About the author: Eliphalet Huntington Blatchford (October 9, 1876 — December 23, 1905). The Newberry Library, which holds the Blatchford Family Papers, in its Biography of the E.W. Blatchford Family, summarizes his life as follows:
Eliphalet Huntington Blatchford, known as E. Huntington or Hunt, was born October 9, 1876 in Chicago and attended Amherst College. In 1898 he enlisted in the United States Cavalry and was stationed in Manila, the Philippines, where he remained for six months. E. Huntington Blatchford’s writings and letters home describing his experiences were later published as “A Trooper’s Diary.” He later studied law and worked for E. W. Blatchford & Co. He died of heart disease December 23, 1905 while at a health sanitarium in Winnetka, IL.
About the diary: Originally published in The Outlook Magazine, as “A Trooper’s Diary”. Included in Letters, journals and memories of E. Huntington Blatchford, ed. by his sister, Frances May Blatchford, published after her death, Priv. print., Chicago, 1920 as “A Trooper’s Diary: From manuscript exactly as left by Frances May Blatchford.” In the body of the book, the heading says, “A Trooper’s Diary Relating to the Spanish-American War Reprinted by permission from ‘The Outlook,’ with a few additions.”
The Philippine Diary Project only uses that part of the diary related to the author’s departure from Hawaii bound for the Philippines, his arrival, military service, and departure from the Philippines, August 5 to December 1, 1898, and the first of his letters from Manila to Canton, dated December 17, 1898.