Beschreibung:

Lot of 35 letters and dozens of additional documents, newspaper clippings, imprints, and other ephemera. Includes approximately 17 war-date letters written by Major General Joseph King Fenno Mansfield and a ca 1830s leather bound notebook titled "Laying Out the Works" with Mansfield’s own mathematical equations and hand drawn diagrams. Civil War letters in this collection are highlighted by a fascinating letter of September 16, 1862, the eve of the battle of Antietam, written by Mansfield to Major General McClellan. The majority of Civil War letters were written by Major General Mansfield to his son, Samuel M. Mansfield, who was a cadet at West Point at the onset of the war. Several additional letters in the collection were written by Mansfield to family members ca 1850s while serving in remote frontier military outposts. Joseph King Fenno Mansfield (1803-1862) was born in New Haven, CT. He entered West Point graduating 2nd in his class in 1822. Thereafter he embarked upon a lengthy military career which initially focused on his work as an engineer for the elite US Army Corps of Engineers. During the Mexican War, Mansfield was Chief Engineer under then General Zachary Taylor, serving with distinction and earning several promotions in the process. After the war, in May 1853, he was promoted to Inspector General of the US Army with the rank of colonel and spent much of the next few years west of the Mississippi. When the Civil War erupted in 1861, Mansfield was appointed Brigadier-General of Volunteers and placed in command of the Department of Washington. Likely due to his lack of combat experience, Mansfield was passed over for several high-profile army commands until finally being given command of the XII Corps of the Army of the Potomac days prior to the Battle of Antietam. Mansfield courageously led his men into combat when that battle commenced before suffering a fatal wound on September 17, 1862. An interesting assortment of items in the collection stem from Mansfield’s early career. These include a leather-bound notebook, approx. 31pp, ca 1830s, with the handwritten title on the cover “Notes / Laying the Works” and the signature “Lt Mansfield.” The interior pages are filled with Mansfield’s engineering notes, diagrams, and equations for an unidentified structure, likely Fort Pulaski, Savannah, GA. While Mansfield was stationed at Fort Pulaski it seems that he was actively courting Miss Louisa M. Mather of Middletown, CT. The collection includes four letters written between the two ca 1837-1838 which appear to show a rocky courtship. Nevertheless, they married in September 1838. Mexican-American War-era documents include a copy of a December 9, 1846, letter from Secretary of War, William L. Marcy and Sec of Navy, J. Y. Mason, to J. Burrows Hyde, assignee of the invention known as Hale’s War Rocket. The letter is marked "Confidential." Also included is Specifications for the Construction of the Wrought Iron Floating Caisson and the Wrought Iron Floating Gates, for the US Dry Dock at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Designed by Wm. J. McAlpine. New York: Printed by J. F. Throw, 1849. 18pp. No cover. After being appointed Inspector General of the Army in 1853 Mansfield headed west to inspect fortifications. Mansfield’s letters from the frontier demonstrate the difficult nature of his work and his interest in the native population. Writing on July 10, 1853, from "Camp at Pawnee Creek, 290 miles from Fort Leavenworth" Mansfield describes for his wife in a lengthy 4pp letter his journey thus far: ”We have seen a few Indians & Squaws & Pappooses. They were of the Kaw tribe and located on the Kaw or Kansas River, where there is a Methodist Mission. They appear quite peaceable. The men are highly painted on the face & head. The head is shaved close except a little like a horses mane…. I think the men are well formed & graceful as well as athletic. We track from 12 to 22 miles per day according to the facilities of getting wood & water & g