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

The Aplin family papers consists mostly of letters to and from the three Aplin sons during their service in the Civil War.

The Aplin papers are most valuable not as a record of military service, for the news of battle and camp is meager and often second-hand, but as an expression of life on the home front, largely from a woman's point of view. Most of the letters (78) are from mother Elvira Aplin to son George. They are lengthy, colorful, and highly opinionated statements of her views on southerners, Copperheads, Union officers, the economic and political scene at home, the draft, war strategy, religion, and -- above all -- the behavior of her sons. On June 11, 1863 she writes, "I feel as tho I could bear any other trouble better than to hear my children have lost their good names," and admonishes George that "[y]our patriotism is all right, but you are apt to be a little tardy, and do not always render that obedience to superior officers that your oath requires." Of his journalistic efforts, she remarked that it was not proper to write "how many die there every week, and how the dead are buried after battle. I don't doubt the both of them, but it does no good to tell it, and it makes the friends of the sick and of those who die in battle feel very bad to read such accounts, while they cannot do anything to make it better." (1863 March 16) Elvira found fault with Tommy and George for not saving any of their money, as Tip did, and provoked her youngest son's fiery temper with such criticism.

Mrs. Aplin's disapproval focused on larger targets as well; as the war dragged on, she lost all patience with Union officers and developed a simmering hatred of Confederate leaders and sympathizers. A letter of March 28, 1865 tells of her fervent wish to hear that "the officers of the Southern empire army and navy have been suspended from the trees. Hunt the gurillas like wolves till the land is rid of them. Then I want the soldiers to come home and punish the northern Copperheads till they will never dare to sympathize with the south again." Southern culture also failed to impress; Elvira remarked of a magazine George had sent home "[i]f that is a specimen of southern literature I think almost any of our northern blockheads could write for periodicals in that country. ... They need a little more larnin as bad as I do." Behind Elvira's ornery criticisms lay a deep sadness and unease as she yearned for "this butchering of human beings be done away ... while there is a few left alive." She came to see herself and Sarah as perpetual wanderers who would "spend the rest of our lives alone, in this dreary world alone, without home or friend."

14 letters from Sarah Aplin to George also offer commentary on the home front, but are less detailed and expressive. School-teacher Sarah was clearly of milder temperament than her mother, but did indulge in good-natured teasing about her brother's southern girlfriends. Two brief comments in letters of her mother and of friend Ellen Johnson refer to Sarah being left a "grass widder." Since there are no references to a child being born, presumably this means she had been spurned by a suitor -- another of the many trials she and Elvira had to bear during these years.

Sister Helen [Aplin] Wheeler's 7 letters to George offer a contrast to Sarah's articulate and grammatical writing, revealing her prejudices and lack of education. Expressing the opinion that blacks are better off enslaved, she asks whether her brother went to war "to liberate them paltry slaves or for the constitution..." Helen teasingly requests that he send her "some collard girl that knows how to work," carefully noting that she prefers "a darkey girl ... that was quite good looking not one of the real black ones..." (1863 February 9, March 16)

An interesting subset of correspondence consists of 20 letters to George from Ellen Johnson, whom he later married. Some of the letters feature coy references to their courtship, while others remark on more substantive matters. "There is to be another draft and I hope they will take all the cowards and runaways that is in the country. And those that have gone to Canada have got to be branded so that we will know them in after days if they ever return," she writes on February 15, 1863. As the war drags on Ellen bitterly remarks that "some of our nigger loving friends say that the war will be ended in two months. I don't see what reason they have for thinking so." (1863 March 23)

23 letters to George and Sarah from brothers Tip and Tommy include some information on their war experiences and attitudes. Tommy's letters are particularly revealing, as he expresses resentment of his mother's criticisms, chafes with impatience to get back in the fighting, boasts that he does not fear death and has had a premonition of dying, and shows his disregard for military rules and regulations. On August 1, 1862 he writes of his dislike for guard duty: "I tell you this kind of guarding goes against the grain with me & when I am guarding a secesh orchard or cornfield I never see anything that is a going on if I can help it I never see any of the boys till they get their haversacks full & they always outrun me I never catched one yet..."

The collection contains just 8 wartime letters by George Aplin, who shows his journalistic bent in a long July 5, 1862 missive to "James" which chronicles his regiment's journey south and initial war experiences around Corinth, Mississippi, including colorful opinions on the people, houses, and landscape. One of 4 letters from George to Sarah Aplin includes a description and pencil sketch of Iuka, Mississippi, a watering place with mineral springs. (1862 July 27)

Although the bulk of the Aplin Family Papers date from the Civil War years, there is enough post-war material to round out the family saga. Tip fared reasonably well in business and politics, while George struggled. Elvira had a home once more, with George's family, but must have shared in the hardships. Post-war correspondence with lawyers, creditors, the War Dept., and Tip offers a sad picture of George's financial difficulties and failures, as he lost his farm and had to rely on his brother for money and help in getting work. His war experience was to be the highlight of George Aplin's life. The collection includes a photograph of him in military uniform at the age of 77, reliving past glories.

The Clement Boughton papers consist of letters written home during Clement's service in the 12th Wisconsin Infantry as part of the occupying forces in Tennessee and Mississippi. The collection also contains other family correspondence and letters regarding Boughton's death.

The Clement Boughton papers include 86 letters from Clement Boughton to his mother, brothers and sister, 85 of which were written during his service in the 12th Wisconsin Infantry. The remaining 59 items in the collection include five documents relating to Boughton's service, four letters from a cousin, Mariette Bent, to Clement while he was in the service, a letter from an officer in the 12th Wisconsin relating news of Clement's death and several letters of bereavement from relatives and acquaintances. The balance of the collection is comprised of letters form other members of the Boughton family, both pre-War and post, most addressed to Clement's mother.

Boughton's Civil War letters form the heart of the collection and provide a complete account of the military service of an upright young farmer. While Boughton considered himself to be religious and while he held high standards of conduct for himself and his comrades, he was not prone to moralizing or quick condemnation. He was instead an avid, well-intentioned soldier doing his duty far from home, who felt pangs of guilt at being away during the harvest, and who continued to provide support, encouragement and advice to his mother, younger brother and sister on running the farm and leading their lives. His letters to his younger siblings Augustus and Anna are very affectionate and indicate how important he must have been in raising the children. His relationship with his twin, Clarence, is more difficult to ascertain. Clarence appears to have been an unusually poor correspondent and while Clement's tone in the one letter that survives between them seems strained, it is not clear whether there was actual tension between the two.

Among the more interesting letters in the Boughton are the series describing their duties in Kansas and Natchez. Devoid of any real action, they nevertheless paint an interesting portrait of military life away from the front, and include some good descriptions of Union-occupied territory. Boughton's letters written during the Vicksburg siege are also excellent, and include an interesting account of McPherson's attempt to tunnel under the Confederate fortifications as well as a fine sense of the tense, but at the same time boring life in the rifle pits awaiting the capitulation. Finally, Boughton's journal-like letter of the failed expedition from Memphis into northern Mississippi in December, 1862, to January, 1863, graphically details the hardships of field service in the deep south, the exhausting marches, mud, cold and hunger the soldiers faced, and the swings in morale that resulted when the objectives could not be attained.

Among the related materials, there is an interesting letter from members of the Baptist congregation at Chester, Conn., to Eliza Boughton, sending a small amount of money to help support her and her children after the death of her husband, Newell. A typescript of most of the Civil War letters was prepared by a descendant and is available upon request.

The Francis Brown papers describe Brown's experience as a cook for the 1st New Hampshire Heavy Artillery Regiment stationed outside of Washington, D.C. during the Civil War.

The Francis Brown papers consist of twenty-six letters, twenty-three of which were written by Brown to his wife and son while in the service of the 1st New Hampshire Heavy Artillery in the defenses of Washington. Brown describes his duties as cook, the menu for the troops, and his methods of supplementing the army diet, such as fishing and collecting fifty cents from each man to purchase fruits and vegetables. He also discusses a side line he had developed to earn extra income: selling grease from the cookhouse. In addition to bits of everyday camp life, Brown discusses reforms in system of draft substitution, absentee voting by soldiers, and the problems caused by drunkenness and prostitutes. In writing to Frank, Brown urges him to help his mother and to practice his writing so that he can write to his father.

The collection also contains one letter from Mary to Brown and two from Jonathon Sleeper to Brown. Nearly every letter is accompanied by an envelope pre-printed with Mary's name and address, an oddity for a private soldier.

This collection consists of letters that Lieutenant Randal H. Crouse wrote to his mother, Lillie M. Crouse, while serving with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. Crouse described his experiences at Camp Hancock, Georgia, and in France, where he often commented on life near the front. The collection also has postcards, documents, photographs, and newspaper clippings.

This collection contains 85 letters that Lieutenant Randal H. Crouse wrote to his mother, Lillie M. Crouse, while serving with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. The collection also has 4 letters by other writers, 9 postcards, 4 documents, 15 photographs, and 29 newspaper clippings (including 7 duplicates) related to Crouse's time in the military.

The Correspondence series (89 items) comprises the bulk of the collection and consists mostly of the letters that Randal Crouse sent to his divorced mother, Lillie M. Crouse, from Camp Hancock, Georgia, and France between September 1917 and April 1919. At Camp Hancock, he discussed the reorganization of his Pennsylvania National Guard unit into the 112th Infantry Regiment and mentioned several specific training exercises, including some involving gas masks (January 27, 1918). He described other aspects of camp and military life and, upon his arrival in France around May 1918, provided his impressions of the scenery and people, as well as descriptions of his experiences at the front. Soon after his arrival, he reported hearing nearby artillery fire and shared his awe at the multicultural makeup of the allied forces, which included soldiers from a number of foreign countries (May 27, 1918). Though he remained optimistic about the war's imminent end, Crouse mentioned his participation in some difficult fighting, credited the Germans with putting up a strong resistance, and described airplane crashes he had witnessed (August 17, 1918). By October 30, 1918, he expressed his relief at being transferred to a safer area following weeks of hard fighting, and on November 3, 1918, he described a one-day visit to Paris.

Following the signing of the Armistice, Crouse revealed more details about military actions he had participated in, including movements near Metz, and expressed his surprise upon hearing of the large scale of the influenza epidemic, from which the war had distracted him. In his letter of December 4, 1918, he copied several pages from a captured German diary that described the advance on Paris in September 1914; the letter also encloses a printed map of a portion of the Western Front near the end of the war. Throughout the spring of 1919, Crouse continued to discuss his travels through France and his anticipation of a return to the United States.

The series has 4 letters by other correspondents, including 3 by Lillie M. Crouse, who wrote a letter to her son while he attended a summer camp (July 13, 1908), prematurely reported Germany's surrender (November 7, 1918), and expressed her wish for military volunteers to displace active service veterans (March 31, 1919). Jordy L. Stafer, a soldier, also wrote a letter to Lillie M. Crouse, whom he knew from York (October 9, 1918).

The Postcards and Greeting Card series (7 items) contains mail that Randal Crouse sent to his mother during the war. The postcards show scenery in Germany and in Glasgow, Scotland, and one is a photographic postcard of Crouse in uniform. The Christmas card has a drawing of an American soldier reading with a young girl.

Documents (4 items) include a memorandum by W. H. Hay commending the service of the 28th Division of the United States Army, as well as 2 items related to the allotment of Randal Crouse's pay to his mother. Also present is a photographic card identifying Crouse as a member of the American Expeditionary Forces.

The Photographs series (15 items) has 6 snapshots of soldiers, including 2 taken in front of a cannon; 2 larger formal portraits of Randal H. Crouse; and 7 small snapshots of a soldier smoking a cigar and an old European building.

Newspaper clippings (29 items) primarily concern the actions of the 28th Division of the United States Army, including several reprinted letters that Randal Crouse sent to his mother while serving overseas, taken from the Gazette and Daily (York, Pa.) and other papers. Seven of the items are duplicates.

The Downs papers include documents relating to Levi Downs' military service with the 107th United States Colored Troops, materials from Downs' work as clerk to the Claims Agent for the Plymouth, N.C branch of the Freedmen's Bureau, and family correspondence from and to Downs.

The Downs papers include three sorts of materials: first, correspondence between Levi Downs and his sisters Louisa, Mary, Nancy, and Ann (Mrs. E.W. Frost); second, materials relating to claims for bounty money and pay in arrears, all handled by Downs as clerk to the Claims Agent for the local branch of the Freedmen's Bureau between December, 1868 and December, 1869; and finally, documents relating to Downs' military service, including commissions and returns. Downs' diary includes only very sporadic entries during 1864, and these very brief. They do include notes on both Drewry's Bluff and Cold Harbor-Petersburg.

Downs' letters to his sisters provide comparatively little information on the military side of the war, although there are some good letters written while he was serving with the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery describing the siege at Yorktown, and some descriptions of life on the Richmond front when with the 107th U.S.C.T. His post-war letters provide a case study of the attempts of a Union veteran to establish himself in tough economic times by taking advantage of business opportunities in the occupied south. His record, unfortunately, is one of very limited success. An excellent and very long letter from another officer in the 107th U.S.C.T., E.T. Lamberton (1882 August 17-25), suggests that Downs' economic hardships and inability to capitalize on the Reconstruction economy were not unique. Lamberton details his own efforts at making a living and relates news he has heard from of the hard times faced by several other of their fellow officers.

The series of bounty claims and claims for arrears in pay, dated between December, 1868 and December, 1869, includes letters written by and on behalf of veterans of "Colored" regiments, including the 14th Heavy Artillery, the 35th, 36th, 37th and 38th U.S.C.T. (all but the 38th raised in North Carolina), and the 1st and 2nd U.S. Colored Cavalry. The majority of these letters are routine inquiries written on behalf of former soldiers by pension agents, friends or surviving relatives, though several letters addressed to Oliver Otis Howard (and forwarded) appear to have been written by the veterans themselves. One letter, from Marcus Hamilton, a Private in Downs' Company during the war, is a request for support in an application for a pension for having been wounded at Fair Oaks in October, 1864. Downs complied.

An unusual assortment of materials is associated with the Downs papers. Included are a pair of Down's spectacles, his sword as an officer of the 107th U.S.C.T., a Civil War-era gutta percha ball, which may have been the core to an early baseball, his military belt buckle, a match case, a $20 Confederate bill and $2 bill from the Citizen's bank of Waterbury, and reunion ribbons for the 14th and 15th annual reunions of Companies I and B of the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery (1884 and 1885). These have all been transferred to the Graphics Division for storage. There are two photographs of Downs, a small one on a calling card with the notation, 4th Conn. Vols., and an outstanding daguerreotype in an oval thermoplastic cameo case, taken while an officer in the 107th U.S.C.T. These have also been transferred to the Graphics Division.

The Joseph F. Field papers are primarily composed of letters from Field to Kittie Chapman, his fiancé and later wife, while Field served with the Union Army. The letters document Field and Chapman's relationship and the effects of the war on that relationship.

Twenty-six of the 40 letters in this collection were written by Joe Field to his fiancé/wife, Kittie, with the balance including nine documents that Field acquired while adjutant for the regiment, one letter from Kittie to Joe, and two letters from other women to Kittie.

Field's letters contain little war news outside of some discussion of the conditions where he is encamped. In many letters, in fact, it is difficult to detect that a war is even going on. Field's letters are intensely focused on his relationship with Kittie, and are generally lighthearted and playful in tone. The war creeps in at the edges that the relationship defines: it is the war that separates the two, the war that affects the lives of their relatives and friends. For this reason, the collection is most likely to be of interest for the study of the effect of war and separation upon one couple's relationship.

Among the more interesting, specifically war-related, aspects of Field's letters are descriptions of various social activities and camp life, attitudes toward officers, and an account of a soldier who was accidentally poisoned by drinking a bottle of liniment that he had mistaken for alcohol. Field's attitudes toward civilians can be very interesting, as well, as he can be quite favorably disposed toward them. The citizens of Norfolk were particularly pleasant to Field and his company, though Virginia women, he wrote, were "too fancy" for his tastes, and the "native" women tended to shutter themselves in their houses, never showing themselves in public. At the end of the war, Field wrote that the Colonel intended to bring a 14 year-old white slave boy he had found to the north and educate him as a missionary, with the intention of seeing the boy return to the south later to spread the gospel. Field's attitude toward African-Americans was less benevolent, and his reaction to the enlistment of African-American soldiers, in particular, is worth noting. Field writes to Kittie that he hated the thought of the North "trying to raise niggers to do their fighting for them. As though Nigs were equal to your Joe" (1864 August 19), and on another occasion, he joked that he might bring home a freedman to sell as a draft substitute.

The James R. Woodworth papers contain the letters and diaries of a Union soldier in the 44th New York Infantry during the Civil War (1862-1864). Woodworth provides detailed reflections on life as a soldier and on his regiment's part in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg.

The James R. Woodworth papers (151 items) contain the letters and diaries of a Union soldier in the 44th New York Infantry during the Civil War (1862-1864). The collection consists of 143 letters, four diaries, one poem, and a bundle of 37 envelopes. In both the letters and the diaries, Woodworth provided detailed reflections on life as a soldier, his regiment's part in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, and the horrors of war.

The Correspondence series (143 items) consists of 122 letters from James Woodworth to his wife Phebe, five from Phebe to James, three from friends and relatives to James, one from a friend to Phebe, and 12 fragments written by James and Phebe.

Woodworth's letters to Phebe contain descriptions of his war experiences. Topics include foraging, gambling, homesickness, lice, prostitutes, singing, sickness (fever, dysentery, smallpox, typhus fever, scarlatina), food (alcohol, beans, beef, bread, coffee, and hardtack), and opinions on religious matters. Woodworth was well educated and a skillful writer who often provided emotional and perceptive observations on life in his regiment and the aftermath of battles. Woodworth also frequently discussed his wife's struggles on the home front, raising their young son and running their farm in Seneca Falls, New York. This series also contains a printed poem by William Oland Bourne entitled "In Memoriam, Gettysburg, July 1-4, 1863."

The Diaries series (4 volumes, 426 pages) contains Woodworth's wartime diaries covering the period from his arrival in Virginia in October, 1862, to a few weeks before his death in 1864. Though the entries are often brief, they provide complementary information for the letters and often fill in gaps concerning travel and troop life. Of particular note are Woodworth's reflections on the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg.

The third diary contains two additional items, stored in a pocket in the back of the volume. One item is a small volume entitled "The Soldier on Guard," which explains the responsibilities of a Union soldier on guard duty (64 pages). The other is a 3-page printed item entitled "Rules for Dr. Gleason's Patients," which contains advice for healthy living.

The Samuel Huntington papers contain letters and documents of a prominent Ohio settler and political leader. Included are items on his business, political, and military activities.

The Samuel Huntington papers (60 items) contain letters and documents of a prominent Ohio settler and political leader. The Correspondence and Documents series contains 23 letters and 27 documents and financial records. Many of the early items are records and receipts for sales of land and legal services. Other documents include an agreement for Elija Gunn to build a fence around Huntington's home (November 10, 1804), a transfer of land in Cleveland Township from Huntington to Augustus Gilbert (May 4, 1808), Huntington's payment receipt for his services to the Ohio Militia (May 24, 1813), and numerous other land transactions.

• A letter from fellow Ohio settler David Bryant asking for investments to buy a still for whiskey making (August 28, 1801)
• A letter from Turhand Kirtland, Connecticut Land Company agent, inquiring about the companies' interests in settling new towns (March 27, 1802)
• A second letter from Kirtland discussing politics and congratulating Huntington on his election as Trumbull County delegate to the constitutional convention (March 3, 1803)
• A congratulatory letter from William Law on Huntington's election as state governor accompanied by a number of state policy requests (December 18, 1808)
• A personal letter from Samuel Huntington to his eldest son, Francis, that describes his travels through Cincinnati, including an Indian attack, and provides instructions to his son for handling the tax collector (July 3, 1813)

Items related to the military include four Quartermaster documents from Detroit and Washington (August 11, 1813-July 16, 1814), and Samuel Huntington's letter to Simon Huntington of Grand River, Ohio, in which he discussed his opinions on the War of 1812 (December 14, 1814). The collection concludes with a farewell letter and religious diatribe from the dying 86-year-old Moses Lyman, a prominent citizen of Goshen, Connecticut.

The Account Book series consists of a 23-page booklet of "Copies of Notes and other Obligations due to me with their Indorsments" (1795-1814). These notes record large transactions (most between $70 and $1,000 with one as high as $4,716.96), and provide details on reasons for the deals and the parties involved.

The Photographs and Newspaper Clippings series holds one of each item. The clipping is undated and likely from a local Cleveland newspaper. The clipped article is "Colonel Samuel Huntington Surveys his Property" by S.J. Kelly, about Huntington's early property holding in Cleveland. The photograph is unlabeled but is possibly a painted portrait of Huntington.

The Hussey-Wadsworth papers document the involvement of two well-to-do families in the Civil War, Spanish-American War and, less intensively, in the two World Wars.

The Hussey-Wadsworth papers fall into two main categories, documenting the involvement of two well-to-do families in the Civil War, Spanish-American War and, less intensively, in the two World Wars. While military involvement forms the core of the collection, there is also interesting material relating to the social and educational lives of upper class New Yorkers, business affairs, and of particular note, the Reconstruction period in Georgia. The collection centers around three main figures: George Tuttle Hussey, his son, George Alexander Hussey, and Andrew S. Wadsworth.

Highly educated and a gifted writer, George Alexander Hussey's letters are uniformly interesting and enjoyable. One of the most remarkable of his letters is a 61 page description of his tour through Bavaria and Switzerland, written in November, 1860. With room to spare, Hussey lavished attention on the sites in Munich, Zürich, and Dachsen, where he marveled at the waterfalls, and he was captivated by everything from the sublime mountains to a cheese maker's simple house, the Freiburg Bridge, and European power politics. Hussey's appreciation of the landscape, architecture and high culture, however, did not extend to the "ignorant" masses whom he observed groveling in prayer to a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Shortly after returning from Europe, Hussey became a Union soldier and began relating his experiences to his father. A common complaint in his correspondence was his desire for a commission. Believing that influence and money purchased rank, Hussey told his father that both were necessary if he wished to become a first lieutenant and then a captain, and when his father did not respond with the alacrity which Hussey felt due, he scolded him. The delay, he insisted, had cost him one hundred dollars (67). Ambitious, young Hussey did finally achieve the rank of captain. He was discharged in November, 1863, reenlisted the following May, and again, almost immediately began his pursuit of a commission, this time, though, through the help of his friends rather than his father (81).

Tensions between George Alexander Hussey and his father extended deeper than the simple matter of assistance in obtaining a commission. The animosity may have stemmed from the length of time it took the younger Hussey to repay a debt he had incurred during his European tour. In December 1860, George IV borrowed forty dollars from K. Grossgebauer, a resident of Gotha, Germany (47, 53). George III apparently accused his son of lying about the debt, and in response, George IV complained that his father treated him like a child (53). By May, 1864, Private Hussey had paid off the debt, but the ill feelings continued to grow (80). As a result, he began directing his letters to his mother and sister.

George Alexander's letters also reflect some of the problems facing Union officers. In June, 1862, he wrote that ten officers of the 83rd Regiment had resigned in two months and that many more would have done the same had their resignations been accepted. Apparently, the officers did not get along well with the regiment's colonel, who was said to be "a perfect idol of gold and silver" (37). In March, 1863, eight more officers tendered their resignations, followed by seven more in June. This tumult in the officers' ranks was matched by ill discipline, and arrests were not uncommon. In July, 1863, for example, eight officers were under arrest, and in July, 1865, after some "unknown" soldiers "played a Yankee trick" on a general at Morris Island, the entire 165th Regiment was disarmed and sent as prisoners to Fort Sumter. Even the officers were placed under arrest, though according to Hussey, they had done nothing wrong (121).

Although the 165th Regiment was said to have a good reputation, in Hussey's opinion, it was a poor organization. While traveling on the Victor, the soldiers threw food valued at $1,000 overboard, some men were known thieves while in the service, and more than one hundred of the regiment's soldiers served time in correctional institutions, with about the same number listed as deserters (85). While at Hart's Island, two soldiers even tried to escape in a general's boat (80).

In addition to a fine description of the activities of the 165th Regiment, the Hussey-Wadsworth Papers includes a number of references to white opinions of African American civilians and soldiers and the general rise in racial tensions during early Reconstruction. In June, 1865, for example, Hussey reported that Black civilians were in control of the South Carolina rice plantations and he was impressed with their industriousness. Nevertheless, Black and white soldiers were involved in a number of altercations in Charleston, including one particularly violent incident in which African Americans were accused of using brickbats on the whites (121). Some white soldiers who refused to mount guard with Black soldiers were imprisoned at Fort Pulaski (121).

When not fighting or quarreling with each other, the Union soldiers spent some of their time battling Confederates. Hussey's letters include accounts of several skirmishes, most notably of the Siege of Suffolk in May, 1863, which left forty Union privates and four officers wounded, including Hussey (61). Among Hussey's other duties was escorting Confederate prisoners to camps and forts. In September, 1864, he accompanied 150 prisoners to Camp Chase, Ohio. Along the way, Confederate sympathizers tried to give the prisoners money, food, and clothing (92), and given the strength of this sentiment, it is not surprising that a month later, when leading 200 Confederate officers to Fort Delaware, Hussey wrote that they were all "secessionists to the backbone" (93).

During the presidential election in 1864, Hussey appears to have been in the minority of his regiment in supporting Lincoln. Four-fifths of the 165th Regiment, he wrote, favored McClellan (94), though all of the soldiers of the 165th mourned the president's death (112).

Andrew S. Wadsworth's letters also provide valuable documentation of military experience, focused on the period of the American intervention in the Philippines. His letters provide several accounts of skirmishes with Filipino insurgents, including a vivid description of the skirmish in which he was wounded and a quartermaster sergeant was killed. The letters are equally important in documenting an average soldier's attitudes toward the enemy in one of America's first imperial wars. Wadsworth had few kind words for the insurgents, whom he frequently referred to by racial epithets, and commented not only on their primitive weapons -- mostly bows, arrows and shields, but also on their tactics. By Wadsworth's reckoning, the insurgents battled American soldiers two or three times a week, and were known to jump out of trees in ambush (173).

In other letters, Wadsworth turned his eye to the battered Spanish gunboats in Manila Bay (158), the American victory at Manila (160), Filipino civilians (158, 159, 160), and Chinese laborers engaged in the novelty trade (160, 161), and whom the Filipinos hated (161). Referring to Manila, Andrew wrote that it was "behind the times," but that it had the finest electric lighting he had ever seen. He asserted, however, that the Filipinos were not concerned with cleanliness: people suffering from either smallpox or leprosy walked the streets of Cavite openly, and Filipino civilians removed the clothes of dead Spanish soldiers and resold them. Andrew himself bought a pair of pants and a shirt.

The Hussey-Wadsworth Papers also provide a brief but interesting description of trenches and bombing during the First World War (210), and there is brief commentary on censorship, the German retreat, and the determination of American soldiers (208, 210). One letter refers to the bombing of London during Word War II (232) and to war rationing in both the United States and Great Britain (231, 232).

According to Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News, George Tuttle Hussey sold stamps to collectors and issued bronze pennies. Examples of these stamps and coins, dated 1863, are housed in the Postal History Collection.

The Jack Keenan World War II Sketches are a collection of over 150 pieces of original art, in the mediums of pencil, pen and watercolor, created by John “Jack” Keenan during his service with the Seventh Armored Division, Third Army, under General George C. Patton. The collection contains scenes from the daily lives of soldiers in this division and chronicles Keenan’s experiences from the beginning of his training at Camp Polk in Louisiana, through his service in Europe and finally his trip back to the United States following the Allied victory.

The contents of this collection correspond with John “Jack” Keenan’s service in the Seventh Armored Division, Third Army, during World War II, from 1941 to 1945. Included are sketches of military personnel, living quarters, landscape vistas, battlefields, weaponry, military transportation, urban scenes, ruins, civilians, prisoners of war, and other topics. Specific locations depicted in these sketches include the states of Louisiana, California, Arizona, Georgia and the countries of England, France, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Scotland.