Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is a tremendous diary kept by Private First Class Samuel Reis, who served in the New York National Guard Coastal Artillery Corps from  May 8th, 1914 until he was called into Federal service for the World War, being transferred to the 58th Artillery, CAC (Coastal Artillery Corps) on February 1st, 1918. Reis would travel overseas on May 10th, 1918, seeing combat in the Marbache defensive sector. He traveled back stateside on April 27th, 1919, being discharged on May 9th.

The diary is written from July 1917 until January 1919, with large time jumps in between some entries when Reis was stationed in the same place for too long. He goes into detail about the places he visits, some of the members of his company, and when he’s stateside in September 1917, he mentions units of the 42nd Division going overseas, and which National guard units they were formed from. A very interesting read. All-in-all, there are 14 pages of writing in the diary, with the rest of the pages being blank. It’s not extremely detailed as some were, but it is a great window into the life of a soldier who spent 11 months in France during one of the worst conflicts in human history.

A more detailed history of the 58th CAC can be found here: https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~cacunithistories/military/58tharty.htm. 

This is a fantastic diary written by a CAC soldier who saw combat in France just before the end of the war. Primary sources like this are very difficult to find in any condition. Comes ready for further research and display!