Harold Stanley Johnson

Remembered today for Roster of the Rainbow Division (Forty-Second) Major General Wm. A. Mann Commanding, this author is closely associated with the 151st Field Artillery, also known as the 1st Minnesota. The book was prepared in 1917 at Camp Mills on Long Island and stands out as a careful record of the officers and enlisted men of the division.

Rather than being known for a large body of literary work, he appears to have left a mark through this single substantial volume, which has been preserved and later made available by Project Gutenberg. That gives his writing a special documentary value: it is not just a book, but a firsthand effort to organize and honor the people serving in a major American unit during World War I.

Little reliable biographical information is easy to confirm beyond that connection, so the clearest picture is of someone working close to the life of the division and committed to preserving its human details. For readers interested in military history, his work offers a direct, period voice and an unusually personal way into the story of the Rainbow Division.