This site is devoted to publishing unique first hand information about one “Soldier”–Captain Thomas Carlisle Montgomery, AEF–who spent most of his WWI years in Paris.  He wrote over 100 letters, typically weekly, typically Sundays, that chronicle detailed observations and constitute a diary in their entirety.  The letters will be posted more or less 100 years after they were written.

The correspondence, of which we have only Monty’s side, is between Monty and his mother who is a fifty-nine-year-old widow when the letters begin. There are occasional letters to his sisters, Mabel, Bell and Kate. Mabel lives with her mother in the family home in Marion, South Carolina. Bell and Kate are married and live in the South Carolina capital, Columbia, where their husbands are employed, returning home frequently or receiving visits from their mother. Monty’s younger brother John Kenly Montgomery—eight years Monty’s junior—is in aviation training in Pensacola, Florida, anxious to complete it in time to join the war. Monty’s letters from time to time hint at Kenly’s coming to Europe by air. A few of Kenly’s letters to his mother during the same relative timeframe add a dimension to Monty’s war experience. These will also be posted at the 100 year  mark.

The original correspondence is in the hands of this curator with the exception of several letters that are held at the South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC  These additions will be credited to the library when they occur.