The Carl Penner Papers concern the operations of the 120th Field Artillery Regiment in France and the 120th Field Artillery Regimental Association. The bulk of the collection consists of field orders, memoranda, information reports, and bulletins retained by Colonel Penner concerning the military operations of the 120th. An attempt to maintain military organizational and chronological order with special regard to the 120th Field Artillery Regiment has been made for this collection. All materials pertaining to all operations of the 120th in supporting other American Expeditionary Forces and the French army are arranged in this manner.
Material relating to the 120th Field Artillery Regimental Association includes minutes of organizational meetings, a copy of the constitution, scattered correspondence, and a financial statement of the Association, 1919-1924.
Also included in this collection are typewritten and mimeographed diaries kept by Corporal Hugo Landgraf, a Lieutenant Cole, and Lieutenant Wallace Schutz of the 120th, and unidentified diary notations pertaining to activities in the Alsace region. These diaries focus on the 120th's participation in the various offensives and sectors during World War I with only scattered references to the Mexican Border operation and earlier history. These diaries formed a major portion of the material presented in the Penner, Sammond, Appel history of the 120th Field Artillery Regiment.
A mimeographed history of the 57th Field Artillery Brigade is filed with miscellaneous material concerning the published history of the 120th.
In addition, the collection contains a recorded 1966 interview with Penner and Richardson Browne concerning unit activities during World War I, and a 1964 recorded and transcribed interview with Penner and Frederic Sammond concerning service with Troop A, 1st Regiment, Wisconsin Cavalry National Guard prior to and during the 1916 Mexican border dispute.
