About this Project
The William A. Haigins papers and digital exhibition is a graduate-level project conducted by Tyler Hendrix, Graduate Assistant for the Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections at Georgia Southern University. The William A. Hagins papers include written letters, V-Mail, military documents, and legal documents concerning Hagins’ service in the United States Army during World War I and II. Brigadier General William Archer Hagins was born in 1888 and served in the United States Army Medical Department during both World War I and World War II. During World War II, Hagins served as the Chief Surgeon (the commanding medical officer) of the US Third Army in 1943 during their initial formation and training, then he was transferred to the US Sixth Army from 1943-1945 for their combat deployment to the Pacific Theater. Hagins served in this capacity during Sixth Army operations against the Japanese armed forces on New Guinea, New Georgia, and Leyte and Luzon in the Philippines archipelago.
About Special Collections at Georgia Southern University
The Zach S. Henderson Library’s Special Collections Department was founded in the 1970s. Housed within the department are rare books, manuscript collections, and artifacts relating to the history of the Statesboro region and Georgia Southern University. Special Collections has materials documenting the Civil War, World War II, southern railroads, early businesses, and local genealogy. Popular collections include the Okefenokee Swamp Collection, the Bulloch County Historical Society Collection, the Lucile Hodges Collection, the Marvin S. Pittman Collection, and the Charles Holmes Herty Collection.
Collections span both the Armstrong and Statesboro campuses and include personal papers, organizational records, photographs, campus publications, ephemera, rare books, and digitally-born materials. Special Collections also presents exhibits and forums for lectures, presentation and academic discussions.
Brigadier General William Archer Hagins
About the Author
Tyler Hendrix is a Graduate Student in the History Department, where he is currently working on obtaining a Masters Degree in History with a certificate in Public History. Additionally, he is a Graduate Assistant at the Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections Department, where he began processing the William A. Hagins papers in October 2020. The collection was arranged and partially digitized, then placed in an exhibition in August 2021.