MS040
SIDNEY GARDNER
MACMILLAN Private Papers
9 August 1918 - 25 March
1919
Sidney Gardner MacMillan, son of Doctor William
Dougald MacMillan [WDM] and Margaret Anderson MacMillan [MAM] of Wilmington,
served in the American Third Army in the last months of the World War I.
According to his letters, Lieutenant MacMillan arrived in Europe some time
around April 1918. He was wounded in the ankle at the Second Battle of the Marne
and hospitalized in Limoges, France. After rehabilitation, he rejoined the Third
Army, then under the command of Major General Joseph Dickman, and served in the
Third Division of US army of occupation headquartered in Andernach,
Germany.
MacMillan's letters to his parents and to his sister, Eleanor MacMillan, illuminate the tedium of army life as well as its discomforts. Forced to muster for an inspection of the Third Division by General John J. Pershing, MacMillan wrote that he had never been so "completely frozen through in my life."[Letter dated 9 March 1919] He found the Germans, whom he called "Dutch," [from Deutch] far more agreeable than the French, whom he felt exploited the American soldiers. "The Dutch have to treat us right or we put them in jail. ...Considering that France is ...stricken and shell torn it is not justified in taking it out on the soldiers that kept the Hun out of their wonderful Paris." [Letter dated 25 March, 1919]
MacMillan was a lively observer and an eloquent correspondent; he was also very homesick for his family and for his young wife, Cynthia Polk Roundtree. His desire to be discharged and to return home is a recurring thread in the letters written after the Armistice of 1918. He found the routine of army life, with its training schools and apparently aimless troop movements burdens to be endured with a cheerful although sometimes ironic spirit, as he wrote on 8 March 1919, "When I take my army to the Fiji Islands I'm not going to have them riding around in box cars." MacMillan ultimately was mustered out of the army and returned to Wilmington, North Carolina. He died 8 April 1967.
This collection consists of thirty original letters with most of the accompanying envelopes, plus five unused postcards of locations in the Seine Valley.
The collection was donated to the William Madison Randall Library by Ms. Jane Rhett, MacMillan's niece, in 1984.
These papers have been designated Accession Number 40
of the Manuscripts Collection, Special Collections Department, William Madison
Randall Library, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 601 South College
Road, Wilmington, North Carolina 28403-3297.
Contact the Special
Collections Librarian for information about publication rights.
There are no access restrictions on this collection.
Processed by Patricia B. McGee
Special
Collections Librarian
Manuscripts Collection
William Madison Randall
Library
The University of North Carolina Wilmington
18 March 1997
Inventory
Manuscript/Box/File
040/1/1
August 9, 1918, Limoges, France. Letter to MAM
040/1/2
August 13, 1918, Llimoges, France. Letter to MAM
040/1/3
14
August 1918, Llimoges, France. Letter to MAM
040/1/4
18
August 1918, Llimoges, France. Letter to WDM and MAM
040/1/5
31
August 1918, Biarritz, France. Letter to Eleanor
MacMillan
040/1/6
12
November 1918, Letter to Eleanor MacMillan
040/1/7
27
November 1918, France. Letter to MAM.
040/1/8
29
November 1918, Lentzich, France. Letter to MAM
040/1/9
11
December 1918, Bacharach, Germany Letter to MAM
040/1/10
18
December 1918, Andernach, Germany Letter to
MAM
040/1/11
23
December 1918, Andernach, Germany Letter to WDM and MAM
040/1/12
Christmas Night, 1918, Andernach, Germany
Letter to WDM and MAM
040/1/13
28
December 1918, Andernach, Germany Letter to MAM
040/1/14
2
January 1919, Andernach, Germany Letter to MAM
040/1/15
7
January 1918 [1919], Andernach, Germany Letter to
WDM and MAM
040/1/16
10
January 1919, Andernach, Germany Letter to MAM
040/1/17
19 January
1919, Andernach, Germany Letter to MAM
040/1/18
26
January 1919, Andernach, Germany Letter to
Eleanor MacMillan
040/1/19
2
February 1919, Andernach, Germany Letter to
MAM
040/1/20
8
February 1919, Chatillon sur Seine, France Letter to MAM
040/1/21
9
February 1919, Chatillon sur Seine, France Letter to MAM
040/1/22
15
February 1919, Chatillon sur Seine, France Letter to MAM
040/1/23
16
February 1919, Chatillon sur Seine, France Letter to MAM
040/1/24
24
February 1919, Chatillon sur Seine, France Letter to MAM
040/1/25
3
March 1919, Chatillon sur Seine, France Letter to
MAM
040/1/26
8
March 1919, Chatillon sur Seine, France Letter to
MAM
040/1/27
9
March 1919, New York. Letter from Jessie North to
Aunt Margaret [ MAM] about the death and funeral of George; Mourning Card
040/1/28
16
March 1919, Karlich, Germany Letter to MAM
040/1/29
18
March 1919, Karlich, Germany Letter to MAM
040/1/30
21
March 1919, Karlich, Germany Letter to MAM
040/1/31
25
March 1919, Karlich, Germany Letter to MAM
040/1/32
No
Date, 5 Postcards of French towns along the
Seine. Unused
COPYRIGHT: Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.