Letter: Adolph McCracken to Etta Shrader, 1898

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Description

Letter from Adolph McCracken, Camp Hamilton, Lexington, Kentucky, to Etta Shrader, Catchings, Mississippi, May 6 or 9 (unclear), 1898. Refers to the death of Etta’s father, William Henry Shrader. Notes that the “steel collar of military discipline” is much tighter at Camp Hamilton than at Camp Patrick Henry in Mississippi. He writes: “When we are not drilling we are at work. There are about twenty thousand troops here and eight hundred in the hospittle [sic]. There is over three hundred cases of Typhoid fever cases here.” Reports on Hughes, who is sick with typhoid, and Louie, who had been court-martialed. The regiment has been issued new uniforms. He would like to go home on furlough but will not because of yellow fever.

Adolphus McCracken was born in 1850, the son of Ephraim Lytle McCracken (1772-1851). He served with Company A of the 3rd Mississippi Infantry Regiment of the United States Volunteers during the Spanish-American War and held the rank of first sergeant. The regiment did not see active service but was in camps in Jackson, Mississippi, Lexington, Kentucky and Albany, Georgia. The company was mustered in at Jackson, Mississippi, on July 22, 1898, and McCracken listed Nitta Yuma, Mississippi, as his residence. The company mustered out at Albany, Georgia, on March 17, 1899. McCracken died of pneumonia there three days later and was buried in Sardis, Mississippi.

Identifier

sc.0395.002_005.001

Date

1898 May 6 or 9

Keywords

McCracken, Adolphus, 1850-1899.

Recommended Citation

"Letter: Adolph McCracken to Etta Shrader, 1898" (2021). Documents. 9.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/speccoll-mss-alarkmomisstenn1/9