Scope and Contents:
This collection includes eight photocopied sheets and a transcript of a diary kept from Nov. 20 to Dec. 16, 1918, by a U.S. infantryman. The entries detail the billeting, poor rations, and mud of a march from Mandern, northeastern France, to Coblenz, in occupied Germany, immediately after the Armistice of Nov. 11, 1918.
The collection also includes photostats of portions of two contemporary maps, marked to show the line of march. The maps were transferred to the Map Library. On the back of one of the maps (G5831.P2 1920.C3) is written Pvt. E. L. Keasling, Co. D, 59th Inf., 4th Division. A newspaper which was in the collection apparently lists the same soldier, Emmor L. Keasling. These details probably indicate the name of the diarist. The Library received the collection before 2003.