Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

C.T. Williams Diary, Accession #10746, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This diary and two summaries were given to the Library by Mrs. Allan McClain of Martinsville, Virginia, on March 8, 1988.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of a typescript copy of a diary kept by Major C. T. Williams of Baltimore, Maryland, concerning his participation as Treasurer of the American Red Cross Relief Mission to Romania in 1917. Also included is a summary of the activities of the American Red Cross expedition to Northern Russia in 1918-1919, and a summary of the organization and departure of the American Red Cross Mission to Romania in 1917.

The summary describing the Romanian Mission of 1917 begins with the assembly of the Romanian Unit in Chicago, at the Blackstone Hotel, July 28, 1917, and the preparations for departure. The writer of the summary describes the trip by train through Canada to Vancouver, the regulations and obligations of the members of the mission, discussions of typhus, their chief adversary in Romania, a report of a serious crisis in Russia, the rumor of Alexander F. Kerensky's resignation as deputy chairman of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, the domination of the [Provisional Government's] Cabinet by Radicals and Socialists, the possibility that the mission could not get through, and a description of the Chinese crew on the Empress of Russia .

The diary of Charles Turner Williams picks up the narrative where the summary ends. The mission arrived in Yokahoma, Japan, where it picked up more supplies and crossed the Sea of Japan to reach Vladivostok. The Red Cross Mission members planned to travel to Petrograd via the Trans-Siberian Railroad where they would send a representative to Archangel to meet the Red Cross ship and arranged to send both supplies and men to Romania. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 forced Williams to alter his plans and to use his ingenuity to get the supplies to their destination. The diary is William's story of how he was able to complete his mission under the trying circumstances of Russia's revolutionary period.

In Vladivostok, the Red Cross Mission members heard more negative reports concerning Russia, such as the shooting of 7,000 soldiers for insubordination (p.10). In his diary, Williams mentions the city of Harbin (pp.16-19), a description of the conditions and countryside of Manchuria (pp. 19-25), the Russian Customs search at the Siberian border (pp. 25-29), Lake Baikal (pp. 31-33), Irkutsk (pp. 33-34), news of the Romanian front (pp. 34-35), Stephen's Railroad Commission (p. 41), the Ural Mountains (p. 48), women firemen on the trains (pp. 47 & 51), and female manual laborers (p. 51).

Williams also describes his difficulty in squaring accounts in four types of currency (p. 58), their arrival in Moscow and his impressions of the city (pp. 60-80), the conflict between Kerensky and General Lavr G. Kornilov in Petrograd (pp. 80-85), the confused conditions that he found when he arrived in Petrograd (pp. 86-112, & 117-121), the possibility of a Cossack revolt (p. 103), a telegram from Samuel Gompers delivered by the American Ambassador to Kerensky expressing sympathy for Russia's fight for "democracy" (p. 108), his travel to Archangel to check on the arrival of Red Cross supplies for Romania by ship (pp. 121- 127), his sojourn in Archangel waiting for the arrival of the Red Cross ship Portonia (pp. 128-279), and Rasputin and his fate (pp. 152-153).

He continues writing about the influence of itinerant American members of the International Workers of the World (p. 164), possible arrangements to ship Red Cross supplies received at Archangel to Romania with munitions shipments (pp. 180-181), arrangements to purchase additional food, especially Norweigan herring for Romanian relief (pp. 182-197), women teamsters (pp. 201-202), news of the Portonia (p. 209), difficulties of shopping in Russian stores (pp. 212-214), a Russian Orthodox Church service (pp. 214-216), the arrival of the Portonia , October 17, 1917, (pp. 226-228), the story of Portonia 's voyage (pp. 232- 235), leaving Archangel (279-293), Moscow (pp. 293- 310), news of the Bolshevik takeover of the State Bank and Telegraph Office at Petrograd (pp. 318, & 323-329), news of the Bolshevik attack on Kiev (p. 349), the practice of Russian solders of riding atop the railroad cars (pp. 336-338), Odessa (pp. 365-366), and their arrival at the terminus of the Russian Railway Line (p. 374).

There they transferred the goods over to the Romanian Line near Jassy on November 18, 1917, (p. 374). Williams traveled to the Red Cross Hospital at Roman and added his observations of treatment to his diary (pp. 383-392), visited Queen Marie of Romania (pp. 405-410), was appointed special courier for the United States (p. 412) and began his trip back to the United States (p. 413).

The last part of his diary concerns his return to the United States and mentions Kiev (pp. 426-433), more bad news about the Bolsheviks-a train robbery near Moscow (p. 439), an altercation over the possession of the Red Cross train car by Bolshevik-led soldiers (pp. 441-444), his arrival at Moscow and the discovery that the American Red Cross Mission had already left Moscow for home (p. 446), a description of the damage done to Moscow by the riots (pp. 448-452), his travel en route to Petrograd (pp. 453-456), the Russian fascination with American culture (p. 454), his visit to the Bolshevik headquarters in Petrograd at the Smolney Institute to have his passport stamped (pp. 458-464), his luck at finding passage to the United States by ship from Bergen, Norway, and his travel by train through Finland and his voyage on the S. S. Berjensfjord from Sweden to reach Bergen (pp. 466-508) and his safe arrival in the United States just after Christmas (p. 509).

The summary of the American Red Cross Mission to Northern Russia was written March 12, 1919, at the National Headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. This mission sailed from New York City on August 25, 1918, on the S. S. Ascutney for Archangel, Russia, and arrived there September 29, 1918. It found some five thousand American troops in the District of Archangel as part of the Allied Army of Occupation under British High Command, most of which were 250 miles south of Archangel fighting with the Bolsheviks.

The mission sent a relief expedition to the villages along the southern shore of the Kola Peninsula and the White Sea, and the report mentions an influenza epidemic, graves of American soliders who were buried in remote areas of Russia, donations of milk to infants in Archangel and Murmansk, the confiscation of the Red Cross stores of a former expedition at Economia by the Bolsheviks, the publication of an American newspaper for the troops in North Russia, The American Sentinel , and the Pinega Front.