McClellan, George B.:

$7,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

[AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM GEORGE McCLELLAN TO CAPT. GEORGE WASHINGTON CULLUM, ABOUT HIS MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR SERVICE WITH THE ENGINEER CORPS]. An unpublished report by George Brinton McClellan on his Mexican-American War service, written while a first lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers to his commanding officer, Capt. George Washington Cullum, additionally docketed with McClellan's signature on the verso of the last leaf.McClellan (later commander of the United States Army during the Civil War) was a young graduate from West Point when he received his first taste of combat as a lieutenant with Company A of the Corps of Engineers in the Mexican-American War. At the war's close he returned to West Point, where his regiment helped with the instruction of young engineers. This letter was drafted at the request of his West Point commanding officer, George Washington Cullum, who wanted a full report on the company's activities in Mexico. For most of the war the company was commanded by Capt. Gustavus Woodson Smith, who later fought against McClellan as a Confederate major general. McClellan's report reflects the dangerous and unglamorous nature of military engineering work from their arrival under Zachary Taylor's command to the conclusion of the war. In the campaign for Tampico the company "performed a great deal of hard & useful labour in repairing the road, making bridges &c, for which the men...have never received one word of credit in any official paper." Of the siege

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