Today’s post is by Rachael Salyer, Archivist in the Textual Reference Branch at the National Archives in College Park, MD.
“I have travled this country over […] and want to get home” – C.L. Daniel, World War I Veteran and Victim of the Tulsa Race Massacre
Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum recently announced that World War I veteran C.L. Daniel is the first Tulsa Race Massacre victim to be identified since the city started its Graves Investigation of Oaklawn Cemetery in 2019. A City of Tulsa press release from July 12, 2024 notes that C.L. Daniel’s identity was confirmed, in part, through records held by the National Archives, including the “most convincing piece of evidence tying him to the Tulsa Race Massacre – a letter from C.L.’s family attorney written to the U.S. Veterans Administration on behalf of C.L.’s mother regarding C.L.’s survivor benefits.”
That 1936 letter was drafted on behalf of C.L. Daniel’s mother, Amanda M. Daniel, who was seeking veteran’s benefits as her son’s surviving relative. The letter states that Mrs. Daniel “has no discharge [papers] and is going to have difficulty in establishing his death. C.L. was killed in a race riot in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1921 according to best information she has furnished” (see image 2).
The letter is part of C.L. Daniel’s military pension file (XC601416), which is in the custody of the National Archives in St. Louis. Since Daniel’s Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) was among those destroyed in the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), the pension file and related index, along with his Final Pay Voucher, are some of the primary records in NARA’s custody that document Daniel’s military service. The pension file indicates that C.L. Daniel was in the process of applying for support in March 1921, just a few months before his death. Among other documents, the file contains a single letter written by C.L. Daniel, which provides insight into his life after leaving the Army (see image 3).
He writes that “for some time I have travled this country and now sufriend with complance that was in the base hospitle with I ant got no money and want to get home[.]” Daniel outlines his service at Camp Gordon and his time in the base hospital, he also requests the disability payments he is owed, saying “I nead help now the suport from the war department for my legs pains me[.]” In the letter, Daniel also mentions his mother, Amanda Daniel, of Newnan, GA, and he closes by reemphasizing his request for aid: “I am in nead of a job if I fit where I can work from you all till I die[.]” Additional letters in the pension file show that the War Department tried several times over the next few years to contact C.L. Daniel, not realizing that he had been killed just a few months after he had contacted them for support.
C.L. Daniel’s service is also documented in other records in NARA’s custody, including his World War I Draft Registration Card and the associated Classification List entry, which are in the custody of the National Archives at Atlanta. These records include information about Daniel’s induction into the Army, as well as a few personal details: he was born in Coweta County, GA; he had worked in a cotton mill; and he was considered short with a medium build (see images 4 and 5).
The records provide inconsistent information about when C.L. was born. According to the draft card, his date of birth was in March 1896, but the pension file index lists his birthday as July 14 of that year. The Daniel family’s apparent Federal Census records for 1900 and 1910 do not include C.L. or the names of any children whose initials could be C.L. The 1910 Census does show the name “Seal,” though. This may have been how the Census enumerator transcribed “C.L.” when speaking with the family (see image 6). This Census entry lists Seal’s birth year as 1902, so if this is the same C.L. Daniel, then he would only have been 16 years old when he joined the Army and 19 when he was killed.
C.L. Daniel spent his time in the Army at Camp Gordon, a World War I-era war training camp in Chamblee, GA (see images 7 and 8), which was home to the Army’s 82nd Division.
The pension records and draft card provide Daniel’s service number (3494059) and information about the units he served in, too, including the 47th Company, 12th Training Battalion, 157th Depot Brigade and Company B, 406th Reserve Labor Battalion. C.L. Daniel’s service with these units can be traced using the Muster Rolls and Rosters for them (see image 9). These records are in the custody of the National Archives at St. Louis, and they have been digitized and are available online as the FamilySearch collection United States, Enlisted and Officer Muster Rolls and Rosters, 1916-1939 • FamilySearch.
Other records related to these units can be found in various series, such as the Records Relating to the History of the War Department, 1918–1941 (entry NM-84 310) in Record Group 165: Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs. This series, which is in the custody of the National Archives at College Park, MD (Archives II), includes 4 files for the 157th Depot Brigade and multiple files related to Camp Gordon.
In addition, the National Archives at Washington, D.C. has custody of the series General Orders of Units and Offices, 1917–1919 (entry A1-5 171-5) in Record Group 393: Records of U.S. Army Continental Commands. This series includes records related to the 157th Depot Brigade and the 12th Training Battalion.
While the unit records are unlikely to provide specific details about C.L. Daniel’s life, they may offer some insight into his military service.
To learn more about any of the records outlined above, please contact the NARA reference unit that has custody of those particular records. For more information about African American soldiers during World War I, please see the NARA web page African Americans in the Military during World War I | National Archives and the NARA Records Information Paper 105: Records of Military Agencies Relating to African Americans from the Post-World War I Period to the Korean War.
Special thanks to my colleagues Holly Rivet at the National Archives at St. Louis, Shane Bell at the National Archives at Atlanta, and Claire Kluskens at the National Archives at Washington, D.C. for their research assistance.
*All photographs from the series American Unofficial Collection of World War I Photographs, 1917–1918. War Department. Record Group 165: Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs. Still Pictures Reference Branch. National Archives at College Park, MD. stillpix@nara.gov.
**From Pension File “XC601416 Daniel, CL” in the Deceased Veterans Claims Files (XC Files). Veterans Administration. Record Group 15: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs. National Archives at St. Louis. stl.archives@nara.gov.
***From Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 and Classification Lists, 1917–1918. War Department. Office of the Provost Marshal General. Selective Service System. Record Group 163: Records of the Selective Service System (World War I). National Archives at Atlanta. atlanta.archives@nara.gov.
****From Population Schedules for the 1910 Census, 1910–1910 (“1910 Census”). Department of Commerce and Labor. Bureau of the Census. Record Group 29: Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. archives1reference@nara.gov.
*****From Muster Rolls and Rosters, November 1, 1912-December 31, 1943. War Department. Record Group 64: Records of the National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives at St. Louis.