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SMALL ARCHIVE OF LETTERS from an Ohio infantryman killed in action, 1943-44.

[World War II] Spriggs, John H.

1943-1944. Unbound. A poignant group of wartime letters from John H. Spriggs (1925–1944) of Urbana, Ohio, a U.S. Army infantryman who was wounded in Italy and later died in a German POW camp. The archive includes three autograph letters (one a V-Mail) written between 1943 and 1944, with their envelopes, together with a newspaper article about Spriggs and the Urbana VFW Post that bears his name.

The correspondence begins with a V-Mail dated October 27, 1943, addressed to Miss Rafferty, followed by a single page on American Red Cross stationery, apparently a fragment of a longer letter to “Marybel.” The final and most affecting letter, dated February 7, 1944, runs seven pages (on six sheets) and is addressed to Miss Eileen Scott (“Dearest Marybel”).

Written while convalescing in North Africa after being wounded in Italy—a wound that earned him the Purple Heart—Spriggs’s letters are tender, reflective, and deeply personal. In his February letter he speaks of his hopes for life after the war: returning to Urbana, attending college, and finding his place again among friends. The tone grows wistful as he contemplates his feelings for Marybel, acknowledging that his affection may not be returned. “I’ll never marry,” he writes, “you know why—but I can be your best friend in reserve.”

Spriggs was released from the hospital on February 15 and returned to Italy. Within two weeks he was captured by German forces near Cisterna di Latina and died at Stalag XI-A (Altengrabow, Germany) on April 27, 1944. His name lives on in the Urbana VFW Post dedicated in his memory.

Also included is an unrelated 1941 letter from another Urbana soldier, William Rafferty Jr., to his mother in Ohio. A moving and highly personal World War II correspondence, documenting the brief life and final reflections of a young Midwestern soldier whose letters survived though he did not. Very good.

Price: $100.00 save 15% $85.00