Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

The William A. Bates journal chronicles Bates' travels through Scotland and England in July 1912.

The William A. Bates journal chronicles Bates' travels through Scotland and England in July 1912. In a series of daily diary entries, Bates covered the entire trip, including his transatlantic passages on the Baltic and Oceanic. Bates and two companions, John S. Bates and Dudley Bates Lawrence, set off on the Baltic on July 3, 1912, and spent 8 leisurely days onboard making acquaintances and playing shuffleboard. The author pleasantly noted a large number of Yale graduates also making the trip, and discussed the trio's indecision regarding their upcoming plans. On July 11, the passengers arrived in Liverpool, and the three companions made their way to Glasgow by train, where they began a month of sightseeing around Scotland and England. As the group journeyed across the country to Edinburgh, Bates paid particular attention to the landscape, and often noted golf courses and cricket pitches. After spending a few days in Edinburgh, the travelers went to St. Andrews, where they spent two days on its legendary golf links (July 16-17), and then on to North Berwick, where they again played golf. On July 21, they left Scotland for York, where they viewed the city's cathedral, and moved onward to Cambridge, where Bates recorded his impressions of university students and of the pleasant town. After arriving in London on July 25, they spent several days touring local landmarks, including the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, where they attended a church service. Following a week filled with theatrical outings and museums, the three companions boarded the Oceanic in Southampton on July 31. During the return journey, Bates noted several aspects of life on the ship, including his first-class view over the steerage deck and the presence of several Olympians onboard.

William E. Lewis recorded daily diary entries about his experiences in the United States Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment from March to September 1903. He commented on aspects of life at Camp George H. Thomas, such as drill, an extended trip to an off-site firing range, and military personnel.

William E. Lewis recorded around 150 pages of daily diary entries about his experiences in the United States Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment from March 2, 1903-September 8, 1903. He commented on aspects of life at Camp George H. Thomas in Chicamauga, Georgia, such as drill, an extended trip to an off-site firing range, and military personnel.

Lewis titled his diary "Happenings of the Seventh Regiment of Cav. stationed at Camp Geo. H. Thomas Chickamauga Park." Lewis regularly recorded discharges, illnesses, promotions, and transfers. He occasionally provided background information on soldiers such as "Private Beatty," a Civil War veteran (April 10, 1903); Juan Otero, a Cuban native who was born in Spain (April 15, 1903); "Quartermaster Sergeant Crombie," a member of the 7th Cavalry during the Battle of Little Bighorn (June 5, 1903); and Frederick Toy, a champion marksman and veteran of the Battle of Wounded Knee (June 9, 1903). The diary reports officers' suspicions about civilians selling moonshine to soldiers (June 16, 1903) and a band member's dishonorable discharge and sentence to hard labor for "instrumental insubordination" (July 9, 1903).

Other entries focus on daily camp activities, which included training exercises such as the "monkey drill" and firing practice. On one occasion, the regiment held an athletic competition (June 17, 1903), and Lewis often mentioned baseball games between teams of soldiers. From late July to late August, the 7th Cavalry Regiment marched to an off-site firing range. Entries from this period name the towns where the regiment camped and describe aspects of the march. Lewis shared a story about soldiers' attempt to capture a "wild dog" (August 16, 1903).

The book has 1 poem by Lewis, "The Regulars" (March 21, 1903), and his thoughts about the human desire to experience life from different perspectives (for example, as a member of a different race) (April 8, 1903). In his entry of June 25, 1903, he commemorated the anniversary of the Battle of Little Bighorn.

The diary of William Ellis Jones documents nine months of service in the Crenshaw Battery, Virginia Light Artillery, by a 24-year old private. Jones describes the mustering of Crenshaw’s Battery on March 14, 1862, participation in several battles, including the Battle of Gaines’ Mill and the Second Battle of Bull Run, and meeting Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

The diary of William Ellis Jones is contained in a single volume and covers the period of Jones’ service in the Confederate States Army between March 14 and December 31, 1862. Jones apparently found the mostly-blank book on the battlefield at the Gaines’ Mill; it had previously belonged to a Union Soldier named William Daugherty. Jones tore out most of the used pages and transcribed a narrative he had been keeping into the book, but Daugherty’s signature and a few of his notes remain.

Jones’ record begins when he was mustered into service in Crenshaw’s Battery, Virginia Light Artillery, and contains brief but extremely rich daily entries describing morale among Confederates, the intensity of battle, and frequent illnesses and deaths. Jones also described receiving medical treatment for several health problems (June 14: “Feel much better this morning, the calomel acting with talismanic effect on my liver”), the execution of deserters (August 19: “…the prisoners were marched up to their graves, preceded by the band playing the dead march and their company with loaded muskets”) and meeting Stonewall Jackson (August 11: “He… looks on the ground as if he lost something; altogether he presents more the appearance of a well-to-do farmer than a military chieftain.”).

In a particularly long entry on June 27, Jones described participating in the Battle of Gaines’ Mill, covering his psychological state, the “terrifically hot” enemy fire, and the battle’s casualties. Jones’ diary is a literate and observant record of nine months of service in Crenshaw’s Battery.

William Quitman Wilkins kept this daily diary from January 1, 1869, through April 27, 1869, largely while attending medical school at the University of Louisiana and receiving clinical training at the Charity Hospital of New Orleans. He reported on case studies, operations, recommended treatments, pharmaceuticals, post mortem examinations, tests, and other aspects of his education. Wilkins also reported on his evening and weekend social activities, including attendance at concerts, operas, "varieties," Mardi Gras, and other events.

William Quitman Wilkins' kept this daily diary from January 1, 1869, through April 27, 1869, largely while attending medical school at the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University) and receiving clinical training at the Charity Hospital of New Orleans. He reported on case studies, operations, recommended treatments, pharmaceuticals, post mortem examinations, tests, and other aspects of his education. Wilkins kept his diary in a pre-printed "Patent Self Closing Diary for 1869."

The physicians he studied under included Drs. Frank Hawthorn, J. D. or S. M. Bemiss, Stanford E. Chaille, Warren Stone, and others. Examples of conditions represented in Wilkins' notes include dysentery "from alcoholic poison," pneumonia, typhoid, gangrene of the penis, delirium tremens from the use of opium, malaria, syphilis, constipation, chorea (in a ten year old), opium poisoning, suffocation from hemorrhage, and other ailments. He also wrote of smallpox vaccination and amputations. In one instance, he witnessed an African American woman's operation for "skirrus" (i.e. scirrhous) cancer of the breast (February 27).

In the evenings and on weekends, he attended concerts, "varieties," operas, and plays. He met Tom Thumb and visited Henry Clay's monument on Canal Street (January 9), watched James Robinson & Son (January 18), attended a performance of Fire Fly (January 21), assisted in the wedding of his aunt Sallie and uncle John (January 28), reported on Mardi Gras (February 9), and witnessed the Fireman's Festival and Parade (March 4).

W. Q. Wilkins had apparently received a gunshot wound in his leg/hip and toward the end of the term he underwent surgery to remove bone fragments (March 12). He left New Orleans on March 18, and arrived home in Oxford, Mississippi, the next day. After his arrival, he suffered for weeks with chills, a fever, and leg abscesses. During this time, he briefly mentioned family visitors, reading, taking invoices of drugs, and much bedrest. On April 3, Dr. Isom (possibly Dr. Thomas Dudley Isom [1816-1902]) removed two more bone fragments from his leg. By April 27, his health had improved and he began to study his textbooks once again.

The final 24 pages of the diary contain notes for one of Dr. Chaille's tests, lists of medicines, Medical Association of Lafayette County's fees for various medical treatments, names and addresses, and other notes.

This manuscript is a 141-page biography of William W. Winters (1826-1895), a one-time medical student from Ohio, cabinetmaker, daguerreotypist, and Methodist Minister, among other professions. The biography and subsequent pasted-in documents draw heavily from Winters's own diary entries and trace the events of his life from 1826 to 1853, including his divorce from his wife, who he accused of adultery.

This manuscript is a 141-page biography of William W. Winters (1826-1895), a one-time medical student from Ohio, cabinetmaker, daguerreotypist, and Methodist Minister, among other professions. The biography and subsequent pasted-in documents draw heavily from Winters's own diary entries and trace the events of his life from 1826 to 1853.

Written largely from a third-person perspective, Winters's biography stylistically embodies nineteenth-century artistic and literary Romanticism. Here, a younger Winters is characterized as "schivalrous and full of gallant deeds in matters of Cupid, came off first best." Likewise, Winters is cast as "our hero" within the narrative. A later portion of the volume continues Winters's history, but from a first-person perspective, using "extracts [taken from] his journal in his own language."

Winters's employment experiences include tanning, cabinetmaking, operating a drug store, taking daguerreotypes, and serving in appointments as a deacon and then a reverend in the Methodist church. Descriptions of these occupations are conveyed with varying detail. Also noted are his experiences as a student, first at Oberlin College and, later, at Norwalk Seminary. Winters's courtship and marriage to Philenda Howard, as well as his divorce from her in 1853 on grounds of adultery, is richly detailed.

Laid into the front of the volume is a "Methodist Episcopal Church Quarterly Ticket" and the end of the journal is pasted in a fragment of Winters's 1844 wax-sealed appointment as a church deacon, and 12 fragments of a manuscript, four of which are photocopies.

Among many notable topics of interest are:

• Mormonism (pp. 12-13)
• Body snatching (pp. 66-67)
• Work as a daguerreotypist—Springfield, Ohio (p. 123)
• Divorce—Springfield, Ohio (pp. 131-32)
• Ordination as a Methodist deacon (pp. 88-91)