Henry Fleckenstein lived in Dyersville, Iowa. He had a cousin Elizabeth (Lizzie) who lived in California. While they were in their twenties and unmarried, they carried on a correspondence. The collection opens with these letters. There are also letters from John Forkenbrock from Bozeman, Montana and Los Angeles, California.

Then Henry apparently married Anna Schemmel, whose brother Ben served in Company L of the 316th Infantry. Most of these letters are between Anna and Ben and most of his letters from France start "Somewhere in France. . ." so it is difficult to place where he is. He speaks of the rain and mud he encounters. Sometime before Christmas 1918 he was gassed. He managed to get his gas mask on, but got his lip burned. He writes her from the hospital in France in January. In March 1919 he is back in the United States, staying in New Jersey. He goes into New York City, a trip he relates to her with enthusiastic naivete. This is the last letter from him, which apparently means he came home to Dyersville.