Manuscript Collections

 This collection contains letters from John L. Brooks and his diary from the year 1862. John primarily writes to his daughters from Key West, Florida.

 Journal and ledger kept at Quartermaster's Department in Detroit by Andrew J. Weston, a clerk and bookkeeper, during the Civil War. Contains items of clothing issued to members of Company G, Second Michigan Infantry.

 This collection consists of the discharge of William W. Collins from Company F, 22nd Regiment of Michigan Infantry Volunteers, May 12, 1865. It also includes his service record dated June 17, 1919.

 This collection consists of a letter from W.H. Woodcock to Mary Stroud, July 13, 1862, relating to the war.

 This collection contains several documents relating to promotions received by Joseph Elder who served in Company A, Third Battalion, Eleventh United States Infantry. The first document, dated Sept. 1, 1863, promotes Elder from private to corporal. The second, dated Nov. 17, 1864, promotes Elder from corporal to sergeant.

 Manuscript Collection 2008-46 contains materials of or relating to Henry and Nancy Ewing. Includes correspondence (1855-1965, mostly dated 1865-1865); scrapbooks and notebooks (1861-1865, 1893) kept by the Ewing family; and photographs (1864, 1888), four carte de visites and one tintype, of various members of the Ewing family. The four carte de visites are of Civil War soldiers D.C. Cherington, Andy Ewing, Alvin Hank, and T.C. Radabaugh. The tintype is of Mack Ewing, Alvin Hank, and Andy Ewing taken in 1888.

 This collection consists of the Civil War diary of Charles A. Gunn, 3rd Michigan Cavalry, Co. B, for 1863. The entries are intermittent and include some references to Vicksburg and statistics on captures, injured, etc. The collection also includes a copy of The New York herald of sat., April 15, 1865, detailing stories of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the stabbing of Seward.

 This collection contains items of or relating to George Dallas Sidman, winner of the Medal of Honor. The collection contains nine illustrated pages containing biographical and service records of Private Sidman, Company C, 16th Michigan Infantry. There are also two photographs of Sidman, one as a soldier, and one as a later date. Their is a receipt for item #48 given by Sidman to the Michigan Military Museum, 1874 and newspaper clippings about Sidman. The last part of the collection is a letter from Thomas Davey, Sept. 19, 1915, to George D. Sidman relating to badges and dues (G.A.R.?), and a listing of comrades.

 This collection consists of a photocopy of notes from a diary kept by John Vogel (1804-1907), a Dutch immigrant, Civil War soldier, and founder of Vogel Center, Missaukee County, Mich. The notes mentions John Torrent, Ducey Lumber Company, William S. Hofstra, John Lynch, John W. Blodgett, Albert DeGroot, Martin DeGroot, and the Vogel family. The notes were copied by Fred C. Hirzel of Moorestown, Mich.

 This collection consists of muster-out and voucher forms dating 1864-1866. There are four types of records in the collection: detachment muster-out forms (showing name, rank, age, when, where, and by whom enrolled and mustered, when and by whom last paid, allowances given for travel, subsistence, clothing, equipment, and remarks); individual muster-outs (shows the same information as the first, plus data on pay rate and bounty received); regimental muster-outs (gives same information as the second, but does so for all members of a given company); and vouchers documenting pay to officers for salary, clothing, subsistence, and hired private servants. The servants were black, and the forms give their name, height, eye color, and hair color. The collection is arranged numerically by regiment, with infantry and cavalry units listed first. A name index has been prepared for easy access to the records.

 This collection consists of papers relating to the Fifth Michigan Infantry and Hamilton Potter (ca. 1839-1919). Potter served in Company B of that regiment. He mustered into the regiment at Pontiac (January 19, 1864), was wounded in action (May 5, 1864), and discharged on a disability certificate (May 9, 1865). The collection includes Potter's pension certificate (1910) and that of his widow, Rosetta Potter (1919). The papers also include photographs of the Fifth Michigan reunions at Mount Clemens (1919) and Detroit (1920), and brochures documenting the 1907 reunion of the Fifth Michigan Infantry, the 1903 reunion of the Fifteenth Michigan Infantry, and the 1927 encampment of veterans from the Civil War, Spanish American War, and Veterans of Foreign Wars. The few newspaper clippings, gathered by Harold Reichtmyer, detail the number of Civil War veterans still living in the late 1930s. The collection also includes an undated obituary of Rosetta Potter, who married Hamilton Potter in 1867, and lived to the age of 80.

 Civil War diaries, 1863-1865. Consists of three small pocket diaries with daily entries of a paragraph or less discussing the daily life of Henry Albert Potter, when he served with the Fourth Michigan Calvary. The 1865 diary also has a calendar, a list of eclipses, a list of Sundays, distances and time by railroad from New York, rates of postage for both domestic and foreign mail, the population of the United States-slave and free for 1860, the Rebellion record from 1861 through 1864, and an almanac for 1865.

 This collection contains various Civil War documents of George Benton Arnold of Company D, 20th Michigan Infantry, including an ambrotype of Benton, his dairies (Jan. 1, 1863-Feb. 3, 1864, 1864, 1865), a letter to his sister (Nov. 7, 1862), his various commissioning papers, his discharge papers (May 30, 1865), his certificates of service, Michigan Adjutant General's Office (1904 and 1912), and an application of officer for correction of muster (Jan. 24, 1899).

 This collection contains typescripts of Civil War letters of Arza Bartholomew, Jr. Company G, 21st Michigan Infantry, to his wife Frances, and typescripts of Civil war letters of Jacob M., George W., William G., and Clarence (Charles) L. Houseman.

 An oral history of George Taylor from Lansing, Michigan. He talks about his service during World War II as some of the first blacks to go into the Marine Corps. George Taylor served in the 51st Defense Battalion.