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Prologue

Fall 2011 Vol. 43 No. 3


Editorial Policy. Prologue is published quarterly by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Its primary purpose is to bring to public attention the resources and programs of NARA, the regional archives, and the presidential libraries. Accordingly, Prologue in the main publishes material based, in whole or in part, on the holdings ARCHIVIST of the UNITED STATES David S. Ferriero DIRECTOR of PUBLIC and MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS Susan Cooper EDITOR of PUBLICATIONS James Worsham MANAGING EDITOR Mary C. Ryan EDITORIAL STAFF Benjamin Guterman Maureen MacDonald Hilary Parkinson CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Constance Potter ART DIRECTORS Brian Barth Rania Hassan and programs of these institutions. In keeping with the nonpartisan character of NARA, Prologue will not accept articles that are politically partisan or that deal with contemporary political issues. Articles are selected for publication by the editor in consultation with experts. The editor reserves the right to make changes in articles accepted for publication and will consult the author should substantive questions arise. Published articles do not necessarily represent the views of NARA or of any other agency of the U.S. Government. Prospective authors are encouraged to discuss their work with the editor prior to submission. Articles may be submitted as either an e-mail attachment or as hard copy. The Prologue office uses MS Word but can accept any common word-processing format. Correspondence regarding contributions and all other editorial matters should be sent to the Editor, Prologue, National Archives and Records Administration, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20408-0001; prologue@nara.gov. Subscriptions and Reprints. U.S. subscription rates are $24 for one year; rates for subscribers outside the United States are $30. Single issues of the current volume are available for $6 each (add $3 shipping for orders up to $50). Send a check or money order to National Archives and Records Administration, Prologue Subscriptions, National Archives Trust Fund, Cashier (NAT), 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001. Notice of nonreceipt of an issue must be sent within six months of its publication date. Microfilm copies of Prologue are available from ProQuest Information and Learning, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346. Prologues web site is at www.archives.gov/ publications/prologue. Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration (ISSN 0033-1031) is published quarterly by the National Archives Trust Fund Board, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 207406001. Periodicals postage paid at College Park, MD, and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send address changes to Prologue, National Archives and Records Administration, NPAC/Room 400, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408-0001. INDEXED in Acad. Abstr., Amer. Hist. & Life. Bibl. Cart., Hist. Abst. (Pts. A & B), Hum. Ind., Mag. Art. Sum., U.S. Govt. Per. Ind., Writ. Am. Hist., & Winter Prologue.

Q U A R T E R LY o f t h e N AT I O N A L A R C H I V E S a n d R E C O R D S A D M I N I S T R AT I O N

EDITORS NOTE
Here at the National Archives, we make records accessible to historians researching books, journalists working on news stories, lawyers preparing briefs, students writing term papers, and ordinary Americans in search of their family history or proof of their federal service. But sometimes researchers come for something completely different. Thats what the staff of the USS Constitution Museum in Boston did in creating a new exhibition called All Hands on Deck: A Sailors Life in 1812. They worked their way through 200-year-old documents such as Old Ironsides logbooks, muster rolls, pension records, and official Navy correspondence to learn about what it was like to be a sailor on the USS Constitution. In this issues cover story, Sarah Watkins and Matthew Brenckle of the museum tell us what what they found out about on this legendary ship in the War of 1812 and how they found out. Elsewhere, we take a look at NARAs newest facility, the new home in St. Louis County, Missouri, of the National Personnel Records Center and the National Archives at St. Louis. If youve ever had a paycheck from Uncle Sam, in the military or as a civilian, theres a file on you in St. Louis. And it could be right alongside the files of some famous people whose files are also there. To demonstrate how much information can be mined from federal personnel records in St. Louis, Miriam Kleiman took a look at the file on Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation writer who wanted desperately to be in the Navy during World War II. The Navy, however, didnt want him and told him to more or less hit the road, which he later did with his generation-defining novel, On the Road. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Crisis of 1961, which resulted in the Berlin Wall. NARAs National Declassification Center recently opened some CIA documents that shed some new light on that tense moment in the Cold War. We show you the documents themselves. If you enjoy our accounts of history that weve discovered and want more, go our blog, Prologue: Pieces of History at http://blogs. archives.gov/prologue/. We post new material several times a week. And youll also find us on Facebook. So after youve read every word on the next 71 pages, meet us in the blogosphere.

JAMES WORSHAM

Prologue 1

fROM THE ARCHIVIST

a culture of vigilance
T
by david s. ferriero
there is adequate security to detect, deter, and prevent theft: They inspect mailrooms to determine if adequate safeguards exist to prevent theft. They go on-site where renovations are under way or new facilities are being constructed to ensure that safeguards against theft are built into the structures. They manage the movement from one location to another of high-value, important documents that thieves might target. And they train research room staff on personal skills needed to approach and deal with individuals suspected of stealing or planning to steal documents. Now, we are developing plans for heightened security in all research rooms. And the team is upgrading its centralized registry of individuals banned from NARA facilities to a secure directory of those with research cards, what facilities they visit, and what documents they ask for. Despite all this, sometimes a document is stolen. Thats when the Inspector Generals ART comes into the picture. ART has a toll free number (1-800-786-2551) you can call if you see a document either in person or online that you think may have been stolen from NARA. Information on missing documents can also be found at www.archives.gov/research/recover/. In some cases, documents may be missing because of administrative laxness or misfiling. But, increasingly, when missing documents are found, they are in the possession of a former trusted employee. This is a painful subject and difficult for some to understand. It is what saddens and angers me the mostthat those entrusted with protecting our holdings are sometimes also a threat to those holdings. We dont intend to create a culture of suspicion in NARA, but rather a culture of vigilance. It is vital for staff to alert their managers, the HPT, or the ART when they see employees, contractors, or volunteers violating our security rules. If the IGs office determines a theft occurred, it works with the Justice Department toward potential prosecution. A few years ago, a staff member went to prison for stealing and trying to sell NARA documents on the Internet. Several of ARTs investigations have paid off, and there are two major ones now under way. The risk of theft will always exist, and it requires our staff to walk a fine line between providing access to priceless holdings while protecting them from theft or damage. My hat is off to them for doing this; Im proud of them. The records in our holdings are important, and we must all be vigilantmore vigilant than ever beforein identifying others that belong at NARA. That is essential not only for us at the Archives but also for everyone who has a respect for history. his summer, a federal grand jury in Baltimore indicted two men for conspiring to steal and sell historical documents from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York, and two other institutions. The documentsreading copies of seven of FDRs speecheshave all been recovered, but that doesnt do much to calm my outrage over the theft of important documents that belong to the American people. Dealing with theft is not new to me. Throughout my career of more than 40 years in institutions charged with protecting valuable books, documents, and artifacts, I have seen many instances of theft and damage to these pieces of history. During those years, I have fought hardas I have since I became Archivistfor effective protection for priceless holdings. When I became Archivist in late 2009, NARA had just experienced the case of a former Clinton administration official removing documents from the Archives by hiding them in his socks. And we still havent found the back-up computer hard drive from the Clinton White House with personal information about thousands of people. Recently, we have been dealing with two cases of theft. One involves a long-time NARA staffer and expert in our film and video collection, who allegedly removed a significant number of materials from NARA. The other involves presidential memorabilia collector Barry Landau and his assistant, who face federal charges of stealing documents, including the Roosevelt speeches, from a number of institutions. And when I came to the Archives, I had a surprise. This is the first institution Ive worked for that did not have exit searches. I have changed that. Now, security officers check all bags including staffs, and including mineat both our Washington, D.C., and College Park, Maryland, facilities. This routine practice will eventually be extended to all 44 of our locations. The theft of the FDR documents was bad enough, but other losses since I became Archivist have convinced me that we let our guard down too often. Stronger measures are needed and are being prepared and implemented. Within NARA, protecting our holdings is generally the work of two offices: the Holdings Protection Team (HPT) and the Inspector Generals Archival Recovery Team (ART). Internally, our HPT educates staff not only about risks of theft, but also about everyday risks in the workplace. We learn how a document could be taken out of an Archives facility or the Archives custody. HPT members visit NARA locations to make sure
Join the Archivist at his own blog at http://blogs.archives.gov/aotus and visit NARAs web site at www.archives.gov.
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Archivist of the United States


Fall 2011

CONTENTS

Features
6
1 Archives Drive

Fall 2011
Volume 43 Issue No. 3
William Seibert, Wanda Williams, and Nancy Schuster describe the new quarters in St. Louis for the personnel records of everyone who served in the military or worked for the federal government during the 20th century.

12 14

Federal Files on the Famousand Infamous


Our St. Louis facility has files on anyone who ever got a paycheck from Uncle Sam.

Hit the Road, Jack!


Miriam Kleiman digs into one military file and describes how Jack Kerouac, in his pre-Beat Generation days, sought to join the U.S. Navy. But the Navy didnt want him.

20 28 36

Nazis Soaring over Washington?


Chas Downs relates how a German envoy to the United States who was also a renowned glider pilot soared over the nations capital in the 1930s.

Smugglers, Bootleggers, Scofflaws


Ellen Nickenzie Lawson takes us back to Prohibition, when getting liquor into New York City was a major industry in the waters around the city.

All Hands on Deck: A Sailors Life in 1812


Sarah H. Watkins and Matthew Brenckle tell us how they used National Archives records to create a new experience for visitors to the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor.

46

The 1961 Berlin Crisis: Some New Insights


Neil Carmichael and Brewer Thompson reveal newly declassified documents that help to enrich the story of the U.S.-Soviet faceoff 50 years ago.

p.54

Fall
p.20

Volume 43 Issue No. 3

In every issue
2 54 62 64 70
From the Archivist
A Culture of Vigilance

Genealogy Notes
Leaving the Army during Mr. Madisons War: Certificates of Discharge for the War of 1812 By John P. Deeben and Claire Prechtel-Kluskens

Authors on the Record


Michael Perino writes about the dogged investigator of the 1929 stock market crash in The Hellhound of Wall Street.

p.28
P
To subscribe or view online articles, log onto
www.archives.gov/publications/prologue

Events/News & Notices/Publications Foundation for the National Archives


Honoring David M. Rubenstein for his contributions.

72

Pieces of History
Humphrey Bogart indulged his passion for the sea on his boat Santana.

Front cover: The USS Constitution by Marshall Johnson, late 19th century. An article on page 36 reveals how historians at the USS Constitution Museum in Boston used historical records at the National Archives to reconstruct the lives of seamen on board the vessel, ca. 1812. Inside front cover: East-West tensions ran dangerously high in 1961 during the East Germans construction of the Berlin Wall and threatened denial of access to West Berlin, as revealed in this and other CIA documents recently released by the National Declassification Center. Back cover: The opening of the new National Personnel Records Center building in St. Louis promises better preservation of and access to the millions of personnel records of those who served in Americas military and civil government positions.

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Fall 2011

THE ARCHIVES ONLINE

blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access The National Archives has 13 blogs Do you use social media to to choose from, but genealogists keep up with the genealogy will be especially interested in news and events at the National NARAtions. With staff from across Archives? Here are a few the nation contributing, this blog tools and sites to features posts on Family Tree Twitter Friday and updates help you! www twitter.com/archivesnews on the 1940 census. @archivesnews Follow us on YouTube Twitter for workshop announcements www.youtube.com/usnationalarchives across the nation, press releases about In addition to archival footage from the 1940 census, links to new our holdings, the National Archives blog posts, and general information channel features the special series Inside on events, preservation, and the Vaults. A new playlist called Know Your National Archives news. Records will feature archivists and subject Flickr matter specialists discussing how and www.flickr.com/photos/ where to research our records, wherever usnationalarchives/ you are in the United States or What did that battle site look like across the globe. when your ancestor fought there Facebook during the Civil War? Search, browse, www.facebook.com/ and share our large collection of usnationalarchives photographs and records on our Like us on Facebook, and you Flickr site. can keep in touch with the National Archives at the same time as you keep up with your newfound relatives! www.archives.gov/publications/ prologue/genealogy-notes.html With over 15 years of Genealogy Notes now online, genealogists can search the Prologue web site for fascinating articles listed by topic, including African Americans, the census, and prison records.

Attention GeneAloGiStS!

Blogs

Prologue web site

1 Archives Drive
PErsonnEl rEcords ArE consolidAtEd At nEw locAtion in st. louis
By William Seibert, Wanda Williams, and Nancy Schuster
he boxes are lined up in neat rows on metal shelves, shelf after shelf after shelf, 15 stacks high. Look up, and you can see through the metal grating to the next floor, and the floors after that, where 14 more stacks rise above you. The view is impressive, even a bit scarylike standing under the Eiffel Tower and looking straight up. If you lined up end to end all the boxes that will fill those shelves, they would stretch 545 miles from this new building, housing the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) and the National Archives at St. Louis, to Dallas. The statistics behind them are staggering. These are the personnel files of an estimated 100 million individuals who served their country in the military or as a civilianabout 9 billion textual, digital, and microfilm pages. Some of the files date to 1821, and the largest one is that of Air Force Gen. Henry Hap Arnold at 6, 044 pages. The records are in 15 separate storage areas that have a combined capacity of 2.3 million cubic feet. Moving the files from their old home to this new state-of-the-art archival facility at the rate of 6,000 cubic feet a day will have taken 383 days when it is complete in the fall of 2012. The building itself, which opened earlier this year, sits on more than 7 acres of a 29.5-acre property.

Privately owned and leased by the federal government for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), this $115 million building replaces two aging facilities, one of which experienced a fire in 1973 that destroyed millions of records. The new building is technically the home of two NARA units.One is the NPRC, which has physical but not legal custody of more recent permanent military and civilian records. The other is the National Archives at St. Louis, which has legal custody of older military and civilian permanent files that have been accessioned by the National Archives. Although it will be a while before all the boxes arrive, the thought of all of them lined up conjures up images from the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.In fact, the comparison does not end there, because tucked inside each of these boxes are treasures, records just as valuable as the ones Harrison Fords Indiana Jones found. These treasures are chapters of peoples lives, some covering a few years, some almost a lifetime. They are stories of heroism, of courage that overrode heartbreak, and of devotion to duty, whether the job was a life-or-death mission or routine office work that too often draws little recognition. There are, of course, stories unflattering to their subjects as well. And they

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all remain important and relevant long after they happened. That they are important consider this: The center gets nearly 5,000 requests a day for information from these filesmore than 1 million a yearmaking this arguably our busiest location. nPRC Boasts a Staff That Can Act Quickly When Americans need to consult their military or civilian personnel records, our staffmore than 700 in this new building and 185 more in an underground annex in nearby Illinoisare in place to respond quickly. They came to the rescue of a terminally ill Korean War veteran who was denied access to medical care because he could not find his copy of his discharge document, DD Form 214. Within hours of the request, the staff produced a Certification of Military Service by piecing together a military record for him, using other documents stored at the NPRC, and the veteran got his needed care. They can quickly pull the file on Sgt. Alvin C. York, who won the Medal of Honor, and retrieve the documentation of his bravery in the face of dangerleading an attack on a German machine-gun nest in World War I, killing dozens of enemy soldiers and capturing more than 100 of them. They helped a university professor find the missing fact in his search for the complete story of how a group of African American soldiers were court-martialed in Kenya in World War II. That piece of information opened the floodgates for the professor, and he is planning a book. By consulting a 1920s federal civilian personnel file, they

The Center is the National Archives busiest location, receiving nearly 5,000 requests a day for information from its filesmore than 1 million a year. It is the repository for the personnel records of former members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps,Air Force, and Coast Guard as well as civilian employees of the federal government.

put a Missouri woman back on the right path to finding out why her grandfather disappeared mysteriously. And they can pull the military file on the late actress Beatrice Arthur and show you her World War II record from the Marines, where the future Maude and Golden Girl drove trucks and worked as a typist. This is what happens in this new building in St. Louis County, where the NPRC and the National Archives at St. Louis are co-located. This is where the American people can see and use records about themselves that the government has on file. Since the early 1950s, the NPRC (including its predecessor organizations) has been the repository for the personnel records of former members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard as well as civilian employees of the federal government.

The National Personnel Records Centers new $115 million building is now open. It will hold personnel files of an estimated 100 million individuals who served their country in the military or as a civilian. The building is also home for the National Archives at St. Louis, which has legal custody of older military and civilian permanent files that have been accessioned by the National Archives.

1 Archives Drive

Prologue 7

In 2009, construction crews broke ground in north St. Louis County for a building to store archived (permanent) and pre-archived records. The building itself, which opened earlier this year, sits on more than seven acres of a 29.5-acre property.

Construction at the new building is now complete. It provides state-of-the-art environmental protection for the records and allows storage of military and civilian personnel files that were previously stored in separate buildings in the St. Louis area.

These records are important to veterans and separated civilian employees because they document their time in service and allow them to qualify for the benefits the nation has promised them. The records are equally valuable to their families and future generations. Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero underscored the importance of the new facility for both the records and those who request them. We are tremendously excited about this new state-of-the-art facility, Ferriero said. The design and planning were driven by our mission of preserving and protecting the records housed here. Equally as important is our ability to serve the needs of those who need access to the information contained in these records. He added: We are very proud of our service to veterans, civil servants, and their families and look forward to providing them with even better service at 1 Archives Drive. All Personnel Records to Be in Single Facility For many years, the military and civilian personnel files were stored in separate buildings in the St. Louis area, but it became clear that a new facility was needed when many of the records were reappraised as permanent holdings. The existing decades-old buildings did not provide appropriate environmental conditions for the storage of permanent records, and a new unit, known as the National Archives at St. Louis, was created to maintain
8 Prologue

the records as they are transferred into the legal custody of the National Archives. The temporary records that were stored at the older NPRC buildings have been relocated to the NPRC Annex in Valmeyer, Illinois, about 40 miles southeast of St. Louis. This records center was built in a former underground limestone quarry in the bluffs high above the Mississippi River. An additional 185 employees work in the Annex, which has the capacity for more than 2.5 million cubic feet of records. In 2009, construction crews broke ground in north St. Louis County for a building to store archived (permanent) and pre-archived records. This massive construction project pumped $435 million into the local economy and generated more than 300 jobs in the St. Louis area. The new building was built and is owned by the Molasky Group of Companies, which leases it to the General Services Administration and NARA. The construction has been completed, and most employees are now working in the new building. But the work of relocating more than 2 million cubic feet of permanent records will continue through September 2012. During this time, the NPRC staff will continue to provide timely responses to all reference requests, and efforts are being made to ensure that services to veterans and other customers are carried on with little or no delay for the duration of the move. When the move is complete, the new facility will have consolidated, for the first time, millions of civilian and military per-

sonnel records in a single repository. The new building is one of the largest in our nationwide network of archives, federal records centers, and Presidential libraries. Its 700 employees are the largest group of National Archives personnel outside the College Park, Maryland, building. NARA, however, is not the only tenant in this new building. Among the 14 other agencies with offices there are the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Aviation Agency, the Secret Service, and units of the individual military services. new Features: Storage, Research, Public Programs The new building meets all modern archival standards and is certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) program. Archival storage bays are equipped with particulate and ultraviolet filtration. In addition, special paint, sealants, caulking, and the finishes for the shelving have been certified for minimal off-gassing of volatile organic compounds, which are harmful to documents over time. At the new building, nearly all the records storage units are 29 shelves high, compared to only 10 to 14 shelves high at the older buildings. The staff will gain access to the first 15 shelves by using rolling ladders on the floor level. Two levels of steel catwalk will provide access to the remaining shelves.
Fall 2011

The staff will gain access to the first 15 shelves by using rolling ladders on the floor level. Two levels of steel catwalk will provide access to the remaining shelves.

The construction is now complete, and most employees are now working in the new building while records continue to be moved in through September 2012.

The move is also allowing the staff to undertake a rearrangement of its vast holdings to achieve greater efficiency and logical order. Military records will be organized according to the different branches of service, and the civilian personnel records will be shelved by agency. Visitors will have the advantage of a much larger public research room with more researcher stations that accommodate laptops, scanners, and other equipment. More than half of all public research room visits are made by persons doing family history research. Authors, academics, and representatives of other federal agencies also use personnel files for a variety of research projects. (See the article on Jack Kerouacs military file elsewhere in this issue as an example.) Visiting researchers are encouraged to schedule an appointment prior to their arrival. The new building also has a large multipurpose room equipped with videoconferencing technology. These rooms can be used for training, meetings, public programs, and exhibitions. NARAs traveling exhibition Documented Rights will be on display through the end of February 2012. The public is invited to visit the exhibition, see the new building, and learn about the wealth of National Archives holdings found both locally and around the nation. Much Data about individuals included in Personnel Records The civilian and military personnel files often
1 Archives Drive

contain more than just the standard applications or routine government forms. A family historian may find a photograph, handwritten letters, or other meaningful documents. Even the standard forms can contain information about a veterans or a former civil servants parents or guardians, siblings, or spouse as well as other data that can help further a genealogical search. The Department of Defense and the individual military services retain ownership of the military personnel records when they are initially retired to NPRC. Only limited information from the files is releasable to the public without the permission of the subject of the record (or if he or she is deceased, the immediate next of kin) as long as the military service department maintains ownership. Legal title to the military personnel records transfers to the National Archives 62 years after a veterans discharge, death in service, or retirement. After this transfer of ownership, the records are referred to as archival or accessioned holdings. Archival records are open to the public; researchers do not need the consent of the veteran (or the next of kin) in order to view or obtain copies of the record. Currently, the National Archives in St. Louis has 270,245 cubic feet of archival military personnel files (about 56 million individual files), and that volume will increase annually. The oldest holdings are Navy records that document service ending in the 1880s, and the most recent ones are from 2004. (Older military rec-

ords, including those from the Civil War and others dating back to the Revolutionary War, are housed in the National Archives Building in downtown Washington, D.C.) The archival military personnel files typically contain information about parentage, date and place of birth, physical description, citizenship status, education, prior employment, home address at time of entry into service, marital status, assignment history (units, ships, duty stations), military occupations and ranks, foreign service locations, awards and decorations received, citations for meritorious and valorous conduct, documentation of bad conduct and nonjudicial punishment, and dates and character of service. The new facility is also the repository for numerous related series of records. They include the Selective Service System Registration Cards and Classification Ledgers that document the military draft in force between 1940 and 1975, Army General Courts Martial Case Files (19111976), and Trade Cards describing specific aspects of civilian work in naval shipyards during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Civilian personnel records are originally owned by the federal agencies that created them or by one of the agencies with government-wide jurisdiction over personnel matters: the Civil Service Commission or the Office of Personnel Management. During the past two years, the National Archives has taken legal custody of more than 213,000 cubic feet of civilian personnel records
Prologue 9

Visitors will have the advantage of a much larger public research room with more researcher stations that accommodate laptops, scanners, and other equipment.

More than half of all public research room visits are made by persons doing family history research.

(representing the service of millions of employees), created by more than 112 different federal agencies between 1850 and 1951. These accessioned civilian personnel files contain valuable information about the personal lives and professional careers of former civil servants employed by the U.S. government in cabinet-level departments and independent agencies. They present a panorama of individual lives ranging from those who rode dusty trails across an American continent as rural postal carriers to men and women who traveled the world as Foreign Service Officers. Archival civilian personnel folders contain information on parentage, date and place of birth, physical description, citizenship status, education, prior employment and letters of reference, home address, mar-

ital status, job series and position descriptions, pay grades, employment locations, letters of commendation, and dates of employment. Recreating Military Records Destroyed in the 1973 Fire The NPRC staff will be leaving the site of the 1973 fire: the Page Avenue building where the military records were stored. Almost 40 years ago, around midnight on July 12, 1973, fire broke out on the sixth floor of the NPRC military records facility. Approximately 22 million personnel files of former members of the Army, Army Air Force, and Air Force who served between 1912 and 1963 were stored there. For four days, firefighters labored to bring the fire under control and extinguish it. The fire was one of the worst losses of records in U.S. history, destroying 80 percent of the Army records and 75 percent of the Air Force records: an estimated 16 to 18 million individual files. The old building was not equipped with a sprinkler system, and the exact cause of the fire is still undetermined. In the wake of this disastrous loss of information, employees began to identify and collect record material from other government

To learn more about


Veterans personnel records, go to www.archives.gov/veterans/. Researching World War II records, go to www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/index.html. How the U.S. Army guarded the Trans-Siberian Railway in 19181920, go to www.archives. gov/publications/prologue/2002/winter/. Workers on the Panama Canal, go to www. archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/summer/.

agencies that could be used to reconstruct aspects of an individuals service history. These holdings are referred to as Auxiliary Records, and the National Archives at St. Louis holds upwards of 50 different series of them. The most heavily accessed series of Auxiliary Records are various collections of pay records. These payrolls, pay vouchers, and pay rosters provide the most concentrated items of information on a given individual of any of the Auxiliary series. A single pay voucher can document the veterans rank, unit of assignment, date and place of entry into service, date and place of separation from service, character of service or type of discharge, and prior service, if any. Many payrolls and rosters show the individuals home address at the time of separation. Pay records that document wartime service also indicate whether, and how long, the veteran served overseas. The records that were salvaged from the fire sustained damage not only from the blaze but from the water used by the firefighters. These records are maintained in dedicated records storage bays with appropriate temperature and humidity controls. When the records are required for reference, the St. Louis Preservation staff employs techniques and equipment that safeguard the rec-

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Fall 2011

ords and ensure that the information can be extracted from the documents without further damage or loss. Preservation technicians spend many hours carefully removing mold from and separating documents that were fused together as a result of the fire. Despite the fragile condition of the burned records, staff have been able to retrieve vital data to verify service and ensure that veterans receive the benefits to which they are entitled. newly opened Records Series Focus on World Wars i and ii A number of interesting subgroups of personnel records were recently processed and opened to the public for the first time. One is a collection of personnel files of the female nurses enrolled in the Secretary of Wars Army School of Nursing established in 1918. Included are original letters written by female students who reveal their worries about World War Is impact on their lives as well as their pride in being able to do their bit in the war. The school was part of a larger initiative to increase the pool of nurses available for overseas

The files are being moved from their old home to this new state-of-the-art archival facility at the rate of 6,000 cubic feet a day until the move is complete in the fall of 2012. The records will be rearranged by military service and federal agency to achieve greater efficiency and logical order.

duty during World War I. Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C., managed the program until it was discontinued in 1931. Other recently opened World War Irelated records are the individual personnel files of the Russian Railway Service Corps. This organization was made up of American railroad workers, with no military experience, who were sent to Siberia in 1917 at the request of the Provisional Russian government to improve the operating conditions of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Organized at the direction of the President, the corps was under the general supervision of the State Department. The first group of 339 railway engineers, War Department civilian employees, sailed for Vladivostok on November 19, 1917. The Russian Railway Service Corps operated in Siberia until the spring of 1920, shortly after the overthrow of the White Russian government in Irkutsk, when members of the corps were evacuated from the country along with U.S. Army troops. Of particular interest to genealogists is a group of records found among the Panama Canal Companys earliest personnel files. These records provide a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the men hired to build the canal in the first years of the last century. Included are the files of U.S. citizens as well as of Caribbean contract workers. Today, descendants of the contract employees can use these records to trace their West Indian and Latin American ancestry. One of the most remarkable groups of government employees to emerge during the World War II was the Womens Army Service Pilots, or WASPs. Accomplished aviators as well as newly trained enthusiasts, these women, more than 1,000 strong, had the responsibility of delivering planes from the assembly lines of aircraft factories around the country to military bases worldwide. Their individual personnel folders contain a wealth of compelling documentation, including photographs, applications for employment that provide detailed vital statistics and biographical data, Aviation Cadet Qualifying Examinations, clothing and equipment issuance lists, letters of recommendation, and re-

sults of physical examinations for flying. There is also correspondence with Jacqueline Cochran, who in early 1942 was authorized by the Chief of Staff for Air, Gen. Henry Hap Arnold, to organize and head the program. Other letters provide insight into the experiences of these intrepid women fliers. The personnel records at NPRC and the National Archives at St. Louis tell the stories of Americans who served their country in uniform, fighting wars and keeping the peace, and as civilians, making federal programs work for Americans. At the new facility at 1 Archives Drive, these stories of the men and women who served their country are safeguarded just as securely as records in other NARA facilities around the countryrecords that document and guarantee citizen rights, hold government officials accountable, and record the national experience. Whether finding or reconstructing documentation of an individuals service or assisting visitors in their research of a chapter in someones life, no job is too small for the St. Louis staff of the National Archives and Records Administration. P
Authors
William Seibert serves as chief of archival operations in St. Louis. He joined the staff of the National Archives in 1978, working first in the NPRCs Records Reconstruction Branch. Subsequently, he served as assistant chief in the Air Force Reference Branch, senior appraisal archivist and chief of the centers Appraisal and Disposition Section, and NPRC preservation officer. Wanda Williams has been an archivist with the National Archives at St. Louis since 2009. Her career with NARA began in 2006 as a reference archives technician and with the Nixon Librarys Watergate tapes team. She holds an M.A. in U.S. and Caribbean history from Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, and is an active member of theSociety for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the Association for the Study of African American Life andHistory. nancy Schuster is a management and program analyst with the National Archives in St. Louis. Of her 34 years of federal service, she has been with NARA for 16 years.

1 Archives Drive

Prologue 11

Famousand Infamous
include files that document military and civilian service for persons who are well known to the public for many reasons. These individuals include celebrated military leaders, Medal of Honor recipients, U.S. Presidents, members of Congress, other government officials, scientists, artists, entertainers, and sports figuresindividuals noted for personal accomplishments as well as persons known for their infamous activities. The military service departments and NARA have identified over 500 such military records for individuals referred to as Persons of Exceptional Prominence (PEP). Many of these records are now open to the public earlier than they otherwise would have been (62 years after the separation dates) as the result of a special agreement that allowed these records to be transferred to the National Archives as early as 10 years after the veterans dates of death. These archival records concern persons as diverse as Spiro Agnew and Arthur Ashe, Humphrey Bogart and Frank Capra, Henry Fonda and Alex Haley, Lyndon Johnson and Charles Lindbergh, George S. Patton and Jimi Hendrix, Grace Hopper and Beatrice Arthur. Many of these files are now being digitized in order to ensure their preservation and to make them more widely

Federal Files on the

The collections of personnel records at the National Archives

available. Digital copies of PEPs can be purchased on CD/DVDs. The price of the disc depends on the number of pages contained in the original paper record and range from $20 (100 pages or less) to $250 (more than 1,800 pages). For more information or to order copies of digitized PEP records only, please write to pep. records@nara.gov. Archival staff are in the process of identifying the records of prominent civilian employees whose names will be added to the list. Other individuals whose records are now available for purchase on CD are: Creighton W. Abrams, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Desi Arnaz, Joe L. Barrow, John M. Birch, Hugo L. Black, Gregory Boyington, Prescott S. Bush, Smedley Butler, Evans F. Carlson, William A. Carter, Adna R. Chaffee, Claire Chennault, Mark W. Clark, Benjamin O. Davis. Also, George Dewey, William Donovan, James H. Doolittle, John F. Dulles, Merritt Edson, Milton C. Eisenhower, Earl H. (Pete) Ellis, James V. Forrestal, Benjamin D. Foulois, Clark Gable, Virgil I. Grissom, Leslie R. Groves, John Hamilton, William Hasley, Oveta Hobby, Lafayette R. Hubbard (Navy), Lafayette R. Hubbard (USMC), Edouard J. Izac. Also, John F. Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, George C. Kenney, John L. Kerouac, Husband E. Kimmel, Ernest J. King, Mary Klinker, Alan W. Ladd, John A. LeJeune, Curtis LeMay, Douglas MacArthur, Terrance (Steve) McQueen, Charles McVay, Alton G. Miller, Doris Miller, William L. Mitchell, Victor Morrow, Audie L. Murphy, Chester Nimitz, Richard M. Nixon, Joseph H. Pendleton, Tyrone E. Power, Elvis A. Presley, Joseph Pulitzer, Lewis Puller, Eddie Rickenbacker. Also, Jackie Robinson, Knute K. Rockne, Elliott Roosevelt, James Roosevelt, John A. Roosevelt, Barry Sadler (Army), Barry Sadler (USAF), Lance P. Sijan, Eddie Slovik, Carl Spaatz, Joseph W. Stilwell, Albert L. Sullivan, Francis H. Sullivan, George T. Sullivan, Joseph E. Sullivan, Madison A. Sullivan, Maxwell Taylor, Alexander Vandergrift, and Alvin C. York.

Col. Oveta Culp Hobby, Director of the Womens Army Auxiliary Corps (later the Womens Army Corps), World War II, received the Distinguished Service Medal. In 1953, she was appointed as the first secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Gen. Benjamin O. Davis: The U.S. Armys first African American general officer. Here he watches advancing troops while standing at the windshield of an amphibious vehicle on a beachhead somewhere in France in the summer of 1944.

Clark Gable: Film actor, most famously as Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939). First lieutenant in U.S. Army Air Corps, then First Motion Picture Unit in Hollywood. Promoted to major, May 1944. His separation papers were signed by Capt. Ronald Reagan.

Virgil I. Grissom: Air Force pilot, Korea, 334th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. An original NASA astronaut (1959), and one of seven original Mercury astronauts. Second American in space. Died in pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at Cape Kennedy, Florida, January 22, 1967.

Grover Cleveland Alexander: A National League pitcher. Served in France (1918) as a sergeant with the 342nd Field Artillery. Pitched for Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals. Earned 373 career wins and won pitchings Triple Crown in 1915, 1916, and 1920.

Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officer appointed in August 1941 to oversee construction of the Pentagon and in September 1942 to direct the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb during World War II. Later promoted to lieutenant general.

Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle: Led attack of 16 B-25 Mitchell medium bombers from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet on April 18, 1942, with targets in Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka, and Nagoya. Awarded the Medal of Honor and later promoted to general.

HIT THE
road, jack
Kerouac Enlisted in the U.S. Navy But Was Found Unfit for Service
By Miriam Kleiman
ack KerouacAmerican counterculture hero, king of the Beats, and author of On the Roadwas a Navy military recruit who failed boot camp. While some Kerouac biographies mention his military experience, the extent of it was unknown until 2005, when the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, made it public. It was part of the release of military files of about 3,000 prominent Americans who had been deceased for at least 10 years. Kerouac enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve (then called the U.S. Naval Reserve) during World War II. But he never left the United States, never saw action, and never even completed basic training. In all, he lasted 10 days of boot camp before being referred first to the sick bay and then the psychiatric ward for 67 days. Kerouacs extensive medical and psychiatric evaluations produced both a large file and the conclusion that he was unfit for service. The qualities that made On the Road a huge success and Kerouac a powerful storyteller, guide, and literary icon are the same ones that rendered him remarkably unsuitable for the military: independence, creativity, impulsivity, sensuality, and recklessness.

On the Road can be viewed as a giant extended shore leave. Indeed, the first of his cross-country trips later depicted in On the Road took place in 1947just a few years after his failed military attempt. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the writing of On the Road. Although the book was published in 1957, Kerouac produced the legendary 120-foot continuous scroll in April 1951 by taping long sheets of tracing paper together so he could type without interruption. Columbia Beckons Kerouac With a Football Scholarship Kerouacs military personnel file is half an inch thicknearly 150 pages and details a troubled soldier-in-training who collapsed under military discipline and structure. The doctors findings identify and foreshadow the carefree, reckless, impulsive wanderlust that characterizes Kerouacs writing. This file presents both a very gifted and a very disturbed young man. While his military record includes extensive mental examinations, it also includes stellar letters of recommendation. Kerouac attended Columbia University on a football scholarship. There, he
Above: Jack Kerouac enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve in December 1942 because he was unhappy at Columbia and sought greater meaning at a historic time. Left: A letter of recommendation from the principal at Horace Mann Prep stressed Kerouacs excellent reputation and that his record for character and citizenship was of the finest.

was praised by teachers and professors for his unusual brilliance, loyalty, citizenship, character, and good breeding. Born and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, Kerouac completed high school there, then spent an additional year of high school at Horace Mann Prep in New York on a full scholarship before continuing to Columbia University. He completed his freshman year with failure only in chemistry. He quit college to enter the merchant marine but left after three months. At the request of his football coach, Kerouac returned to Columbia in October 1942, but he dropped out a month later. In a November 1942 letter, he told a friend he was unhappy at Columbia and sought greater meaning at a historic time: I am wasting my money and my health here at Columbia . . . its been one huge debauchery. . . . I am more interested in the pith of our great times than in dissecting Romeo and Juliet. . . . These are stirring, magnificent times. . . . I am not sorry for having returned to Columbia, for I have experienced one terrific month here. I had a gay, a mad, a magnificent time of it. But I believe I want to go back to sea . . . for the money, for the leisure and study, for the heart-rending romance, and for the pith of the moment. In an unmailed letter to a girlfriend in July 1942, Kerouac outlined noble reasons for enlisting: For one thing, I wish to take part in the war, not because I want to kill anyone, but for a reason directly opposed to killingthe Brotherhood. To be with my American brother, for that matter, my Russian brothers; for their danger to be my danger; to speak to them quietly, perhaps at dawn, in Arctic mists; to know them, and for them to know myself. . . . I want to return to college with a feeling that I am a brother of the earth, to know that I am not snug and smug in my little universe.

On December 8, 1942, a year and a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Kerouac enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve for a four-year term of duty. Fine Moral Character And Good Breeding Kerouacs military personnel file includes glowing letters of recommendation. His school record was one of unusual brilliance both scholastically and athletically, gushed Lowell High School Master Joseph G. Pyne. Kerouac was an ideal pupil with an unusual combination of brilliance and athletic ability, Pyne added.

his record for character and citizenship was of the finest. I am sure that he will be found loyal and dependable in any position of responsibility. Kerouac received an unqualified endorsement from his French instructor at Columbia the same month: I found him . . . extremely capable, possessed of a refreshingly alert intellectual capacity and an ability to think independently. Mr. Kerouac adds to these qualifications a distinctly engaging personality which makes him win friends easily. He is a young man of fine moral character and good breeding. His self-reliance and resourcefulness have been demonstrated by his ability to fend for himself, and give evidence of the qualities of leadership you are undoubtedly seeking among your candidates. Before reporting to basic training, Kerouac requested a transferhoping to upgrade to Naval Aviation Cadet (Navy pilot) instead of Apprentice Seaman. He appeared before the Naval Aviation Cadet Selection Board in Boston for a series of examinations. Despite testing well in most subjects (he received a 91 percent general classification, 99 percent in spelling, and 95 percent in English), his transfer was rejected. The board found Kerouac not temperamentally adapted for transfer. In addition, Kerouac failed overall due to mechanical inaptitudescoring just 23 percent on the mechanical aptitude test. In his semi-autobiographical novel Vanity of Duluoz: An Adventurous Education, 193546, Kerouac summarized this experience: I entrain to Boston to the US Naval Air Force place and they roll me around in a chair and ask me if Im dizzy. Im not daffy, says I. But they catch me on the altitude measurement shot. If youre flying at eighteen thousand feet and the altitude level is on the so and such, what would you do?

Kerouacs French instructor at Columbia wrote of his students self-reliance and resourcefulness and qualities of leadership you are undoubtedly seeking among your candidates.

And he was an overachieverearning 88 credits when only 70 were required for graduation. Horace Mann Prep principal Charles C. Tillinghast praised Kerouacs reputation in a letter of recommendation written in November, 1942: John Louis Kerouac . . . had with us a most excellent reputation. His academic record was in every way satisfactory, and

Hit the Road, Jack

Prologue 15

sent to the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland (now the National Naval Medical Center), for further examination. At the Naval Hospital, doctors questioned Kerouac at length about his family, academic, work, and sexual history. His file contains numerous exchanges between Kerouac and his doctors. However, his concurrent letters to friends and family offer a different perspective. Kerouac wrote to friends and family while under observation. These letters reflect Kerouacs varying Kerouacs handwritten resume of job experience lists his newspaper job responses to the diagnoand stint in the merchant marine and states that his record is rather scant, sis of severe mental illbecause Ive spent much time studying. nessreactions ranging from rejecting to accepting, and even emHow the screw should I know? bracing and exalting, his condition. So Im washed out of my college educaThese letters also show that Kerouac seemed tion and assigned to have my hair shaved to enjoy challenging, leading, and even shockwith the boots at Newport. ing his doctors. While this behavior may have been a defense mechanism or even denial, Kernavy Boot Camp Disastrous: ouac did seem to have a basic understanding Bored easily, lacked Focus Kerouac reported to the Naval Training Sta- of psychiatry; he details conditions, symptoms tion in Newport, Rhode Island, on Febru- and indicators, of mental illness, dementia ary 26, 1943. There were concerns from the praecox in particular. Contrasting his medical start, however; during his initial examination, file with his letters yields insight into Kerouacs he was recognized as sufficiently abnormal to psyche at a pivotal time in his life. Kerouacs psychiatrists astutely deterwarrant Trial Duty status. The trial period did not go well; Kerouacs boot camp experience mined that his failed military experience rewas a disaster. After only 10 days of basic train- sulted from his rejection of authority, order, ing, he was transferred from the Naval Train- discipline, and structure. Not surprisingly, especially given his later ading Station to the Naval Hospital in Newport because he had numerous headaches and ap- ventures, Kerouac hated boot camp due to the peared to be restless, apathetic, seclusive [sic]. regulation and discipline. His medical history In addition, neuropsychiatric examination from the Bethesda Naval Hospital notes that he disclosed auditory hallucinations, ideas of ref- became bored easily and lacked focus. He imerence and suicide, and a rambling, grandiose, pulsively left school because he had nothing furphilosophical manner. Diagnosed with de- ther to learn and just as precipitously left numentia praecox (schizophrenia), Kerouac was merous jobs because he felt too stilted.

Patient believes he quit football for same reason he couldnt get along in Navy, he cant stand regulations, etc. He quit school because he felt he had gotten all he could from college. I was frank with them, Kerouac admitted. I was in a series of ventures and I knew theyd look them up; like getting fired from jobs and getting out of college. i just cant stand it i like to be by myself Initially, Kerouac viewed the psychological testing as folly and a farce. He told his mother that in response to headaches they diagnosed me with dementia praecox. Kerouac believed he was different, but not mentally ill: as far as Im concerned I am nervous; I get nervous in an emotional way but Im not nervous enough to get a discharge. He claimed he was exhausted because prior to boot camp he had been writing 16 hours a day, working on the novel The Sea is My Brother, which he called a gigantic saga (this novel was first published posthumously). He did not like basic training at all: I just cant stand it. I like to be by myself. In an undated letter, Kerouac expained: [I]t was clearly and simply a matter of maladjustment to military life. On this, the psychiatrist and I seemed to be agreed in silence. I believe that if his queries had ended at that point, my diagnosis would have been psychoneurosisa convenient conclusion which could have explained any number of idiosyncrasies in a protean personality. . . . I see no reason for being ashamed of my maladjustment. In Vanity, Kerouac details this maladjustment at length: Well, I didnt mind the eighteen-yearold kids too much but I did mind the idea that I should be disciplined to death, not to smoke before breakfast, not to do this, that, or thatta . . . and this other business of the admiral and his Friggin Train walking around telling us that the deck should be so clean that we could fry an egg on it, if it was hot enough, just killed me.

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Fall 2011

[A]nd having to walk guard at night during phony air raids over Newport RI and with fussy lieutenants who were dentists telling you to shut up when you complained they were hurting your teeth. . . . They came and got me with nets. . . . Youre going to the nut house. Okay. [S]o they ambulance me to the nut hatch. Kerouac crystallizes his problem with the Navy in Vanitylack of independent thought. Responding to questions from Navy doctors, Kerouac explained that he was constitutionally incapable of adhering to Navy discipline: [I]ndependent thought . . . now go ahead and put me up against a wall and shoot me, but I stand by that or stand by nothing but my toilet bowl, and furthermore, its not that I refuse Naval discipline, not that I WONT take it, but that I CANNOT. This is about all I have to say about my aberration. Not that I wont, but that I cant. The Navy sought underlying causes of Kerouacs mental illness. The family history section notes that Kerouac denied familial disease. Mother is nervous and father is emotional. Kerouac wrote to his mother, Gabrielle, on March 30, 1943, and encouraged her to speak candidly with his doctors if they called: Although I tried to hide it, they found out about my headaches when I went to get aspirins a few times. I guess I wrote too much of my novel before I joined the Navy. Anyway, theyve placed me under observation in the hospital, and all I do all day is sit around in the smoking room and smoke. . . . Well, if I cant make the Navy, Ill try the Merchant Marine schooltheyre not strict there. . . . At any rate, I have an idea theyre going to call you up about it. Theyre going to give me a nerve test tomorrow. . . . I told them about my [car] accident in Vermont, my football injuries & everything, so that if I have anything, theyll

discover it. Anyway, try to remember my symptoms and tell them about it. When the Navy did call his parents, Jacks father, Leo, did not provide a stellar character reference. Leo said that Jack had been boiling for a long time and that he has always been seclusive [sic], stubborn, head strong, resentful of authority and advice, being unreliable, unstable and undependable. He added that Jack tends to brood a great deal. Gabrielles response suggests a lack of understanding of Jacks condition: Tell me Honey what seems to be all the fuss out there. At first I thought you were sick, but now pop tells me you refuse to go through the training, or in other words refuse to serve your country. Oh Honey lamb, thats not like you, dont you know that it will be an awful mark against you? . . . . [I]t cant be that bad. A Scant Job History And Bizarre Delusions Navy doctors believed Kerouacs impulsivity contributed to his exceedingly erratic work history. Kerouac jumped from job to job and quit college twice. He had left the merchant marine after three months because he was bucking everybody. He worked briefly as a sports reporter for the Lowell Sun but quit. Kerouacs occupational history concludes: Very unreliable. Has been fired from every job he had except newspaper reporting. The latter was for a small paper at $15 per week, which he quit. He has been discharged from steamship job, garage job and waiter job. He is irresponsible and not caring. The sole writing sample in his file, Kerouacs handwritten Resume of Occupational Training lists his newspaper job and stint in the merchant marine but does not list what he termed countless other little odd jobs, none of which seem significant enough to mention. He explained, My general occupational record is rather scant, because Ive spent much time studying. Kerouac recounts his move to the Naval

Hospital in Bethesda in Vanity, stating that he was put first in the real nut ward with guys howling like coyotes in the mid of night and big guys in white suits had to come out and wrap them in wet sheets to calm them down. Just days after his official initial diagnosis, Kerouac told a friend why he was under evaluation: One of the reasons for my being in a hospital, besides dementia praecox, is a complex condition of my mind, split up, as it were, in two parts, one normal, the other schizoid. My schizoid side is . . . the bent and brooding figure sneering at a world of mediocrities, complacent ignorance, and bigotry exercised by ersatz Ben Franklins, the introverted, scholarly side; the alien side. My normal counterpart, the one youre familiar with, is the half-back-whoremaster-alemate-scullion-jitterbug-jazz critic side, the side in me which recommends a broad, rugged America; which requires the nourishment of gutsy, redblooded associates; and which lofts whatever guileless laughter Ive left in me rather than that schizoids cackle I have of late. Only through his writing could Kerouac unite these disparate parts: And, all my youth, I stood holding two ends of rope, trying to bring both ends together in order to tie them. . . . I pulledhad a hell of a time trying to bring these two worlds togethernever succeeded actually; but I did in my novel The Sea Is My Brother, where I created two new symbols of these two worlds, and welded them irrevocably together. Kerouac underwent analysis, challenging his doctors and playing on their preconceptions: Next came an investigation of the bizarre in me. First, bizarre delusions. Was I the center of attention in a group? Of course! Extreme preoccupation is another symptom of dementia praecox, a characteristic, I am proud to say, with which I am stricken. I cheerfully revealed this, and he cheerfully jotted it down.

Hit the Road, Jack

Prologue 17

Next, he tried to detect unreal ideas in my makeup. What was the strangest thing Id ever seen? . . . I gave vent to an image compounded of all the mysticism I knew, from Poe & Ambrose Bierce to Coleridge and DeQuincey. A gleam in his eye! In another letter in early April 1943, Kerouac joked about his condition: (Surely, I am dementia praecoxjust this afternoon, I was in such a melancholic stupor, the doctor showed concern.) And now! And Now! I feel fine and by God Ill tell the world. navy Psychiatrists Review Kerouacs Sexual History The medical reports sexual and marital section notes that Kerouac had sexual contact at age of 14 with a 32 year old woman which upset him somewhat. In addition, Kerouac Enjoys rather promiscuous relationships with girl friends and is boastful of this. No apparent conflicts over sexual activity noted. Kerouac openly discussed such matters: He has no shame, remorse or reluctance to describe his affairs. This openness will not surprise readers of Kerouac. Again, Kerouacat least in his correspondenceseemed amused by the questioning, and played upon the militarys bias against homosexuality, as described in this undated letter: The psychiatrist questioned me further, obviously in search of a blue-ribbon diagnosis. First he began to probe my emotional attachment, and found

much food for thought there when I told him I wasnt in love with any girl, and didnt plan to get married at all. (This, of course, is pouring it on thick, but I wanted to see his reaction. He maintained a poker face & jotted down some notesa superb performance!) He wanted to know of my emotional experiences and I told him of my affairs with mistresses and various promiscuous wenches, adding to that the crowning glory of being more closely

aged veterans to sere academicians, turn back to sex in their last years as though suddenly conscious of its deep and noble meaning, of its inseparable marriage to the secret of life. navy Views Writers With Some Suspicion Navy doctors viewed patients occupation as a writer as a further sign of his mental imbalance. One doctor labeled Kerouac somewhat grandiose because: Without any particular training or back ground, this patient, just prior to his enlistment, enthusiastically embarked upon the writing of novels. He sees nothing unusual in this activity. A medical history excerpt from May 27, 1943, adds: Patient describes his writing ambitions. He has written several novels, one when he was quite young, another just prior to joining the service, and one he is writing now. . . . Patient states he believes he might have been nervous when in boot camp because he had been working too hard just prior to induction. He had been writing a novel, in the style of James Joyce, about his own home town, and averaging approximately 16 hours daily in an effort to get it down. This was an experiment and he doesnt intend to publish. At present he is writing a novel about his experiences in the Merchant Marine. Patient is very vague in describing all these activities. There seems to be an artistic factor in his thinking when discussing his theories of writing and philosophy. Kerouac knew that his doctors viewed his writing with concern and yet played upon their preconceptions. In an undated letter to a friend, Kerouac recounted his responses to his psychiatrists questions. Asked for more

A May 14, 1943, Board of Medical Survey report determined that Kerouac suffered from Dementia Praecox, involving auditory hallucinations, ideas of reference and suicide; and a rambling, grandiose, philosophical manner, and reported his transfer to the U.S. Naval Hospital at Newport, Rhode Island.

To learn more about


Veterans service records in general, go to www.archives.gov/veterans/. VIPs in uniform, go to www. archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/spring/. Baseball great Jackie Robinsons Army courtmartial, go to www.archives.gov/publications/ prologue/2008/spring/.

attached to my male friends, spiritually and emotionally, than to these women. This not only smacked of dementia praecox, it smacked of ambisexuality. Kerouac addressed this issue more seriously in an early April 1943 letter: Sex, of course, is the universal symbol of lifeIve discovered that all men, from

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examples of his bizarre behavior, Kerouac highlights his writing: Spending my time writing. And oh yes, dedicating my actions to experience in order to write about them, sacrificing myself on the altar of Art. Bizarre behavior . . . and the full diagnosis of dementia praecox. All this folly doesnt faze me, except for one item. Since I have bizarre delusions, no one takes me seriously. Thus, when I asked for a typewriter in order to finish my novel, they only humoured me. (The poor boy, now hes under the bizarre delusion that hes a writer!) Many aspects of Kerouacs personality viewed by the Navy as signs of mental illness were later praised as qualities that made him a gifted and expressive writer. In compiling Kerouacs medical history, Navy doctors wrote that he heard voices and imagines in his mind whole symphonies; he can hear every note. He sees printed pages of words. Kerouac told his doctors that that he did not hear random voices but certainly did hear music: I dont hear voices talking to me from no where [sic] but I have a photographic picture before my eyes; when I go to sleep and I hear music playing. I know I shouldnt have told the psychiatrist that but I wanted to be frank. Kerouacs Hospitalization Brings Birth of an icon While it is impossible to know the full effect of his hospitalization and protracted analysis, Kerouacs letters suggest that time was turning point for Kerouac personally, professionally, and spiritually. He spent the rest of his life running from structure, discipline, rules, regulations, and authority. The further he ran, the more he was embraced as a countercultural icon and embodiment of a new Beat way of life. One can only guess how much of his later escapades were in direct reaction to the strictness of his military experience.

Kerouacs hospitalization gave him time to ponder and solidify his self identity as a writer. From the hospital, Kerouac pledged a new beginning: I must change my life, now . . . this does not mean I shall cease my debauching; you see . . . , debauchery is the release of man from whatever stringencies hes applied to himself. In a sense, each debauchery is a private though short-lived insurgence from the static conditions of his society. In a letter to a friend from junior high school, written in early April 1943, Kerouac committed to starting his personal journey: The pathos in this hospital has convinced me, as it did Hemingway in Italy, that the defeated are the strongest. Everyone here is defeated, even this broth of a Breton. I have been defeated by the world with considerable help from my greatest enemy, myself, and now I am ready to work. I realize the limitations of my knowledge, and the irregularity of my intellect. Knowledge and intellection serve a Tolstoibut a Tolstoi must be older, must see more as well and I am not going to be a Tolstoi. Surely I will be a Kerouac, whatever that suggests. Knowledge comes with time. As far as creative powers go, I have them and I know it. All I need now is faith in myself . . . only from there can a faith truly dilate and expand to mankind. I must change my life, now. Hit the road, Jack, and dont you come back no more . . . On June 2, 1943, the Navy completed its evaluation and changed Kerouacs diagnosis from dementia praecox to Constitutional Psychopathic State, Schizoid Personality. The schizoid trends have bordered upon but have not yet reached the level of psychosis, but which render him unfit for service. The doctors suggested his discharge, and Kerouac signed a form stating that this condi-

tion was a preexisting one. On June 10, it was recommended that Kerouac be discharged for reason of unsuitability rather than physical or mental disability. On June 30, 1943, Kerouacs military duty was officially terminated by reason of Unsuitability for the Naval Service. The Navy made it clear that he was not welcome to return; Kerouac is not recommended for reenlistment. He was given an outfit of civilian clothes, a travel allowance of $24.60 to return home to his not-so-supportive parents in Lowell, and a one-time mustering out payment of $200. Kerouac left the hospital and hit the road. His official military personnel file was closed 10 days later and remained closed for 62 years, until it was opened by the National Archives in 2005, unearthing a fascinating and previously unknown chapter in this legendary dreamer and writers life. P Note on Sources
Special thanks to Eric Voelz and Lenin Hurtado of the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, for their guidance. Unless otherwise noted as a letter from or to Kerouac, all quotes are from Kerouacs official military personnel file, which includes an expansive and detailed 27-page medical history. The letters cited in the article, written concurrent to Kerouacs time under psychiatric evaluation, are from Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 19401956, ed. Ann Charters (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1995). Other sources include: Paul Maher, Jr., Jack Kerouacs American Journey: The Real-life Odyssey of On the Road (Cambridge, MA: Thunders Mouth Press, 2007). Barry Gifford and Lawrence Lee, Jacks Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac (New York, NY: St. Martins Press, 1978). Jack Kerouac, Vanity of Duluoz (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1967).

Author
Miriam Kleiman, a public affairs specialist with NARA, first came to the Archives as a researcher in 1996 to investigate lost Jewish assets in Swiss banks during World War II. A graduate of the University of Michigan, she joined the agency in 2000 as an archives specialist. She has written previously in Prologue about the Public Vaults exhibit and about records from St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Hit the Road, Jack

Prologue 19

Nazis Over Washington?

By Chas Downs

I
20 Prologue

n the years shortly before Americas involvement in World War II, a graceful, creamcolored glider could often be seen soaring above Washington, D.C., and vicinity. Since gliding was a popular sport in the 1930s, a glider was not an unfamiliar sight, except that this one flaunted a red tail band with a Nazi swastika in the center. This is the story behind that glider and its pilot.
rological Institute of Rhn-Rositten Company, and toured South America with the institutes head, Dr. Walter Georgii, to promote the sport of gliding. After working as a pilot for Lufthansa, and briefly undergoing reserve training in the German military, Riedel took a job with the Colombian airline SPACDA. He claimed to find life in the Third Reich to be too confining and sought broader horizons. In any case, he had become romantically involved with a married Argentinian woman and crossed the Atlantic to be closer to her. In 1937, Riedel, sponsored by the German Aero Club, competed at the Soaring Society of America national competition. Flying a DFS Sperber

After World War I, the German government encouraged the sport of gliding as a way to train pilots and participate in aviation, since the German aircraft industry was severely limited by the Treaty of Versailles. After their assumption of power in 1933, the Nazis enthusiastically continued this support as a way to make Germans air-minded and rebuild Germany into an air power. It was also source of national pride, given that Germany had become a world leader in the sport of gliding and soaring, and German pilots held many world records. One of the most renowned of these record-setting pilots was Peter Riedel. Born in 1905, Riedel studied engineering and became a commercial pilot, worked at the Meteo-

Fall 2011

Peter Riedel stands next to his Kranich (Crane) glider with its Nazi swastika insignia, ca. 1938. The German text on the tail gives the gliders maker and place of manufacture and notes that it was the property of the German embassy in Washington, DC.

Nazis Soaring Over Washington?

Prologue 21

Riedels German glider pilots license. Riedel had been an airline pilot for Lufthansa and a German-supported Colombian company, SCATA. He had briefly trained for the German military, but his Nazi Party affiliations seemed to have been pro forma.

Riedels two-seat Kranich being towed aloft. Note the gliders wheels falling to the ground in the lower right of the photograph. They were jettisoned after takeoff, and a fuselage skid was used when it was time for the glider to land.

glider, with German registration and swastika national markings, he won the Bendix gold trophy for the longest distance flight, 133 miles from Elmira, New York, to Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. While at Elmira, Riedel met the German military attach in Washington, D.C., Col. Friedrich von Boetticher, who was impressed enough with Riedel to offer him a job as technical assistant for aviation matters at the German embassy in Washington. At first Riedel refused, but he subsequently accepted the position in order to stay in America. After a replacement for his airline job arrived, he then traveled back to Germany to be vetted by the Air Ministry. In Berlin, he was interviewed by the Abwehr, the Germany military intelligence agency headed by Adm. Wilhelm Canaris. The Abwehr played by its own rules and was distrusted by other German military and intelligence organizations. While later in life Riedel denied being a Nazi or ever having been a NSDAP member, records show that he had joined the Nazi Party twice, in 1931

and 1933, letting his membership lapse both times. According to State Department sources, Riedel was by all appearances a confirmed Nazi while in the United States, but his affiliations seem to have been more of convenience than conviction. He was probably too much of a free spirit to be a good party man.

The Swastika over Washington: Crossing the Mall before Landing


Before starting his duties at the German embassy in Washington, Riedel stopped by Elmira to participate in the 1938 American national soaring competition under the auspices of the German Aero Club. His twoseat DSF Kranich glider again carried full German national markings, including a red band with a swastika on its rudder. Riedels ground crewman also briefly displayed a Nazi flag, which drew unfavorable attention to his gliders Nazi markings. Reflecting a changed political climate since 1937, the swastika insignia caused Riedel considerable embarrassment in 1938. Regis-

tered in Germany in order to avoid U.S. import duties, his glider displayed the Nazi markings that were required on all German military and civil aircraft. Once it became known he was working for the German embassy, however, this explanation did not convince many of Riedels acquaintances, who began to assume he was a confirmed Nazi. The 1938 soaring competition had fewer but more experienced pilots than in 1937. Riedel took an early lead with successful flights to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware. He was determined to do something spectacular to publicize the sport of soaring fly from Elmira to Washington, D.C. Such a feat would also win a thousand-dollar prize. On the morning of July 3, after determining that conditions would be favorable, Riedel was launched in his Kranich at 10:30 a.m. He soon found a strong thermal and reached an altitude of 6,000 feet, high enough to clear the 3,000foot ridges he was crossing, but he often needed to fly on instruments through cloud formations. By 5 p.m., Riedel had reached Baltimore, but the strong thermals that gotten him that far were failing. Despite his knowledge and skill, he was losing altitude too quickly. Pulled toward the ground by the cooling air, he spotted the familiar environs of Washington D.C. He passed over College Park Air-

22 Prologue

Fall 2011

port, hoping that the sun-warmed streets of Washington would give him just enough lift to make it to Hoover Airport (now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport), just on the other side of the Potomac River in Virginia. He crossed the Mall and skimmed 200 feet above the Washington Monument. Just when he no longer needed it, he found another thermal, circling to gain altitude in order to do some acrobatic turns and loops before landing at Hoover Airport at 6:20 p.m. In this remarkable flight, Riedel set a national and international distance record of 227 miles for a flight to a predeclared target. After returning to Elmira, Riedel made another long-distance flight, 196 miles to Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York. As he had been in 1937, Riedel was the highest scoring pilot in the 1938 Elmira competition and would have been U.S. national champion but for the fact that he was not an American citizen.

Nazi Leaders Reject Warnings About U.S. Aviation Industry


At the height of his gliding career, Riedels fame, training, connections, and background were all helpful to him in carrying

out his new duties at the German embassy, which were to collect, organize, and evaluate information on American military aviation. Youthful and convivial, Riedel did not get along well with his new boss, whom he found stiff, humorless, and pompous. On his part, von Boetticher, who was vehemently opposed to German diplomatic personnel engaging in espionage activities in the United States, may have suspected that Riedel had a relationship with the Abwehr. Riedel himself claims to have used no undercover agents but extrapolated quite accurate statistics on American aviation industry production and expansion from published sources, both governmental and commercial. He managed to tour various American aircraft manufacturing facilities in person, but most of his efforts were directed at reviewing and analyzing the massive files of clippings and publications readily available from the American media. Once World War II broke out in Europe in September 1939, Riedels task was to determine when American aircraft production would be substantial enough to adversely affect the military operations of the Axis pow-

ers. He predicted that by 1942 Americanbuilt aircraft could be supplied to the Allies in such quantity that they would dominate the war in the air. Riedels superiors at the embassy did not fully support his reporting and estimates even though they were reasonably accurate. Since they contradicted the Nazis unrealistic but unquestioned views of America, Riedels projections were ignored or dismissed by the German leaders in Berlin.

Riedel Flies for Fun, Takes Friends on Rides


But Riedel still lived to fly. The German embassy kept a two-seat Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fr Segelflug (D.F.S.) G-27 Kranich glider at College Park Airport, in suburban Maryland, for his use. In an era when aeronautical feats were an almost daily news staple, Riedel and his glider received their share of attention. A September 26, 1938, article in the Washington Post described how Riedel had taken off from College Park Airport to watch the Presidents Cup regatta. After staying aloft for three hours, he was forced to land at nearby Hoover Airport because of cool air

Col. Friedrich von Boetticher (left), the German military attach in Washington, with Riedel. Their relations were sometimes strained, as von Boetticher mistrusted both Riedels data collection methods and his conclusions on the American aviation industrys potential expansion and future aircraft production. Right: A State Department translation of Riedels brief resume. He noted his prewar gliding achievements and technical experience, as well as his service in the German Army.

Nazis Soaring Over Washington?

Riedel at his desk at the German embassy. His prediction that by 1942 American-built aircraft could be supplied to the Allies in such quantity that they would dominate the war in the air was not wellreceived by the German High Command.

Above: In a September 1938 letter to the War Departments foreign liaison officer, von Boetticher asked for permission to store a Kranich glider on Bowling [sic] Field or any other place near Washington. Below: Riedels Kranich glider was a familiar sight at College Park Airport in nearby Maryland. Despite his official duties as air attach, Riedel found time to fly it often and participated in various soaring events and demonstrations around the United States. The tri-motored aircraft at right is a Stinson SM-6000B, which was used as an airliner and executive transport in the 1930s.

currents above the Potomac and had to be towed back to College Park. It was just for fun, Riedel is quoted as saying. When I havent flown for 14 days, I feel bad. Since the Kranich held two, he was able to give glider rides to friends and colleagues. Riedel also participated in various soaring events and demonstrations around the United States, including the 1938 Cleveland Air Races, where his longtime friend and fellow glider pilot Hannah Reitsch dazzled the crowds with her acrobatics. Riedel normally based his glider at College Park Airport, although he flew out of other area airports, including Hybla Valley in Virginia. When it was not in use, he was allowed to store his Kranich at the U.S.

24 Prologue

Army Air Corps Bolling Field, in southwest Washington, D.C. In 1939, Congress authorized the War Department to provide supplies and services to aircraft used by accredited foreign military attachs, so the U.S. Army ended up defraying much of the expense of maintaining Riedels glider.

Now Married, Riedel is FBI Target; An Assault Incident Is Disregarded


After war broke out in Europe, German diplomats fell under greater scrutiny. On November 11, 1939, Riedel was involved in an alley argument, which became an international incident and generated stories in the Washington papers. This incident began innocently enough, when Riedel borrowed a friends Buick automobile in order to retrieve his glider trailer from Skyline Drive in Virginia. The Buick was housed in a garage in Northeast Washington, D.C. While picking up the car, Riedel inadvertently parked on a neighbors flower bed. The neighbor, an auto mechanic and exboxer named Frank Werner, became enraged and assaulted Riedel, leaving him bruised and bloody. Police eventually arrived but did not issue any citations since all those involved gave conflicting stories.

Both parties were summoned to the assistant district attorneys office the next day, but Riedel never appeared, probably because the German embassy was not contacted through proper State Department channels, and the embassy did not want him to appear in any case. Since no complaint was filed against Werner, he was never charged. The German embassy did lodge a formal protest of the incident with the State Department. Dr. Karl Resenberg, first secretary of the German embassy, was quoted as saying, We do not consider the affair a personal controversy between Riedel and Werner, but rather an issue between two governments. In any event, the State Department turned it over to the Justice Department, which quietly closed the case. In 1940, Riedel was promoted from technical assistant to assistant air attach, with an increase in salary and status. His personal life also underwent a major adjustment. Riedel had taken up horseback riding as a diversion, and on one of his rides in Rock Creek Park, he met and fell in love with a beautiful American of German descent, Helen Kluge, who worked as an art teacher in the District of Columbia public schools. Riedel met resistance from von Boetticher when he requested permission to marry Helen. After Berlin officially approved the

match, the two married in July 1941. Von Boettichers initial disapproval then evaporated, and he warmed to the relationship, arranging for a lavish reception at the embassy. Leaving on a cross-country trip for their honeymoon, the newly married Riedels were followed by FBI agents. After some initial antagonism, they and the agents became solicitous of one another. Once, Riedel waited for the G-men, as FBI agents were known in the slang of the day, to catch up when they were delayed by heavy traffic, and later, the FBI agents informed the Riedels when they had missed the turn to their destination. In 1940, an unwanted burst of notoriety for German diplomats in America only indirectly affected Riedel. Shot down over England and captured, the Swiss-born Luftwaffe ace Baron Franz von Werra escaped his guards while en route to a POW camp in Canada, crossed to the United States, and turned up at the German embassy in Washington in January 1941. Determined to get back to Germany, the flamboyant von Werra made life difficult for the German ambassador and for von Boetticher. Riedel finally took von Werra aside and explained how he could covertly enter Mexico, then travel to South America, and from there fly back to Europe.

Prologue 25

Riedel with his wife, Helen Kluge, an American of German descent. They married in July 1941, and with the outbreak of war and expatriation of German diplomats, Helen accompanied him to Germany in 1942 In October 1938, the Chief of the Air Corps informed the Adjutant General that he had no objection to housing a German glider at Bolling Field in appreciation for the courtesies extended by the German Government to our Attache abroad.

Von Werra followed Riedels advice and successfully made his way back to Germany in April 1941. He returned to active service, only to die when the engine of his new Bf-109F failed in a routine patrol over the North Sea on October 25, 1941.

As War Begins, Riedel Returns To Germany, Is Later Betrayed


Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Hitler declared war on the United States. on December 11, 1941. Subsequently, U.S. authorities rounded up and interned German diplomatic personnel and sent

To learn more about


The International Civil Aeronautics Conference of 1928 held in Washington, D.C., go to www.archives.gov/ publications/prologue/2003/winter/. The early days of flight and a race to circumnavigate the globe by air, go to www.archives. gov/publications/prologue/2010/summer/. Using State Department records for research, go to www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/.

them to the Greenbriar resort in West Virginia for safe-keeping. Riedels glider became U.S. property and apparently was allowed to rot to pieces at College Park Airport, according to a history of the Skyline Soaring Club. U.S. authorities also confiscated a trunk full of 8mm movies Riedel had taken while flying his glider around the country. German and Italian diplomats were put aboard the old Swedish liner S.S. Drottingholm for repatriation.. It sailed from New York on May 7, 1942, and arrived in Lisbon on May 16. The Riedels arrived in Frankfurt-am-Main on May 25, 1942. Helen Riedel, as the American wife of an Axis diplomat, made the difficult choice to accompany her husband back to Germany. There she contracted a lung disease and eventually had to go to a sanitarium in Switzerland for her health. While separated from his wife, Riedel, an inveterate womanizer, engaged in several romantic relationships with other women. After being debriefed by German authorities, Riedel began working for the German Air Ministry. While there he tried to convince the Nazi leaders in person of the growing power of the American aircraft industry, again without success.

Riedel managed to obtain an assignment to Sweden as air attach, all the while working for the Abwehr. Disillusioned by official indifference to his warnings about the American aircraft production and by published reports of Nazi atrocities, he tried to contact Office of Strategic Services chief Bill Donovan, whom he had met in New York before the war, but the OSS was uninterested in him. Betrayed to German authorities by a confidant of his current lover and recalled to Germany, Riedel instead went into hiding in Sweden, with the help of his female friends. After the war, he fled Sweden only to be imprisoned by the French in Casablanca before escaping on a yacht to Venezuela. There he was joined by his faithful wife, Helen, who had reclaimed her American citizenship after returning to the United States from Switzerland. Leaving Venezuela, they went to Canada, and when Riedel was expelled by the Canadians, to South Africa. Finally able to return to the United States in 1955, he worked as an engineer for Trans World Airlines and Pan American Airlines. In retirement, he wrote a three-volume history of the prewar German gliding movement and collaborated with fellow gliding enthusiast Martin Simons on his biography. Riedel died in Ardmore, Oklahoma, in 1998. His devoted wife, Helen, died in a Texas retirement home on December 11, 2000. Riedel was a larger-than-life character who became a world-renowned glider pilot, setting many German, American, and international records. Nominally a Nazi, he joined the party largely out of self-interest and probably denied his membership for the same reason. The intelligence that he gathered while in Washington certainly could have proved valuable to the Nazi leadership if they had acted on it. As for his adventures and romances, Riedel certainly told a good story, which he was not above embellishing. Probably the greatest glider pilot of his time, he ranks among aviations most outstanding pilots. One thing is undeniable: Peter Riedel really knew how to fly his Kranich. P

26 Prologue

Fall 2011

DFS G-27 Kranich Based on the Rhnsperber, his recordbreaking single-seat glider, Hans Jacobs designed the DFS G-27 Kranich (Crane) for the Deutsche Forschunganstalt Fr Segelflug in 1935. A two-seater, the Kranich became the standard German high-performance gliding trainer because it allowed dual instruction in almost every element of flying. Used to set numerous world and national records, it showed itself to be the best two-seat glider of its time. Remaining in production into the late 1950s, hundreds of Kranichs were built in Germany and in other countries. National Markings Registered in Germany to avoid paying U.S. import duties, and because it participated in international competitions in the United States, Riedels glider bore the Third Reichs swastika insignia on its vertical stabilizer and the German registration number, D-4-620, on the fuselage. D stood for Deutschland, 4 signified the Berlin district where it was registered, and 620 was the individual aircraft number. In 1934, the Nazis required that all German military and civil aircraft, including both powered aircraft and sailplanes, display the swastika-bedecked national flag of the Third Reich. The regulations mandated it to appear on the left side of the vertical stabilizer, with black, white, and red horizontal bands of the national colors on the right side. In 1936 the regulations were amended to require display of the swastika insignia on both sides of the vertical stabilizer. Generally a red band went across the entire vertical tail surface, with the white circle and swastika centered on the tail. Some necessary variation was allowed, and Kranich gliders normally carried the marking only on the movable portion of the rudder, possibly because the manufacturers markings appeared on the

fixed part of the gliders vertical stabilizer. The basic color scheme of German gliders was overall pale cream (FAS 1), but a number of other colors were authorized, including medium blue, medium brown, medium gray, light green, and chrome yellow. Individual marking variations included a sunburst pattern on the wing upper surfaces. Some gliders appeared with oth-

er markings on the nose, including Nazi organization symbols, the name of the glider type, individual aircraft name, or the five Olympic rings, honoring of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. See Erik Mombeek, Jagdwaffe: Birth of the Luftwaffe Fighter Force (Luftwaffe Colors, Volume One, Section 1). East Sussex: Classic Publications, 1999, pp. 2627.

Note on Soures
At the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, Record Group 59, Records of the Department of State, Decimal Files covering the years 1939, 1940, and 1941, contain several references to Peter Riedel. The most voluminous records, concerning his altercation with Frank Werner, can be found in the 19301939 Decimal Files, 701.6211-1110. Other references are 701.6211-1031 and 1042. 811.7961/328, and 811.796 Sca 2/415. For 1940 and after, references to Riedel appear in Decimal Files 701.6111/1134, 701.6219/54, 701.62701.6211-111011/1134, 800.20211/767 and 776, and 811.7961/1439, 1501, 1541, 1558, and 1658. OSS records relating to Riedel can be found in Record Group 226, Records of the Office of Strategic Services, Classified Sources and Methods Files, Withdrawn Records (Entry A-1, 215), File W21062; Records of Other Field Bases, Field Station FilesStockholm-X-2-PTS-2-7 (Entry 125), Folder 2; and Field Station FilesStockholm-X2-PTS-5 (Entry 125A), Folder 367. The latter folder contains a good photograph of Riedel standing next to the tail of his glider. Several references to Riedel and his activities as air attach may be found in Record Group 165, Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs, G-2 (Military Intelligence Division), Foreign Liaison Branch, Attach Military, German in Washington; see the Index, and especially the following files: 343-B-21, 343-D-3, and 343-W-162. Several articles concerning Riedel appeared in the Washington Post. A number relate to his accomplishments as a glider pilot: July 1112, 1937, July 5, 1938, and September 26, 1938. Stories on December 4 and 5, 1939, cover his scrape with Werner and its aftermath. Riedels alley confrontation is also mentioned in a commentary column Over the Coffee, by Harlan Miller, December 13 and 20, 1939. Several articles about von Werra appeared in the Washington Post during 1941, including one with a comment by Riedel, April 23, 1941. The fate of Riedels Kranich glider is mentioned by Jim Kellett in Skyline Soaring Club in the Twentieth Century, January 2000 (http://skylinesoaring.org/ HISTORY/history-1.html). A series of three articles about the Riedels by Mike McCormick appeared in the Terre Haute Tribune Star (www.Tribstar.com/history), June 18, July 7, and July 14, 2007; Historical Perspective: Pilot under Vigilant Eye of FBI made Trip to Terre Haute, Part I; Historical Perspective: The Continuing Story of Peter and Helen Riedel. Part II; and The Story of Peter and Helen Riedel, Part III. Helen Kluge Riedel was a Terre Haute na-

tive, and she and Peter visited her relatives there when they were being trailed by the FBI. Not readily available in the United States is Martin Simonss German Air Attach: The Thrilling Story of German Ace Pilot and Wartime Diplomat Peter Riedel (Ramsbury, UK: Airlife, 1997). Simons, a British author and glider pilot, based this book on a typescript written by Riedel and tape recordings of their conversations, as well as other material provided by Riedel. Written in the first person, it reads as if it were Riedels autobiography and is the source of information for most secondary works on Riedel. A scholarly biography of the German military attach in Washington, Alfred M. Becks Hitlers Ambivalent Attach: Lt. Gen. Friedrich von Boetticher in America, 1933 1941 (Washington DC: Potomac Books, 2005), puts Riedels activities in the context of his position in the German embassy and with the German government in Berlin, as well in as sketching out the diplomatic atmosphere of prewar Washington, D.C. A former Army historian, Beck had access to some of Riedels papers and photographs provided by the executor of his estate. A curator at the National Air and Space Museum, Von Hardesty puts Riedel into a different context, that of outstanding pilots and historic flights. Von Hardesty. Great Aviators and Epic Flights (Southport, CT: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., 2002). In the chapter Riedel: Soaring to Washington, pp. 142153, of this well-illustrated coffee-table size book, Hardesty provides a detailed account of Riedels 1938 flight from Elmira, New York, to Washington, D.C., which closely follows Riedels own description in Martin Simonss book. While unfootnoted, this account was apparently based on Riedel estate archival materials currently in Hardestys possession. An entertaining book based on Luftwaffe ace von Werras exploits, The One that Got Away, by Burt Kendal and James Leasor, came out in 1956. A movie of the same name, starring Hardy Kruger, appeared in the next year.

Author
Chas Downs is an artist, researcher, and archivist living in Howard County, Maryland, with his wife and cat. Retired after a career with the National Archives, he is an active NARA volunteer at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland.

Nazis Soaring Over Washington?

Prologue 27

SmugglerS BootleggerS ScofflawS

bNew York City How Liquor Got into


during Prohibition
by ellen nic ken z ie l aw son

The Surf anchored near the Statue of Liberty. While the smugglers on board cruised into the harbor by daylight dressed in yachting whites, Coast Guardsmen noticed that the ship was riding extremely low in the water as if it carried a heavy load.

ew York City, as the greatest liquor market in the United States, is a great temptation for the rum runners, wrote a Coast Guard Intelligence officer in 1927 in the midst of Prohibition. The nations largest city never dried up, despite the 18th amendment to the Constitution, which took effect in 1920 and banned the production, transportation, or sale of liquor for pleasure, because New Yorks smugglers, bootleggers, and scofflaws defied the national liquor ban. A unique and extensive database of information and photographs on liquor smuggling and New York City exists in the National Archives among 90 boxes of Coast Guard Seized Vessel records for the years 19201933. Examining the history of smuggling to the nations largest liquor market during Prohibition helps to understand why this market would not be suppressed. Smuggling

contributed to the rise of the earliest liquor syndicates controlled by bootleggers, and the citys immigrant and urban culture encouraged drinking at home and in nightclubs and speakeasies by hundreds of thousands of scofflaws. Ultimately, New Yorkers were the driving force in the national movement to repeal the 18th amendment, the only Constitutional amendment ever repealed. The general history of Rum Row, where liquor supply ships were located off major coastal cities, is fairly well known. At first these Rows were 3 miles from shore, but the patrolled area was moved to 12 miles in 1924.
Background: A Coast Guard map traced the movements of the vessel Mazel Tov for a year, showing the area known as New Yorks Rum Row, 12 miles off the New York coast. From those international waters, smaller boats smuggled liquor ashore.

New Yorks Rum Row, the largest on either coast, was southeast of Nantucket Island and east of Long Island. Here ships from Europe, the West Indies, and Canada met American contact boats coming out from shore. The liquor was then smuggled directly to the city or via landing sites on Long Island or New Jersey, or even from the distant South or New England. A rare nautical chart in the National Archives delineates the geography of New Yorks Rum Row by documenting Coast Guard observations of the Mazel Tov for a year before it was seized for straying within the legal limit. Hundreds of sea captains were smugglers, but few are known to the historical record. The most well known was and remains Capt. Bill McCoy, born in New York State and trained in the merchant marine. His biography, published at the end of Prohibition, cashed in on the publics belief that the liquor he smuggled

was the best in quality, the real McCoy. Smuggled liquor came ashore on tugs, barges, yachts, tankers, liners, and speedboats; some were not even seaworthy. Even a submarine or two may have been used, albeit briefly, in 1924, when newspapers reported rumors that submarines were supplying the Jersey shore and Cape Cod. A smuggler also once testified in court that he saw a submarine with a European crew surface on Rum Row. And an aerial photograph among previously classified Coast Guard intelligence records purports to document two nonnaval submarines below the Hudson River. life on Rum Row: A nautical Wild West Until the Coast Guard acquired destroyers from the Navy to patrol Rum Row in the mid1920s, the area was like the Wild West with its violence, piracy, and hijackings. One ship with $700,000 of liquor was pirated by New Yorkers who learned it would be waiting on Rum Row while the quality of its liquor was being checked on shore. Later, a London Schooners Associations investigation concluded that it was actually an insurance scam.

An aerial photograph taken by a Manhattan mapmaking firm on June 11, 1924, above the Hudson River near Croton Point purports to document two submarines (possibly rumrunners), each about 250 feet long and 600 feet apart, at the rivers bottom.

Gertrude Lythgoe was called the Queen of Rum Row for her skill and success in selling quality liquor for her London-based company. She sailed for a time with the well-known smuggler Capt. Bill McCoy.

The George Cochran (left) in New York Harbor. The vessel was a known rumrunner from Newfoundland, but during this search she was found carrying 1,355 barrels of herring instead.

When a foreign agent arrived in Manhattan to take orders for liquor, he was wined and dined on Broadway while 24 armed New Yorkers plundered his ship on Rum Row under the direction of a man named Eddie, who confided to Captain McCoy that the gang resented foreigners muscling in on their turf. (The sole casualty in this piracy was Eddie, whose body was thrown overboard on the last return boat.) No one will ever know how many New Yorkers died aboard contact ships that sank at sea, but the Coast Guard learned about two instances from grieving wives, siblings, and mothers. Agnes McArdles brother and 11 others died when their tug, captained by a former Manhattan policeman, sank in a storm, She claimed that a Brooklyn man, the ships owner, had lost an earlier rum ship, too, and she wanted him arrested because he refused to honor life insurance claims from the sailors families yet lived in luxury himself. Women lived on Rum Row as cooks or wives or guests of captains. McCoy even claimed that a boatload of Manhattan prostitutes ventured out one summer. According to reporters, the Queen of Rum Row was American Gertrude Lythgoe, who stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria after weeks on McCoys ship selling quality liquor for her London-based company. McCoy had taken her there after male wholesalers

squeezed her out of the market in Nassau. Rum Row was high-tech for the time; by the end of the twenties, smugglers used new technology like radios and airplanes. The Coast Guard had a crack radio unit in Manhattan for locating land stations and intercepting and decoding messages from Rum Row, some of these were reputedly more complicated and harder to decipher than codes used in World War I. The agency also monitored airplanes above Rum Row, some of which dropped messages to ships below in bottles. Seaplanes also landed alongside the ships and loaded cases of liquor. When one seaplanes engine failed, it was captured and hauled all the way back to New York Harbor. William Bell Atwater, who had been in charge of U.S. Naval Air Forces in Italy during World War I, was charged with stealing a plane from New Yorks Curtis Air Field to fetch alcohol from Rum Row. Smugglers, Coast Guard Play Cat and Mouse Manhattan was the goal of most smugglers, although traffic was diverted at times to Long Island and New Jersey and trucked to the city. A smuggler who made it into New York Harbor could then access Manhattans 20 miles of shoreline for a good landing site. By day, smugglers mingled in the harbor among the extensive traffic of ships, yachts, fishing boats, and

ferries. At night, smugglers would sneak into the harbor by running through the Narrows and up the rivers with all their lights off. Ocean liners and steamers smuggled liquor directly to Manhattan. As liners slowed down, preparatory to docking, passengers and crew sometimes passed liquor cases overboard to men in trailing speedboats. An elegant Park Avenue nightclub hostess claimed the captain of a French liner regularly smuggled her best wines. Musicians, butchers, second cooks, and confectioners on one German liner were implicated in smuggling liquor. And one undercover operation, directed from Washington because customs officials in Manhattan were too corrupt, exposed smuggling by the British Royal London Mail Steamer Packet. Foreign ships smuggling liquor into the harbor violated American law, but those that remained on Rum Row were protected by international treaty. In 1924, a treaty between the United States, Canada, and Britain specified that the U.S. Coast Guard could search suspicious vessels that were one hours distance from shore12 miles in a day when most large ships could go no faster than 12 miles an hour. The Coast Guard, interpreting the treaty to refer to speedboats that could go up to 40 miles an hour then, seized several foreign ships more than 20 miles at sea. One of these was a Norwegian ship whose captain was ordered to sail into

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New York Harbor, where his crew was imprisoned on Ellis Island and then deported. (The Norwegians eventually won in court, and the U.S. Congress voted reparations for captain and crew over a decade later.) The Statue of Liberty ruled New York Harbor even during Prohibition, when Americans were not at liberty to drink. The Coast Guard and U.S. Customs anchored large rum ships near Liberty Island (then called Bedloes). One striking photograph in the National Archives shows a freshly painted, sleek, lowlying yacht with the Statue of Liberty in the background. The smugglers on this vessel had boldly cruised into the harbor by daylight dressed in yachting whites, sitting in wicker furniture on deck, leisurely smoking Havana cigars, and being served afternoon tea by liveried servantsthe perfect cover, they thought. Guardsmen, watching through telescopes from a nearby cutter, observed the hands holding those cigars were rough and dirty like the hands of longshoremen, not leisured yachtsmen. The yacht was also riding extremely low in the water as if it carried a heavy load. Smugglers also went up the Hudson River (North River) to land liquor. The Manhattan owner of Kennedys Chop House on 121 West 45th Street was suspected of smuggling up the river to a Kingston warehouse and then later having the liquor trucked back to Manhattan. (The upriver site was known as Kennedys Warehouse and may have contributed to later rumors that it was owned by Joseph P. Kennedy, father of the future President, who was working as an investment banker in New York City in the 1920s.) The body of 25-year-old Edwin J. Kennedy was found wrapped in a comforter floating in the Hudson off West 84th Street in 1927; he had been shot in the head. Robbery was not the motive as a pawn ticket, a diamond ring, and $210 in cash were in his pockets. His older brother Jack, owner of the Chop House, insisted Edwin had no enemies and was in excellent spirits before his disappearance. His widow told police, I feel in my heart that he was killed by bootleggers. Which one or ones

I cannot say. The Coast Guard, based on its suspicions of smuggling activity to Kingston, could do little to solve this case, although the agency believed the widow was right. Hudson and east Rivers Provide Avenues for liquor trafficking A legal battle over ownership of the Hudson River occurred during Prohibition when a rum ship was seized at a Hoboken dock and charges were brought in New Jersey courts. While agreeing that New York State and New Jersey jointly owned the rivers bottom, the defense argued that, based on an obscure antebellum case, New York owned the river and charges should be dropped because New Jersey lacked jurisdiction. The friendly judge agreed and dismissed the case. The U.S. Department of Justice appealed, stating that the boundaries of the two states had been established in the late 18th century, each owning half the river. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually agreed, but until then, smugglers chased in New York Harbor could head for sanctuary at New Jersey docks and count on a friendly judges interpretation of an obscure law. The East River was also popular with smugglers. When officials at Sun Oil suspected their East Coast tankers were picking up liquor on

Rum Row, the company alerted authorities. Soon thereafter, customs officers trailed a tanker entering New York Harbor at a discreet distance up the Hudson, then followed it as it made a U-turn back to the harbor and up the East River to Brooklyn, where 60 longshoremen began unloading the liquor. As 75 customs agents approached, the longshoremen mistook them for a rival gang and began firing. When they realized the newcomers were federal agents, they tossed their guns into the water so they would not be prosecuted for violating New Yorks Sullivan gun law. Most of the longshoremen gave legitimate names when arrested, and many were German, Jewish, French, or Italian ones. A few gave the family name as Doe, including William (Scottie) Doe, James (Big Walter) Doe, Raymond (Sparks) Doe, and Ralph (Captain Ralph) Doe. Authorities knew the Does were from Augie Pisanos gang, which handled European liquor landed in Brooklyn and destined for Al Capone in Chicago. (Captain Ralph Doe was probably Capones older brother, who sometimes visited New York to oversee such shipments.) Fulton Fish Market, located on the lower Manhattan side of the East River, was popular with smugglers because it was closed at night, and docks and unloading facilities were

A Guardsman drafted a profile of the fishing vessel Mary of New Bedford, showing its secret compartments and a moveable steel plate, as an aid to boarding officers.

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New Yorkers watch as officials inspect an unidentified smuggling vessel. Smuggled liquor came ashore on tugs, barges, yachts, tankers, liners, and speedboats.

accessible. Customs Deputy Surveyor John McGill, head of the New York harbor patrol, joked that he would catch smugglers after seeing the vessels names in his dreams. On the other hand, New York Coast Guard Commander A. J. Henderson grimly argued that the Coast Guard was hampered in enforcement because customs was not strenuously policing Fulton Market. Eventually McGills staff was tripled to 120 agents, and he relied less on dreams and more on his agents. The Bronx shoreline on the East River is minimal, but the largest smuggling fleet for the entire metropolis was located in this borough in a marina near Hell Gate Bridge. This was a good location because contact boats could either travel down the East River, through the harbor, and then out to sea, or venture through the turbulent waters of Hell Gate and through Long Island Sound and then out to Rum Row. One hundred rum speedboats and larger craft docked here, including one disguised as a Coast Guard cutter, which escorted other boats as if they had been captured and were being taken to shore to be booked. A neighborhood of Captains And Seafaring Smugglers With contact boats coming into the harbor and up the two rivers, the Coast Guard decided to semi-blockade New York Harbor for weeks at a time even though it was the nations biggest port. The agency monitored vessels waiting outside the Narrows against the names of known rumrunners. Some rum captains changed the names on their vessels sterns and smokestacks to those of legitimate ships to sneak into the harbor, but the Coast Guard became wise to this and seized such ships in the Narrows. One ship, released on bond, was soon outside the harbor with another load of liquor. What is $7,500 [bond] to that ring? complained one Coast Guard officer. I look upon the release as a betrayal of the forces of the Federal Government. He felt as if he and his men were jousting at windmills. Smugglers captured at sea were booked at the Customs Bureaus barge office at the foot

Crewmembers aboard the Julito, which had an allSpanish crew under Capt. Jack Duran of Havana. This image and others of the rumrunners while on vacation in Cuba form a unique collection that was seized and retained by the Coast Guard.

The Gasp Fisherman (above) was chased on Rum Row by the Coast Guard for three years but finally caught fire and sank off Nantucket. It was linked to the Fox bootleg gang of Staten Island.

of Whitehall Street, adjacent to the ferry terminals at the southernmost tip of Manhattan. Many sailors deliberately got drunk and could not be interrogated until they sobered up, giving lawyers for the liquor syndicates time to get them out on bail. Seafaring men have lived on or near South Street on the East River since the 17th century. Capt. Browne-Willis, known as Whiskers because of his Prince Albert Beard, lodged at 2 Fulton Street during Prohibition. Caught smuggling in New York Harbor on his 13th trip, he and his sailors testified that there was liquor aboard, but it was never intended for Manhattan. Another Manhattan-based captain named George Jeffries was caught after he had made 40 successful liquor trips into the harbor. Most captains were reluctant to talk to authorities, but Jeffries hoped to mitigate his sentence and gave them the names of all the gangsters for whom he smuggled and offered to show the different sites where he dropped off the liquor. Authorities did not follow up because they feared any action would imperil his life. Jeffries said all monetary transactions were from a midtown office on Broadway whose address he could not recall. A search of his luggage produced a calling card belonging to Nookie Collins, The Big Lobster Merchant, specializing in Skotch Tweed. On the reverse the captain had carefully written in pencil #1261 Broadway, Room 502, with the notation Get off [at] 34th Street. Besides captains, rum sailors lived on the citys waterfronts, including at the Seamans Church Institute on 25 South Street. Pay on rum ships was higher than on law-abiding vessels, and there was usually free liquor. Sometimes those who could not be induced with money or liquor were tricked or shanghaied into service. The Coast Guard rescued four such sailors from a ship on Rum Row after spotting a blanket they held up on deck as a sign of distress. One cook based in New York signed on to work on a barge headed for the Caribbean only to discover that the barge was first going to Nova Scotia to pick up liquor to resell along

Fall 2011

the American coast. When the ship arrived in Nassau, he went to the American consulate to lodge a complaint, saying he had been intimidated into staying aboard and that the captain kept an arsenal of 10 pistols and 8 rifles. liquor Syndicates Move in As Federal Agents Crack Down Every American knows Prohibition contributed to the growth of the American underworld, but few know exactly how this happened. New York City had large ethnic gangs long before 1920, but gangs became better organized and very wealthy in the twenties by focusing on the black market in liquor. The Lower East Sides earliest liquorsmuggling syndicate was operated by Waxey Gordon (Irving Wexler), a former pickpocket and labor thug. Arnold Rothstein, black sheep of an Upper West Side secondgeneration German-Jewish family in the garment industry, bankrolled the purchase of liquor abroad, the hiring of ships, and the bribing of a Coast Guard commander on the eastern end of Long Island so the shipments could be landed and trucked to Manhattan. This system worked until the commander was replaced. Then Gordon and Rothstein had to divert a shipment to the West Indies, where the liquor was sold at cost. Rothstein, an investor with a reputation for only gambling on sure things such as the Black Sox World Series scandal, relinquished his role as a smuggler and left the entire operation to Gordon. Gordons syndicate thrived until Capt. Hans Fuhrman, who operated a lumber barge and

smuggled liquor for Gordon, was caught and agreed to testify against his boss. The captain died before the trial despite being protected in a guarded hotel room in the city. He was the only eyewitness. Police ruled this death a suicide, but his wife insisted that he was murdered. Gordon quit smuggling soon thereafter because he risked future conviction on the word of any one of his many captains. Instead, he owned and operated illegal domestic breweries and distilleries in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. He was caught and convicted at the end of the era for income tax evasion based on information provided by rival gangsters. Hells Kitchen stretched from West 23rd Street to the fifties and included extensive waterfront and railroad yards. Several preProhibition Irish American gangs, like the Hudson Dusters and the Gophers, were located here. During Prohibition, William Big Bill Dwyer, a stevedore in the Longshoremans Union, emerged as leader of the West Sides first successful liquor syndicate. Like Gordon on the East Side, Dwyers initial funding came from Rothstein. After Rothsteins bodyguard, Legs Diamond, began hijacking Dwyers trucks, Dwyer stopped relying on Rothstein and turned to piracy to obtain his liquor. In 19231924, his gang relieved Rum Row of about a million and a half dollars worth of goods. Dwyer was the next target after Gordon for the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Authorities learned from an engineer on a Canadian coal ship smuggling liquor to Fourth Street on the East River that

the cargo belonged to Dwyer. The ships supercargo bragged to the engineer that Dwyer smuggled more liquor into New York than anyone else, using a corrupted Coast Guard patrol boat to escort ships into the harbor. Next, an undercover customs guard in a city speakeasy learned that another coal steamer would bring liquor up the Hudson. That steamer was seized, and 3,000 cases of liquor were found beneath hundreds of tons of coal. In the captains tally book for the liquor was the name and address of the Sea Grill Restaurant on West 45th Street, which Coast Guard intelligence believed was a Dwyer hangout. More than 50 New Yorkers were identified as the Dwyer syndicate and tried, in two batches, for liquor conspiracy in 1926 1927. The first trial targeted Dwyer and high-level associates, but only Dwyer and his payoff agent were convicted by a sympathetic New York jury. After serving a year in prison, Dwyer, like Gordon and Rothstein earlier, concluded that direct smuggling was too risky. Dwyer became a silent partner in an illegal brewery in his old West Side neighborhood, which sold the citys best quality beer, called Madden No.1 after West Side gangster and partner Owney Madden. Despite Dwyers imprisonment, his syndicate continued because Frank Costello, misidentified as a less important underling in the second trial, benefited from a hung jury. Costello later claimed privately that he bribed a juror. His records were conveniently lost, and he was not retried. The Dwyer/Costello syndicate rented warehouses along the North Atlantic in the Cana-

Capt. Axel Ohlsen was arrested on the Hiawatha in May 1931. He was associated with shipowner and smuggler Benjamin Feldman (of lower Manhattan), who also owned the rumrunner Whipporwill.

A crew of rumrunners. Smugglers captured at sea were booked at the Customs Bureaus barge office at the foot of Whitehall Street, adjacent to the ferry terminals at the southernmost tip of Manhattan.

Arnold Rothstein was a New York City gambler who financed the purchase of liquor abroad and bribed officials, including a Coast Guard commander. He was murdered in November 1928 over a gambling debt.

An inventory of liquor captured aboard the schooner Al Smith on March 7, 1929. The Honduran rumrunner was named after the New York governor and 1928 presidential candidate who wanted to modify Prohibition by allowing states to define alcohol.

President Hoover formed a National Commission in May 1929 headed by retired United States Attorney General George Wickersham, a New Yorker, to assess Prohibition. After very detailed studies and extensive interviews, it surprisingly recommended more enforcement.

Manhattanite Pauline Sabin, Republican National Committeewoman and Morton salt heiress, founded the nonpartisan Womens Organization for National Prohibition Repeal. With a million members, the group argued that enforcement fell unfairly on the middle and working classes and contributed to a growing disrespect for all American laws.

dian maritime provinces and on the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, and operated a fleet of freighters bringing liquor to the warehouses from Canada and Europe. Costello managed this vast operation from a midtown Manhattan office, reputedly in the then-new Chrysler Building. He also continued Dwyers pattern of wholesale bribery of police, politicians, and federal agents. When one of his liquor supply ships sank after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic, Costello told a subordinate that it was too bad he couldnt buy the iceberg. little italy Syndicate Becomes Dominant Force in Smuggling New York Citys third major liquor smuggling syndicate during Prohibition, like the Gordon and Dwyer/Costello operations, was also located in lower Manhattan. It was an Italian operation in Little Italy. Unione Siciliones chief, Joseph Masseria, an old-time boss called a

To learn more about


Coast Guard records in the National Archives, go to www.archives.gov/research/ military/coast-guard/. The Volstead Act and related Prohibition documents, go to www.archives.gov/education/ lessons/volstead-act/. Texts of the 18th and 21st amendments, to the Constitution, go to www.archives.gov/exhibits/ charters/constitution_amendments_11-27.html.

Moustache Pete, was not interested in smuggling but in continuing more traditional criminal activity like blackmail, robbery, and prostitution. Johnny Torrio and Al Capone, two New Yorkers who might have convinced Masseria to change to smuggling and bootlegging, moved to Chicago before Prohibition. On a return visit to Little Italy, Capone challenged younger friends in the city to seize the day as he and Torrio were doing in Chicago. Two New Yorkers, Charles Luciano (Salvatore Lucania) and Joe Adonis (Joseph Doto) listened and began smuggling liquor with Masserias blessing, providing they remained loyal subordinates. Luciano and Adonis invited Costello (originally Castiglia but not Sicilianborn as they were) to join them as well as Meyer Lansky, whom Luciano knew from his youth on the nearby Lower East Side. Lansky brought in Benjamin Siegel (Bugsy), and these two became the muscle for the new syndicate. Like the Gordon and Dwyer syndicates, the new gangs earliest financial backing came from Rothstein, who was on the lookout for promising ways to invest money. Rothstein suggested they market expensive liquor to rich New Yorkers instead of diluting it for a mass market. The gang began by smuggling from the Bahamas and employed Captain McCoy. One of their first shipments directly from Europe was in a ship from the Azores hovering outside the Narrows. According to an FBI transcript of an interview with

a Portuguese cook on that ship, the gang leaders personally went out in two speedboats to unload the liquor. Eventually they retreated into the background to run their growing operation, using others to fetch the liquor to shore. This Little Italy syndicate dominated smuggling in New York City by the late 1920s after Gordon abandoned the field in 1925 and Dwyer was convicted in 1926. When Rothstein was murdered in 1928, the syndicate filled the power and money vacuum in the underworld left by his death. Two years later, the syndicate manipulated a power struggle within the mafia, between old world boss Masseria and recent Sicilian immigrant Salvatore Maranzano, in what was known in the underworld as the Castellammare War. (Maranzano was from Castellammare, Sicily.) Syndicate members were directly involved in Massarias murder in a deserted Coney Island restaurant and, through Lansky, for Maranzanos murder by Jewish hit men disguised as federal tax agents. By the end of Prohibition, Luciano, Adonis, Costello, Lansky, and Siegel were the core of the citys increasingly powerful and rich underworld, which some historians have dubbed the Broadway Mob because they had relocated to midtown Manhattan near the theater district. Before the emergence of the Broadway Mob, U.S. Attorney Emory Buckner was asked by a Senate Committee in Washing-

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ton to comment on the foreign element in bootlegging and smuggling in his Southern District of New York. I do not know, Senator, he replied. It is certainly not so marked that it has become a matter of such comment that it has reached me yet. Yet by the 1930s, U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Dewey built a political reputation tackling this underworld, became governor of New York, and was the Republican presidential nominee in 1944 and 1948. ethnic Groups Helped to Repeal Prohibition The word scofflaw was coined in a national contest during the twenties to describe Americans ignoring the 18th amendment. New York City had not only smuggling syndicates, illegal distilleries and breweries, and 50,000 families producing homemade liquor but also 500 nightclubs and an estimated 30,000 speakeasies. Scofflaws believed that by drinking they were striking a blow for individual liberties. From the start, some New York City politicians opposed the 18th amendment. At first Fiorello LaGuardia, the first Italian American congressman in American history, was a lone voice crying in the dry congressional wilderness. State Senator James J. Walker opposed ratification of the 18th amendment in the state legislature and later, as the popular Irish American mayor of the city in the twenties, thumbed his nose at the law. Governor Al Smith, raised on the Lower East Side, was the nations only wet candidate for President, nominated by the Democratic Party in 1928. (Smugglers honored him by naming a rumrunner after him). Why was New York City such a hotbed of opposition to Prohibition, with so many scofflaws, smugglers, and a Broadway Mob? Mayor Walker once claimed that New York City in the twenties had more Irishmen than Dublin (400,000), more Italians than Rome (800,000), more Jews than Palestine (2 million), and more Germans (670,000) than any German city except Berlin. These ethnic groups viewed the 18th amend-

ment as an attack on their cultures, which did not condemn alcohol but celebrated it with Irish whiskey, German beer, and Italian dinner wines. In addition, for several hundreds of years in European history, the Irish and the Jews had made a living producing and selling liquor. White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP) Americans, those most ardently behind the 18th amendment, had their own historic tradition to lead them to support the 21st amendment.

Captain McCoy, presumably echoing the motivation of his fellow smugglers, claimed inspiration from John Hancocks 18th-century defiance of the British Navigation Acts and antebellum abolitionists defiance of federal slave law in the 1850s. And it should not be forgotten that one possible derivation of the word Manhattan is the Native-American word Manahachtanienk, which translates place of general inebriation.
2011 by Ellen NicKenzie Lawson

Note on Soures
Records consulted at the National Archives and Records Administration include Records of the United States Coast Guard, Record Group (RG) 26, Coast Guard Seized Vessels, Entry 179 A-1, and Coast Guard Intelligence Division, Entry 178; Records of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, RG 10, National Commission on Prohibition, boxes 182, 199, 20607; General Records of the Department of the Treasury, RG 56, Entry 191; and Records of the Internal Revenue Service, RG 58, Entry 231. Government publications included United States Senate, Proceedings of Subcommittee [on National Prohibition Law] of Committee on the Judiciary. April, 1926; Official Records of the National Commission [Wickersham Commission] on Law Observance and Enforcement, 71st Cong., 3rd sess., S. Doc. 307 [1931]; and speeches by Fiorello LaGuardia in the Congressional Record, 19201933. Published primary sources relevant to this article include: Belle Livingston, Belle Out of Order (New York: Holt, 1959); Gertrude Lythgoe, The Bahama Queen: Autobiography of Gertrude Cleo Lythgoe (New York, Exposition Press, 1964); Carolyn Rothstein, Now Ill Tell (New York: Vanguard Press, 1934); James Trager, ed., The New York Chronology (New York: HarperResource, 2003]); Frederic F. Van de Water, The Real McCoy [as told by McCoy] (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Doran and Co., 1931); Stanley Walker, The Night Club Era (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1933); Mabel Walker Willebrandt, The Inside of Prohibition (Indianapolis, IN: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1929). Relevant secondary sources include: Everett S. Allen, Black Ships: Rumrunners of Prohibition (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979); Herbert Asbury,The Great Illusion: An Informal History of Prohibition (New York: Greenwood Press, 1968 [reprint of 1950 edition]); T. J. English, Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish-American Gangster (New York: Regan Books, 2005); Gene Fowler, Beau James: The Life & Times of Jimmy Walker (New York: Viking Press, 1949); Albert Fried, The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1980); Martin Gosch and Richard Hammer, The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano (Boston: Little Brown, 1974; Seymour M. Hersh, The Dark Side of Camelot (Boston: Little Brown, 1997); Kenneth T. Jackson, ed., The Encyclopedia of New York City (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995); Jenna Weissman Joselit, Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community, 19001940 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983); Matthew and Hannah Josephson, Al Smith: Hero of the Cities (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1969); Leonard Katz, Uncle Frank: The Biography of Frank Costello (New York: Drake Publishing, 1973); Leo Katcher, The Big Bankroll: The Life and Times of Arnold Rothstein (New York: Da Capo Press, 1994); Thomas Kessner, Fiorello H. La Guardia and the Making of Modern New York (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989). Also James Lardner and Thomas Reppetto, NYPD: A City and Its Police (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2000); Michael Lerner, Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007); Martin Mayer, Emory Buckner (New York: Harper & Row, 1968); Hank Messick, Lansky (New York: Putnam, 1971); Herbert Mitgang, Once Upon a Time in New York: Jimmy Walker, Franklin Roosevelt, and the Last Great Battle of the Jazz Age (New York: Free Press, 2000); Humbert S. Nelli, The Business of Crime: Italians and Syndicate Crime in the United States (New York: Oxford Press, 1976); Virgil W. Peterson, The Mob: 200 Years of Organized Crime in New York (Ottawa, IL: Green Hill Publishers, 1983); Thomas A. Reppetto, American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power (New York: H. Holt, 2004); Giuseppe Selvaggi, tr. William A. Packer, The Rise of the Mafia in New York from 1896 through World War II (Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs Merrill, 1978); Carl Sifakis, The Mafia Encyclopedia (New York: Facts on File, 1999); Craig Thompson and Allen Raymond, Gang Rule in New York (New York, Dial Press, 1940); George Walsh, Gentleman Jimmy Walker: Mayor of the Jazz Age (New York: Praeger, 1974); Malcolm F. Willoughby, Rum War at Sea (Washington, DC: US. Government Printing Office, 1964); George Wolf, with Joseph DiMona, Frank Costello: Prime Minister of the Underworld (New York: Morrow, 1974); and Howard Zinn, La Guardia in Congress (Westport, CT: Norton, 1969).

Author
ellen nicKenzie lawson is a retired historian living in Colorado and has published articles on vessels seized by the Coast Guard during Prohibition off Cape Cod. She has a book manuscript based on the same body of records for New York City under consideration with an academic press. This article is a summary of that manuscript.

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Prologue 35

Sailors in 1812 ife l


r
By Sarah H. Watkins and Matthew Brenckle

All Hands on Deck

ver wonder if a sailors life is for you? Visitors to All Hands on Deck: A Sailors Life in 1812, the USS

Constitution Museums newest exhibit, can find out. Designed to be both hands-on and minds-on, the exhibit allows families to scrub a deck, swing in a hammock, fire a cannon, and furl a sail as they learn about history together. All Hands on Deck is the culmination of years of research into the lives and experiences of the men who served on board USS constitution at the moment when the ship earned her nickname, Old Ironsides, and became a national symbol that endures today as one of Bostons most famous attractions.

USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) defeated HMS Guerriere on August 19, 1812, and became a national symbol. Left: Life-sized photographs of actors in authentically reproduced costumes populate the exhibit and add a sense of realism to the visitors experience.

Fueled by research conducted at the National Archives, the exhibit brings the past to life using innovative interpretive techniques. Best of all, every aspect is informed by the hard-won experiences of the men and women who lived through the War of 1812. Because of her wartime exploits, the nation has preserved Constitution as a naval monument, a shrine to victories wrested from the mighty Royal Navy. While the ships status as a national symbol has ensured her survival, it has tended to obscure the people who made the ships victories possible. Thousands of individuals lived, worked, and fought on board her. The exhibit interprets Constitution from the inside out, giving voice for the first time to the ships company. By focusing on the people, including common seamen,

officers, and marines, the exhibit allows visitors to look beyond tactics and technology. The exhibit examines sailors motivations for enlisting and how they adjusted to life in the self-contained wooden world. It also offers a glimpse of life ashore, considering who and what the sailors left behind and the impact of separation and loss on seaside communities. As All Hands on Deck demonstrates, when sailors entered the highly regulated, interdependent shipboard community, they were forced to endure psychological and physical hardship for the sake of ship and country. Their shared experiences forged an emotional bond among shipmates and led them to regard their messmates as a surrogate family. For them, the ship was home. The exhibits final section shows how the crews participation in naval victories over Great Britain during the War of 1812 contributed to Americas emerging national identity.The story of Constitution and her crew is particularly timely as our country prepares for the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

All Hands on Deck

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Visitors Prepare to Go to Sea As Sailors on the Constitution


When visitors enter All Hands on Deck, they experience the bustle of a busy Boston waterfront as provisions and livestock are hoisted aboard. Handbills posted on the walls indicate that they are approaching a recruiting office for USS Constitution. Here visitors first encounter life-sized photo cutouts of sailors and civilians. Using the physical descriptions of actual individuals from the timeage, height, eye and hair color, and scars or tattoos, all gleaned from size rolls (physical descriptions and enlistment details of Marine privates and NCOs), prisoner-of-war records, and seaman protection certificateswe sought actors who had the right look and fit the sailors profiles. An extensive review of clothing receipts in Treasury accounts and Navy contract proposals at the National Archives told us

exactly what Constitutions men wore and allowed us to create a wardrobe of handsewn garments. Skilled make-up artists gave the actors the ruddy cheeks and dirty hands of real weather-beaten tars. These figures populate the exhibit and lend an unrivaled level of character and verisimilitude to the surroundings. Outside the House of Rendezvous (temporary recruiting office), visitors see an original broadside notifying citizens that War is declared. Lt. Charles W. Morgan, responsible for recruiting, invites visitors into the waterfront building to serve their country and fight for free trade and sailors rights. Inside, visitors take turns acting as recruiter and recruit. The recruiter asks the recruit a series of questions to gauge his or her
Visitors can swing on a hammock like the ships sailors, try the tough work of scrubbing the deck, and work at furling a sail.

potential as a sailor. Some questions elicit laughs, others looks of disbelief or disgust. For instance, the recruiter asks, Have you ever swung in a hammock? Are you willing to sleep next to 200 of your closest friends who are badly in need of a bath? The recruiter tallies the answers, and the recruit joins the crew. Next, artifacts and text panels prompt visitors to think about what sailors needed to bring to sea with them and what it was like to bid farewell to loved ones. Once on deck, they are welcomed on board by a musket-wielding marine sentry who warns them that they must do their duty or suffer the consequences. The space mimics Constitutions deck, with planking below, rigging above, the bulwarks of the ship on either side, and sounds of the ship and sea.

Fall 2011

Learning to Be the Newest Recruits On Board USS Constitution


New recruits who need clothes can buy supplies from the purser and discover how quickly these purchases consume their wages. Treasury accounts provided the historical prices charged for slops ready-made clothing and other sundries like chocolate, soap, and tobacco. Below decks, the low ceilings and minimal lighting simulate the dark, crowded, stuffy, and wet living quarters of the crew. Visitors can climb into a hammock and swing side by side with their friends. Questions on the beams overhead ask them to think about the lack of personal space and some of the sea miseries experienced by sailors. Across the deck from the hammocks stands a low, black iron stove, a miniaturized version of a ships camboose copied from drawings and descriptions in the Board of Navy Commissioners correspondence. Using faux rations, children can concoct a sailors stew and serve it to their friends. Gathered picnic-style around a black painted cloth, visitors bond over salt pork, ships biscuit, and grog. In the words of one contemporary sailor, messes were little communities of about eight. . . . These eat and drink together, and are, as it were, so many families.

The exhibit All Hands on Deck allows visitors to learn about the experiences and lives of the men who served on board USS Constitution, ca. 1812.

Tough Work Awaits on Deck, And So Does Tough Discipline


Back on deck, the real work begins. Visitors are encouraged to try their hands at typical sailor tasks. They are given a reproduction holystone and told to get on their knees and scrub the deck. To convey different perspectives, this object is seen from the point of view of a sailor for whom it represented daily monotonous labor and the first lieutenant

who felt pride in the glistening ship and saw the advantages of keeping hundreds of men busy each morning. Activities that require teamwork for success, such as furling a sail, highlight the physical skill and mental stamina required to sail a ship. As visitors approach the yard, they see a film showing sailors aloft taking in a sail at sea. The camera moves with the vessel, giving the impression that one is swaying high above the deck. Once visitors step off the ground to balance on the footrope slung below the yard, they work together to pull in a heavy sail. The yard and sail are surrounded by images of sailors working aloft. Nearby, an 1820s journal delineates the station of each crewmember in the top and on the yards. A sailors life is full of strife, goes the old song, and interpersonal conflict was a fact of life on a wooden warship. Discipline in some measure ameliorated shipboard disagreements. Visitors view an original 19thcentury cat-o-nine-tails, which to a sailor represented humiliation, lack of control, and

a constant threat. But from the captains perspective, it was a necessary evil to control the crews bad behavior.

The Effects of Battle on Crew: Glory and the Scars of War


Without well-trained gun crews to aim and fire its many cannon, a warship was useless. Visitors can learn about the training and teamwork required to fire a cannon on Constitution. A video shows Constitutions 21st-century crew demonstrating the steps required to load a gun that weighs nearly 7,000 pounds. Visitors can haul on the lines of a replica 32-pound carronade and see if they are strong enough and fast enough to prepare it for firing. Once the visitor-recruits feel confident that they have what it takes to conquer an enemy in battle, they can enter the battle theater. This multimedia show combines historic images, narration, objects, and faces of sailors illuminated in sequence with the story. In his own words, Seamen David C. Bun-

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nell, an 1812 sailor, describes the tension before battle: The word silence was given we stood in awful impatience. . . . My pulse beat quickall nature seemed wrapped in awful suspensethe dart of death hung as it were trembling by a single hair, and no one knew on whose head it would fall. Other crewmembers share their own sentiments. Young Midshipman Whipple expresses his excitement and a strong sense of patriotism before going into battle for the first time: It appears to me at present that a man must be happy who sacrifices everything for his country . . . should I be so fortunate as to prove serviceable to

my country, I shall be in the zenith of my glory. Whipples words return after the battle: This being the first action I was ever in, you can imagine to yourself what my feelings to hear the horrid groans of the wounded and dying. The battle presentation also explores how combatants attitudes toward their opponents changed after battle. No longer boasting tyrants or faceless monsters, sailors on opposing sides enjoy some moments of camaraderie, even as the surgeons work frantically to remove shattered limbs and staunch the bloody wounds.

All Hands on Deck concludes with the crew and ship returning home to a heros welcome. Here visitors learn what USS Constitution meant to her crew and to the country as a whole and discover the fate of the sailors profiled in the exhibit.

How Do We Know What We Know? Finding Answers at the Archives


Who were the 1,171 men who served on Constitution between 1812 and 1815? How do we resurrect these fellows from the murky depths of history to which theyve been consigned?

Sailor Philip Brimblecoms certificate of disability was one of the documents used to recreate his naval record. He was captured and imprisoned by the British, escaped, and served on board Constitution. Injured in a battle with HMS Java, Brimblecom was granted a six-dollar-per-month pension.

USS Constitutions muster roll for 180910 records the sailors names, including that of Capt. Isaac Hull, date of entry on board, rank, and pay.

At the core of All Hands on Deck lies a major research effort that began in 2001 and that built on 30 years of research by Tyrone G. Martin, former commanding officer of USS Constitution and author of A Most Fortunate Ship (for more of Martins Constitution research, visit www.polkcounty.org). According to scholars who advised the exhibit in its planning stages, no other maritime museum has attempted an in-depth look at the lives of ordinary seamen from a single ship. This approach presented a formidable research challenge. Museum staff mined the records of dozens of repositories across the country. The single most important, however, was the National Archives and Records Administration. Among NARAs many fantastic holdings we find Constitutions logbooks, muster rolls (lists of crew), Marine Corps size rolls, pension records, and official Navy correspondence. Unfortunately, the Navy kept fairly cursory records about the crew. The ships muster rolls recorded a sailors name, rank, date of entry and discharge, and thats about it. No age, no place of origin, no physical descriptionnothing that could help us positively identify them

in other records. Add to this the fact that some, especially those born in Great Britain, might have been serving under false names, and the research challenges become apparent. Luckily, there were other ways to track them down. Paradoxically, the worse a sailors life, the more we know about him. Most men served faithfully for two years and then faded from the record. But a long and often detailed paper trail followed those who suffered life-altering wounds or accidents. The most illuminating source has been the Navy pension applications. If a sailor received a wound or was otherwise disabled in the course of his duty, he was eligible for a monthly stipend from the government (usually equal to half his pay). To receive this payment, however, he had to prove that he had in fact been in the service and that he had been disabled. This means that all the files contain affidavits and declarations by all sorts of people, including the applicant sailor himself. Nearly 150 of Constitutions seamen and officers applied for pensions. Widows and minor orphans of seamen and officers were also eligible for government assistance, and many

applied for relief too. So that gives us a great body of information to work from. When we combine these sources with the usual birth, marriage, and death records, court transcripts, and related documents, we can really begin to recreate what their lives were like. Of the nearly 1,200 who served, we now have good information on about 500. Some of the stories are harrowing and starkly illustrate the dangers of seafaring in the early Republic.

The Unlucky Life of a Sailor: The File on Philip Brimblecom


One of the unfortunates was Philip Brimblecom. Born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in 1786, he launched his career like many other young men in town, by going to sea in search of cod. In 1809, he gave up the hook and line and shipped on board his uncles schooner, the Springbird, for a voyage to Spain. Here his life took a turn for the worse. Off the coast of Spain, a French privateer captured the Springbird. Unemployed and

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with nowhere to go, Brimblecom shipped on a French merchantman bound for the Indian Ocean. Four days out, a British cruiser took the ship, and Brimblecom found himself a prisoner of the Royal Navy. He was sent to England and imprisoned. In October 1810, Brimblecom managed

to send a letter to his mother, Hannah, in which he described his ordeal. America was not yet at war with England, and Americans should not have been held as prisoners of war. Hannah sent Brimblecoms protection certificate and baptismal record to the American consulate in London to prove that her son was an American citizen. The consul responded that the English considered Brimblecom a prisoner of war because he had been captured while serving on a French privateer. Not pleased by this response, Mrs. Brimblecom had a friend request help from Secretary of State James Madison. Meanwhile, the British took Brimblecom from prison and forced him to serve on board HMS Marlin. Not willing to wait for a diplomatic resolution to his ordeal, he made his escape in the spring of 1812 and boarded a ship bound for Newburyport, Massachusetts. Continuing his string of bad luck, the ship wrecked on the Orkney Islands. Brimblecom and his shipmates
Left: An actor portrays an African American sailor. Free black sailors were integrated into the enlisted shipboard communitysleeping, eating, and working sideby-side with their white counterparts.

traveled from those bleak islands to Scotland, where he boarded an American brig. By then, America had declared war on Britain, and during the voyage across the Atlantic, the British captured Brimblecom again. They took him to Newfoundland, where he was exchanged for a British prisoner in September 1812. At the age of 26, Brimblecom had experienced enough misfortune to last most men several lifetimes. His next step made sense for one who must have seethed with a desire for vengeance. On September 25, 1812, he enlisted as an able seaman on board Constitution. The ship had just returned victorious from an encounter with HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, and her new captain, William Bainbridge, had no trouble recruiting men to serve on the lucky vessel. The ships luck did not rub off on Brimblecom. As Constitution sailed south during October and November, the sailors frequently exercised at the great guns, learning to perform their duties with speed and accuracy.
Below: An online game and educational resource brings the teeming humanity of the ship to life for a virtual audience (www.asailorslifeforme.org). Users can scrub the deck, whack rats in the hold, tell tall tales, steer the ship, and fire a cannon.

Fall 2011

USS Constitution under tow in Boston Harbor.

According to the ships quarter bill, Brimblecom served as the first loader to gun number one on the gun deck. It was a dangerous position, and he did his duty there on December 29, 1812, when Constitution encountered HMS Java off Brazil in a hard-fought battle. In the midst of the action, as Brimblecom bent to load the gun, a British cannonball shattered his arm below the elbow. Surgeon Amos Evans amputated the limb, and although the stump quickly healed, the young sailor remained in constant pain. With only one arm, Brimblecom could not work as a seaman, the only work he had ever known. Twice he wrote to the Navy seeking employment and for an increase in his six-dollar monthly pension, which he and his mother relied on. He complained, some of the rest that was wounded with me has had an addition to their pension money. Brimblecom got a job at the Charlestown Navy Yard in 1816, and at the Portsmouth Navy Yard the following year. By 1820 he was unable to do anything for a living, and since he had no friends on earth, he asked the government to take his request into consideration and look after a poor distressed crippled sailor who for 22 long months . . . [has] never seen a well day. The response, if any, to his

final request is unknown. Philip Brimblecom died of a fever on February 1, 1824, in Marblehead. He was only 37 years old.

The Strange Case of David Debias: A Free Black Wanders into Slavery
The records at the National Archives have also helped resolve at least one mystery. In 1814, an eight-year-old African American boy named David Debias joined Constitutions crew. Debias was born free on Belknap Street in Boston. In the early 19th century, seafaring was one of only a few jobs that offered free African Americans not only a living wage, but also a respectable career with equal pay. Though racism was not absent aboard ships, free black sailors were integrated into the enlisted shipboard communitysleeping, eating, and working side-by-side with their white counterparts. Historians estimate that during the War of 1812, 7 percent to 15 percent of sailors were free men of color. A month after joining Constitutions crew, Debias participated in its victory over two British ships, HMS Cyane and HMS Levant, on the night of February 20, 1815. Transferred to the Levant with the prize crew, he

was taken prisoner when the British recaptured the ship at Porto Praya in the Cape Verde Islands. After a stint in a Barbados prison, he returned to Boston. Debias remained with his parents for some time and then shipped as a sailor on several merchant voyages. In 1821 he again shipped on board Constitution. Commanded by Capt. Jacob Jones, the frigate sailed for the Mediterranean, where the young man no doubt marveled at the wonders of the ancient world. The ship touched at Leghorn, Gibraltar, Malaga, Port Mahon, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Malta, Algiers, and Smyrna and finally came home to New York. Debias left the service then and sailed in other merchant ships. Sometime in 1838, his ship docked in Mobile, Alabama. For some unexplained reason, Debias left the ship and started walking north. In Wayne County, Mississippi, he was arrested as a runaway slave. After hearing Debiass story and believing him the victim of a grave injustice, a local lawyer and state senator, Thomas P. Falconer, took up his cause. Falconer wrote to Secretary of the Navy Mahlon Dickerson for evidence from the Navy Department in behalf of an individual who has been arrested here as a slave. I have not the least doubt of his freedom, but his appearance may force upon

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him the onus probandi of freedom. He is a stranger in a strange land and from the rigidness of the law in the absence of testimony may be deprived of his liberty. For years, we wondered about the fate of David Debias. Did Secretary Dickerson respond to this request? Was he freed or sold into slavery? Finally, in fall 2010, thanks to archivist Trevor Plante at the Archives, the mystery was solved. On April 17, 1838, Secretary Dickerson forwarded to Falconer an authoritative certificate by the 4th Auditor of the Treasury, proving that David Debias had in fact served on Constitution. Because the Wayne County Court House burned down in the 19th century, all the court records from the 1830s have

been lost. Still, we can hope that this significant piece of evidence was sufficient to free Debias.

The Impact of the Research On Study of the War of 1812


The research into the individuals who served on board Constitution allows the museum to breathe new life into the ships history. By telling the story of life on board USS Constitution through the sailors who experienced it, All Hands on Deck allows visitors to connect to the past in a personal way. One teacher remarked: Its a wonderful way to make history come alive and become real to my fifth graders. As one of my students said this year, history like this is fun, because its about us. The exhibits humanistic viewpoint and participatory approach has demonstrated the potential to change how children view historychildren like Kelly, age 10, who reported, I used to think history was boring, now I it! To expand the reach of our research in advance of the bicentennial of the War of 1812, the USS Constitution Museum launched an online game and educational resource that brings the teeming humanity of the ship to life for a virtual audience (www.asailorslifeforme.org). The award-winning site allows users to experience the life of an 1812 sailor and scrub the deck, whack rats in the hold, tell tall tales, steer the ship, and fire a cannon. The site also includes curriculum material for teachers who want to teach about the War of 1812 and USS Constitution, and Discovery Kits are being made available to public libraries across the country for families to check out. The bicentennial of the War of 1812 provides a singular opportunity to engage all ages in conversation and discovery about USS Constitution and the War of 1812. Thanks to the records available at the National Archives, students and families will

discover that history is about individuals like themselves, just separated by time. Through the USS Constitution Museums exhibit, web site, and library kit, students and families learn that history can be exciting, meaningful, and personally relevant. P Note on Soures
Constitutions 1812 logbooks are microfilmed on Logbooks and Journals of the U.S.S. Constitution, 17981934 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1030), vols. 3 and 4. The ships muster rolls are microfilmed on Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900 (National Archives Microfilm Publication T829). Muster Rolls of the U.S. Marine Corps, 17981892, are on National Archives Microfilm Publication T1118. Boston Navy Agent Amos Binneys purchasing receipts for Constitution come from the Accounts of the Fourth Auditor of the Treasury, Records of the Accounting Officers of the Department of the Treasury, Record Group (RG) 217, boxes 38 and 39. In Records of the U.S. Marine Corps, RG 127, are size rolls, which record name, rank, birthplace and date, date and length of enlistment, officer who enlisted the marine, height, hair and eye color, complexion, previous occupation, and remarks detailing service in the corps. Clothing proposals sent to the Board of Navy Commissioners can be found in Proposals, Reports, and Estimates for Supplies and Equipment, 18141833, Vol. 4, E-328, Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library, RG 45. Philip Brimblecoms pension application is in War of 1812 Navy Invalid File #201, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, RG 15. His mothers correspondence with James Monroe and his protection certificate are in Letters Received by the Department of State Regarding Impressed Seamen, 17941815, General Records of the Department of State, RG 59. The Bainbridge Battle Bill is in Series 464, box 222 Subject Files 17751910, RG 45. Thomas Falconers 1838 letter to Mahlon Dickerson is in Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy: Miscellaneous Letters, 18011884 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M124). The secretarys reply is in Entry 6, Miscellaneous Letters Sent (General Letter Books), Vol. 24, page 403, RG 45.

Captain Isaac Hulls sword. Hull commanded Constitution during its battle with the British frigate HMS Guerriere on August 19, 1812.

Author
Sarah H. Watkins is curator and Matthew Brenckle is research historian at the USS Constitution Museum. Founded in 1972, the USS Constitution Museum is a private not-for-profit institution, serving as the memory and educational voice of Old Ironsides. Open 7 days a week, 362 days a year, the museum welcomes more than 300,000 annual visitors free of charge.

To learn more about


The War of 1812 from National Archives records, go to www. archives.gov/research/military, and click on War of 1812. Veterans service records in general, go to www.archives.gov/veterans. A British ships challenge to the USS Constellation to a duel between the frigates in 1815, see www. archives.gov/publications/prologue/2007/spring/.

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Fall 2011

PICTURE THIS!
Whats Cooking, Uncle Sam?
Prints and Gifts Available from the National Archives Exhibit

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BERLIN CRISIS
Some New Insights
By Neil Carmichael and Brewer Thompson

The 1961
F
ifty years ago, talks between the United States and the Soviet Union broke down over the status of Berlin, capital of the defeated and divided Germany. At the end of World War II, Germany was divided into occupation zones, with each allythe United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union in control of a zone. Berlin was in the Soviet sector, but it was agreed that it, too, would be divided, and the Soviets would allow the other allies access to it. By the end of the 1950s, however, the Soviets wanted the other allies out of Berlin. They refused, and tensions escalated over the next few years.
Right: President Kennedy meets with Chairman Khrushchev at the U. S. embassy residence in Vienna, Austria, June 3, 1961.

46 Prologue

Fall 2011

When Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev met the new U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, in Geneva in June 1961, he reiterated his desire for the western allies to leave West Berlin and proposed a peace treaty on Soviet terms. The Western allies, however, had no intention of giving up their right of access to Berlin. In early August 1961, the Soviet-controlled East Germans began cutting off all avenues of escape to West Berlinthe 97 miles surrounding the city and the 27 miles that cut through the heart of the city. The Soviets and East Germans moved in with a massive show of force, and Kennedy called 148,000 National Guardsmen and Reservists to active duty. And the East Germans began to build a wall,

a tangible symbol of what Winston Churchill had called the iron curtain dividing Sovietcontrolled Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Once the wall was up, the access checkpoints became points of contention. On October 27, 1961, the Soviets deployed 10 tanks on their side of Checkpoint Charlie, and U.S. and Soviet tanks stood a mere 100 yards apart from each other. The confrontation made headlines around the world, and until Moscow and Washington mutually agreed to pull back, it looked as if the Cold War would become hot. Throughout the summer of 1961, the story unfolded in dozens of reports, meetings, and discussions on an Allied response against a backdrop of possible nuclear war.

Roughly 500 recently declassified documents will be published jointly by the National Archives and Records Administrations National Declassification Center and the Central Intelligence Agencys Historical Publications Office and distributed in conjunction with a conference on A City Torn Apart: Building the Berlin Wall at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., on October 27, 2011. The Berlin Wall would stand for another 28 years before the people of East Germany would peacefully rise up and regain their freedom. All documents declassified in accordance with E.O. 13526

A section of the Berlin Wall. As the wall wove through the city, it was often a series of barriers and obstructions with watchtowers and checkpoints.

48 Prologue

Fall 2011

A Department of State memorandum of April 13, 1961, summarized a meeting with the President on contingency plans in the event of a blockade of Berlin.The President was concerned about commitment and concerted actionhow the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany, as well as the United States, would respond to the pressures which may arise. Memo of Conversation re: Berlin Contingency Planning and Related Matters, April 13, 1961; Policy Planning Council; Subject Files, 19541962; General Records of the Department of State; Record Group 59.

Below: An August 11 summary reports Ambassador George F. Kennans belief that the time might be right for an acceptable deal
over Berlin. Kennan felt that the United States was misreading Khrushchevs overbearing posture and believed the Soviet premier respected U.S. might and sought a way out. Interview with Ambassadors Kennan and Thompson, August 11; Berlin Germany Group 1961; Policy Planning Council; Subject Files, 19541962; General Records of the Department of State; Record Group 59.

A State Department analysis of the June 4 Kennedy-Khrushchev meeting reported on the Soviet premiers hard stance, that his nation would defend any violation of the German Democratic Republics borders on land, sea, or in the air, thus cutting access to West Berlin. Kennedy responded that the USSR was presenting him with the alternative of accepting the Soviet Unions action on Berlin or having to face confrontation. United States Department of State. Historical Studies Division (February 1970). Crisis Over Berlin, American Policy Concerning the Soviet Threats to Berlin November 1958December 1962. Part V. Developments in the Early Phase of the Kennedy Administration and the Meeting with Khrushchev at Vienna, January-June 1961 (Research Project 614-E). Washington, D.C.

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Fall 2011

Above: A report on construction of the Berlin Wall, begun in August 1961, describes it as a system of barriers and obstructions not always parallel to the sector boundary and most formidable in the densely populated central core of Berlin. East German officials, it noted, planned to clear a 100-meter-wide strip along the East Berlin side of the wall. The Berlin Wall; Berlin Handbook; p. 11; Executive Secretariat: Records Relating to the Berlin Crisis, 19611962; General Records of the Department of State; Record Group 59. Above right: A confidential report on information gathered from wouldbe refugees attempting to escape during the early months of the Berlin Wall notes the assistance of East German guards, the use of borrowed passports at checkpoints, and an order to shoot at escapees. Summary of Reports Given by Refugees During the Period September 28October 5, 1961; Bureau of European Affairs, Country Director for Germany: Records Relating to Berlin and East German Affairs, 19571968; Lot 70D4; General Records of the Department of State; Record Group 59. Right: A U.S. Army Intelligence Summary of early November 1961 reports the presence of two Soviet battalions of 122mm Howitzers near Berlin and that several one-story barracks were being constructed near August Bebel Platz. ISUM #13a; pg.1; Berlin Brigade; Intelligence Reports, 19541962; Records of United States Army, Europe; Record Group 549.

With the threat of an East German shutdown of the last access point to East Berlin, a Berlin Command Op Plan for November 1961 recorded the plan to demolish any barriers and knock down the wall and any associated obstacles along the U.S.-Soviet Sector.The document also recorded British, French, and West German police patrol activities. BC Op Plan 3-7; pg. 1; Berlin Command Ops Plans 1961; Berlin Brigade; Operations Planning Files, 19541965; Records of United States Army, Europe; Record Group 549.
52 Prologue Fall 2011

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gENEALOgY NOTES

Mr. Madisons War


Leaving the army during
Certificates of Discharge for the War of 1812
By John P. Deeben and Claire Prechtel-Kluskens ohn Warring enlisted in the Second U.S. Light Dragoons at Hudson, New York, on March 28, 1813. 1 The 35-year-old hatter from Danbury, Connecticut, was a bit older than most of his fellow recruits, but the economic effects of the second war against Great Britain that erupted nine months earlier on June 18, 1812, may have dampened demand for headgear produced by his smelly, messy, and even dangerous occupation. Although he enlisted for five years, Warrings military career ended early when he received an honorable discharge on March 21, 1815, in consequence of his being afflicted with the Asthma, &c. Warring received the balance of his military pay dating from October 31, 1813, as well as three months pay and subsistence to travel from his current post at Greenbush Cantonment (headquarters of the Northern Division of the U.S. Army) in upstate New York to Danbury, some 120 miles away. Warring also returned home well supplied with the balance of his Army-issued clothing, including two caps, four vests, four linen pantaloons, eight shirts, two pairs of boots, five pairs of shoes and stockings, two coats, four pairs of socks, two blankets, two frocks, two trousers, and two stocks.2 Such a succinct, detailed summary of Warrings military service comes from an unlikely but obvious source: his military discharge certificate. In the 19th century, soldiers discharged from the Regular or volunteer armies usually received a certificate to document their formal separation from the Army. The discharge certificate became the veterans personal propertythe War Department generally did not retain file copiesand in time, an honored memento of their military service.3 Because they remained in private hands, carefully preserved (or not) by the soldier or his heirs, discharge certificates are usually difficult to locate and are seldom
Background: At the Battle of Chippewa on the Niagara front, July 5, 1814, an American force of about 4,000 men defeated British forces numbering about 2,500 and captured Fort Erie. The victory demonstrated that the Americans, with good leadership and preparation, could be successful against British Regulars.

available for public research. One notable exception, however, is a small series of extant discharge certificates and other records relating to more than 2,200 Regular Army soldiers from 1792 to 1815. The majority of these records provide an otherwise unavailable source of information for service during the War of 1812.

As the War of 1812 intensifies, The Regular Army Grows After Congress established the War Department on August 7, 1789 (1 Stat. 49), the Regular Army constituted the principal armed force of the United States. During the early years of the Republic, the Regular Army comprised a relatively small fighting force supplemented by regiments of volunteers or state militia units during specific national emergencies, including Indian wars, the Whiskey Rebellion, and other conflicts. At the declaration of war with Great Britain on June 18, 1812, the Regular Army consisted of about 10,000 men, half of whom were new recruits. An act of June 26, 1812 (2 Stat. 764) increased the size of the Regular Army to a total authorized strength of 36,700 men. An act of January 29, 1813 (2 Stat. 794797), added 20 additional infantry regiments for one years service. In addition to these troops, volunteer regiments and federalized state militia also took part in the conflict.4 The War Department recruited each Regular Army infantry regiment from a particular state (or states), while rifle, artillery, and dragoons were recruited at large. Most, but not all, of the men recruited for a particular regiment hailed from the state of recruitment. A useful source to identify regimental recruiting districts includes William A. Gordon, A Compilation of the Registers of the Army of the United States from 1815 to 1837 (Washington, Discharge certificates, such as this one for Pvt. John Warring of DC: James C. Dunn, 1837). At the begin- Connecticut, provide succinct, detailed summaries of military ning of the war, recruits typically signed service.The War Department generally did not retain file copies, Discharge Certificates Provide on for five years of service, although lat- but the National Archives preserves a small series of extant Portraits of Army Soldiers discharge certificates and other records relating to more than At the National Archives and Records er recruits could enlist for the duration of 2,200 Regular Army soldiers from 1792 to 1815. Administration (NARA), War of 1812 the conflict. Congress offered initial enlistdischarge certificates are located in Record Group 94, Records of ment bounties of $31 and 160 acres of land, later increased to 5 the Adjutant Generals Office, 1780s1917. They are part of the $124 and 320 acres. series Post Revolutionary War Papers, 17841815 (Entry 19), Although the Regular Army did not become an effective fightwhich also includes records of various money accounts (requisiing force until the final year of the war, it served with distinction tions, vouchers, and receipts) relating to the payment of Regular in many major engagements. U.S. Regulars and New York mili-

tia under Maj. Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer fought (and lost) the first major battle of the war at Queenston Heights, Ontario, on October 12, 1812, during the initial American invasion of Canada. Regulars and militia under Brig. Gen. Jacob Brown defeated a British invasion of New York at the Battle of Sacketts Harbor on May 2829, 1813. Other engagements included the Battle of the Thames (October 5, 1813), Chryslers Farm (November 11, 1813), and Chippewa (July 5, 1814)the latter a decisive victory against British Regulars. U.S. dragoons under Generals John Coffee and Andrew Jackson also participated in Creek Indian campaigns during the war, including the battles of Tallushatchee (November 3, 1813), Talladega (November 9, 1813), and Horseshoe Bend (March 27, 1814). The pay system in the Regular Army never worked efficiently. During the course of the war, the average soldier received from five dollars to eight dollars a monthless than the earnings of an unskilled laborerand administrative inefficiency and slow communication often hindered regular payment. By the end of 1814, monthly payrolls were 6 to 12 months or more behind schedule, even though by law Army pay was not supposed to be more than two months in arrears unless the circumstances of the case should render it unavoidable.6 In order to collect back pay upon being discharged, many soldierssuch as John Warring, who finally collected 17 months back pay when he left the Army in 1815 returned their discharge certificates to a War Department paymaster to collect the money. Numbers and other handwritten calculations upon the face of the discharge records suggest that they were used in connection with the payment of arrearages.7

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and volunteer soldiers and construction of military installations, as well as returns for clothing, provisions, and forage; enlistment papers; and pay and muster rolls.8 The discharge records have been reproduced as National Archives Microfilm Publication M1856, Discharge Certificates and Miscellaneous Records Relating to the Discharge of Soldiers from the Regular Army, 17921815 (6 rolls), available at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., and most NARA regional archives. The discharge certificates relate solely to soldiers in the Regular Army primarily during 18121815; no militiamen or volunteers are included, although several civilians are mentioned. The certificate of discharge unambiguously states that the soldier was released from service on a particular day and may indicate the reason for separation. It also typically includes the dates of the soldiers enlistment and discharge, the company and regiment in which he served, the amount and kinds of clothing provided to him, and the period for which he was due pay upon discharge. The discharge may also provide his place of birth, age, physical description, and occupation. Such personal information was often included to deter improper usage in the event the discharge was lost or stolen from the veteran.9 The discharge of Gabriel Caves (39th U.S. Infantry) bluntly indicates the reason for detailing his physical description was to prevent fraud.10 In addition to the discharge certificates, the records in the series include descriptive lists, certificates of death, and pay vouchers. The descriptive list provides a depiction of the soldier and may indicate the clothing and other supplies furnished him. Some are in chart form, while others are in narrative paragraphs. Both types sometimes indicate that the information was extracted from the companys record book. The descriptive list of William T. Smith (16th U.S. Infantry), in chart form, indicates his age (19 years); physical description (5 feet 4 inches in height, with dark eyes, light hair, and fair complexion); place of birth (New York); date, place, and term of enlistment (November 30, 1814, at Philadelphia for the duration of the war) and the name of the recruiting officer (Ensign Eldridge); occupation (not stated); amount of bounty paid ($50) and amount due ($74); amount of pay due; and the number and type of clothing issued to him. Finally, the officers certification indicates the information was taken from the Company Book.11 Some descriptive lists provide additional information about the soldier, such as injuries and character of service. When Stephen McCarrier (14th U.S. Infantry) left the Army on March 13, 1815, the descriptive summary written by Lt.

William G. Mills noted that McCarrier had two fingers cut off his right hand while building hutts [sic] for the Regiment at Buffalo on November 20, 1814. Despite the injury, McCarrier completed his service in exemplary fashion; the description noted he received an honorable discharge for having in every instance, well performed his duty as a Soldier during the term he has served. The descriptive list for McCarriers fellow company member, Samuel Barnes, likewise noted he was wounded in both hands . . . in the action at Lyons Creek, Upper Canada on October 19, 1814, while the discharge certificate for Thomas Webster (Corps of Artillery) documented the loss of a leg in November 1813 by an accidental Musket shot from a fellow artilleryman.12 Certificates of Death Provide Detailed Descriptions of Deaths Certificates of death, both handwritten and in printed form, usually provide a brief statement of the soldiers date of death and the unit in which he served. The certificate for Henry Carman simply identified the deceased as a member of the Second U.S. Artillery who died at the general military hospital in Philadelphia on February 28, 1814. Other certificates sometimes identified the circumstances surrounding a soldiers demise, whether from illness, accidental injuries, or battlefield wounds. The death certificate for William Peters of Towsons Company, Second U.S. Artillery, indicated he was wounded at the battle of Stoney Creek [in] Upper Canada & died at Lewistown Hospital, sometime in the month of September 1813. The certificate was signed in Philadelphia by Hospital Surgeons Mate Edward Purcell as well as regimental Surgeons Mate L. L. Near.13

Descriptive lists, such as that for William T. Smith, provide detailed personal information, such as age, physical features, place of birth, amount of bounty paid, amount of pay due, and type of clothing issued to the soldier, and date, place, and term of enlistment.

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Printed death certificates often included more information regarding the soldiers service. The certificate for William Hutchins (21st U.S. Infantry) noted he served the U.S. honestly and faithfully, from the Twelfth day of March 1814, the date of his enlistment, to the Twenty-fifth day of Febr[uar]y 1815, at which day he died at Williamsville, N. York. He had received a 50-dollar bounty, and after his death, Hutchinss arms and accoutrements were returned to the regiment in good order. In addition to Army pay due for his full term of service, Hutchins was also entitled to fifty dollars retained bounty & 160 acres of land and to the additional allowance of three months pay. In all other respects, the certificate resembled a typical discharge record, providing a list of clothing issued and a physical description that included Hutchinss age (20), occupation (farmer), and place of birth (Fryeburg, Massachusetts).14 Pay vouchershandwritten or printed receipts issued by regimental paymasters (or sometimes the paymaster of the military district)usually indicate the amount of pay due and/or the period of time for which pay was due. A voucher for Pleasant Hazelwood, issued by U.S. Army Paymaster George Merchant at Albany, New York, on April 23, 1813, stated that Hazelwood was a private in Capt. Joseph Seldons Company, Second Regiment of Light Dragoons, and has received his pay as appears by Capt. Seldons Roll, now in my Possession, to include [back pay from] the thirty first [day of] December 1812. A pay voucher for deceased artillerist Henry Carman acknowledged pay due from October 31, 1813, to the date of Carmans death on February 28, 1814, as well as an eight-dollar bounty. Since Carman Served faithfully until his Death, the voucher also authorized three months of extra pay (although it did not specify to whom the outstanding sums should be remitted on behalf of the deceased).15 Collectively, the discharge records reveal a few generalities about the men who served in the Regular Army during the War of 1812. Most were of typical military age (20s 30s), but a few were considerably older, such as Drury Hudson (20th U.S. Infantry), who was 60, and Solomon Stanton (25th U.S. Infantry), aged 54. A small percentage of African Americans also served with the Regulars, usually designated in their physical descriptions as black, negro, or mulatto. (Soldiers described as dark were likely darkskinned Caucasians). African Americans identified in the records include Richard Boyington (Fourth U.S. Infantry), who served the duration of the war from June 25, 1812, to May 18, 1815; George B. Graves (14th U.S. Infantry), who enlisted on August 2, 1814; and seven members of the 26th

U.S. Infantry, including Hosea Conner, John Cooper, Joseph Freeman, Charles Matthias, Samuel Morris, John Peters, and William Smith.16 Subsidiary Discharge Records Add even More Detail about Soldiers Other supporting records can also appear with, or sometimes in place of, the main types of discharge papers. In addition to official certificates, some separations from service are documented by a simple note from the commanding officer recommending a discharge. Capt. Samuel D. Harris, Second U.S. Light Dragoons, issued such a recommendation for Elisha Harrington. The endorsement stated that Harrington has served for and during eighteen months; his term of service having expired on the 4th day of December 1813 he is entitled to an honorable discharge. A recommendation for a temporary furlough rather than discharge also appears for George Shippey (Light Dragoons), who received three months leave to return home from April 1 to June 30, 1815. Shippey earned the furlough for uniform sobriety, and general good conduct while serving as an orderly to Brig. Gen. Edmund Gaines during the British siege of Fort Erie on August 15, 1814.17 Records of enlistment, including the procurement of substitutes, are part of this record series for a few soldiers. A handwritten enlistment paper for Andrew McMillen showed he joined the 23rd U.S. Infantry on May 17, 1812, for 18 months unless sooner discharged by proper authority, and also included an oath of allegiance to serve the United States honestly and faithfully against their enemies and to obey the orders of the President and the officers appointed over me according to the rules and articles of war.18 When John Millera 35-year-old blacksmith from Bridgewater, Massachusettsenlisted in Capt. George Haigs Company, First U.S. Light Dragoons, at Sacketts Harbor, New York, on August 4, 1813, he presented himself as a substitute for James Coveart. (Coveart had originally enlisted on January 9, 1809, but apparently decided not to finish his five-year term of service. The record sheds no light on how Coveart arranged the substitution). Miller subsequently reenlisted on January 9, 1814.19 Some of the pay vouchers also include records relating to officers subsistence accounts. One such account for 2nd Lt. Rodolphus Simons (23rd U.S. Infantry) offers a detailed picture of his total financial compensation for military service. From August 1, 1813 to February 28, 1814, Simons received $175 ($25 a month) as well as two rations per day (for 212 days) at 20 cents per ration ($84.80). From Octo-

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Left: Pay vouchers issued by regimental paymasters (or sometimes the paymaster of the military district) usually indicate the amount of pay due and/or the period of time for which pay was due. Left: Andrew McMillen, aged 29, joined the 23rd U.S. Infantry on May 17, 1812, for 18 months, as inscribed in his record of enlistment. Many such documents record the enlistment of substitutes.

ber 3, 1813 to February 18, 1814, Simons also employed a waiter or personal servant, who likewise received $36.28 in military pay ($8 a month) as well as one ration per day (for 138 days), also at 20 cents per ration ($27.60). The final reimbursement to Simons totaled $323.68, which he verified as accurate and just. Simons also certified that he had not drawn rations in kind from the United States, or received Money in lieu thereof, for or during any part of the time therein charged.20 For several soldiers who died during the war, additional records document birth or marriage information. The death certificate for William Briggs (Ninth U.S. Infantry) includes an affidavit from his father, Thomas Briggs, who served in the same unit. In the deposition, Thomas verified that William was begotten on the body of his wife Mary in May, 1795, at Thomastown, Massachusetts.21 A handwritten marriage certificate also accompanied the death notice for John Uber (15th U.S. Infantry), who was killed at the Battle of York on April 27, 1813, showing he and Elizabeth Wirth of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, were lawfully joined together in holy matrimony on January 17, 1802, by Rev. J. Friederich Schmidt, Minister of the Lutheran Congregation at Philadelphia. A similar certificate for deceased artillerist Henry Carman confirmed his marriage to Deborah Bowen of Cumberland County, New Jersey, on April 14, 1810, solemnized by the Rev. Holmes Parvin.22 Some affidavits establish familial relationships while addressing legal issues relating to service. Several sworn statements occur from parents of minor-aged soldiers who enlist-

ed without consent; the declarations generally attempted to furnish appropriate grounds for discharge. Adonijah Marvin of Otsego County, New York, submitted one such record to military authorities on May 4, 1813, verifying that his son, William B. Marvin, enlisted in Capt. John McIntoshs Company, Light Artillery, while still a minor under the age of twenty one years. The elder Marvin asserted his son was now desirous of obtaining his discharge from his said enlistment. Mary Sharp of New York City likewise attested to the illegal enlistment of her son, Thomas Sharp, who joined the First Light Artillery on September 26, 1813 without the knowledge, consent, or approbation of this deponent. Further justifying Thomass release from service, Mary apparently cited personal hardship, noting the generally infirm and disabled condition of her husband, William Sharp.23 General Records Provide look At American Army as a Whole Another affidavit verifying the paternal relationship of a deceased soldier came from the selectmen or town officials of Wiscasset in Lincoln County, Massachusetts (then a part of the District of Maine). Submitted by William Nickels, John Merrill, Jr., and Warren Rice, the deposition confirmed that Wiscasset resident John J. Foye was the Father & by law the legal representative of Jacob Foye, a member of Capt. Eli-

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Right: Pay vouchers provide invaluable information about military pay and rations. The account for 2nd Lt. Rodolphus Simons for the period August 1813February 1814 reveals that he received $25 per month and two rations per day at 20 cents per ration and employed a waiter, also paid by the Army.

jah Halls Company, 45th U.S. Infantry, who lately died a soldier in the service of the United States (he succumbed to a fever at Burlington, Vermont, on September 30, 1814). Also asserting Jacob Foye was a minor and unmarried at the time of his death, the deponents most likely rendered the affidavit in order to facilitate the disbursement of the deceased soldiers remaining military pay ($39.73), retained bounty ($74), and 160 acres of bounty land to his appropriate legal heir.24 Records of a more general nature also document information about multiple soldiers. A number of affidavits relating to the Battle of Lake Champlain, for example, identify various Regular Army soldiers who served with the American fleet. Most of the affidavits concern extra pay due for naval service, such as the account submitted to Paymaster General Robert Brem by attorney Charles P. Curtis after the war. Writing on behalf of 36 former soldiers of the 15th U.S. Infantry who acted as marines on board of Commodore W. Donophy[s] U.S. Fleet in the action of the 11th September 1814, Curtis requested payment of three months extra pay, the money being due in accordance with a postwar resolution of Congress allowing such compensation for soldiers who served in other military branches. Paymaster General Brem readily approved the extra pay on October 23, 1816.25 Several lists of dead, absent, or discharged men from the 16th U.S. Infantry show the names, dates of service, and balances in pay for deceased soldiers who served during the early part of the war, from July 11 to December 9, 1812. Other lists of men discharged at Fort Mifflin and Province Island Barracks between May 20 and December 31, 1814, concern soldiers who failed to pass muster or inspection. In addition to name, regiment, and dates of enlistment and discharge, the lists identify various reasons why these soldiers proved unfit to serve. Disqualifications ranged from natural infirmities such as old age, blindness, deafness, and idiocy, to specific ailments including swollen legs, ruptures, rheumatism, incurrable siphilis, epilepsy, and lameness occasioned by habitual intoxication.26 Other assorted lists include men discharged from Governors Island, August 10, 1813; recruits of the Sixth U.S. Infantry discharged at Fort Columbus, 1813; and lists of sick men at Greenbush Cantonment, April 26, 1813, and the General Military Hospital, New York, February 14, 1814. A few general payroll lists for discharged men provide additional information not mentioned in the individual pay vouchers and subsistence accounts. The payrolls identify soldiers by name; unit (company and regiment); rank; date

and place of discharge; place of residence; term of service; additional pay and bounty due; and commencement of financial settlement. Specific travel allowances calculated the distance to return home, the rate or miles of travel per day, the number of days traveled, and the pay rate per day. The lists also indicated the number of rations issued, the cost of rations per day, and the total amount of subsistence allowed for the soldier to return home. After William Towson was discharged on June 12, 1815, he received six dollars to journey 600 miles from Buffalo to Baltimore (20 miles per day for 30 days at 20 cents per day). He also received $5.10 for 30 rations (1 ration per day at 17 cents per ration), along with back pay ($46.20) and additional bounty ($18.00), for a total allowance of $75.30.27 Related Military Records Accessible in other Record Groups at nARA Other records are available at the National Archives to research military service in the Regular Army during the War of 1812. In RG 94, the Registers of Enlistments in the U.S.

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Army, 17981914 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M233), provide the principal source of information. The registers from 1798 to 1815 identify the name of the enlistee, his age, place of birth, physical description, the date he enlisted, regimental assignment, and the name of the recruiting officer. They also include the date and place of discharge and other notations such as where the soldiers unit was stationed. The registers sometimes include notes about state militia officers, Regular Army officers, and U.S. Military Academy cadets. The registers are arranged by year, with enlistment entries cataloged roughly alphabetically by the first letter of the soldiers surname, then by first letter of the given name, and then roughly chronological by date of enlistment.28 Enlistment papers for 1798 to October 31, 1912 (Entry 91) consist of two files of recruitment records for individual soldiers in the Regular Army. The earlier file covers 1798 to July 14, 1894, but the majority of the papers relate to post War of 1812 service. Arranged alphabetically by surname, the enlistment papers generally show the name of the soldier, age, occupation, a personal description, place and date of enlistment, recruiting officer, and regimental assignment. Certificates of disability (Entry 95), issued by Army surgeons recommending discharges for invalid soldiers, contain much of the same information, such as name, rank, military unit, and enlistment information, and also personal data including age, place of birth, a physical description, and statements relating to specific infirmities. Arranged into several files, including one for the War of 1812, the certificates of disability are otherwise unorganized and difficult to use.29 Regimental records for Regular Army units that served during the War of 1812 are located in Record Group 98, Records of United States Army Commands, 17841821. Orderly books (containing handwritten transcriptions of orders issued and received) and company books are available for most units, including the First through Third Artillery (18121814), the Corps of Artillery (18141821), the Regiment of Light Dragoons (18121815), the First through 46th U.S. Infantry, and the First and Third Rifle-

To learn more about


Military Resources, War of 1812, go to www. archives.gov/research/military/war-of-1812/. War of 1812 Discharge Certificates, go to www. archives.gov/research/military/war-of-1812/1812discharge-certificates/discharge-certificates.html. Genealogical Records of the War of 1812 (Prologue article), go to www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1991/winter/warof-1812.html.

man Regiments. The company books usually contained descriptive inventories of enlisted men, lists of officers, and rosters of men separated from service by transfer, death and wounds, discharge, and desertion. Some regiments maintained additional records such as morning reports, monthly returns, letters sent and received by headquarters, accounts of clothing issued to troops, inspection returns, and muster rolls. One unit, the Second U.S. Infantry, also kept a ledger of discharges, deaths, and desertions (18111814).30 Surrendered bounty land warrant files are in Record Group 49, Records of the Bureau of Land Management, and are usually arranged by the year of the act of Congress that authorized the warrant, then by the number of acres, and finally the warrant number. These records document the surrender of the bounty land warrant for a patent for federal land in the public domain. While many veterans or their heirs sold the warrants to unrelated third parties, these files nonetheless provide evidence of the final disposition of the warrants. Some bounty land warrants were issued at the time of the war, and those issued under the acts of Congress of 1812, 1814, and 1842 are indexed in National Archives Microfilm Publication M848, War of 1812 Military Bounty Land Warrants, 18151858 (14 rolls), and others issued under the acts of 1812, 1850, and 1855 are indexed in National Archives Microfilm Publication M313, Index to War of 1812 Pension Application Files (102 rolls).31 In addition, there are many bounty land warrant application files based on War of 1812 service in Record Group 15, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and these are arranged alphabetically by name. The veterans application provides evidence of his military service to prove his eligibility for a warrant. Some applications were made by the veterans widow, minor children, or occasionally, parent, and in these cases, the proof of marriage or parentage was required. Researchers should request a search of the bounty land warrant application files even if an entry for the soldier is not found in either M848 or M313. Congress first authorized pensions for

A handwritten marriage certificate accompanied the death notice for John Uber (15th U.S. Infantry), who was killed at the Battle of York on April 27, 1813, showing he and Elizabeth Wirth of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, were lawfully joined together in holy matrimony on January 17, 1802.

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War of 1812 veterans in 1871, and to their widows in 1878, and these pension files are also in Record Group 15.

q q q q
Although the War Department normally did not retain certificates of dischargeeither for the Regular Army or the volunteer servicesthe availability of such records for a portion of U.S. Army veterans from the War of 1812 adds much substance to the details of their service. Providing a lit-

any of personal information as well as a record of enlistment, financial compensation for military service, and reasons why service terminated, the discharge certificates offer a concise glimpse into a soldiers wartime service. In a few fortunate instances, extra or unexpected detailsincluding birth and marriage information and parental relationshipsoccur in these records as well, enhancing the value of the discharges and related records as useful tools to document the lives of a select group of soldiers from the War of 1812. P

Note on Soures
Dragoons originally served as mounted infantry, riding on horseback for offensive maneuvers and standing on foot for defense. By the 18th century, however, they had generally evolved into conventional light cavalry, but their principal weapons still included a carbine (short-barreled musket) as well as a sabre. 2 Discharge certificate for Pvt. John Warring, Corps of Light Dragoons, March 21, 1815; Discharge Certificates and Miscellaneous Records Relating to the Discharge of Soldiers from the Regular Army, 17921815 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1856, roll 5); Records of the Adjutant Generals Office, 1780s1917, Record Group 94 (RG 94); National Archives Building, Washington, DC (NAB). 3 Claire Prechtel-Kluskens, Discharge Certificates and Miscellaneous Records Relating to the Discharge of Soldiers from the Regular Army, 1792 1815, Descriptive Pamphlet M1856 (Washington, DC: National Institute on Genealogical Research Alumni Association and National Archives and Records Administration, 2003), p. 2. See also Claire Prechtel-Kluskens, War of 1812 Discharge Certificates, NGS NewsMagazine 31:3 (JulySeptember 2005): 29. 4 Prechtel-Kluskens, Discharge Certificates, p. 1. 5 Ibid; Donald R. Hickey, The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989), pp. 7677. 6 Ibid. 7 Prechtel-Kluskens, Discharge Certificates, p. 1. 8 Lucille H. Pendell and Elizabeth Bethel, comps., Preliminary Inventory 17, Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Adjutant Generals Office (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Service, 1949), p. 11. 9 Prechtel-Kluskens, Discharge Certificates, p. 3. 10 Discharge certificate for Gabriel Caves, Capt. John B. Longs Co., 39th U.S. Infantry; Discharge Certificates and Miscellaneous Records (M1856, roll 4), RG 94, NAB. 11 Descriptive list for William T. Smith, 16th U.S. Infantry; Discharge Certificates and Miscellaneous Records (M1856, roll 2), RG 94, NAB. 12 Descriptive lists for Stephen McCarrier and Samuel Barnes, 14th U.S. Infantry; in Ibid; Discharge certificate for Thomas Webster, Corps of Artillery, July 9, 1814 (M1856, roll 6). 13 Certificates of death for Henry Carman, 2nd U.S. Artillery, April 1, 1814, and William Peters, 2nd U.S. Artillery, December 21, 1813 (M1856, roll 6). 14 Certificate of death for William Hutchins, 21st U.S. Infantry, March 14, 1815 (M1856, roll 2). 15 Pay vouchers for Pleasant Hazelwood, 2nd Regiment Light Dragoons, April 23, 1813, and Henry Carman, 2nd U.S. Artillery, November 3, 1815 (M1856, rolls 56). 16 Prechtel-Kluskens, Discharge Certificates, p. 5. 17 Recommendation for discharge, Elisha Harrington, 2nd U.S. Light Dragoons, and furlough for George Shippey, Light Dragoons, March 28, 1815, Discharge Certificates and Miscellaneous Records (M1856, roll 5), RG 94, NAB.
1

Enlistment paper for Andrew McMillen, 23rd Infantry, May 17, 1812 (M1856, roll 2). 19 Substitute certificate for John Miller, 1st U.S. Light Dragoons, January 9, 1814 (M1856, roll 5). 20 Subsistence account for 2nd Lt. Rodolphus Simons, 23rd U.S. Infantry, March 2, 1814 (M1856, roll 2). 21 Affidavit of Thomas Briggs, 9th U.S. Infantry, regarding the nativity of his son, William Briggs, 9th U.S. Infantry, June 23, 1814 (M1856, roll 1). 22 Marriage certificates for Henry Carman, 2nd U.S. Artillery, and John Uber, 15th U.S. Infantry (M1856, rolls 2, 6). 23 Affidavits of Adonijah Marvin, May 4, 1813, and Mary Sharp, November 16, 1813 (M1856, roll 6). 24 Affidavit verifying the minority of Jacob Foye, 45th U.S. Infantry (M1856, roll 5). 25 Paymaster General Robert Brem to Charles P Curtis, October . 23, 1816, Affidavits Relating to Service on Lake Champlain, 1814 (M1856, roll 1). 26 Lists of Dead and Absent Men, and Lists of Men Discharged at Fort Mifflin and Province Island Barracks, ibid. 27 Payrolls of Discharge Men, ibid. 28 Prechtel-Kluskens, Discharge Certificates, pp. 78. 29 Pendell and Bethel, Preliminary Inventory 17, pp. 2829. 30 Maizie Johnson and Sarah Powell, Preliminary Inventory NM64, Preliminary Inventory of the Records of United States Army Commands, 17841821 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Service, 1966), pp. 2255. 31 For more information, see Kenneth Hawkins, General Information Leaflet Number 67, Research in the Land Entry Files of the General Land Office (Record Group 49) (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1997), also available online at Archives.gov.
18

Authors
John P Deeben is a genealogy archives specialist in . the Research Support Branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from Gettysburg College and the Pennsylvania State University. Claire Prechtel-Kluskens is a projects archivist in the Research Support Branch of the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. She specializes in records of high genealogical value and writes and lectures frequently.

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AUTHORS ON THE RECORD

the hellhound of wall street


by hilary parkinson
In 1933, the United States was gripped by the Great Depression. The countrys financial system teetered on the verge of collapse. Thirty-eight states had closed their banks, and one in four families had lost their life savings. Reform was needed, and it would begin with Ferdinand Pecora, who investigated the causes of the 1929 crash in his role as chief counsel for the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency. For 10 days, the officers of National City Bank were grilled by Pecora. And 10 days later, Charles E. Mitchellchairman of that bank and former adviser to three Presidentsresigned in disgrace. Ultimately, the results of the investigation would lead to stronger federal oversight on the activities of banks and the stock market. Michael Perino is the Dean George W. Matheson Professor of Law at St. Johns University School of Law in New York. He is also a former Wall Street litigator. He has testified in both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives and has written extensively on regulation, securities fraud, and class action litigation. His website is www.michaelperino.com.

Michael Perino

Although he was responsible for sweeping reform in the United States banking system, the name Ferdinand Pecora is unknown to most Americans. What made you decide to tell his story? I actually set out to write an entirely different book. The subject is unimportant, but it tangentially involved the Pecora hearings. I knew that Pecora had given his oral history in the early 1960s as part of the Columbia University oral history project, and although I didnt think it was going to be terribly relevant to my book, I decided I should read it. By page 10, I was completely hooked. Pecora had such an incredible life storyhe immigrated to the United States from Sicily in the late 1800s when he was five years old. He grew up in a basement tenement on the west side of Manhattan and quit school when he was just 15 when his father was injured in an industrial accident. Over the next four decades, Pecora supported his family, went to night law school, became a prominent New York prosecutor, and eventually took on Wall Street in one of the most successful congressional investigations ever conducted. It really is a classic American success story. I felt compelled to tell the world about this unsung legal hero. in your acknowledgements, you thank Richard McCulley and William H. Davis, national Archives staff who helped you with your requests for records from the Senate Banking and Currency Committee hearings. Were you familiar with these records before you started research for this book? or was this your first experience at the national Archives? This was my first experience at the Archives, and Richard and Bill

were enormously helpful. Although I spent many days there, I still feel that I only scratched the surface of what is available in these records. There are, I believe, over 170 boxes of documents at the National Archives from the investigation. It is a treasure trove for anyone interested in the inner workings of the financial industry during the 1920s and 1930s. Ferdinand Pecora was an excellent lawyer, but not a Wall Street expert. You are a professor of law at St. Johns University whose area of expertise is in securities regulation and securities fraud. How do you think Pecora fared in terms of understanding the complicated issues of securities? Pecora didnt know much about Wall Street, which made his performance in the hearings all the more remarkable. He was a quick study, with a phenomenal memory. One of his aides said that the staff looked with astonishment at this man who, through the intricate mazes of banking syndicates, market deals, chicanery of all sorts, in a field new to him, never forgot a name, never made an error in a figure, and never lost his temper. Of course, Pecora was far from infallible. His ignorance about the finer details of Wall Street practice occasionally led him astray. A few times, he was flat-out wrong. But given the quick pace of the investigation, its actually surprising how accurate he was. In the end, I dont think his few missteps mattered very much. Pecora tried not to get lost in the arcane details. He had spent a dozen years as a prosecutor in New York, and he knew that the way to win over a jury was not to dwell

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on the minutiae. His jury was the American public, and I think he knew that presenting endless testimony about the ins and outs of Wall Street would be counter-productive. If he really wanted public support for reform, he had to tell them a story that was easy to understand. Pecora was the master of the telling anecdotehe was able to spin compelling narratives out of the most confusing welter of complex details. That was how he created the clamor for reform. His genius was his ability to convert complex economic problems into simple morality plays. The hearings take place at the very end of the Hoover administration, days before the inauguration of Roosevelt. The outgoing and incoming Presidents were in contact with each other. Were you able to explore the archives at both Presidential libraries? I spent a good deal of time at the Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, and I did research in a number of other archival collections as well. I did not make it out to the Hoover Library, but fortunately I was able to rely on previously compiled primary documents from the Hoover administration and the rich body of secondary material that has been written about the interregnum. Although the banks were in their death throes during the 10 days of hearings, Roosevelt remains a background figure until his inauguration. His focus seems to be on creating an inaugural speech that will motivate and comfort Americans while addressing the financial disaster. Did your time at the Roosevelt library shed any new light on Roosevelts motivations? When President Obama took office in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, his then chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said that politicians should never let a good crisis go to waste. Roosevelt understood that maxim perhaps better than anyone else. When Roosevelt took office in March 1933, there was not a single federal law that regulated how Wall Street operated. The wrongdoing Pecora uncovered and the desperate condition of the country gave Roosevelt the political climate he needed to change that. The first federal securities laws, federal deposit insurance (a reform Roosevelt initially opposed), and the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission all flow from the abuses Pecora uncovered. Roosevelts motivation to capitalize on the crisis is well known. What surprised me was Roosevelts close personal connection

to the scandal. My book focuses on the few weeks after Pecoras appointment as committee counsel in the winter of 1933. The investigation had started the previous March and had largely been ineffective. But Pecora turned it all around when he subpoenaed one of the leading bankers of the day, Charles E. Mitchell, the chairman of the National City Bank of New York (todays Citigroup). Over the course of just 10 days, Pecora showed that the bank and its securities trading arm had engaged in all sorts of unsavory behavior. It sold worthless bonds to investors without fully disclosing the risks, manipulated its stock price and the stock prices of other companies, and lavishly compensated its executives as the country plunged into depression. It all hit close to home for Roosevelt because he had a long personal banking relationship with City Bank. There was one Roosevelt quote that really stood out for me. Shortly after he took office, Roosevelt told a visitor from another Wall Street firm: My gosh, I feel Charlie took my money. Anyone reading this book cant help but wonder why history seems to be repeating itself recently when it comes to banks and investment firms. After researching and writing this book, do you think the Senate will be looking for another Hellhound? I think there have already been some attempts to recreate the success of the Pecora hearings. Senator Carl Levin held hearings in the spring of 2010 on Goldman Sachs and released a scathing report on the investigation earlier this year. Congress created the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate the causes of the financial crisis, although that independent commission was more closely modeled on the 9/11 Commission than the Pecora investigation. The more relevant question, I think, is why these efforts did not have the same success. Pecora was a gifted courtroom lawyer, and he certainly deserves the lions share of the credit. But he was also the beneficiary of impeccable timing. He decided to put the leader of the largest bank in the country on the stand in Washington at the peak of the banking crisis of 1933. It was the Washington equivalent of the perfect stormthe precise combination of crisis and scandal necessary to pass major reform legislation. Those political moments, however, are ephemeral. As the 2008 financial crisis slips farther and farther into the past, it looks increasingly likely that we have missed our opportunity for meaningful reform.

Authors on the Record

Prologue 63

EVENTS
WASHINgTON, D.C. For up-to-date event information, consult NARAs Calendar of Events. The free Calendar is available from National Archives and Records Administration, Calendar of Events (SC, Room G-1), 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408, or on the web at www.archives.gov/calendar. Permanent exhibit: The Public Vaults. National Archives Building. 202-357-5000. Continuing exhibition: Whats Cooking, Uncle Sam? National Archives Building. 202-357-5000. November 9. Author lecture: Simon Winchester, Atlantic. Carter Library. 404-865-7100. November 10. Author lecture: Peter Eichstaedt, Consuming the Congo: War and Conflict Minerals in the Worlds Deadliest Place. Carter Library. 404865-7100. November 16. Author lecture: Harry Belafonte, My Song: A Memoir. Carter Library. 404-865-7100. November 17. Author lecture: Tom Brokaw, The Time of Our Lives. Carter Library. 404-865-7100. AUSTIN, TExAS Continuing exhibit: Left to Right: Radical Movements of the 1960s. Johnson Library. 512-7210200. Continuing exhibit: America: 19081973. Johnson Library. 512-721-0200. September 25. Austin Museum Day with live music by The Eggmen. Johnson Library. 512721-0200. October 6. Lecture: Bill Keller, former editor of the New York Times. Johnson Library. 512-7210200. October 18. Lecture: Harry Middleton on Mikhail Gorbachev. Johnson Library. 512-721-0200. CHICAgO, ILLINOIS Continuing exhibit: Becoming American: Immigrants, the Federal Courts in Chicago, and the Expansion of Citizenship, 18721991. National Archives at Chicago. 773-948-9001. Continuing exhibit: James B. Parsons: More Than a Judge. National Archives at Chicago. 773-948-9001. Continuing exhibit: Family Feud: How the Nike and BOMARC Missile Debate Changed Military Relationships. National Archives at Chicago. 773-948-9001. October 12. Civil War Symposium: 1861: The War Begins. Cantigny First Division Museum, Wheaton, IL. National Archives at Chicago. 773948-9001. November 12. Teacher workshop: Over There, Over Here. Explore the World War I Home Front. Call to register. National Archives at Chicago. 773-948-9001.

AbILENE, KANSAS Continuing exhibit: Eisenhower: Agent of Change. Eisenhower Library. 785-263-6700. Through November 30. Exhibit: Quilts of Valor. Eisenhower Library. 785-263-6700. September 24. 50-Year Retrospective. Eisenhowers Civil Rights Legacy, with William Coleman and Thurgood Marshall, Jr. Eisenhower Library. 785-263-6700. October 25. National Issues Forum: A Nation of Debtors. Eisenhower Library. 785-263-6700. November 3. Author lecture: Jim Newton, Eisenhower, The White House Years. Eisenhower Library. 785-263-6700. November 11. Veterans Day Program: Eisenhower Library. 785-263-6700.

COLLEgE STATION, TExAS Continuing exhibit: Headed to the White House. Bush Library. 979-691-4000.

gRAND RApIDS, MICHIgAN Continuing exhibit: Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World. Ford Museum. 616254-0400. September 21October 9. Exhibit: ArtPrize 2011. Ford Museum. 616-254-0400. October 30. Lecture: James Baker, Celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. Ford Museum. 616-254-0400.

ANN ARbOR, MICHIgAN Continuing exhibit: The Remarkable Life and Times of Gerald and Betty Ford. Ford Library. 734-205-0555. Continuing exhibit: Gerald Ford in Maos China. Ford Library. 734-205-0555.

HYDE pARK, NEW YORK ATLANTA, gEORgIA Through October 15. Exhibit: Slavery and Freedom in Black and White: The African American Experience in 19th-Century Newspapers. National Archives at Atlanta. 770-968-2100. October 17. Author lecture: Candice Millard, Destiny of the Republic. Carter Library. 404-865-7100. October 18. Author lecture: Twesigye Kaguri, A School For My Village. Carter Library. 404-865-7100. October 19. Author lecture: Jeff Frieden, Lost Decades: The Making of Americas Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery. Carter Library. 404-865-7100.
Left to Right, an exhibit at the Johnson Library.

bOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Opening September 2011. Exhibit: In Her Voice: Jacqueline Kennedy on the White House Years. Kennedy Library. 866-JFK-1960. September 26. Forum: 50th Anniversary of the Missile Gap. Kennedy Library. 866-JFK-1960. October 12. Forum: Hemingways Boat, Pilar. Kennedy Library. 866-JFK-1960. November 7. Forum: A Conversation with Stephen King. Kennedy Library. 866-JFK-1960.

Continuing exhibit: Our Plain Duty: FDR and Americas Social Security. Roosevelt Library. 845486-7745. September 25. Forum: FDRs Inner Circle: Domestic Affairs. Call to register. Roosevelt Library. 845486-7745. October 23. Forum. FDRs Inner Circle: Foreign Affairs. Call to register. Roosevelt Library. 845-486-7745. INDEpENDENCE, MISSOURI October 8. Talkin Truman: Screen Gems. Truman Library. 800-833-1225.

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pHILADELpHIA, pENNSYLVANIA Continuing exhibit: Libra Curio. National Archives at Philadelphia. 215-606-0112.

October 19. Home School HistoryDocuments of Early Federal America. National Archives at Atlanta. 770-968-2100. November 11. Webinar on Military Records at the National Archives. National Archives at Atlanta. 770-968-2100. November 15. Maximizing Your Census Research. National Archives at Atlanta. 770-9682100. fORT WORTH, TExAS October. 7. Native American Research Online: 1896 Applications & Dawes Rolls. National Archives at Fort Worth. To make reservations, contact ftworth.education@nara.gov. November 4. Genealogical Research in Military Records. National Archives at Fort Worth. To make reservations, contact ftworth.education@ nara.gov.

SEATTLE, WASHINgTON October 14. Workshop: Getting to the Source Primary Sources for Education. National Archives at Seattle. 206-336-5115.

SIMI VALLEY, CALIfORNIA Through October 23. Exhibit. Start Your Engines: American Race Cars at the Reagan Library. Reagan Library. 800-410-8354. Continuing exhibit. Forever FreeAbraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation. Reagan Library. 800-410-8354.

Lee and Grant, at the Kansas City Archives.

Opening October 21. Exhibit: The Presidents Photographer. Truman Library. 800-833-1225. November 12. Talkin Truman: The Military Career of a Missourian. Truman Library. 800833-1225. KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Continuing exhibit: Picture This! National Archives at Kansas City. 816-268-8000. Through October 22: Exhibit: Lee and Grant. National Archives at Kansas City. 816-268-8000. September 27. Lee and Grant Speaker Series: The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, with Christopher Stowe. National Archives at Kansas City. 816-268-8000. LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS Opening October 1. Exhibit: Nathan Sawaya: Art of the Brick. Clinton Library. 510-374-4242. NEW YORK, NEW YORK October 11. Annual Open House. National Archives at New York City. 866-840-1752. October 15. Exploring Records of the Custom House. Open House at One Bowling Green. National Archives at New York City. 866-8401752. Continuing exhibit: New York: An American Capital at the Federal Hall National Memorial. National Archives at New York City. 866-8401752.

WEST bRANCH, IOWA September 23. Naturalization Ceremony. Hoover Library. 319-643-5301. October 4. Author lecture: Delia Ray Howard, Here Lies Linc. Hoover Library. 319-643-5301. October 9. Author lecture: Wendy McClure, The Wilder Life. Hoover Library. 319-643-5301. Through October 30. Exhibit: School House to White House. Hoover Library. 319-643-5301. Opening November 19. Exhibit: A Fairy Tale Christmas. Hoover Library. 319-643-5301.

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI October 15. Genealogy Fair, in partnership with Kansas City Public Television. National Archives at Kansas City. 816-268-8000.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK October 20. Family History Game show at Ellis Island. Call 866-840-1752 for more information.

YORbA LINDA, CALIfORNIA Ongoing exhibit: The Pentagon Papers: Declassified. Nixon Library. 714-983-9120.

pHILADELpHIA, pENNSYLVANIA October 12. Finding Your Immigrant Ancestors. National Archives at Philadelphia. 215606-0100. November 4. First Friday. Bring your questions. National Archives at Philadelphia. 215-6060100.

GeNealoGy eveNtS
WASHINgTON, D.C. Genealogy workshops are conducted throughout the year. For up-to-date information, consult the monthly Calendar of Events and www.archives. gov/research/genealogy/events/.

SEATTLE, WASHINgTON September 28. Fundamentals of Genealogy, Fiske Genealogical Library. National Archives at Seattle. 206-336-5115. October 8. Tours (Archives Month). National Archives at Seattle. 206-336-5115. October 13, November 10. Brick Wall Genealogical Discussion Group. National Archives at Seattle. 206-336-5115.

ATLANTA, gEORgIA September 24. Afro-American History Genealogy. National Archives at Atlanta. 770-968-2100. October 10. Webinar on Native American Genealogy. National Archives at Atlanta. 770-968-2100.

Events

Prologue 65

NEWS & NOTICES


Services for Betty Ford are Held at Ford Museum in Grand Rapids
Friends and the family of Betty Ford paid tribute to the former First Lady on July 14, 2011, as she was buried next to her late husband at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mrs. Ford, who is remembered for using her status as First Lady to advocate for victims of breast cancer and substance abuse and talked about her own experience with them, died July 8 at the Eisenhower Medical Center near her home in Rancho Mirage, California. Among those speaking at her funeral on July 12 was another former First Lady, Rosalynn Carter. Millions of women are in her debt today, and she was never afraid to speak the truth even about the most sensitive subjects, including her own struggle with alcohol and pain killers, Carter said. The Eisenhower Medical Center is home to the Betty Ford Clinic. Mrs. Ford was the driving force in creating the clinic to treat individuals with drug and alcohol abuse problems. Since its creation, it has treated some 90,000 individuals. In Grand Rapids, nearly 4,000 came to the museum the evening of July 13 and the morning of July 14 to file past Mrs. Fords coffin. About 5,800 came to the museum from July 8 to July 13 to sign the condolence books. Elizabeth Ann Bloomer was born in 1918. After high school, she moved to New York City, where she studied with dance pioneer Martha Graham and became a fashion model. She was a member of Grahams auxiliary dance company and appeared in a number of venues, including Carnegie Hall. In 1941, she returned to Grand Rapids and met and married William Warren. The marriage ended in divorce after five years. In 1947, she met Gerald R. Ford, a University of Michigan and Yale Law School graduate then running for a seat in Congress. They were married in 1948, two weeks before he was elected to his first term. They moved to Washington, where Ford became more involved in House GOP politics, eventually becoming minority leader. They had four children, Michael, Jack, Steven, and Susan. In October 1973, when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned after pleading no contest in a bribery scandal, President Richard M. Nixon nominated Ford to succeed Agnew. Congress confirmed him quickly. The next August,

Visitors to the Ford Museum pay their respects at Betty Fords coffin.

after Nixon resigned because of the Watergate scandal, Ford became the first unelected President. During her tenure as First Lady, Mrs. Ford not only raised awareness of breast cancer by talking about her own experiences, she was active on several other issues. She broke with conservative orthodoxy and supported the Equal Rights Amendment and the pro-choice position on abortion. After her husband left the Presidency, she remained active in the womens rights movement, continuing to lobby for the ERA. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 and shared the Congressional Gold Medal with her husband in 1998.

Nixon library Releases Declassified Documents on National Security


The Richard M. Nixon Library released more than a halfmillion pages of documents on July 21, nearly all of them pertaining to speechwriting and congressional relations. A few, however, were declassified documents pertaining to foreign affairs. The textual release includes more than 4,000 pages that were declassified, in whole or in part, as the result of mandatory review requests from individual researchers and as a consequence of the 25-year systemic review program. These documents focus primarily on national security matters, including U.S. intelligence analysis of Ambassador

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to Vietnam Ellsworth Bunkers cables regarding negotiations with South Vietnams President Thieu in 1972, Henry Kissingers meetings with the Chinese leadership before President Nixons February 1972 trip, and U.S. policy toward Latin America. The bulk of the textual release in July consists of the 200,000-page David Gergen collection, which contains the White House speechwriting staff office files from 1973 to 1974 and the 300,000-page congressional relations office collection. Also included are small White House name files (Alpha files) on Shirley Temple Black, the Reverend Billy Graham, and Charles Bebe Rebozo.

Document Signed by lincoln Returned to Files at NaRa


Two Civil Warera documents, one bearing the signature of President Abraham Lincoln and apparently removed at some unknown time in the past, have been recovered by the National Archives. One document includes a lengthy, handwritten endorsement by Lincoln of the Rev. Henry Edwards as chaplain of a military hospital in Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1862. The other is the request to Lincoln for the endorsement. Bill Panagopulos of Alexander Autographs, Inc. and Alexander Historical Auctions, of Stamford, Connecticut, returned the documents to the National Archives on behalf of a Rhode Island family that owned them but preferred to remain anonymous. Panagopulos had received them on consignment from the family.

Early in 2009, NARA investigative archivist Mitchell Yockelson saw documents in the catalog of a New York autograph dealer that appeared to belong in a Civil War era commission branch file held by the National Archives. The documents were from the file of Rev. Edwards. The New York dealer had purchased the documents from Panagopulos, who had received them on consignment from the family. Panagopulous was thanked for his role in returning the documents to the Archives with a small ceremony in late August. In 2007, the National Archives honored two brothers who recognized several Civil War documents offered for sale on eBay that they had used at a National Archives facility. Their cooperation eventually led to the arrest of a former National Archives intern and the return of more than 160 stolen items.

two Men Charged with Stealing Documents from Roosevelt library


A federal jury in Baltimore, Maryland, has indicted two men for conspiracy to steal historical documents from NARAs Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York, and two other cultural institutions. The indictments, handed down July 28, allege that Barry Landau and Jason James Savedoff, Landaus assistant, conspired to steal seven reading copies of Roosevelts speeches and other items from the Roosevelt Library in December 2010. It also charges the pair with stealing documents and other objects from the New-York Historical Society and the Maryland Historical Society. Reading copies of speeches are those Roosevelt read from when he delivered his remarks. What makes them valuable are handwritten changes or notes in the margin he might have made and his signature or initials. The indictment also says they were planning to sell for profit the seven documents. It stated that four of them had already been sold for $35,000. NARAs Office of the Inspector General and the agencys Holdings Protection Team are continuing to work with the Justice Department on this case. Pending the next steps in court, Landau has been allowed to go home to New York under electronic surveillance. Savedoff was released on bail.
NARA staff archivist Trevor Plante, Archivist David Ferriero, and Bill Panagopulos examine the returned Lincoln document at the National Archives.

News & Notices

Prologue 67

pUbLICATIONS
Microfilm and Digital Publications
Microfilm and digital publications are produced by the National Archives and Records Administration to make records holdings more widely available for research. Current projects include the filming of military service records of the United States Colored Troops (Civil War). A descriptive pamphlet (DP) is available where indicated. Selected Department of Justice and U.S. Supreme Court Records Concerning Mexican Revolutionary Activities in the United States, 19061922 (M2131, RGs 60 and 267, 15 rolls) Register of Courts of Inquiry, Boards of Investigation, and Boards of Inquest of the Navy Department, 18611917 (M2135, RG 125, 1 roll) Record of Life Saving Medals Awarded, 18761944 (M2136, RG26, 1 roll) Franklin Peales Report on His Visit to Europe in the Service of the U.S. Mint, 183335 (M2137, RG 104, 1 roll) District Files from the General Correspondence of the Alaska Division, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 19081934 (M2149, RG 75, 20 rolls) School Files from the General Correspondence of the Alaska Division, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 19081934 (M2150, RG 75, 27 rolls) Master Abstracts of Enrollments Issued for Merchant Vessels at South Carolina, Georgia, and Northeastern Florida Ports, January 1815June 1911 (M2151, RG 41, 1 roll) For descriptions of the contents of National Archives microfilm publications, visit Order Online at www. archives.gov. Consult the roll list or table of contents for the series before ordering specific rolls. Publications can be purchased for $85 per microfilm roll or $125 per CD-ROM through Order Online or by submitting an order form (available on www.archives. gov/research/order) to National Archives Trust Fund, Cashier (NAT), Form 72 Order, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001. Make checks payable to the National Archives Trust Fund. VISA, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express are also accepted. Provide the account number, expiration date, and cardholder signature. Telephone: 1-800-234-8861; fax: 301-837-0483.

Picture Credits Cover, pp. 3739, 4244, USS Constitution Museum, Boston; inside front cover, pp. 23 (right), 24 (left), 49, 50, 51 (top), General Records of the Department of State, RG 59; back cover, pp. 711, pp. 1416, 18, National Personnel Records Center; p. 12, 111-SC-135-720; p. 13 (clockwise from upper left), 111-SC-192258-S, 44-8A-286, National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Library of Congress; 208-PU-83S(2), 342-FH-4A-7724; p. 21, Records of the Office of Strategic Services, 1919 1948, RG 226; p. 22 (left), C. E. Daniel Collection; pp. 22 (right), 23 (left), 24 (right), 26 (right), Collection of Von Hardesty; pp. 2425 (bottom), College Park Airport Museum Archives; p. 26 (left), Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs, RG 165; pp. 2829, 30 (left and right), 31, 32 (center and bottom), 33 (left), 34 (left), Records of the U.S. Coast Guard, RG 26; p. 30 (center), Flat Hammock Press; p. 32 (top), 306-NT-727-B153.654C; p. 33 (center), 306-N-154304C; p. 33 (right), Library of Congress; p. 34 (center), Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, RG 233; p. 34 (right), TIME magazine; p. 36, courtesy of Stephen Biesty; p. 40, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, RG 15; p. 41, Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library, RG 45; p. 47 (top), John F. Kennedy Library; p. 47 (bottom), German Information Center; pp. 51 (bottom), 52, Records of United States Army, Europe, RG 549; pp. 5455, 111-SC-96967; pp. 55 (inset), 56, 5860, National Archives Microfilm Publication M1856, Records of the Adjutant Generals Office, 1780s 1917, RG 94; p. 62, Michael Perrino; p. 63, Penguin Press; p. 62, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library; p. 63, National Archives at Kansas City; p. 66, Gerald R. Ford Library; p. 67, photo by Earl McDonald; p. 71, photos by Alexander Morozov; p. 72 (left), 111-SC184714; p. 72 (right), Records of the U.S. Customs Service, RG 36, National Archives at Riverside.

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what's new in the past?


FOR MORE THAN 40 yEARS, Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration has been telling readers about the rich resources and programs of the National Archives, its regional facilities, and the presidential libraries. In every issue you will find thought-provoking and entertaining articlesbased on research in the Archives magnificent holdings of original documentson American history and on the activities of the agency. SOME RECENT ARTICLES IN Prologue INCLUDE: How the Archives retrieved a treasure trove of FDR records. How inept diplomacy may have lost Central America for the United States. How Benard Fallss warnings to U.S. officials on Vietnam cost him dearly. How John Brown may have been Americas first terrorist or not. COMING UP: Prologue will have articles that explain how the hand of Walt Whitman shows up in Justice Department records; how the Marine Corps used dogs during World War II; how deck logs reveal the extent of damage on the attack on Pearl Harbor; and how typos show up in the Constitution. VISIT US ONLINE AT: www.archives.gov/publicationsprologue/.

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Foundation to Honor David M. Rubenstein at Annual Gala


In the 13th century, Magna Carta, The Great Charter, established that no onenot even the kingis above the law. Hundreds of years later, Americas founding fathers used Magna Carta as inspiration for the creation of a new set of documents that recognized individual rights and liberties in their new country. Today, the 1297 Magna Carta and the U.S. Charters of Freedom have come together at the National Archives, thanks to the generosity of philanthropist David M. Rubenstein. In addition to his loan of Magna Carta to the National Archives, he has lent a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation to the White House; a rare 1823 Stone engraving of the Declaration of Independence to the State Department, the National Gallery of Art, and other venues; and the first official map of the United States published after the Revolution to the Library of Congressall of which are used to increase public awareness of our nations history. In recognition of his passion for history education through the use of primary documents, the Foundation for the National Archives is pleased to present its eighth annual Records of Achievement Award to David M. Rubenstein. We will present the award at our annual Gala in November. The black-tie event, which includes an elegant dinner in the Rotunda Galleries of the National Archives Building, will be chaired this year by Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg. The Records of Achievement Award is the Foundations annual tribute to an individual whose work has cultivated a broader national awareness of the history and identity of the United States. David joins a distinguished list of past honorees: Tom Brokaw, Ken Burns, the late John Hope Franklin, Annette Gordon-Reed, Brian Lamb, David McCullough, and James McPherson. David Rubenstein embodies the spirit of this award, not only through his commitment to return Magna Carta to the National Archives, where it had previously been displayed, but also through his funding of a state-of-the-art re-encasement of the landmark British document to preserve it for future generations. With his dedication to inspiring a deeper appreciation of America through the use of original records, David is the perfect choice to receive the Foundations highest honor.

Discovering the Civil War Traveling Exhibition Off to Great Start


More than 21,000 visitors waited in line as long as eight hours outside the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, this summer for a chance to view the original Emancipation Proclamation as the National Archives Experience traveling exhibition Discovering the Civil War made its first stop on a national tour. The Foundation-supported exhibition, featuring a special threeday showing of the Emancipation Proclamation, along with rare and previously unseen Civil War letters, diaries, photographs, maps, petitions, and patents, was made possible thanks to the generous support of AT&T, the Seedlings Foundation, the Tawani Foundation, the Civil War Conservation Corps, Foundation board members Richard Eliasberg and Marvin Weissberg, and many individual donors. As well as featuring the full Discovering the Civil War exhibition, originally presented in two parts in the Lawrence F. OBrien Gallery at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., the exhibition in Dearborn also invited visitors to walk through a living history camp, complete with reenactors in period attire, and to attend commemorative speeches and live musical performances. Discovering the Civil War also was complemented with an exhibit of loaned artifacts and documents specific to the First Michigan Light Artillery, Battery A Loomis Battery. Among the items displayed was an original 10-pounder Parrot cannon that saw service by the battery at the Battle of Chickamauga. These regionally specific Civil War artifacts underscore the widespread and farreaching nature of the national struggle. Discovering the Civil War now travels to the Houston Museum of Natural Science (opening October 14, 2011) and the Tennessee State Museum, as well as other locations throughout the country during the Civil War sesquicentennial.

Foundation Supports July 4th Celebration at the National Archives


This summer, the Foundation was pleased to partner with the National Archives in another successful Fourth of July celebration in Washington, D.C. The festivities were made possible in part by the generous support of lead sponsor John Hancock Financial as well as the Foundations newest corporate sponsor, the national law firm Dykema. Visitors on the National Archives steps enjoyed the presentation of the colors by the Continental Color Guard and a performance by the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry The Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. Following remarks by Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero, historical

KEN LORE President, Foundation for the National Archives

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Foundation Members Support national Archives; enjoy Special events


Members of the Foundation for the National Archives help to fund cuttingedge exhibitions, online educational activities, and high-profile public programs, all intended to inspire citizens to explore their documentary past and cultivate a deeper understanding of American history. In return, members enjoy special recognition, gifts, and privileges, including: Patron ($60) Complimentary subscription to Prologue Priority admission to the National Archives Experience through the Special Events entrance Advance notice of William G. McGowan Theater programs and Archives activities through the monthly Calendar of Events 10-percent discount year-round, plus additional seasonal discounts, at the Archives Shop in Washington, D.C., and online Invitations to members-only tours National recognition in the Foundations Annual Report and on the website Family ($100). All benefits of the Patron level, plus: A copy of an educational childrens publication and surprise gift from the Archives Shop Advance notice of family programs at the National Archives Experience Advocate ($125). All benefits of the Patron level, plus: Reproduction of a significant historical document Exclusive opportunity to participate in lecture programs organized by the Foundation Benefactor ($250). All benefits of the Advocate level, plus: National Archives box for archival storage Invitations to attend exhibition openings in the Lawrence F. OBrien Gallery Guardian ($500). All benefits of the Benefactor level, plus: Complimentary catalog from an exhibition at the National Archives Experience Invitations to attend special receptions at exhibition openings Conservator ($750). All benefits of the Guardian level, plus: Personalized guided tours of the National Archives Experience Invitations to additional receptions throughout the year Founder ($1,000). All benefits of the Conservator level, plus: Signed copy of a book related to programs and exhibitions at the National Archives Experience Invitations to a July 4th breakfast and priority seating for the ceremonial reading of the Declaration of Independence on the steps of the National Archives Building
The U.S. Army 3rd Infantry The Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps performs in front of the steps of the National Archives on July 4. The Foundation for the National Archives supports the National Archives and Records Administration in developing programs, projects, and materials that tell the story of America through the holdings in NARA. For more information on how you can help others experience the National Archives, contact the Foundation at 202-357-5946, or write to us at foundationmembers@nara.gov. To learn more about the Foundation, visit www.archives.gov/nae/support.

Chef Jos Andrs and his family joined Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero and a historical reenactor on the National Archives July 4th float in the annual parade.

reenactors participated in a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence, presenting visitors with an opportunity to experience the passion and intensity of that founding document. Historical reenactors also were on hand in the Rotunda to chat with visitors who came to see the original Declaration. Other activities at the Archives included the chance to sign a fullsize facsimile of the Declaration of Independence and listen to patriotic and historic stories in the Boeing Learning Center. In addition, the National Archives float was featured prominently as the lead float in the Washington, D.C., July 4th parade. The Archivist was joined on the float by award-winning chef Jos Andrs and his family. Andrs is the Chief Culinary Adviser of the current National Archives Experience exhibition, Whats Cooking, Uncle Sam?

Scholar ($2,500). All benefits of the Founder level, plus: Invitation to a private dinner with members of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for the National Archives and National Archives leadership For an additional $50 added to any level of membership, young professionals may join the Young Founders Society to enjoy networking at special receptions, exhibition openings, and programs of the National Archives Experience. To become a member of the Foundation, please visit http://www.archives.gov/ nae/support or call the Membership Office at 202-357-5946.

The Foundation for the National Archives

Prologue 71

BOAT
PieCeS oF HiStoRy

Bogies
umphrey Bogart paired his passion for acting with his passion for the sea. While he piloted boats in a few of his movies, he was also a serious sailor in his private life. Among the records of the National Archives at Riverside, California, is evidence of the nautical side of his life. The Designation of Home Port of Vessel signed by Bogart confirms the yacht Santanas home port as Los Angeles. The former owner is fellow Hollywood actor Dick Powell. After a cruise on Santana with Powell, Bogart fell in love with the boat and bought it for $50,000 in 1945. Bogart owned the 55-foot Santana for 12 years, until his death in 1957, longer than any of the other 11 owners of the yacht. His immediate predecessors as owner are listed together on another document, the General Index or Abstract of Title. This sheet names all the owners of the vessel from the builder to its first owner to Eva Gabors husband to actors George Brent, Ray Milland, and Dick Powell. In the heyday of Hollywood, yachting was certainly a sign of the good life. The short tenures of Milland (three months) and Powell (15 months) suggest that their movie studios were behind the purchases for publicity reasons. The Vessel Documentation Case File for the Santana also contains pages signed by Powell, Milland, and Brent on their own Designation of Home Port applications. The documents contain an additional historical footnote. Another famous name in American history appears on the applicationsWilliam Jennings Bryan, Jr., son of the three-time Democratic Presidential candidate and Wilsons Secretary of State. Bryan is listed as the Collector of Customs for the Port of Los Angeles. He was appointed to that post by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1938 and served four terms for a total of 15 years. P

Humphrey Bogart and his wife, Mayo Methot, in 1943. Right: Designation of Home Port of Vessel for Humphrey Bogarts yacht Santana.

N atioNal a rchives
National Archives and Records Administration 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20408-0001 202-357-5400 E-mail: inquire@nara.gov National Archives and Records Administration 8601 Adelphi Road College Park, MD 20740-6001 301-837-2000 E-mail: inquire@nara.gov NARANortheast Region (Boston) 380 Trapelo Road Waltham, MA 02452-6399 866-406-2379 NARANortheast Region (Pittsfield) 10 Conte Drive Pittsfield, MA 01201-8230 413-236-3600 NARANortheast Region (New York City) 201 Varick Street, 12th Floor New York, NY 10014-4811 212-401-1620 NARAMid Atlantic Region (Center City Philadelphia) 900 Market Street Philadelphia, PA 19107-4292 215-606-0100 NARAMid Atlantic Region (Northeast Philadelphia) 14700 Townsend Road Philadelphia, PA 19154-1096 215-305-2000 NARASoutheast Region 5780 Jonesboro Road Morrow, GA 30260-3806 770-968-2100

aNd

r ecords a dmiNistr atioN


NARARocky Mountain Region Denver Federal Center, Building 48 P.O. Box 25307 Denver, CO 80225-0307 303-407-5700 NARAPacific Region (Riverside) 23123 Cajalco Road Perris, CA 92572-7298 951-956-2000 NARAPacific Region (San Francisco) 1000 Commodore Drive San Bruno, CA 94066-2350 650-238-3500 NARAPacific Alaska Region (Seattle) 6125 Sand Point Way, NE Seattle, WA 98115-7999 206-336-5115 NARAPacific Alaska Region (Anchorage) 654 West Third Avenue Anchorage, AK 99501-2145 907-261-7800 NARANational Personnel Records Center (Civilian Personnel Records) 111 Boulder Boulevard Valmeyer, IL 62295-2603 314-801-9250 NARANational Personnel Records Center (Military Personnel Records) 1 Archives Drive St. Louis, MO 63138-1002 314-801-0800 Washington National Records Center 4205 Suitland Road Suitland, MD 20746-8001 301-778-1600

NARASoutheast Region 4712 Southpark Boulevard Ellenwood, GA 30294-3595 404-736-2820 NARAGreat Lakes Region (Chicago) 7358 South Pulaski Road Chicago, IL 60629-5898 773-948-9001 NARAGreat Lakes Region (Dayton) 3150 Springboro Road Dayton, OH 45439-1883 937-425-0600 NARACentral Plains Region (Kansas City) 400 West Pershing Road Kansas City, MO 64108-4306 816-268-8000 NARACentral Plains Region (Lees Summit) 200 Space Center Drive Lees Summit, MO 64064-1182 816-288-8100 NARACentral Plains Region (Lenexa) 17501 West 98th Street, Ste. 3150 Lenexa, KS 66219-1735 913-825-7800 NARASouthwest Region 2600 West Seventh Street, Ste. 162 Fort Worth, TX 76107-2244 817-831-5620 NARASouthwest Region 1400 John Burgess Drive Fort Worth, TX 76140-6222 817-551-2051

Presidential libraries
Herbert Hoover Library 210 Parkside Drive P.O. Box 488 West Branch, IA 52358-0488 319-643-5301 www.hoover.archives.gov Franklin D. Roosevelt Library 4079 Albany Post Road Hyde Park, NY 12538-1999 845-486-7770 / 800-337-8474 www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu Harry S. Truman Library 500 West U.S. Highway 24 Independence, MO 64050-1798 816-268-8200 / 800-833-1225 www.trumanlibrary.org Dwight D. Eisenhower Library 200 Southeast Fourth Street Abilene, KS 67410-2900 785-263-6700 / 877-746-4453 www.eisenhower.archives.gov John F. Kennedy Library Columbia Point Boston, MA 02125-3398 617-514-1600 / 866-JFK-1960 www.jfklibrary.org Lyndon Baines Johnson Library 2313 Red River Street Austin, TX 78705-5702 512-721-0200 www.lbjlibrary.org Richard Nixon Library 18001 Yorba Linda Boulevard Yorba Linda, CA 92886-3903 714-983-9120 www.nixonlibrary.gov Richard Nixon LibraryCollege Park 8601 Adelphi Road College Park, MD 20740-6001 301-837-3290 Gerald R. Ford Library 1000 Beal Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2114 734-205-0555 www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov Gerald R. Ford Museum 303 Pearl Street, NW Grand Rapids, MI 49504-5353 616-254-0400 Jimmy Carter Library 441 Freedom Parkway Atlanta, GA 30307-1498 404-865-7100 www.jimmycarterlibrary.org Ronald Reagan Library 40 Presidential Drive Simi Valley, CA 93065-0600 805-577-4000/ 800-410-8354 www.reagan.utexas.edu George Bush Library 1000 George Bush Drive College Station, TX 77845-3906 979-691-4000 bushlibrary.tamu.edu William J. Clinton Library 1200 President Clinton Avenue Little Rock, AR 72201-1749 501-374-4242 www.clintonlibrary.gov George W. Bush Library 1725 Lakepointe Drive Lewisville, TX 75057 972-353-0545 www.georgewbushlibrary.gov

Prologue Fall 2011

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