Sunday September 21, 1930

The train carrying Josephine and her companions arrived at Lynchburg, Virginia, in the early morning hours of September 21. There the rail carrier changed from the Southern Railway line to the Norfolk and Western Railroad line, still Train Number 41 (this may have been the same railway car she was traveling in under the Southern Railway line – there may have been an agreement between the Southern Railway line and the Norfolk and Western line to use the same train for the route between New Orleans to New York and New York to New Orleans).

After a very brief stop in Lynchburg, the train left for Bristol, Virginia, arriving there around 9 am in the morning of Sunday, September 21 (Eastern Standard Time). There the rail carrier changed again from the Norfolk and Western line back to the Southern Railway line. The train carrying Josephine and her Louisiana traveling companions left Bristol, Virginia, a little after 8 am on Sunday, September 21 (Central Standard Time).

From New York to Bristol, Virginia, Josephine had been on Eastern Standard Time. Now she was on back Central Standard Time. There was perhaps a ten-minute layover in Bristol before the train took off again, headed toward New Orleans. This would be Josephine’s second night of sleeping on the train.

The Missouri delegation was still in Washington, DC. At 3 pm, the group, headed by General Pershing, laid a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Three of the ladies who were from the same county in Missouri as General Pershing, assisted him. The Missouri delegation had their picture taken with General Pershing.

General Pershing was happy to greet the mothers and widows of Missouri whose sons and husbands he had led in France 12 years ago. Missouri had 156,232 men who served in France, of which 4,490 had been killed or died during the war.

Note: I have a long list of Louisiana soldiers who were either killed in action, died of disease, died of wounds, died of accident, or were wounded in action in World War I. I have not had a chance to count the names on this list to get an approximate number of Louisianians who were killed or died in the war.

I am also searching for statistics on how many Louisiana soldiers served in World War I. Statistics and information about Louisiana and World War I are hard to find – or else I am not looking in the correct places.

This Sunday had been filled with many things for the Missouri delegation to see and do in Washington, DC.

For Josephine and her companions, it had been the second day of a very long train ride back to Louisiana.


Source: written by Carolyn Ourso