This collection consists of a small bound diary and ten photographs. The diary was kept by Private J. G. Northrup, mainly while he was deployed in France in Company B, 303rd Engineers, 78th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, from June 1918 through May 1919. Company B supported troops during major engagements in the Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives. Diary entries are brief, mentioning routine duties and events, as well as military activities Northrup participated in or witnessed, such as movement around France, caring for horses, retrieving supplies, fixing roads and building a bridge while under fire, seeing engineers and soldiers go “over the top”, air raids, air battles, artillery fire, gas attacks, gas sickness, casualties, and destruction. The diary appears to have been written sometime after the actual events. For example, the entry for October 6, 1918, includes the following: “In going for water I met with an accident with the horse which I though[t] would put him out for good but in a few weeks he became OK.” The photographs are of unidentified people and places, but presumably most are of Private Northrup.
English
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Private J. G. Northrup was from North Bergen, New Jersey. In his diary entry for July 13, 1918, he wrote that “just a year ago left the litograph [sic] business went to work in avation [sic] field”. He registered for the draft in June 1917, enlisted in February 1918, and was sent to Camp Dix, NJ, for training. His unit was shipped from Baltimore in May 1918. At the end of his diary, his unit was near Bordeaux, France, presumably waiting to be shipped home.
0.01 Linear Foot
Acc. 2011.670 was received by the SCRC via USPS on 10/27/2011.
Accessioned and minimally described by Steven Bookman, University Archives Specialist, in November 2011. Further processed by Del Moore, SCRC volunteer, in 2014.
Part of the Special Collections Research Center Repository