This collection contains over twenty-two letters mainly from James to Caroline Yeager. The letters began on January 22, 1862, to Yeager's siblings telling them about the war, asking them to write, and including information on the Union army. There are also some letters with unknown dates and copies, detailed genealogies of the Yeager family including a chart of James Evans Yeager, a publication titled "The Nicholas Yager-Yeager Descendants: A Genealogy 1678-1986" by Odesa Collins, photographs of flatware, glassware and place settings owned by the Yeager's, and two old money bills.

James Evans Yeager was born November 28, 1750, in Alabama and died in a Northern Prison Camp during the Civil War. Other members of the Yeager family are noted in the genealogy publication, but the information is primarily about Nicholas Yager (the original spelling of the surname), patriarch of the family. Very little information on the personal or professional lives of the individuals is included, but the publication does contain photographic copies of family members with captions.

This collection contains two topographical maps marked with military grid lines, originally published in 1941 by the British War Office, but apparently used by American forces in this instance. One for Cassino, Italy (sheet 160), the other for Isernia, Italy (Sheet 161), in Transverse Mercator Projection with military grid lines and joined with linen tape along the south grid number 96 to form one sheet measuring 50 cm x 72 cm. The map legend is missing on both sections however cities, towns, rivers, streams, roads (major roads in red stamped with numbers), railroads, relief is shown by contour lines, and spot heights can be seen.

The Isernia map is inscribed on the lower half of the back of it mostly in pencil, but with a few notes in ink. The inscriptions, possibly in several different hands, record times of day by the military clock, and locations numerically oriented on the military grid map for various military actions. These actions include remarks on place and type of artillery or small arms fire, observations on the taking of prisoners of war, and other actions in the area southwest of the Rapido River and the town of Cassino. According to the orientation of the action, these notes apparently record fighting by Allied forces against the German army in the Mignano Gap region preceding the Battle of Monte Cassino (January 12, 1944 - May 19, 1944).

The linen tape joining the two maps appears to have been added after inscriptions made on the Isernia map, but most likely during the campaign itself, to be useful for the entire area involved in the Battle of Monte Cassino. Polish troops, the 7th Infantry, and the name Custer are mentioned. The Isernia map is also inscribed in ink in the margin at the top with "Knapp - 31309661, K Co." (possible serial number and company designation K for a soldier named Knapp).

Published by the War Office of Great Britain, originally in 1941, though both sections have a date of 1943 for the second edition. Both maps are designated part of the series "Geographical Section, General Staff, No. 4164." Maps may have been reproduced by the U.S. Army Map Service.

This collection contains a diary (December 9, 1919 - November 25, 1920), signed by hand in ink on recto of the first leaf "Willmund Reaux Glaeser", held on top and bound with three-hole-punched loose-leaf ring binder memo book, with imitation brown leather covers, measuring about 14 x 9 cm. Filler paper (120 leaves) is narrow-ruled in blue, with most entries closely handwritten in ink, a very few in pencil, on both sides of the leaves, with only 21 leaves left completely blank. Some leaves preceding the diary entries are filled with names and addresses of friends and family, lists of traveler's cheques and numbers, as well as other miscellaneous lists. Unused index divider sheets labeled A-Z are included in a group at the back of the main body of diary entries. Diary entries begin on leaves just after the group of index dividers, continue for only two leaves, then begin again starting from the other end of the diary. Typed transcript on 39 pages of 8.5 x 11-inch white bond paper is undated, untitled and the author is unknown.

Entries in the diary are fairly evenly divided between Glaeser's service on the tramp steamer Sag Harbor, and on the New York-based excursion ships, the S.S. Chester W. Chapin and S.S. Richard Peck.

As a wireless operator aboard the "tramp freighter" S.S. Sag Harbor, Glaeser sailed the coast of South America to the port of Antofagasta, Chile, to take on a cargo of "nitrates and saltpetes." Glaeser describes hordes of migrating birds, ducks, whales, sea lion, sharks, and pelicans. With great gusto Glaeser includes much detail on life aboard ship, including a crew of mixed nationalities, contending with furious storms at sea and drunken brawls ashore, often ending in arrests and wounds. One steward, in particular, addicted to both "booze and cocaine," proves especially disturbing, since ships stores of food are being sold off to fund the man's habit. The S.S. Sag Harbor puts into port at Malon, Panama, then Balboa and Panama City, passing through the canal on January 22, 1920, with orders to proceed to Baltimore. Storms are reported disabling and sinking several ships off the coast of Georgia (January 30, 1920 - February 3, 1920), but the S.S. Sag Harbor reaches Baltimore safely on February 9, 1920, proceeding on to Washington, DC. With a new captain and much better steward, hence better meals, the S.S. Sag Harbor takes on a cargo of coal bound for Havana, Cuba, where a long longshoreman's strike holds up both delivery of cargo and taking on new cargo, from early February to mid-March 1920. Finally free to take their new cargo of phosphates to Wilmington, NC the S.S. Sag Harbor continues on its journey, finally arriving on May 8, 1920, in New York City.

In New York City, Glaeser stays at the YMCA intermittently as he is transferred May 28, 1920, to the S.S. Chester W. Chapin, an excursion steamer based in New London, Conn., and later (June 5, 1920) to another excursion boat, the S.S. Richard Peck. While in New York, Glaeser has quite a social life, visiting restaurants, theatres, and the shore on dates, but also looking for an office job. He buys stock in the Century Adding Machine Co. and is offered a job starting a sales agency for the company in Texas, but Glaeser declines that offer, later taking a position as an accountant with the A. H. Bull Steamship Co. in New York.

Glaeser includes vivid descriptions of life in the ports of Havana, Cuba, Miami, and Tampa Bay, FL, Charleston, SC, Wilmington, NC, as well as the cities of Baltimore and New York in 1920. He is attuned to the unrest of longshoremen in Cuba, observes the unsteady nature of trading on the stock exchange, and aware that, although life on a tramp steamer is romantic to a young man fresh out of the Army in World War I, it is eventually not that attractive a life considering the storms, brawls, and other natural vicissitudes of peacetime seafaring life. Glaeser's sense of adventure and humor are both keen, so he manages to infuse the diary with both in equal measure.

This collection consists mainly of correspondence (1858-1888) in which Brigadier General William Wallace Burns, of the United States Army, gives detailed accounts of Civil War battles fought during the Peninsular Campaign (March-August 1862), particularly the Seven Days Battles (June 25 - July 1, 1862 ), including Peach Orchard, Allen's Farm, Savage Station, Glendale, Nelson's Farm, and Malvern Hill. Burns discusses topics such as military strategy, troop movements, military surgeons, weather conditions during battles, building pontoon bridges, building defense works and, and capturing Confederate works. One letter is present from the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).

Also included is personal correspondence with high-ranking officials such as President Abraham Lincoln, U. S. Secretary of War Charles Stanton, General Henry W. Halleck, General Winfield Scott Hancock, General George McClellan, General William Starke Rosecrans, and Major General Edwin Vose Sumner, as well as Emil Schalk who was a war journalist. The latter correspondence concerns political viewpoints on the causes of the war, primarily slavery, as well as the conduct and outcome of the war.

Some correspondence (1888-1904) was written just before and after Burns' death among family members, notably his grandchildren Lloyd Burns Magruder, who was a cadet at the United States Military Academy, and Pauline Magruder, as well as William Wallace Burns' sister Mabelle Burns, usually called "Mab." A substantial group of letters to Mabelle Burns is from her suitor for marriage, B. L. Prince. A few of the family letters from Pauline Magruder to her Aunt Mabelle Burns are written in French from Paris, France.

Also present is a substantial group of copies of military orders and official reports focused on Burns' thwarted ambitions to become Major General, and lead a Division in the Army of the Cumberland under the command of General Rosecrans. Apparently Burns believed political maneuverings of high governmental officials obstructed his promotion to Major General and precipitated his resignation as Brigadier General in 1863.

A few financial records and documents from legal proceedings are included concerning disputed rights to the "Sibley Tent," an invention whose patent royalties were eventually shared by Burns with Henry Hastings Sibley. Also present are a few documents concerning Texas real estate transactions.

The US Passport of John Livezey and wife, signed by Secretary of State James Buchanan.

This collection contains the US Navy training journal of Charles Webster, 1894-1896, compiled under the guidance of Captain Merrill Miller. The Journal is 222 pages and illustrated with numerous sketches, drawings, and clipped prints.

This collection contains the The Fourteenth Ohio National Guard - The Fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry by Sergeant Major Charles E. Creager (1899). Inserted and attached inside the volume are numerous newspaper clippings, obituaries, and memorabilia.

This collection is comprised of 12 scrapbooks (compiler unknown) that contain magazine and newspaper clippings, maps, and other printed ephemera chronicling the Spanish-American War (April-August 1898) in Cuba, and the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) in China. No commentary or other original text has been provided by the compiler. The volumes differ slightly, but all are bound in either dark green or dark brown cloth, with maroon quarter calf. Most of the spine covers are damaged or missing. The scrapbooks measure from 20-25 cm. high and from 24-29 cm. wide.

• Volume 1, Spanish-American War Scrapbook, circa April - August 1898
  • A copy of the war-revenue law of 1898, with index [approved June 13, 1898] is pasted onto the inside back cover
• Volume 2, Spanish-American War Scrapbook, circa April - August 1898
• Volume 3, Spanish-American War Scrapbook, circa April - August 1898
• Volume 4, Spanish-American War Scrapbook, circa April - August 1898
• Volume 5, Spanish-American War Scrapbook, circa April - August 1898
• Volume 6, Spanish-American War Scrapbook, circa April - August 1898
• Volume 7, Spanish-American War Scrapbook, circa April - August 1898
• Volume 8, Spanish-American War Scrapbook, circa April - August 1898
• Volume 9, Spanish-American War Scrapbook, circa April - August 1898
• Volume 10, Spanish-American War Scrapbook, circa April - August 1898
• Volume 11, Spanish-American War Scrapbook, circa April - August 1898
• Volume 12, Boxer Rebellion Scrapbook, circa June 29 - July 15, 1900 (A few loose clippings are included inside the front cover)

This collection consists of one letter to Adelia Clifton from Sam Clifton regarding combat in the Philippines dated April 27, 1899 (ALS, 2 leaves).

This collection contains correspondence (1917-1918) from Rev. Franklin Condit Thompson to his wife (mostly) and family from when he was at Camp Travis in San Antonio, Texas. Also included are many black and white (B&W) photographs with inscriptions, ten color postcards, and a few B&W picture postcards taken at Camp Travis and Camp Mercedes, Texas.

This collection includes a personal account titled "Reliving my World War II Adventure" by Ray Dudley, depicting his experience as a B-26 pilot in the 34 thBomb Squadron during World War II, and some accompanying letters.

This collection contains letters written by Quincy Adams to Vivian during the Mexican Revolution.

This scrapbook contains black and white photographs of Philippine military operations, assumed to be during or after World War II. Also included is a copy of the pamphlet "Code of the U. S. Fighting Man" (1957).

This collection consists of two scrapbooks containing news clippings dating from August 22 to October 5, 1935, regarding the New Deal and John Henry Kirby. The clippings are listed chronologically in this collection record, however, they are not chronological within the scrapbooks.

This collection contains photographs taken by members of the 166th Signal Corps as well as the Associated Press just after the liberation of the concentration camps from the Nazis in 1945.

"A harrowing array of images, including 26 silver gelatin prints, each approx. 8" x 9 3/4", all stamped on verso with detailed captions and other information (some stamped "confidential"), as well as 30 smaller scale photographs (image sizes approx. 3 1/2" x 4 1/2") printed on larger paper stock (6 3/4" x 5") with type-written captions under the image, almost all of the images documenting Nazi horrors perpetrated in several concentration camps, as well as an envelope in which a member of the signal corps sent some of the images home to the USA. Germany 1945. Taken by photographers accompanying the troops that liberated the camps, these images provide detailed and unflinching documentation of the extreme horrors endured in Buchenwald, Ohrdruf, Hergenhein, and Schwartenxenfield and other camps. There are many images of dead bodies in various states, both individual and in masses, barely living survivors, mutilations, images of the structure of the camps themselves, civilians being forced to transport and bury the dead, and, for some reason particularly horrifically, a photo of a decorative tattoo that was skinned off a body and used as a decoration on the wall [of] the Nazi SS quarters at Buchenwald. An envelope from S/Sgt V. Amoroso to Mrs. Amoroso, which apparently contained the smaller images, is also present."

This archive documents Lt. Bewman's time in the American Ambulance Service during World War I (WWI).

This archive includes a large amount of war dated letters and documents, a scrapbook with war clippings, and other war-related items kept by either Lt. Bewman Gates Dawes or a member of his family, and an mss diary in both ink and pencil covering January 8 - July 10, 1918. This 4x6 in. diary in dark cloth boards is printed in France with heading in French...[Dawes] was an engineer in France at least as early as 1916 and joined the American Ambulance service in 1917, then a supply company in the French Army and later the 17th Engineers Co. with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, and it appears from his diary that his company was in charge of a major port and the distribution of the supplies that arrived to the front.....These letters give very detailed accounts of life in port and while in Paris...Most of the letters are from 1917...The scrapbook has a large chromolithograph on the cover of 'American Ambulance Service' in action with pasted title below reading 'B.G. Dawes Jr./May 1917-1919'. It is packed with newspaper clippings, many of which must have come from Marietta papers and deal directly with Dawes and other local boys serving in France. It also has several telegrams from the war, pamphlets, 'American Ambulance Service' document, a photograph of Dawes, his last will and testament, and much more. A truly unusual WWI archive of a soldier who served in both the French and American Armies during that bloody conflict." - bookseller's description.

This collection contains personal letters of the McDaniel family from 1855-1916 along with civil war letters from Confederate soldiers. The letters originate from the McDaniel family in Texas and Mississippi during and after the civil war. Many of the items in the collection are fragile, and transcriptions were made of the letters. This collection also contains family recipes, remedies, along with stereoscopic view plates.

The McDaniel family spans across Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. Julius and Minerva (Rodgers) McDaniel were farmers who lived in Ben Hur, Texas during the 1800s.

This collection includes two manuscripts written by Dugan entitled The Great Class of 1934 and On My Way to the Cemetery. The first work chronicles Dugan's life at A&M College and the latter discusses his experiences in World War II (WWII).

Other items in the collection include newspaper clippings related to WWII and the Texas A&M Aggies who fought in the war, war correspondence from the 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions, and reunion information on the 3rd Armored Division.

This scrapbook contains photos taken during the Spanish-American War, including the Houston Light Guard, Camp Cuba Fibre (Florida), Camp Ovward (Savannah, Georgia), Camp Columbia (Cuba), Havana, and Environs (including graphic photos of human skulls).

All photographs were taken, developed, and printed by Lieutenant Milby Porter, Co. A 1st Texas Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and Former Student at Texas A&M College.

This diary serves as John Henry Bliler's account of the Civil War. It was kept in the Bliler family, in some form since the Civil War, up until it was acquired by the repository.

It looks that Bliler copied over his original diary several times himself, and this last copy occupies all but a few leaves of the five exercise tablets. As noted in the description of Series 1, these first five exercise books could not possibly have contained a copy made any earlier than 1890. The only exception seems to be a portion of the last tablet, which is filled by entries copied over in pencil in 1944 by one of Bliler's descendants, Ardath Bliler Kelly, reportedly since the family copy had become quite damaged by then.

Thus, according to p. 56 of the typewritten transcript of the diary entries in the five exercise books, "[John Henry] Bliler copied his account of the Civil War three times during his lifetime. The last copy was made shortly before his death in 1924." On page number 116 in pencil in the fifth exercise book, an entry from March 31, 1944, made in different handwriting reads "The following copied from by [sic.] originally by Ardath Bliler Kelly, granddaughter of the narrator [sic.]. The original is ragged and yellowed and crumbling." Entries which are thus copied on p. 116-123 of this last exercise book are out of order, dated June 24, [1865] - June 29, 1865, followed by a note in Ardath Bliler Kelly's hand, "A portion of the original omitted in the copy," then the dates January 24 - January 31, 1865.

The typed transcript and index were probably made by Roy K. Bliler later than 1944, and not too long previous to when it was received by the repository. This transcript preserves the original order of John Henry Bliler's diary entries.

This collection contains photocopies of correspondence and notes related to John Weaver's book on the Brownsville Raid of 1906. Also included is one photograph of Maury Maverick and one original page from his manuscript, The Brownsville Raid (1970).

This collection contains two letters with transcriptions from James Samuel Hart to Julia Nancy Foster in 1865 along with a brief biography of the two and photocopies of photographs.

Transcriptions of the letters were created and provided by Elaine Matheney Gibson.

This collection contains two sewing kits, a mirror, canteen, fabric case, haversack and gas mask, a large shoulder bag, Soldier's French Course, Rhymes of a Red Cross Man, New Testament, and Trench Warfare postcard from Jay Wilbur Boyle.

The collection contains the original handwritten diary of southern rebel J. F. Rowley from 1863 to 1865 in a protective engraved box and a transcription of the diary.

This collection contains the crew station book of the H.M.S. Alfred (3rd rate 74, built 1778). Unpaginated [276].

The H.M.S. Alfred was in the harbor for service from 1799 until she was broken up in 1814. This notebook was used for training crews for the Napoleonic wars, and it gives very detailed accounts of the jobs from getting up the anchor, to furling sails.

This collection contains the scrapbook from Seaman First Class Guthrie Fitzhugh Layne, Jr during World War II, including a detailed finding guide.

This collection contains photocopies of a Gulf War Propaganda leaflet and letters from Captain of Infantry Michael Howard, Task Force 1-41, VII Corps, made of 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry, 2nd Armored Division, Garlstedt Germany.

This collection contains original letters exchanged between George W. Ingram and his wife, Martha F. Ingram, while George was serving as an officer in the 12th Texas Cavalry during the Civil War. Typed transcripts of the letters are included.

This collection contains one 4 x 5-inch photographic negative of the Port Facilities in Galveston, Texas.

Series of autograph letters and cards, by No. 8865 Lance Corporal Gordon Clippingdale ('Clip') of the 5th Battalion, City of London Rifles, to his wife Bridget of 141 Willesden Lane, London NW, comprising over 50 autograph letters, postcards and pre-printed sickness forms, the first fourteen written when in training and travelling out to Belgium, the remainder either from the front or while convalescing in hospital in Rouen, giving a graphic account of life in the trenches in the first few months of the war: "The country is absolutely laid waste & yet a fair number of the inhabitants remain, though there is scarcely a whole window left in the village. The place rocks continuously from the explosion of our guns firing but we sleep calmly through it all, being quite used to it by now. The mud is even worse than the frost, being liquid & well up to the knee, our putties & boots being nearly rotted to pieces" (30 November 1914); the series containing some outspoken observations that seem to have escaped the censor's eye: "It makes me wild to see in the papers, so many thousand witnesses to Football match between so & so. Bah. And over here, its work day & night week in week out, ruined churches & villages, fields ploughed by shells, harvests trampled in, homeless people & killing going on day by day. And at home they wear a little flag in their coat & say 'Another victory' or 'No further news', but little they trouble that every day some poor devil goes to his last rest" (3 December 1914); with two letters written during the Christmas Truce (see note below); the earlier letters, written when in training, also showing an eye for sharp observation and the unexpected: "Suddenly we came to a little green lane upon the right, facing an ancient inn & across the end of the lane were standing a row of men in brilliant uniforms & at the end of the line the King in a dark uniform looking very ill & tired out" (20 September 1914); together with a group of photographs, his certificates of birth (8 April 1885) and death (15 June 1955), and letters of consolation to his widow from work colleagues at B.A. Smith & Sons, Chartered Accountants, and LRB veterans, some 100 pages, both Christmas Truce letters of one page each, written on small folio letter-forms (c.240 x 150 mm.), with address, censor's signature and postmarks on the verso (date-stamped by the Army Post Office 30 December and 5 January), the rest of the letters and cards bearing censors' signatures, stamps, postmarks etc., some minor creasing and contemporaneous staining etc., but overall in good attractive condition, 4to, 8vo and on postcards, 31 August 1914 to 17 February 1915 -- Bonham's Lot 169" - bookseller's description.

This collection contains the execution order of Japanese prisoners dated August 17, 1948. (typed, 2 leaves).

This collection dating from 1846 to 1906 (bulk: 1846-1847) consists chiefly of handwritten letters, journal entries, a memoir, a proof copy of a report from the U. S. Secretary of War on Army operations in Texas and on the Rio Grande during the Mexican War (1846-1848), as well as plans, maps and nine hand-colored copies of lithographic engravings drawn by Everett, which vividly chronicle southwest Texas cultural as well as military history during the late1840s.

Series 1, Letters (1847-1863), mainly handwritten in ink by Edward Everett to his brother, Samuel W. Everett, from 1846-1847, while Everett was serving in San Antonio de Bexar with the U. S. Army during the Mexican War. A few letters from other correspondents pertain to Everett's disability and eventual official discharge from the Army. Three letters written in the period 1852-1863 are about business or from family members.

Series 2, Journal and Memoir (1846-1899) contains three sets of journal entries for Sept. 1846-Jan. 1847. All are handwritten in ink on loose sheets of paper. The memoir, also handwritten in ink, on machine-ruled paper measuring about 8 x 5 inches, covers the years 1846-1848, with additional material added and dated, on at least one page, with 1899. This memoir is edited in pencil by Everett, evidently for publication, since one note suggests that the memoir was donated in 1899 to the Quincy Historical Society, later known as The Illinois Historical Society. The memoir was actually published, at least part, or possibly all of it, under the title "Military Experience," in Transactions of the Illinois Historical Society for 1905.

Series 3, Engravings, Maps, and Plans (ca. 1846-1849) includes nine copies of lithographed illustrations drawn by Edward Everett and engraved by C. B Graham Lithographers in Washington, D.C. The engravings were to be published in a report on U.S. Army operations in Texas during the Mexican War. A proof copy of this 67-page report, titled Report of the Secretary of War, communicating ... the Operations of the Army of the United States in Texas and the Adjacent Mexican states on the Rio Grande (31st Congress, 1st Session, Senate. Executive Document 32), published in 1850, is annotated throughout by Everett in pencil. For this publication Everett was at least responsible for eight illustrations: seven engravings of the San Antonio de Bexar area, including the Alamo church, as well as locations in Mexico; a plan of the ruined Alamo as it was in 1846, before being renovated according to Everett's direction, as a U. S. Army supply depot and workshops.

Engravings include nine copies of the lithographed prints. Notations made in ink on the separate prints, and on p. [4] of the proof copy of the published government report, indicate that: illustrations numbered for publication 2, 3-6 were engraved from original drawings made by Everett; those numbered 1, 7-8 were engraved from drawings made by Everett based on pencil sketches by other individuals, particularly no. 1 titled "Watch Tower Near Monclova," which was drawn by Everett from a sketch by Lieutenant McDowell of the U.S. Army.

Everett's proofs of the lithographic prints have all been exquisitely hand-tinted, in contrast to the severe black-and-white reproductions in the printed report. Of the nine hand-colored prints, two are duplicates of two illustrations, one titled "Church Near Monclova," and the other "Watch Tower Near Monclova." These identical prints are each hand-colored in two versions, apparently to represent the depicted buildings' appearances during the daytime, as well as at dusk or sunset.

Maps include one copy of a published map, possibly also by Everett, though it has been attributed to Josiah Gregg, which also appeared in the 1850 Army Operations report, titled "Map Showing the Route of the Arkansas Regiment from Shreveport La. to San Antonio de Bexar Texas," which is annotated with a penciled in route drawn from San Antonio to Austin, and a town location labeled "New Braunsfels." Also included are two manuscript versions of a map by Edward Everett, one copy titled "Plan of the Vicinity of Austin and San Antonio, Texas."

Plans are represented by two copies of an illustration drawn by Everett for the 1849 Army operations report showing plans of the Alamo before the renovation, titled "Plans of the Ruins of the Alamo near San Antonio De Bexar, 1846." Also present is one manuscript plan, titled "Plan of San Antonio de Bexar, Texas, 1848," which is labeled as "Drawn from recollection by E. E." The legend states that locations number 1-5 on the plan show, for instance, the spot near the Plaza in town where Everett received his disabling gunshot wound in the leg, the Hospital where he convalesced, and the Quartermaster's Office, to which he was assigned to work after being declared disabled from active service in the field.

A handwritten loose-leaf page kept with the proof copy of the report is titled "Index to Col. Hughes Report," and lists subject divisions and page numbers, though these divisions are not present in the published report by Hughes.

Thus Everett's accounts of frontline actions in the Mexican War mainly rely on reports from occasional volunteer soldiers or scouts, or Mexican nationals, returning back to Texas from the front lines of battle in Mexico. As much as he is able, however, Everett produces very detailed accounts of the various battles and skirmishes in and around the Texas-Mexico border, including battles at Monterrey, Saltillo, San Luis, Camargo, Buena Vista, Vera Cruz, and Tampico, recording a large number of casualties on both sides.

Of particular interest is Everett's extensive first-hand description of the ruins of the Alamo, and how it was converted for U.S. Army use as a military headquarters, according to plans drawn up by Everett. He deplores the vandalism already wreaked by relic seekers and stressed the respect shown to the mission church by the U. S. Army restorers, who refused to plunder it for building stone but instead merely cleaned away the debris. In the process, skeletons were uncovered, which Everett assumes to be from the time of the siege and Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Everett's accounts of frontier life in the rather rambunctious confines of San Antonio, complete with ambushes, shootouts, rough and ready court trials, and various local characters are often riveting.

Everett also pictures the moods and attitudes of the soldiers toward a variety of issues. Everett describes their arduous marches, unsavory living conditions, often dire medical care, and the cruel climate tormenting them. Having been left behind in San Antonio with all the stores rejected by the army, which had proceeded on into Mexico, Everett's men were faced with nursing broken down mules and horses back to usefulness, salvaging wagon parts from several damaged ones to make a serviceable one, and generally, trying to make do with what could be had in the vicinity, or easily transported from the Quartermaster at New Orleans.

According to Everett, communications on the Texas frontier often proceeded through "solitary express riders." He describes Mexican culture co-existing with "the Indians" and their horse-stealing. He also gives an excellent but pejorative account of the Texas Rangers and their activities, calling them desperados. Everett describes Mexican Generals Santa Anna, Torrejón, and Woll, the exceedingly unpopular U. S. Army Colonel Churchill, officers George W. Hughes, 1st Lieutenant W. B. Franklin, 2nd Lieutenant F. T. Bryan, General Zachary Taylor ("Old Rough and Ready"), General Winfield Scott, and General James Morgan, Captain J. H. Prentiss, Brigadier General John E. Wool, Major General Worth, Captain James Harvey Ralston, Captain L. Sitgreaves, as well as Edward Everett's own two brothers Charles Everett and Samuel W. Everett (Sam).

Full of absorbing narrative and elusive details often lost in larger historical works, the content of Everett's narratives and letters may be summed up in his own words from the handwritten memoir: "Mine is not a tale of battles, or of the movements of great armies, but the details will show some of the hardships and vicissitudes of a soldier's life, the exposure to which causes a greater sacrifice of life than that ensuing from wounds of death received from the enemy."

This collection is the result of the family of Earl O. Hall seeking to determine the circumstances of his last mission (in February 1943), and the location of the action where the plane was shot down. The search took several years and resulted in the discovery of several incorrect versions of the events of that day. With the assistance of the Air Force Historical Unit at Maxwell Air Force Base, a good record of the actions of the 42nd Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) from December 1941 through February 1943 was assembled. The collection consists of family papers from the Hall family, records from the family of Joaquin Castro, Co-Pilot, correspondence to and from the Hall family, correspondence from individuals in the South Pacific, correspondence from the Army Air Force, and other related correspondence. Material from printed histories of the Seventh Air Force, the 13th Air Force, the 42nd Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), and other published material sheds light on the wartime history of the area, and conditions of the military bases in 1942.