PUBLIC "-//Virginia Military Institute::Preston Library::Archives//TEXT (US::ViLxV::vilxv00047::A Guide to the William E. Arnold Notebook)//EN" "vilxv00047.xml" A Guide to the William E. Arnold Notebook, 1849-1864 Arnold, William E., Notebook mss 00018 Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Virginia Military Institute Archives © 2002 Virginia Military Institute

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Machine-readable finding aid derived from Microsoft Access 2000 database. Machine-readable finding aid created by Diane Jacob. Date of source: 2002 Description is in English Feb 16, 2004 PUBLIC "-//Virginia Military Institute::Preston Library::Archives//TEXT (US::ViLxV::vilxv00047::A Guide to the William E. Arnold Notebook)//EN" "vilxv00047.xml" converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.xsl (sy2003-10-15). Feb 26, 2004 converted to conform to eadVIVA.dtd by vivastrict.xsl 2013-11-21 Converted to schema conforming EAD by dtd2schema.vh.xsl. A Guide to the William E. Arnold Notebook, 1849-1864 A Collection in Virginia Military Institute Archives mss 00018

Virginia Military Institute Archives 2002 Virginia Military Institute Archives Staff Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Archives, Preston Library, Virginia Military Institute Descriptive Summary Archives, Preston Library, Virginia Military Institute William E. Arnold Notebook 1849-1864 mss 00018 The collection consists of one item. English Administrative Information Access

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 Preferred Citation

William E. Arnold Notebook, mss 00018, Virginia Military Institute Archives, Lexington, Virginia.

 Biographical/Historical Information

William Elisha Arnold was born June 14, 1840 in Franklin County, Virginia. He was the son of James Arnold and Julia Barrow. Arnold enrolled in the Virginia Military Institute in July 1849 and graduated in July 1853. Shortly after graduation, he married Susan Meriweather Taliaferro of Amherst County, Virginia. The couple had five children--William, Julia, James, Frederic, and Kate. Arnold taught school in Amherst County, and in 1859 began teaching math and tactics at the Lafayette Military Institute at Lexington, Missouri.

During the Civil War Arnold served briefly in the Missouri State Guard and in an artillery unit before passing his medical exams. After November 1862, he was a medical officer assigned to various commands.

After the war, Arnold practiced medicine in Springfield, Missouri. He died there on August 18, 1902.

 Scope and Content Information

The collection consists of a poetry notebook compiled by William Elisha Arnold during the period 1849-1864; the bulk of the entries date from the years in which he was a student at the Virginia Military Institute, 1849-1853. Such notebooks were popular among VMI cadets of the mid-19th century and typically contain both original and copied verse. The Arnold notebook contains approximately 50 poems by Arnold, other cadets, various 19th century poets, and anonymous authors. Cadet poetry includes The Regulationsby Charles Denby (VMI Class of 1850), and The Six Plebes on Leaving for Richmondby Thomas O. Benton (VMI Class of 1850). A few poems were composed by Arnold during the Civil War. The notebook also includes miscellany such as clippings, puzzles, and riddles.