A Guide to the James Rogers McConnell Memorial Collections McConnell, James Rogers Memorial Collections. 2104

A Guide to the James Rogers McConnell Memorial Collections

A Collection in
Special Collections
The University of Virginia Library
Accession number 2104


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Processed by: Special Collections Staff

Repository
Special Collections, University of Virginia Library
Collection Number
2104
Title
James Rogers McConnell Memorial Collections 1915-1977
Extent
ca. 220 items
Location
Language
English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

James Rogers McConnell Memorial Collections, Accession #2104, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The collection is established in honor of the memory of James Rogers McConnell.

Accession #2104 was given to the Library by Eleanor (McConnell) [Mrs. Ralph P.] Truitt of Baltimore, Maryland, on January 26, 1945.

Accession #2104-a was given to the Library by Dr. William James Kenneth Rockwell of Durham, North Carolina, through his father, Colonel Paul Ayres Rockwell of Asheville, North Carolina, on February 24, 1975.

Accession #2104-b was loaned to the Library for copying and return by Colonel Rockwell on February 24, 1975.

Accession #2104-c was given to the Library by Colonel Rockwell on August 1, 1975.

Accession #2104-d was given to the Library by Mademoiselle Marcelle Guérin de Precourt of Monte Carlo, Monaco, on September 29, 1975.

Accession #2104-e was given to the Library by Colonel Rockwell on November 19, 1976.

Accession #2104-f was given to the Library by Colonel Rockwell on June 17, 1977.

Accession #2104-g was given to the Library by the Moore County Historical Association, Inc. of Southern Pines, North Carolina, through Sherman W. Betts, president, on September 6, 1977.

Accession #2104-h was loaned to the Library for copying and return by Mrs. Helmut von Erffa of Piscataway, New Jersey, through Peter Stoudt, on July 21, 1980.

Accession #2104-i was given to the Library by Catherine D. Scott, Librarian, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., on October 21, 1980.

Accession #2104-j was given to the Library by Mrs. Charles T. Grier of Carthage, North Carolina, through Peter Stoudt, on June 24, 1982.

Accession #2104-k was given to the Library by William James Kenneth Rockwell of Durham, North Carolina on May 20, 1997.

Biographical/Historical Information

James Rogers McConnell was born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 14, 1887, one of three children of Samuel Parsons and Sarah Rogers McConnell. The elder McConnell practiced law in Chicago from 1872-1889, and served as Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court from 1889-1894. After an interval of private practice, he moved to New York City, where he served as vice-president and counsel of the George A. Fuller Company until his retirement in 1904.

The younger McConnell grew up in Chicago and New York City. He gained a certificate from the Haverford School in Pennsylvania before entering the University of Virginia in 1907. He spent two years in the College and a year in the Law School, withdrawing from his studies in the spring of 1910. While at Virginia, Jim McConnell held memberships in Beta Theta Pi, Theta Nu Epsilon, O.W.L., T.I.L.K.A., and the German Club. He was King of the Hot Feet, Editor-in-Chief of Corks and Curls, Assistant Cheer Leader, and President of the Aero Club, which he had helped to found. His bonhomie and bagpipe-playing gave rise to fond memories among his college contemporaries.

After several years in business in New York and in Carthage, North Carolina, where he served as land and industrial agent for a small railroad, McConnell sailed from New York with a friend in January 1915, to enlist in the French service. Through the spring and summer of 1915 he drove for Section "Y" of the American Ambulance, in the thick of the fighting on the Western Front, around Pont-à-Mousson and the Bois-le- Pretre. He was cited for conspicuous bravery and awarded the Croix de Guerre. Some of his letters from the period were edited and published in the September 15, 1915 issue of The Outlook, with an introduction by former president Theodore Roosevelt, a strong advocate of preparedness.

A deepening conviction of the rightness of the French cause led McConnell to volunteer for service in French aviation. He trained at the flying school at Pau and was breveted for flight on February 6, 1916. On April 20, 1916 he joined the newly-formed American Escadrille (later redesignated the Lafayette Escadrille) at its operational base at Luxeuil-les-Bains, becoming one of the first four of the seven original Escadrille pilots to arrive. He participated in the squadron's first patrol on May 13, 1916, and in the aerial actions during the great German offensive at Verdun in June and the Allied counteroffensives in July and August. On July 1, 1916, he was promoted to sergeant, the rank which he held until his death.

A back injury received in a landing mishap in August 1916 near the squadron field at Bar-le-Duc forced McConnell's hospitalization in September. Although he rejoined the squadron at Cachy briefly in November 1916 and again at Ravenel in March 1917, his health never returned to normal. While convalescing, he busied himself with writing, and produced articles for World's Work magazine that were published in November 1916 and March 1917, and in book form as Flying for France which appeared in April 1917, shortly after his death. He also was best man for his friend, Paul Rockwell, the squadron's historian and publicist, at the latter's Paris wedding on December 4, 1916.

McConnell was killed in aerial combat with two German planes, above the Somme battlefields, near the village of Flavy-le-Martel, Aisne, on March 19, 1917. He thereby became the last American pilot of the squadron to die under French colors, before American entrance into the war in April 1917. His body was laid to rest where he fell, and was later re-interred at the Lafayette Escadrille memorial near Paris in accordance with his father's wishes. McConnell was memorialized with a plaque from the French government and a statue by Gutzon Borglum at the University of Virginia, and with an obelisk on the court square of his home town of Carthage, North Carolina.

Scope and Content

The James Rogers McConnell Memorial Collections consist of ca. 220 items, (1915-1917)1977, chiefly ca. 160 letters, 1915-1917, written by the University's famed aviator of the Lafayette Escadrille to his friend, Paul Ayres Rockwell and to Mademoiselle Marcelle Guérin , a French nurse serving at the hospital in Paris, France during World War I. The letters date from 1915, when McConnell served with the American Ambulance on the Western Front in France, through 1916, the year of the formation of the Escadrille, with McConnell as one of its original seven American pilots. They provide a vivid picture of McConnell's service in the cause of France, first as a non-combatant and then as a combatant. Included are accounts of his ambulance patrols (May-June, 1915) and nearby bombardments while serving on the Western Front, where he earned the Croix de Guerre for exceptional bravery under fire. Other events discussed are his first flight in a "Baby" Nieuport (May 20, 1916); the patrol of June 1, 1916 after which McConnell crashed during a landing attempt (June 3, 1916); his convalescence from back injuries received in a later crash (August-September 1916); and his role in Paul Rockwell's Paris wedding (November-December 1916).

There are also photographs and printed items pertaining to McConnell. There are photographs and printed information on McConnell's grave and other monuments to his memory. Items of interest include the proof copy of the authorized English translation (1919), published only in significantly altered form, of the account of the Lafayette Escadrille written by its French captain, Georges Thénault . The volume, inscribed personally by Thénault to Paul Rockwell, has been returned to the owner and placed on microfilm for the use of researchers.

Significant Persons Associated With the Collection

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Contents List

Correspondence
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Printed and Miscellaneous
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Photographs
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Audiovisual
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Other
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