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Biography/History:
Charles Middleton Fitts, Jr., was born in Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, on December 18, 1924. He was the son of Charles Fitts, Sr., and Hattie Blalock Fitts and had one older sister, Harriet. Charles Fitts, Sr., worked in the lumber business and was a captain in the Tuscaloosa National Guard. The family moved to Meridian, Lauderdale County, Mississippi, around 1933.
In 1943, Charles Fitts, Jr., graduated from Meridian High School, where he was class president his junior and senior years, a multi-sport varsity athlete, and all-state end on the Meridian High football team his senior year.
After his high school graduation, Fitts joined the United States Army, reporting to the 4th Company Reception Center at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, in June 1943. He received basic training at Fort McClellan, Alabama, from July to October 1943. From October 1943 to March 1944, Fitts was a participant in the Army Specialized Training Program at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (Texas A&M). From there he was sent to Camp Barkeley, Texas, for further training.
Fitts was sent to Europe in September 1944 as a member of Company C, 66th Armored Infantry Battalion, 12th Armored Division (“Hellcats”) of the Seventh United States Army. Within his company, Fitts was in a mortar squad of the second platoon. He moved to the front line of the war in December 1944, where he received the Combat Infantryman Badge. Fitts was taken prisoner by the Germans on January 16, 1945, while fighting in the Battle of the Bulge in the Steinwald Forest in southwest Germany. He was imprisoned first at Stalag V-A near Ludwigsburg, Germany, and subsequently at Stalag XI-B near Bad Fallingbostel, Germany, where he was assigned to a work detail removing bricks from bombed buildings. Fitts was liberated by British troops on April 14, 1945, and spent a month recovering in a military hospital in England. He finished his military service at Fort McPherson, Georgia, where he served as a military police officer from August to November 1945. He was honorably discharged from the Army as a sergeant on November 22, 1945, shortly after the Army ordered an immediate discharge for former prisoners of war.
After the war, Fitts attended the University of Alabama and subsequently pursued a career as an insurance salesman, settling in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi. He married Jane Keller Watts, a native of Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, in 1947. The couple had four daughters. Jane Watts Fitts died in 2001. As of 2012, Fitts is retired and lives in Jackson.
Scope and Content:
This collection consists mostly of correspondence from Charles Fitts to his parents and sister, written while he was serving in the Army during World War II. The collection was compiled in scrapbooks by Fitts’s mother, and thus represents what she felt was most important to save from his military service. The letters from Fitts’s time in training discuss daily life in the Army, his recreational activities, his plans for furloughs and his frustration at the difficulty of obtaining them, and the various rumors he heard concerning where he and his fellow troops might be posted next. They also include his descriptions of college life at Texas A&M while he was in the Army Specialized Training Program there. His letters, especially those to his father, discuss the details of his military training and the awards he received in great detail. When he moved overseas, and especially once he moved into combat, Fitts was less able to discuss his daily activities or even his location, and the letters focused more on assuring his parents of his well-being. The letters also contain descriptions of European terrain and sometimes of the tourist sights. Throughout the collection, the letters express appreciation for gifts he received from his parents, and discuss people and social life in Meridian. In this regard Fitts was especially interested in the performance of his high school football team. Of note are the first letters he sent to his family from England after being freed as a prisoner of war, as well as the one letter he wrote as a prisoner, which his family did not receive until after he was released. His letters from the last few months of his military service also frequently express his frustration at not receiving a quicker discharge as a former prisoner of war.
In addition to the letters written by Fitts to his parents and sister, there is also a small amount of other correspondence. This includes a few letters Fitts wrote to other family and friends, along with some correspondence he received. Most notable in the incoming correspondence are the letters and telegrams from family and friends after they heard the news of his liberation. There is also some correspondence sent and received by Fitts’s family concerning his military service. Of particular interest here is the official correspondence his parents received from the Army stating that he was missing in action, which includes several telegrams and letters.
The collection also includes other items sent by Fitts to his family with correspondence, such as newspaper clippings; promotional material from Texas A&M; patches; souvenirs from New York, London, and Miami; a few photographs of Fitts; and news releases from the Army about his division’s activities. There are also several news clippings saved by Fitts’s family from the time he was first reported missing in action and at his liberation, as well as some miscellaneous newspapers.
Box List:
Folders 1-16: Correspondence, 1943-1944.
Folder 1: Clipping from the Meridian Star, February 11, 1945.
Folder 2: Photograph of Charles M. Fitts, Jr., n.d.
Folders 3-9: Correspondence, 1944.
Folders 1-16: Correspondence, 1944-1945.
Folder 1: The Battalion (College Station, Tex.), January 27, 1944.
Folder 2: Miscellaneous newspapers, 1952; 1956; 1960-1961.
Folders 1-38: Correspondence, 1943-1945.
Folder 39: Clipping from the Meridian Star, February 11, 1945.
Folder 40: Photograph of Charles M. Fitts, Jr., n.d.
Folder 1: Clippings, February 10-12, 1945.