Description
The materials consist primarily of incoming and outgoing personal correspondence in the form of manuscript letters (approximately
200), but also includes typed correspondence, printed orders, telegrams, receipts, and the book Twelve Months with the Eighth
Massachusetts Infantry in the service of the United States, by Harry E. Webber (Salem, Mass, 1908). The subject matter primarily
focuses on the period of George Sanders' service with the 8th Massachusetts, from 1898-1899, with a few letters from later
years. Commissioned as Regimental Chaplain in April of 1898, Sanders was first stationed with the Regiment at Chickamauga,
Georgia, then Lexington, Kentucky. He resigned his commission in October 1898, but on January 6, 1899, he was re-appointed
Chaplain. He then set out to re-join the 8th Massachusetts now stationed in Matanzas, Cuba. He served in Cuba as both chaplain
and on special duty until he was mustered out in April 1899.
Background
George Dana Sanders (occasionally misspelled George Dana Saunders) was born in Patten, Maine, in 1851. He became a pastor
in Gloucerster, Massachusetts, served in the 8th Massachusetts Infantry as Regimental Chaplain during the Spanish-American
War, and died in 1918 at the age of 67.