. Apparently, while in the Philippines, he had contracted some disease that proved fatal on his trip back to America. The next individual, Rene L. Boudreaux, also served in the Philippines. In May 1898, Rene, a “young and intelligent Vermilion boy,” according to the Meridional, had gone to New Orleans “to enter the military service.” Just where, in our parish, Rene resided, I’m uncertain. For awhile, prior to his enlistment, he had been employed in A. J. Godard’s drugstore on Concord Street. In 1897, Rene was listed as a druggist, according to the Maurice News. So, for awhile, Boudreaux may have been living in Maurice. Once he enlisted, Boudreaux never returned to Abbeville. By January 1899, he was in Manila, where, according to his obituary, he served as a pharmacist for 4 years in the Army and was then sent to Chicago. His letter, which is printed below, expresses his frustration over being unable to engage the enemy on the front lines. Rene Boudreaux died at his residence in Chicago, on May 31, 1915, at the age of 38. He was survived by his wife, nee Marguerite Giblin, two sons, and two daughters. In one of his letters, Boudreaux indicated that he knew that Lampman was also stationed in the Philippines, and he wondered where. Did these two Vermilion Parish men ever meet, way off in that foreign land? Well, that’s all you get to read at this time. The names of the others from Vermilion Parish who served during the Spanish-American War, and those letters will appear in volume II of History of Vermilion Parish. This book is slow in coming, but it should be completed in the next few months. Ken Dupuy