?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
MCCLELLAN "WAS EITHER A DOLT OR DESIGNEDLY DISLOYAL" (CIVIL WAR.) James Hervey Simpson. Letter and publications questioning the loyalty of his former commander George McClellan. Autograph Letter Signed as "J.H. Simpson" to brother Dr. Josiah Simpson in Baltimore. 3 pages, 8 x 5 inches, on one folding sheet. With stamped envelope (postmark clipped). Cincinnati, OH, 16 November 1864
Colonel James Hervey Simpson (1813-1883) was a West Point graduate and one of the original officers in the United States Topographical Engineers; he is most often remembered for his work in mapping and exploring a route across Utah in 1858. He commanded the 4th New Jersey Infantry from the start of the Civil War until his capture at the Battle of Gaines' Mill under the command of General McClellan. Upon his parole from Libby Prison, he went back into topographical work. During the presidential campaign of 1864, he spoke out publicly against McClellan, who he suspected of being a Confederate sympathizer.
This letter was addressed to his brother, who had apparently quested the wisdom of calling the possible next president a traitor: "You may think me injudicious in the correspondence I have had with regard to McClellan, but believing I am in duty bound as a citizen of the U.S. to give the public any facts which I may have bearing on his past conduct which will show his unworthiness for the position of President, I have not hesitated to put myself before the public as I have. . . . He was insincere towards the government, and from this source have flown all the disasters which our army met with on the Peninsula of Va. The developments that are being made relative to the Sons of Liberty, that they were banded together to break up the government & aid the Confederates; that they were in secret conclave in the Richmond House at Chicago, at the same time the Democrats were holding their convention; that Vallandigham presided at these meetings and was the go between of the two bodies, all go to show that there was a regular plot to break down the government, and McClellan committing himself with Pendleton & men of his opinions & acts, certainly show that he was either a dolt or designedly disloyal."
WITH--two accompanying publications which quote Colonel Simpson's views on McClellan, as alluded to in the letter:
"Gen'l McClellan's Record. His Sympathy With the South." 12 printed pages, 9 x 5 1/2 inches, on 3 stitched folding sheets; folds, minimal wear, with the beginning and end of Simpson's contribution marked in ink, and a lone correction made in pencil. This pamphlet was issued late in the election campaign, apparently by Cincinnati Republican activist Edgar Conkling, in an effort to discredit McClellan. It features a long letter from Simpson to Conkling dated 20 October 1864. [Cincinnati, late October 1864].
Undated clipping from the Cincinnati Daily Times of Simpson's 12 November 1864 letter to the editor, titled "A Card," recounting how McClellan had allowed his regiment to be captured. 16 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches.
