Gen. Winfield Scott Laments the Death of His Old Friend, Roger ap Catesby Jones, Adjutant General of the U.S. Army, With Whom He Had Served For 30 Years
by Winfield Scott
03/09/1852. Scott fought on the Niagara frontier in the War of 1812, was captured by the British in that campaign during the Battle of Queenston Heights in 1813, but was released in a prisoner exchange. In March 1814 Scott was brevetted brigadier general. In July 1814, Scott commanded the First Brigade of the American army in the Niagara campaign, winning the Battle of Chippewa decisively on July 5, 1814.. He was wounded during the American defeat at the Battle... Read More
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Gen. Winfield Scott Plans to Write His Authoritative book, “Infantry Tactics”, by Translating the New French Army Manual
by Winfield Scott
11/09/1833. Scott, who spoke French, admits that France provided the U.S. Army systems: “Our system is founded on that of France originally published in 1791”Scott fought on the Niagara frontier in the War of 1812, was captured by the British in that campaign during the Battle of Queenston Heights in 1813, but was released in a prisoner exchange. In March 1814 Scott was brevetted brigadier general. In July 1814, Scott commanded the First Brigade of the American army in... Read More
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Evidence of Vendetta of Jefferson Davis & Franklin Pierce Against Winfield Scott
by Winfield Scott
24/10/1854. Scott was the senior American general in the Mexican War, and the most successful, as it was forces under his command that took Mexico City and forced the Mexicans to sue for peace. They ended up ceding all of their territory north of the Rio Grande to the United States for $15 million, which constituted a sudden increase in the size of the U.S. almost equal to the Louisiana purchase. This presented President Polk with a fantastic achievement... Read More
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Important 1824 Autograph Letter Signed of English Poet Laureate Robert Southey to His Lifelong Friend Rev. Peter Elmsley, Likely Regarding Proofing His Landmark Work the ""Book of the Church""
by Robert Southey
22/03/1824. Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate of England from 1813 until his death. He was also author of the most popular version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.Autograph Letter Signed, 4 pages, Keswick, March 22, 1824, to “My dear Elmsley. Whether my book goes soon to a second edition or not I shall be much obliged to you if you will point out any statements or inferences in it which may... Read More
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Noted Poet Oliver Wendell Holmes Explains in a Very Literary Style Why He Is Unwilling to Accept an Invitation to Speak Anywhere Too Far Away During His Lecturing Season
by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr
16/09/1850. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. was a physician, poet, author and lecturer. But he could not always accommodate those who invited him to speak.Autograph Letter Signed, 2 pages, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, September 16, 1850, to someone apparently in Troy, New York, who wanted him to lecture there. “If persuasive eloquence and persevering entreaty could move me from the course which I am obliged to lay down for myself, Mr. Brooks would have sent me to Troy had Troy been remote... Read More
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Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Pens the Final Stanza of ""Sun and Shadow"", an Ode to the Boat and Sea
by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr
28/03/1860. In 1847, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., a physician, was appointed Professor of Anatomy at Harvard, a position he retained for thirty-five years. He was also an author who had for years been contributing poems, songs, essays and sketches to various newspapers and periodicals. His literary career first blossomed, however, when the Atlantic Monthly was established in 1857 with his friend James Russell Lowell as editor. In its columns Holmes’s “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table” began to appear, starting in... Read More
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Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Expresses Admiration and Even Love for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr
05/10/1885. The author and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes was part of Boston's literary elite. Surrounded by friends such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell, Holmes made an indelible imprint on the literary world of the 19th century. The volume of important statesmen, wealthy patrons, inspired artists, great literary figures, and profound thinkers, caused many to call Boston in this age the American Athens.Longfellow died in 1882. A professor in the Midwest, John Babsone Lane... Read More
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The First Official Expedition to the National Park of Yellowstone, or to any National Park, Which Helped Jay Gould and the Northern Pacific Railroad Plan a Line There
by David Stanley
16/07/1872. He comments to his fellow Union general that although he supports U.S. Grant in the upcoming election and does not like ""Horace"", Grant ""is a man of intense prejudice""Reference for research, publication, and institutions: Raab F13.099Stories of Yellowstone had reached the East coast as early as 1810, when John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition who remained in the West, wrote of an odd territory the Native American Minnetaree tribe called ""mi tsi a da... Read More
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At the Dawn of Their Great Work Together, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton Admit a Member into the First Women's Rights Organization, Which They Founded
by Susan B. Anthony|Elizabeth Cady Stanton
23/02/1853. Acquired from the descendants of the recipients, not known to exist and has never been offered for sale before Here begins the work they did together that would lead to the right of women to vote Featured on the ""Inspired by History"" PodcastIn 1851, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the two principal giants of the women's suffrage movement, met in Seneca Falls, NY. They would spend the next several decades together fighting for the rights of women, Anthony... Read More
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A Great Moment in Film: The Original Contract for the Film Rights to “The Grapes of Wrath”, One of the Greatest Films Ever Made, Signed by the Book’s Author, John Steinbeck
by John Steinbeck
24/04/1939. “The undersigned, Viking Press, Inc. and John Steinbeck hereby sells, grants, conveys and assigns to the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation…talking motion picture rights…that he may have in and to the original composition entitled “The Grapes of Wrath”…” A unique and compelling piece of American cinematic history “The Grapes of Wrath” won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for fiction in 1940 and helped John Steinbeck earn the Nobel Prize awarded him in 1962 (which turned on the... Read More
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Harriet Beecher Stowe Seeks Reminiscences After the Death of Her Governess and Servant
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
1860. “I should be greatly obliged too if you will also write anything that you can remember of this dear and valued friend who is now with the blessed.”Anna Smith was a household servant for the Stowe family, a governess caring for their children and managing domestic work. Smith also served as a teacher in two schools organized by Hanover College History Department and Harriet Beecher Stowe's sister Catharine Beecher. In 1849, Anna Smith, along with Stowe's daughters, contracted... Read More
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Composer Igor Stravinsky Tells a Prominent Pianist He Will Write a Trio if Eugene McCarthy is Elected President in 1968
by Igor Stravinksy
29/04/1968. Typed Letter Signed, Hollywood, California, April 29, 1968, to pianist Eugene Istomin. “If that good fortune should befall us (of having Senator McCarthy in the White House) I promise to write the trio. Please give my non-political best wishes to Isaac Stern (I hope he is in better health now), Leonard Rose, and take the same for yourself.” Particularly interesting because Eugene George Istomin formed the Istomin-Stern-Rose Trio with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose, and made many recordings,... Read More
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The Medal Presented by Tsar Alexander II to the American People in 1866, Commemorating the Freeing of the Slaves by Both People: “There by a sanguinary struggle, here by the path of peace""
by Moses Sherwood Stuyvesant
15/09/1866. Acquired from the direct descendants of the commander of the vessel that received the medal in Russia, it was not known to have survived, and has never before been offered for saleEmperor Alexander II issued the Emancipation Manifesto on March 3, 1861, which granted freedom to over 23 million serfs. This reform is known as the Emancipation Edict. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It declared that all persons held as... Read More
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President William Howard Taft Appoints the Final Governor of the District of Alaska, Who Would Then Become Its First Territorial Governor
by William Taft
20/05/1909. Russia offered to sell Alaska to the United States in 1859, believing the United States would off-set the designs of Russia’s greatest rival in the Pacific, Great Britain. The looming U.S. Civil War delayed the sale, but after the war, Secretary of State William H. Seward quickly took up a renewed Russian offer, and agreed to a proposal from Russian Minister in Washington, Edouard de Stoeckl, to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million. The treaty was signed on March... Read More
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President William H. Taft Appoints George L. Meyer Secretary of the Navy
by William Taft
5/3/09. An uncommon Cabinet appointment, the first of Taft that we have hadOn March 4, 1909, William H. Taft was inaugurated the 27th President of the United States. Due to a blizzard the night before that covered Washington with 10 inches of snow, the inauguration was moved indoors into the Senate Chamber. After he took the oath of office, Taft participated in the inaugural parade. For the first time in inauguration history, the incoming First Lady (Helen Taft) joined... Read More
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President-elect William Howard Taft Memorably Characterizes Selection of a Cabinet as Putting Together of a “Puzzle”
by William Taft
24/12/1908. After President Theodore Roosevelt determined he would not run for reelection, he gave careful consideration to potential successors. He finally threw his support behind William Howard Taft in early 1907. Taft was Roosevelt’s secretary of war and a trusted adviser, and the two had similar political ideas. Having been handpicked by the President, Taft easily won the Republican nomination on the first ballot when the Republican convention met in June 1908. Taft easily defeated William Jennings Bryan in... Read More
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William H. Taft Assembles His Campaign Team for the 1908 Election
by William Taft
11/7/08. Taft thanks Bliss for “expressing a willingness to serve as one of the Advisory Committee at the New York Headquarters…I regard this as a very great favor…it only adds another reason for the warm place that you have in the bosom of every Republican who values patriotism and sense of duty.”The biggest announcement in the run-up to the 1908 presidential election came in 1904 when, on the evening of his election, President Theodore Roosevelt announced that he would... Read More
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Zachary Taylor Rejoices on the Election of William Henry Harrison as President, Seeing It as a Triumph Akin to the American Revolution
by Zachary Taylor
10/02/1841. He compares the election to American independence, saying “A revolution next in importance to the country, to that of achieving by our ancestors our separation & independence from England, brought about by the force of reason through the ballot box without a drop of blood having been spilled.” He manifests his own feelings: “There are but few if a single individual in the whole land, who rejoices more sincerely in spirit & in truth than I do, at the... Read More
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General Zachary Taylor, in His Last Days in Command in Mexico, States That Military Service Brings Honor and Distinction
by Zachary Taylor
19/10/1847. On February 23, 1847, at the Battle of Buena Vista near Monterrey in northern Mexico, more than 15,000 Mexican troops charged U.S. General Zachary Taylor's small command of soldiers. Using heavy artillery, the general's 5,000 men turned back the Mexican army led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. By nightfall, the Mexican army retreated. This battle did not end the Mexican War, but, though no one knew it at the time, it effectively ended the fighting in... Read More
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Col. Zachary Taylor Writes the Army Adjutant General in Washington About Affairs in the West, and His Dissatisfaction With the Quality of the Troops Being Sent to Him
by Zachary Taylor
24/11/1833. An interesting letter, showing the inside operations and difficulties involved in getting quality troops to the Western frontierFort Crawford stood guard over Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, from 1816 until 1856. In the spring of 1829, troops began to build a new Fort Crawford on an elevated plain located on the mainland, safe from the floods that had plagued the first fort. The new structure was built primarily with quarried limestone, and work progressed slowly. Colonel (and future president... Read More
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Zachary Taylor as Leader, Indian Fighter, and Spokesman for Fair Treatment of His Men
by Zachary Taylor
23/08/1832. On how he would act in an Indian threat: “Should the Indians in the vicinity of Forts Snelling & Armstrong become at any time dissatisfied & threaten hostilities toward the whites, I would not feel myself authorized to reinforce either of those garrisons although occupied by a portion of the Regiment placed under my command, without an order to that effect from higher authority, let the emergency be what it might.” This is also a fascinating insight into Taylor... Read More
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President Zachary Taylor Recognizes a Consul of Venezuela to the Port of Philadelphia
by Zachary Taylor
30/07/1849. On July 9, 1850, after only 16 months in office, a seemingly healthy Taylor died after a sudden illness of four days duration. The cause of his death is still disputed, and although his doctors blamed cholera morbus or gastroenteritis, rather general diagnoses, many suspected that he had been poisoned. He had certainly made some very powerful political enemies in the months leading up to his demise.Jose C. Keef is listed as a consul for Venezuela in Philadelphia,... Read More
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Uncommon Early Autograph Letter Signed of Zachary Taylor, Building American Military Capacity Along the Mississippi River
by Zachary Taylor
28/09/1824. In 1808, Taylor was commissioned a first lieutenant of infantry, beginning a military career that would last forty years. He first won distinction during the War of 1812 for his defense of Fort Harrison in Indiana Territory against an Indian attack and became the first brevet major in the U. S. Army as a result. He spent the next three decades policing the frontiers against Indians, serving in the Black Hawk War in 1832 and the Second Seminole... Read More
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Alfred Lord Tennyson Announces the Birth of His First Child
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
08/1852. It was in 1850 that Tennyson reached the pinnacle of his career, publishing his masterpiece, ""In Memoriam A.H.H."", dedicated to his close friend Arthur Henry Hallam. Later the same year, he was appointed Poet Laureate by Queen Victoria, succeeding William Wordsworth. In the same year, Tennyson married Emily Sellwood, whom he had known since childhood. In 1852, they had their first child, a son. Emily was sleepless and unwell for close to 2 weeks after the birth.,That son,... Read More
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Alfred Lord Tennyson Pens a Line from a Great Poem: ""Thy voice is heard thro' rolling drums.""
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
12/09/1866. This letter comes from an old collection and has not been on the market in generationsAlfred Lord Tennyson long reigned as Poet Laureate under Queen Victoria. His career took off in 1850 after the publication of In Memoriam, followed by Maud, The Charge of the Light Brigade, and Idylls of the King. The Princess is a poem of the forbidden love between Prince and Princess.In 1866, one of his friends planned a trip to the United States and... Read More
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