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About Edward Avery Bumpus

About the author: Edward Avery Bumpus (June 24, 1875 — September 28, 1901), lieutenant in the U.S. Army from Massachusetts (with ancestry traceable to the original Mayflower pilgrims), killed in action in Balangiga, Eastern Samar in 1901. Buried in Mount Wollaston Cemetery, Quincy, Norfolk County, MA.

About the diary: Included in For the love I bear my dead and as a testimony to the courage and devotion of the comrades who, with him gave their lives to their country, this tribute is dedicated to the memory of my son Edward Avery Bumpus, first lieutenant Company C, Ninth U. S. infantry, and of his companions in arms, Captain Thomas W. Connell, Surgeon Richard S. Griswold and the members of his company who were killed 28 September, 1901, in the island of Samar, P. I., by his father, E. C. Bumpus, published by Walter M. Jackson.

There are only a few actual diary entries but together with them, extracts of letters were presented, creating altogether a diary-chronicle. This combination has been retained for the Philippine Diary Project for the Philippines-related entries of the author from April 18, 1899 (departure from San Francisco to Manila) to May 27, 1900 (prior to a period thereafter spent in China, which is not included in The Philippine Diary Project), and again from May 29, 1901 (en route back to the Philippines from China) to September 21, 1901, his last letter from Balangiga, Samar.