William George Haan's military correspondence to about 1916 touches upon his service with the Cuban Army of Pacification, 1906-1907, but relates mainly to his work on a general staff board of officers studying fortifications and land defense of coast forts, and as chief of staff of the eastern department. Tours of inspection in connection with land defense took him to the Pacific states, the upper Atlantic states, and the Hawaiian Islands. Beginning in 1917, there is a small amount of material on war preparation and Haan's work as a member of the board for the selection of sites for aeronautical stations on the Atlantic Coast. The photographs document France during World War I and the Spanish American War in the Philippine Islands.
Material in regard to the American Expeditionary Forces includes memoranda on soldier training and related subjects; on the killing of prisoners; summaries of intelligence; secret military operation orders; military operations reports; brief histories of combat divisions and brigades; personal letters to Mrs. Haan written from France; and a limited amount of correspondence.
Among miscellaneous items are a diary kept by Haan in 1898-1899 at Camp Miller, San Francisco, aboard the Ohio en route to the Philippine Islands, and in the Philippines; a brief diary kept in 1904 during a mission with confidential orders from the general staff to Panama; a report (1904) on the Panama Canal Zone; lectures delivered at the Army War College; public addresses, usually on military subjects; an official report of the proceedings of the fifth annual convention of the American Legion, Department of Wisconsin (1923); and personal letters to Mrs. Haan at the time of the general’s death.
