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Ragan Military
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H.M.S. Alfred Crew Station Book

  • US TxAM-C C000020
  • Collection
  • circa 1800

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.

US Passport of John Livezey and Wife

  • US TxAM-C 296
  • Collection
  • 1846

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

Livezey, John

D. Hobart Taylor Diary

  • US TxAM-C 390
  • Collection
  • 1862

This collection contains the original handwritten diary of D. Hobart Taylor from January 1 to May 30, 1862. Taylor was a northern soldier during the Civil War. Also included in a transcription of the diary.

Benjamin M. Linsley Letters

  • US TxAM-C 156
  • Collection
  • 1862-1863

These six letters, dated December 12, 1862 - August 6, 1863, are from Benjamin M. Linsley to his friend Mrs. Lucy G. Palmer in Suffield, Conn. Each letter is written in ink on both sides of a single folded sheet, except for the first one, which is on two folded sheets, sewn together in the center with cloth thread at some point after they were composed. All are addressed by Linsley from the camp near Falmouth, Va., where his regiment, the 14th Infantry of the Army of the Potomac was based, except the last one, which is addressed from McKinnis Hospital in Baltimore, Md., where Linsley was sent to recover from typhoid fever.

In the letters, Linsley comments on the failure of the Union army to obtain substantial victories ever since the Union defeat at Fredericksburg; inflated prices for postage stamps and sutler's goods; the despair he feels at the poor treatment in general of the sick in military hospitals, not only by medical personnel but by fellow soldiers; strategies for obtaining better food and bedding for his brother while nursing him through a severe fever, probably typhoid; the need for statesmen of moral standing more like George Washington than the much clamoured for "little man" George MacClellan; the trials of long marches in either rain and mud to cross the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, only to retreat back over them after the battle of Chancellorsville, or the intense heat of marches toward Warrenton Junction, Va., from which Linsley was transported with the sick and wounded to recover from typhoid himself in McKinnis Hospital at Baltimore; the desperation of deserters being taken to their punishment; the immoral behaviour of men in camp; the need for more good chaplains like Clay Trumbull of Hartford, Conn., who served with his brother's regiment of Volunteers; and perhaps, more poignantly, the eerie sound of drums during funerals for the many soldiers who died in camp from sickness in their poor living conditions.

The letters are now each encased in a clear plastic sleeve. A one-page report from the National Archives and Records Administration is included with the first letter. This NARA report (2 July 2001) replies to a request made by Professor Dale Baum of Texas A & M University in April 2001 to locate and make a copy of Benjamin M. Linsley's pension documents packet, stating NARA staff could not locate the materials. Baum had listed Linsley as an enlistee of the U.S. Army in Company A, 1st Battalion, 14th U.S. Infantry.

Linsley, Benjamin M.

J. F. Rowley Diary

  • US TxAM-C 389
  • Collection
  • 1863-1865

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.

James Samuel Hart Civil War Letters

  • US TxAM-C 1587
  • Collection
  • 1865

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.

George W. Ingram Letters

  • US TxAM-C 1218
  • Collection
  • 1861-1865

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.

John Henry Bliler Diary

  • US TxAM-C 97
  • Collection
  • 1862-1875

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.

Bliler, John Henry, 1844-1924

United States Navy Training Journal of Charles Webster

  • US TxAM-C 1597
  • Collection
  • 1894-1896

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.

Lieutenant Milby Porter Scrapbook

  • US TxAM-C 1045
  • Collection
  • 1898

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.

Sam Clifton Letter

  • US TxAM-C 1585
  • Collection
  • 1899

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

The Fourteenth Ohio National Guard - The Fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry

  • US TxAM-C 1584
  • Collection
  • 1899

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.

Spanish-American War and Boxer Rebellion Scrapbooks

  • US TxAM-C 166
  • Collection
  • 1898-1900

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)

Colonel C. J. Crane Collection

  • US TxAM-C 1158
  • Collection
  • 1900-1905; Undated

This collection contains many photographs and other items pertaining to Crane's military service in the Spanish-American War. The collection also contains his personal items and a biography.

Crane, Charles Judson, 1852-1928

Edward Everett Papers

  • US TxAM-C C000024
  • Collection
  • 1846-1906

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."

Everett, Edward

William Wallace Burns Papers

  • US TxAM-C C000023
  • Collection
  • 1848-1910

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.

Burns, William Wallace, 1825-1892

Quincy Adams Papers

  • US TxAM-C 165
  • Collection
  • 1914-05-1914-06

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

Adams, Quincy

American Field Service Ambulance Driver Diary

  • US TxAM-C 189
  • Collection
  • 1915

The diary begins at an entry for 19 May 1915 with the driver's departure from Paris, to report to the Bureau, or main Section office of the service, at Pont-á-Mousson, which he often abbreviates to Pont. in diary entries. The diary's driver is often under fire, either while driving the roads among convoys, or in the towns being shelled, and, on a least one occasion, even at his billet, called a caserne. He is also clearly interested in becoming an aviator and visits a French aviation field with a friend from the American Field Service during his time off.

There are descriptions of German prisoners in the town square, serious casualties called couchés, episodes of shelling, the hazards of evacuating casualties under fire, as well as the daily life of an American soldier serving in World War I before the official entrance of the United States, is terse and vivid. The narrative presents an interesting contrast of intense activity and intermittent loafing in the French towns and countryside, including a tour of such battle areas as Bois-le-Prêtre, the site of the First Battle of the Marne.

The diary may have come into Stratemeyer's possession at Kelly Field from an aviator being trained or otherwise based there. Ambulance drivers who served first as volunteers in France seem to have transferred to other branches of the service, in several cases the Air Service, after serving in the American Field Service for possibly only a few months.

The entries end abruptly on June 9, 1915.

The shiny dark brown paper-covered diary measures 17 x 10 cm., with 26 of its 40 blue-ruled pages filled with entries handwritten in ink. Although found inserted into an issue of the Kelly Field eagle published between April 1918 and January 1919 and donated to the repository by General George Stratemeyer, the diary is neither labeled, nor signed, and the entries are dated [May] 19 - June 9, 1915.

A newspaper clipping is slipped into the diary, dated 1873 by hand in ink, probably from a British newspaper, which contains a poem, "To Loch Skene", on which corrections to the text have been made in ink.

It may be noted that George Stratemeyer, probably did not write the diary since he served with the 7th and 34th Infantry divisions in Texas and Arizona until September 1916, immediately after his graduation from the U.S. Military Academy in June 1915. He subsequently became commanding officer of the Air Service Flying and Technical Schools at Kelly Field, Texas in May 1917. The diary may have come into Stratemeyer's possession at Kelly Field from an aviator being trained or otherwise based there.

The 25-page paper transcript was made in February 2002 by Aletha Andrew, who processed the collection in the repository.

Ambulance Driver

First World War Christmas Truce of 1914 (Clippingdale) Collection

  • US TxAM-C C000077
  • Collection
  • 1914-1915

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.

McDaniel Family Papers

  • US TxAM-C 1292
  • Collection
  • 1855-1916

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.

2nd Lieutenant Edwin Adlan Atkins Collection

  • TxAM-CRS 1565
  • Collection
  • 1915-1917

This collection consists of correspondence (25 letters and 1 photograph), all with original envelopes, with the bulk of them dating from March to October 1917 sent to E. A. Atkins, known as "Tommy" or Alan, or members of his family, whilst he was serving in the East Surrey Regiment as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France; also when recuperating in England, and then back at his home in South Chingford, Essex.
Several concern the English involvement with the disastrous mainly Canadian troop-led battle at Fresnoy in May 1917 (part of the Arras Offensive) at which Atkins was injured and subsequently hospitalized at VAD hospitals in Exeter and in Sidmouth; letters from France to Atkin's wife, detailing his injury to the head and shoulder; letters in reply to Atkins from the British Red Cross concerning his enquiries about other soldiers caught up in the battle; from fellow soldiers and parents of soldiers also injured and nurses in the hospitals where he was recovering; from his brother Arthur after hearing of his injury, also serving in the war, who send a photograph of himself, on the back of which he has written "Taken in Camp Alexandria, August 1917"; POW card sent from Münster, Germany, from a soldier of the 1st Battalion captured at Fresnoy, detailing Atkins bravery; official mimeographed letter rejecting Atkin's claim for indemnification, postmarked Oct. 1917. Also a Red Cross postcard on his arrival at hospital in Eastleigh (from Gallipoli), postmarked Oct. 1915 when Atkins was with the 7th Battalion Essex Regiment.

Military World War I Archives of Lt. Bewman Gates Dawes

  • US TxAM-C C000078
  • Collection
  • 1917

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.

Don Bosworth Letters

  • US TxAM-C 98
  • Collection
  • 1919

This collection consists of twelve letters handwritten in black ink on both sides of thirteen pages of blue-lined paper with an envelope. The letters are arranged into two series. At the center of the top of the paper are printed the words "Nation War Work Council of the Young Men's Christian Association," each side of which is decorated with an American Flag and the symbol of the YMCA printed in red and dark blue ink. Each page, measuring 27 cm. x 15 cm., is now housed in a transparent plastic folder. On the upper-right side of the envelope are handwritten words "Sailor's Mail". The addressee written on the envelope is Mrs. J.E. Bosworth, who lived on 141 Midland Ave. in Syracuse, New York. However, the letters are addressed to "Dear Folks." Bosworth seems to have bought the envelope before he wrote the letters because his letters begin on June 16, 1919, but the date stamped in blue ink on the envelope is June 14, 1919. In his letters, Bosworth very often does not write the first singular pronoun "I" and uses "&" in preference to the word "and." He crosses out with one or two lines on the words he writes incorrectly. He provides some hand-drawn maps and pictures. He frequently mentions numbers to detail his stories. Of interest is that he comments on the characteristics of the Bolsheviks. He also mentions that he hopes to fight them because he has had no chance to hear gunshots, except in practice.

Bosworth, Don

Rev. Franklin Condit Thompson Correspondence

  • US TxAM-C 1577
  • Collection
  • 1917-1919

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.

Felix J. Stalls World War I Papers

  • TxAM-CRS 396
  • Collection
  • 1917-1919

This collection contains the paper of Stalls regarding his military service in the 359th Infantry during World War I. Included are 71 letters and cards mostly to his parents, 17 photographs, a copy of the speech given by Major Tom G. Woolen to the 2nd battalion 359th Infantry on November 11, 1918, a chronology of the activities of the 359th Infantry, and a copy of A Short History and Photographic Record of the 359th Infantry Texas Brigade by Lieutenant Colonel W. A. Cavenaugh (1918(.

Diaries of a World War I (WWI) 13th Rajputs Regiment Officer

  • TxAM-CRS 927
  • Collection
  • 1914-1919

This collection consists of three diaries written by an officer from the 13th Rajputs regiment during World War I from various locations.

Description from the bookseller:

A trio of diaries written during the Great War in various locations by an officer from the 13th Rajputs regiment. Although the entries do not allow us to go as far as deducing the identity of the author (or his precise rank), they do provide some insight into the conditions and challenges faced as the War spread to remote territories: the first diary is written from Uganda, whilst the second begins dramatically with the fall of Kut-al-Amara and capture by the Ottoman forces with a 2-page, unpublished poem "A Prisoner of War in Yozgad (Asia Minor)", followed by a short, incomplete and entirely bleak piece of prose entitled "Regret" at the rear; the third returns him to Europe, the hand a little less sure and frequent reference to his own poor health, with a broad overview of events both personal and public around the continent - the Paris Peace Conference, the deaths and marriages of his close friends (including his attendance at the wedding of Cynthia Hamilton and Lord Althorp).

The writing is frequently amusing, and there is more complaining about food and living conditions than there is description of fighting; itself an elucidative encapsulation of the day-to-day experience of war.

Willmund Reaux Glaeser Diary

  • US TxAM-C 114
  • Collection
  • 1919-1920

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.

Glaeser, Willmund, 1897-1966

New Deal and John Henry Kirby Scrapbooks

  • US TxAM-C 1052
  • Collection
  • 1935

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.

Pistole Collection - Flying Tigers (AVG)

  • TxAM-CRS 399
  • Collection
  • 1937; 1941-1942; Undated

This collection includes a compilation of photocopies from diaries, correspondence, and memoirs from volunteers in the "Flying Tigers" (AVG) unit, which was a volunteer Air Force unit deployed to assist the Chinese against the Japanese Air Force during World War II (WWII).

The collection was compiled by Major General Charles R. Bond, Jr. who was a ranking member in the Flying Tigers unit.

Bond, Charles R.

World War II Map of Italy

  • US TxAM-C 115
  • Collection
  • 1943

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.

British War Office

Colonel Dorris A. Hanes Papers

  • TxAM-CRS 112
  • Collection
  • 1942-1943

These papers also contain an audit of the Stanley Warehouse. Photographs also include interior and exterior shots of Stanley Warehouse and additional photos of military personnel.

Of special note are photographs of a visit to inspect the facilities and visit troops by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. There are two photographs of Mrs. Roosevelt, accompanied by Colonel Dorris A. Hanes, speaking with African American soldiers.

A photographer identified as Ingledew in Liverpool, England, in 1942, took a majority of the photographs and many have a series of numbers written on the back. Many of the photographs identify individual soldiers by name and their hometowns. Hometowns include Chicago and Springfield, Illinois, Winthrop, Massachusetts, Passaic, New Jersey, New York City, Cuero and San Antonio, Texas, and West Virginia.

Note that although photographs of Eleanor Roosevelt have her name spelled incorrectly, the finding aid uses the correct spelling. Other names are spelled one way on the back of the photograph and differently in the front captions. Information about photos is typed on the back and handwritten on the front. Finding aid attempts to duplicate information as written including grammatical and punctuation errors. The exception is in the inconsistent and confusing use of primarily upper case letters. An attempt was made to make this more uniform in the finding aid by using both upper and lower case letters.

Hanes, Dorris

General Walter Krueger Papers

  • TxAM-CRS 160
  • Collection
  • 1943-1945

This collection includes copies of administrative orders, field orders, and weekly reports compiled by the staff of the Sixth Army and sent to General Krueger, as well as copies of operation reports sent from General Krueger to the Adjutant General in Washington, D. C. Also included are after-action operation reports concerning the 6th Army.

The administrative orders primarily contain data or amendments to accompany Field Orders and are concerned with supply, evacuation, traffic, service troops, personnel, prisoners of war, and miscellaneous items. Also included are instructions and annexes dealing with captured enemy equipment, individual clothing and equipment, supply, burials and cemeteries, native labor, sanitation, prisoners of war and enemy dead, captured material trophies, air supply circulars, and plans of operation. Maps and sketches are also found among the administrative orders.

The field orders contain data and instructions relating to hostile dispositions and support of operations, task forces, command posts, supplies, and communications. Also included are annexes concerned with staging, loading and embarkation plans, intelligence, artillery and antiaircraft artillery, communications, and engineering. Maps, sketches, and code names are also included in the field orders.

The weekly reports contain intelligence information on enemy activities, terrain, counterintelligence, material and equipment, captured documents and POW interrogations, reclassification of documents, enemy tactics, psychological warfare, and code names and numbers. Also included are photographic coverage reports, sketches, and maps.

The operation reports provide the history of the operation, including organization and operating instructions, plans and preparations, background and terrain, reconnaissance, communication, operations, enemy reaction, engineer activities, captured materials, relations with natives, the recapitulation of casualties, commendations, awards, and decorations, conclusions, credit for success, and lessons learned.

Krueger, Walter, 1881-1967

Nazi Atrocities Photographs

  • US TxAM-C C000058
  • Collection
  • 1945

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."

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