Scope and Content Note
The papers of Merritt Austin Edson (1897-1955) span the years 1905-2000 with the majority concentrated from 1928 to 1955. The collection relates chiefly to his service in the United States Marine Corps, and includes diaries, official memoranda, copies of military correspondence, reports and messages, personal military records, lectures on campaigns in which he participated, speeches and writings, financial papers, and newspaper clippings. The papers are organized into twelve series: Family Correspondence, Private Materials, Personal Correspondence Files, Private Correspondence, Unification File, Speeches and Writings File, Official Materials, General Correspondence, Financial Papers, Miscellany, Oversize, and 2018 Addition.
The collection also treats his years as commissioner of public safety for his native state of Vermont (1947-1951) and as executive director of the National Rife Association of America (1951-1955). The Unification File series relates to the controversy over the reorganization of defense in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Copies of postwar speeches and magazine articles, files of the Marine Corps War Memorial Foundation, and correspondence with veterans organizations, educational institutions, and civic groups are also contained in the collection.
Family correspondence consists mostly of letters to Edson’s sister, parents, and wife. Private correspondence consists chiefly of letters to various officials of the military, government, and National Rifle Association between 1947-1955. Frequent or prominent correspondents include Clifton B. Cates, Paul H. Douglas, Lee E. Emerson, James Forrestal, Ernest William Gibson, Victor H. Krulak, C. B. Lister, Milton A. Reckord, Lemuel C. Shepherd, Gerald C. Thomas, A. A. Vandegrift, Lewis W. Walt, and Charles Erwin Wilson.
The 2018 Addition, 1910 to 2000, supplements the initial portion of the collection and relates mainly to Edson’s early military service, with the Rio Coco patrol during the United States intervention in Nicaragua, 1928-1929, and with the First Vermont Infantry on the Texas-Mexican border, 1916, as well as his childhood and years as a high school and college student. The 2018 Addition is organized into three sections: a book about the First Marine Raider Battalion in World War II, a military file, and a personal file. The bulk of the military file consists mainly of correspondence and orders, field books, and a record of events relating to Edson’s command of marines who engaged in skirmishes with Nicaraguan rebels led by Augusto César Sandino. While in Nicaragua, Edson developed tactics to successfully counter the guerilla style warfare employed by the insurgents that were later utilized in other marine engagements. Also present in the military file is correspondence, 1939-1941, between Edson and William Wallace Ashurst, a marine battalion commander stationed in San Diego, Calif., that documents Edson’s role in the decision by the Marine Corps to adopt the M-1 rifle and discusses the lack of funding for training for team shooting and marksmanship.
Papers in the personal file of the 2018 Addition include family correspondence, personal correspondence, and diaries that provide a glimpse of Edson’s boyhood growing up on a farm. The diary, dated 1916, chronicles Edson's transition as a student at the University of Vermont and documents his activities with the First Vermont Infantry. Edson's letters to his wife, Ethel, and son, Merritt, Jr., provide substantive details about his experiences with the Rio Coco patrol and the tactics utilized to defeat the guerillas.