Brothers far from home: the World War I diary of Eliza Bates

Sunday, January 7, 1916. "War is confusing. One minute you are excited. The flags are flying and the march music makes you strike out...then you hear about the wounded men and you see the lists of missing and dead. I cannot understand how it can all be part of the same thing."

It has been two long years since Eliza’s beloved older brother, Hugo, went away to war. Caught up in his enthusiasm, she couldn’t understand her parent’s less-than enthusiastic reaction. Now that her other brother Jack has also enlisted, she yearns for the safe return of both brothers.