Sep 30, 2021 - Sale 2580

Sale 2580 - Lot 167

Price Realized: $ 938
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(MEXICAN WAR.) Josiah Simpson. A medical officer's dramatic letter on capture of Mexico City, with related papers. Autograph Letter Signed to brother James Hervey Simpson. 12 pages (5-8 and 11-18), 10 x 7 3/4 inches, on 3 folding sheets; lacking 6 pages, minor wear including short separations at intersections of folds. With typed transcript and other papers as described. Various places, 1847-50
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Josiah Simpson (1815-1874) served as the assistant surgeon of the 6th United States Infantry under Winfield Scott. In this letter to his brother, then an officer in the Topographical Engineers, he describes the army's recent triumphs from Vera Cruz to Mexico City. He describes the fatal wound suffered by his fellow assistant surgeon and bunkmate William Roberts at Molino del Rey: "Poor Roberts left my room (where he had been sleeping) a short time before daylight to join his regiment, the 5th Inf'y, in the attack on the foundery, and was brought back to the same place about ten o'clock with a wound directly over the left eye, the ball having entered his scull and passed out at the left temple. He lived in this condition for better than a month, and finally died from inflammation of the brain. A better fellow never lived. When he was shot he was rallying one of the companies of the 5th Inf'y which (in consequence of its officer Lieut. Strong having been killed) had gotten into disorder."

The capture of Chapultepec Castle is described, as well as a clever manoeuver at the gates of Mexico City to capture its battery: "From the place where the troops were halted up to the battery at the gate, the road on either side was well built up with houses. Genl. Worth directed part of his command to work their way up to the battery through the houses by means of pick axes and crowbars. The houses having been all deserted, the enemy had no means of knowing what was going on. . . . Our troops, having worked their way through the houses until they had gotten on the flank of the enemies battery suddenly made their appearance and poured into the cannoniers a most deadly fire of musketry." Dr. Simpson also offers a critique of the early peace negotiations, expressing frustration that President Polk had sent little-known Nicholas Trist instead of a leading statesman as negotiator: "Genl. Scott I have no doubt would have been as able a negotiator as he could have selected, but I suppose Mr. Polk was afraid of him."


The letter's first pages including the dateline are missing, but it describes the recent fall of Mexico City on 15 September, and discusses a second treaty negotiation to be held on the 30th, placing it firmly in Mexico City, late September 1847. Although incomplete, it is one of most gripping Mexican War letters we have seen.

Also included is Simpson's manuscript diary in a bilingual "Leroux's English Almanac for 1848" printed in Mexico, with front matter and date headings in Spanish and English. 12mo, publisher's cloth, minor wear; lacking rear free endpaper; with his dated signature on front pastedown. It includes sporadic entries dated 7 January to 19 December 1848. Compared with his long letter packed with narrative detail, the entries are short and utilitarian, such as: "Commenced receiving beef from Senor Pizarro for hosp'l at 8 cts per pound" (6 February). Entries from 12 to 19 April trace his route from Mexico City to Xalapa. On 3 June he noted "Left Jalapa in company with five other med. officers in charge of about 500 sick en route for New Orleans," reaching their destination ten days later. From there he proceeded to Governor's Island, NY on 23 July, and then to his home in Lambertville, NJ.

With--Manuscript field order signed by adjutant Irvin McDowell (later a Union general in the Civil War), appointing Simpson as medical director of the Center Division. Mexico, 3 January 1847.

New Testament in parallel Spanish and English, 671 pages, bearing bookplate of the New York Bible Society. Inscribed on front free endpaper "Dr. J. Simpson, Pew No. 30 upstairs." New York: American Bible Society, 1850.

Pair of photostat copies (positive and negative) of the printed "Official List of Officers who Marched with the Army under the Command of Major General Winfield Scott," Mexico, 1848. Simpson is listed on the 4th page.