USAHEC Visit – Day 2

We came back to photograph more of the contents of the folders.  That went quickly.

There was some extra time, so one of my research assistants decided to research his Civil War veterans. There were no images of his ancestors, but he did find ones from the same regiment and the same home town.

 

 

We even had time for some made-to-order lunch at the Café Cumberland.

 

 

There was time to visit the exhibits in the Soldier Experience Gallery.

 

 

Exhibit in the Soldier Experience Gallery, USAHEC

 

Exhibit in the Soldier Experience Gallery, USAHEC

 

One of the exhibits displayed a medal issued by Saint Mihiel in 1937 to commemorate the battle.

 

Exhibit in the Soldier Experience Gallery, USAHEC

 

We planned to go through the Army Heritage Trail, but it started raining too hard.

 

For information about visiting USAHEC, click here.

You can find information about the exhibits here.

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USAHEC Visit – Day 1

We entered USAHEC, and asked the Information Desk to direct us to the Archives. We reported to the Reference Desk. We were issued a key for a locker, and our Research Cards were created.

 

The Specialist had to take my list and translate it into the locations of the material. Then we took the list to the Circulation Desk.

The materials were brought out to us after a very short wait.

 

 

This box held SGT Mansfield’s diary. I scanned it for the events and dates that were included, and to see if Joseph McMahon was mentioned by name. (He was not.) The events described in the diary had been outlined in the 51st Pioneer Infantry history that was found at NARA.

 

 

This was the folder.

 

 

The staff was incredibly helpful with helping us set up to photograph items in the folder. They have camera stands and lights available. We got to work photographing the diary for future research.

 

 

Diary in the WWI Veterans Survey Collection, Army Heritage and Education Center

Transcribing that diary will be on my to-do list.

 

 

Using the document setting on my digital camera, and hand holding the camera, I photographed the 51st Pioneer newspaper, published during the occupation of Germany, in Cochem. These newspapers will eventually be digitized.

 

Newspaper in the Periodical Collection, Army Heritage and Education Center

 

There were few columns about Company B, but none of them mentioned Joseph F. McMahon.

 

Newspaper in the Periodical Collection, Army Heritage and Education Center

 

The Moses Thisted Collection had only one folder for 51st Pioneer Infantry.

 

 

 

In it was only one picture.

 

Photo in the Moses Thisted Photograph Collection, Army Heritage and Education Center

 

Photo in the Moses Thisted Photograph Collection, Army Heritage and Education Center

 

When you are done for the day, you will clear out the locker, return the key, and sign out. If you are done with the materials, you wheel your cart back to the Circulation Desk for refiling. If you are coming back, the Specialists will ask you to fill in a hold slip that includes the date that you are returning. Your materials can be kept for you for a maximum of ten calendar days.

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USAHEC Visit – Homework

The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC) holds a tremendous amount of information that may assist you in your research about U.S. Army ancestors. They may not have an image of your ancestor, or papers with you ancestor’s name, but there may be material from contemporaries that will shed light on your ancestor’s experience. The Staff is extremely knowledgeable and is available to help you.

There are books about military history, and Army publications. There are extensive collection of unit histories and photo archives. There are veterans’ surveys from the Spanish-America War to the Cold War. There are oral histories. There are collections of personal papers, diaries, and letters. U.S. Army doctrinal, training, and administrative publications. Most post-WWII U.S. Army Chiefs of Staff have donated their personal papers to USAHEC. This is a brief description.

 

Homework:

Before your visit, locate it of items or collections of interest using USAHEC’s online catalog. Tutorials to help find material are available here.

When you have located material of interest, contact USAHEC by e-mail or phone to verify that the materials are available. Also ask what other material they might recommend for the topic you are researching.

The list of documents I wanted to view were:

1. The 51st pioneers [weekly]
2. The Moses Thisted photograph collection
3. The WWI Veterans Survey Pioneer Infantry documents for SGT John Mansfield
4. The SGT John Mansfield photographs (Photographs from the survey had been transferred to the Photo Archives.

I had e-mailed a Technical Information Specialist to check if these materials would be available on the dates of my visit. As it turned out, Item #4 did need to be cleared and would be before I came.

 

NARA II, College Park Visit – Day 3

We returned to NARA several days later to view the boxes in RG120 that held records from the 51st Pioneer Infantry.

In this part of the record set, the documents were arranged by company.

 

 

There were twelve boxes in all. (Company B was on the desk.)

 

 

One of the interesting things was the correspondence books. Before computer indexing, people had to know how to locate items in their records. I have used index books for land and probate records. (See the tutorials.)

 

 

There was my Grandfather’s name as his records were transferred from the IV Corp vocational school in Mayen Germany.

 

 

 

 

 

There was an earlier letter acknowledging the transfer of their records. Joseph McMahon was detached to the IV Corps Vocational school at Mayen Germany, on 31 Mar 1919.

 

 

Fourteen Jewish soldiers from Company B requested leave to attend the Jewish Festival in Coblenz on 14 Apr 1919. The 51st Pioneer Infantry Entertainment Officer asked the YMCA to furnish a concert model guitar to Company B; they were planning to have a show ready by the first of April, possibly after the recovery of a cast member from an accident.

Much of the 51st Pioneer Infantry Headquarters’ correspondence dealt with promotions, demotions (some voluntary), transfers, requests for leave and cancellations of Liberty Bonds. The correspondence included stations before Camp Wadsworth, including Camp Meade and Lemoyne, PA (as the 10th NY Infantry).

The Summary Sheets for the Courts Martial of the 51st Pioneer Infantry were also in this record group. There was an index by last name to help locate the sheets to learn the details of the charges and the findings. Punishment might be fines, forfeiture of pay, or hard labor.

At some time in the future, I will head back to digitize all the folders in RG165 for the 51st Pioneer Infantry, and to read more about the 51st Pioneer Infantry in RG120.

NARA II, College Park Visit – Day 2

Day 2

I went directly to the Research Consultation room, and got help to order the RG120 boxes to find the ones for the 51st Pioneer Infantry.

Since there are limits on the number of boxes, from a number of areas, I went back to the RG120 boxes to copy the interesting documents. This required a stop at the copying desk for them to approve the copies. Those documents required declassification markings when copying and photographing.

The records will be held for three days, unless you sign to return them. I returned those five boxes.

 

 

Then I asked for help ordering the next box in the RG165 series. Hopefully, that box would contain folders with information about the 51st Pioneer Infantry.

It was time for lunch while waiting for the document pull.

The first box we checked was the RG165 box.

 

 

There were twenty folders about 51st Pioneer Infantry. One of them was the history of the 51st Pioneer Infantry. That was a great document. I copied it and photographed it with my digital camera. One page highlighted the activities of Company B.

Another interesting folder contained the Station Lists for Headquarters, Supply and each Company of the 51st Pioneer Infantry.

There’s still more records in RG120 to view!