MG-7. MILITARY MANUSCRIPTS COLLECTION, 1758-1931.
Miscellaneous private papers concerning military service by Pennsylvanians from the French and Indian War through the Vietnam War. Materials from the Pennsylvania Militia and the Pennsylvania National Guard include correspondence, photographs, and personnel records. The following materials relate to African Americans:
• # 69, Wheler Collection, [ca. 1861-1865]. The Wheler Collection consists of one item, an undated letter from Harry A. Wheler and W. M. Wheler to their sister that contains references to African Americans. Wheler reported an occasion when he went into "the niggers’ houses and [took] their cakes off the stove . . . [and] apples" hidden under the bed. Harry A. Wheler wrote a poem about the Civil War, dedicating a portion of it to the "Colored Soldiers belonging to the 54th and 55th Massachusetts."
• #157, 12th Regiment, "Firemen’s Legion," Co. C., Record Book of Captain John H. Stewart, 1861-1868. This volume contains pejorative entries about African American workers in 1861 and 1862.
• #192, Camp Curtin Ledger, 1863-1864. The ledger lists African Americans as contraband on August 20, 26, and September 3, 1864.
• #357, List of the Inducted in the United States Service by Local Board of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, 1918. This list includes names of African Americans.
• #358, U.S. Military Personnel (Including Missing and Captured Declared Dead) in the Vietnam War, 1957-1981. This list provides names, rank, place of residence, date of casualty, and category of casualty.
• #359, U.S. Military Personnel Who Died From Hostile Action (Including Missing and Captured) in the Korean War, 1950-1957. This list provides name, place of residence, date of casualty, and category of casualty.
• #384, National Army of the U.S.A. of the 368th Infantry, Company G Poster. On November 29, 1917, the War Department authorized the creation of the 92nd Division, the first African American Division in the United States Army. The 368th Infantry Regiment was designated as part of the 92nd Division. This poster provides the names of the soldiers in the following arrangement: captains, first lieutenants, second lieutenants, first sergeant, mess sergeant, supply sergeant, sergeants, corporals, colonels, mechanics, buglers, privates first class, and privates. The poster was originally exhibited at the Pennsylvania Military Museum, Boalsburg.