Military History

  • Special Collections
    Thomas C. Cheney (1831-1900) was born in Derry, New Hampshire to Sally and Lyman King Cheney. Cheney enlisted as a private in the First N.H. Volunteer Light Battery, participating in virtually every major battle of the Army of the Potomac. The Thomas…
  • Special Collections
    Civil War soldier. Four page letter written from Berryville (Va.) by J.A. Blodgett, Civil War soldier, to his brother. The letter describes skirmishes with Confederate troops around Berryville, Va. during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, August-November 1864.
  • Special Collections
    Salmon P. Chase (1808-1873) was born and educated in New Hampshire and went on to become Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, Governor of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury, and a founder of the Republican Party. A two page letter (1862) from the Treasury Dept. [Washington, D.C.] to Major-General Henry…
  • Special Collections
    Walter Kittredge was born in Merrimack, New Hampshire. He was a self-taught musician who wrote over 500 songs throughout his career. His most famous song was "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground," which was sung by both sides during the Civil War. From Reeds Ferry, N.H. Walter Kittredge writes a letter…
  • Special Collections
    William P. Mason, of Canterbury, N.H., enlisted in Company F of the New Hampshire Twelfth Regiment on August 15, 1862 and mustered in as a Private the following month. After seeing action at the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, he was…
  • Special Collections
    Thornton Association of Naval Veterans of Manchester New Hampshire. 145 page manuscript record book of an association of naval veterans of the Civil War containing constitution, by-laws, and muster roll.
  • Special Collections
    14th New Hampshire Volunteer Regiment was an infantry regiment that participated in the American Civil War. It was the last three-year regiment raised in New Hampshire, serving from September 24, 1862 to July 8, 1865. A small (2.5″ x 3.25″) diary for…
  • Special Collections
    Kenison (1919-1971) was born in Methuen, Massachusetts and was a graduate of Kennett High School in Conway, N.H. and the University of New Hampshire, where he received a B.S. in entomology in 1940. He served with the Naval Intelligence Office in India…
  • Special Collections
    Member of the CounterIntelligence Corps in Germany, 1946-1947. Materials related to the European Theater Intelligence School in Oberammagau, Germany and eight reports filed from Headquarters, Region IX, 970th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment, Port Operations Office in Bremerhaven, Germany,…
  • Special Collections
    Martin Snow, Civil War sailor, was born in Boston, Mass. in 1839 and died in Blair, Neb. in 1891. He married Caroline Augusta Barker in 1860 and was buried in Pittsfield, N.H., where he once lived and where his daughter, Lena Snow Sargent, resided. Contains a 92-page diary kept by Martin Snow from…
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    The Society of the Cincinnati was founded in 1783 by George Washington, Baron von Steuben, Henry Knox, and other officers of the United States Army. It was a patriotic and charitable “society of friends,” which had a branch in each of the original…
  • Special Collections
    Alvin A. Gove enlisted at age 21 in Seabrook, N. H. on Dec. 6, 1861 into the 6th New Hampshire Regiment. On Oct. 15 1862 in Washington D.C. Alvin mustered out with a disability. A two page letter from eighteen year-old Alvin Gove, a private in the 6th New Hampshire Regiment sent from Camp Stanton…
  • Special Collections
    On Nov. 28, 1863, in Nashua, N.H., 20 year old William B. Green enlisted as a private in Company G (New Hampshire), Second Regiment, United States Volunteer Sharpshooters. Near Petersburg, Va. William deserted on July 9, 1864. From Brady Station, Va, William wrote a four page letter to his mother…
  • Special Collections
    Howard M. Hanson (1835-1909) was born in Lebanon, Maine. A resident of Somersworth, New Hampshire, Hanson joined the Ninth New Hampshire Volunteer Regiment on June 28, 1862. Hanson was mustered in as a commissary sergeant on August 6, 1862. Following…
  • Special Collections
    John W. Warner enlisted in the New Hampshire Battalion of the First Regiment New England Volunteer Cavalry on September 15, 1862. He was captured near Middleburg, VA on June 18, 1863 and taken to Libby Prison in Richmond, VA. After his parole in 1864…
  • Special Collections
    Joseph Woodman Sanborn was born on March 10, 1801 in New Hampton, N.H. and died on Aug. 9, 1868 in Bridgewater, MA. He resided for some time at Benicia, California where his sons died. He was a cordwainer in 1850, resided at "Sanborn's Corner" in a house that stood at the N.E. corner of Hancock and…
  • Special Collections
    William Badger (1823 or 1826-1897) was born in Gilmanton, NH, son of William Badger and Hannah Pearson (Cogswell) Badger. He mustered in Company D, of the Fourth Infantry Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers on Sept. 18, 1861 as a captain. He was…
  • Special Collections
    The 4th NH was organized in Manchester on Sept. 18, 1861. Length of service was four years. Order of exercises: for the celebration of the 86th anniversary of American independence at St. Augustine, Fla., 1862 July 4. Humorous broadside listing the 4th New Hampshire Regiment’s July 4th activities.…
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    Edith Nelson was born in Malden, Mass. in 1894. An experienced secretary, Nelson became a field clerk in the U.S. Army Intelligence Section during World War I. She was charged with investigating German nationals and subversives in the Boston area. She…
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    William Yale, an authority on the Middle East, was born in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., August 6, 1887. In 1907 he served as a civil engineer with the Isthmian Canal Commission in Panama. He began his career in the Middle East in 1913, when he was sent to…
  • Special Collections
    Irving E. White (1894-1966) of Canaan, New Hampshire, entered boot camp at Camp Upton, New York in September of 1918 and was transferred to France in December of that same year, where he remained until June of 1919. The Irving E. White Collection…
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    Brooks K. Webber was born in Webster (Boscawen), New Hampshire in 1837. He was educated at Colby Academy in New London and went on to study law in Newport and Woodstock, Vermont. Webber was admitted to the Bar in 1859. He was a veteran of the Civil…
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    The Van Ackeren family resided in Antwerp, Belgium; Francois Van Ackeren served as a soldier in World War I. The Van Ackeren family papers consist of approximately 50 letters written by Francois Van Ackeren and family to William McLain and…
  • Special Collections
    The Roche family – Annie Roche, widow of David Roche (died Sept. 6, 1932), and mother of John Michael, Elizabeth (born ca. 1920, died July 1990), and David Roche (born ca. 1926) – lived at 89 Fourth Street in Manchester, New Hampshire’s west side.…
  • Special Collections
    The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNS), often called the Portsmouth Navy Yard, is a United States Navy shipyard located in Kittery on the southern boundary of Maine near the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It is used for remodeling and repairing the…
  • Special Collections
    Luther Locke (1820-1892) was a dentist and physician who had been trained at Harvard Medical School. He also served as a Union Army surgeon in the American Civil War. This collection is mostly comprised of papers from his Civil War service.
  • Special Collections
    John Henry Jenks enlisted in the 14th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry during the US Civil War. He was killed at the Battle of Cedar Creek (October 19). The Jenks Papers primarily contain Civil War letters from Jenks to his wife, Almina Crawford Jenks.
  • Special Collections
    William L. Hill was born on October 17, 1855 in Auburn, Iowa. He served in the United States Navy from 1873 until his death. The papers contain an unusual record of turn-of-the-century American Naval history, including first-hand reports of “The…
  • Special Collections
    Leander Harris (1833-1912) was born in Fairlee township, Vermont. He married Emily S. Hunt and they had two daughters: Annie M. in June 1857, and Clara Josephine in September 1858. At the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted as a private in Company…
  • Special Collections
    James Franklin Fitts, son of Moses Hall Fitts and Rachel Harrison Fitts, was born in Lockport, New York on September 11, 1839. He saw action in the Civil War, rising to the post of Battalion Adjutant in the 10th Cavalry prior to his joining the 114th…
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    Martin Delbrouck was born in Belgium in 1909 and resided in Durham, New Hampshire, where he operated a print shop in the 1930′s and served as the University’s publisher. He was publisher of The Durham News, the town’s first newspaper, from 1932-1933.…
  • Special Collections
    Daniel C. Currier (1841-1905) was born in Springfield, NH, later moving to Grantham, NH where his father Hiram and Daniel were sawyers. On August 8, 1862, at the age of 21, Currier enlisted and became a Corporal in I Company of the 14th Regiment of…
  • Special Collections
    Edward Cross was born on April 22, 1832 in Lancaster, Coos County, New Hampshire. After working for many years in the west as a journalist and editor, he returned to New Hampshire at the outbreak of the Civil War and accepted a commission as colonel…
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    The Bickford family lived in Laconia, New Hampshire. Karl H. and Helen (Denny) Bickford had four children: Arlene P. (born 1922), Karl H., Jr. (b. Nov. 23, 1923 in Sandwich, NH), Thelma, and Betty (birthdates unknown). Arlene married Sgt. Richard K.…
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    William J. Barrus (b.1835), Ira Marshall Barrus (1837-1868), and John W. Barrus (b.1840), all of Richmond, NH, served in Massachusetts regiments during the Civil War. Their companies were: Company D, 36th Massachusetts Infantry; Company I, 2nd…
  • Special Collections
    James Hooker Baker (1837-1923), was born in Brookfield NH, son of Benjamin Baker and Lydia Wedgewood. He served in the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, Companies C and F. Following the war, Baker moved to Iowa, where he maintained a farm. He was an early…
  • Special Collections
    The Association of Former Intelligence Officers New England Chapter, the David Atlee Phillips Chapter, was formed in 1984. The Association of Former Intelligence Officers New England Chapter Intelligence Studies Collection consists of videotape…