Manuscripts Collection
LaRoy Sunderland Upton, U.S. Army brigadier general, military educator, and World War I veteran, was born in Decatur, Michigan to John Beau and Julia Sherman Upton, and grew up in Big Rapids, Michigan. He attended West Point (1887-1891) and was commissioned a second lieutenant, 21st (?) Infantry. His promotions were first lieutenant of infantry (1898), captain (1900), major (1912), lieutenant-colonel (1917), colonel (temporary, 1917), brigadier general, National Army (1918), and brigadier-general, Regular Army (1923).
Prior to the Spanish-American War (1898) Upton was a military instructor at the University of South Dakota; during the war he worked primarily in recruitment in Michigan and in Georgia. He later served in Cuba (1899-1902), at posts in various states (1902-1906), and in the Philippines (1906-1908). Upton was sent to Panama (1912), and to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he attended the Army School of the Line (1913-1914); he was an honor graduate of the Army Staff College (1915). Upton commanded the 30th Infantry on the Mexican border (1916-1917), and served in France in the American Expeditionary Force with the 16th Infantry until July, 1917, when he was made Director of Specialists' Schools, First Division. He also organized and commanded the First Corps School (1917-1918). Both of these institutions were military schools located in Gondrecourt, France.
In 1919 Upton returned to the United States and was detailed a student of General Staff College; he graduated in 1920. He was appointed chief of staff, 7th Corps Area (1922). Upton died while on leave at Honolulu, following a long illness.
Upton married Agnes Millar of Niagara Falls, New York, in 1902. They had one surviving son, Ralph Millar Upton, who was born in 1905.
Biographical information was taken from materials in the collection, including the
annual report of the Association of the Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy (June
13, 1927). See also
The collection consists primarily of LaRoy Upton's letters (1890-1919) home to his family from the various places around the world where he was travelling or stationed during his military service. These letters describe his experiences as a soldier, both in peacetime and during World War I, and offer his observations and commentary about the events taking place around him and about the people with whom he came in contact. There is also a series of Upton's academic reports from West Point, and an assemblage of distinguished service citations and letters of commendation.
The bulk of the collection is comprised of letters to his mother (1890-1908). These letters relate Upton's day-to-day experiences as a peacetime soldier, and also concern such matters as his wedding, the birth of his son Ralph, and his travels to such places as Cuba, Gibralter, Malta, Africa, Japan, Hong Kong, Ceylon, and the Philippines. The 1917-1919 letters (actually typewritten transcripts intended for circulation among Upton's relatives) concern such subjects as soldier life in France during World War I; battlefield experiences, trench warfare, and the effects of mustard gas; the establishment of American military schools in France; and the 1918 armistice. Many of these letters are addressed to "Mouse" (his sister, Mrs. J.E. Miner, Minneapolis).
The collection also includes monthly and quarterly reports from West Point (1887-1889), which contain information about Upton's accumulated demerits and credits, and his ranking within his class in particular academic subject areas (but not letter grades). There is also an assembled group of typewritten transcripts of citations for distinguished service, letters of commendation, and similar documents (1914-1920), authored by such U.S. military officers as major general Hunter Liggett (1857-1935), Robert Lee Bullard (1861-1947), and James E. Harbord (1866-1947), and General John Joseph Pershing (1860-1948). Biographical data (1927) and related miscellany complete the collection.
The collection contains no documentation of Upton's activities from 1909 to 1913.
Accession number: 1841; 1854c; 4602
Processed by: David B. Peterson, June 1986
Digitized by: Aubrey Mullenix, July 2026.
Digitization was made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.
Catalog ID number: 990017330960104294
Digital version
Digital version
1890-1903
1904-1906
1907
1908
1917-1919
Digital version
Digital version