Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Soldier from Bay City, Mich., member of Co. B, 339th U.S. Infantry who served in the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1920, the "Polar Bear Expedition." Collection includes diaries which give an account of his service in Russia with the Polar Bear expedition, including sympathetic references to the Bolsheviks.

The diary, Sept. 1918-April 1919, a photocopy, describes his sympathy for the Russian people and the Bolshevik cause, his impressions of Russian life, housing, crops, food, and marriage, as well as fighting at Seltso, Sept. and Oct. 1918, and Toulgas, Oct. 1918. He also describes the difficulties in which he found himself in March 1919, when he drew up a petition protesting the presence of American troops in Russia after the end of the war. A transcript of the petition is included. The original of the diary is owned by Parrish.

Soldier from Port Huron, Mich., member of Co. B, 339th U.S. Infantry who served in the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1920, the "Polar Bear Expedition." Collection includes letters describing primarily food and the weather.

Letters describing daily activities; also diaries containing brief descriptions of his activities in Russia and of his passage home. Most of the collection has not been digitized.