Jun 27, 2024 - Sale 2675

Sale 2675 - Lot 292

Price Realized: $ 1,235
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(WAR OF 1812.) Francis Baylies. Drafts of an unpublished history of John E. Wool and the Battle of Queenston Heights--with Wool's notes. Approximately 240 manuscript pages in various hands including Baylies and Wool; generally minor wear, a few leaves worn. Various places, 1851-1866
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John Ellis Wool (1784-1869) of Troy, NY joined the United States Army in 1812, first coming to prominence for his heroics as a captain at the Battle of Queenston Heights later that year. He played a prominent role in the Mexican War, and then rose to the rank of Major General during the Civil War before being forced into retirement at the age of 79.

Offered here are three drafts of a biography of Wool spanning his early life and especially the Battle of Queenston Heights. The author was Francis Baylies (1783-1852), a former congressman and prolific historian. That same year, in 1851, Baylies published "Major General Wool's Campaign in Mexico, in the Years 1846, 1847, and 1848." Perhaps this was initially a larger biographical project, and this portion on Queenston Heights was excised before publication?

One draft is in Baylies' spidery vertical hand on blue paper, and runs to [2], 7, [35] pages. The first section is on loose sheets and the outer pages are quite worn; the final section is bound with ribbon. Like the other drafts, it has a short introductory Chapter I covering Wool's early life, and a longer chapter on his War of 1812 service centered on Queenston Heights. The first page includes a title in Wool's own hurried scrawl, "Biographical Sketch of the Character and Conduct of General Wool . . . ," suggesting that it would cover his entire life through 1848. The text contains at least three other long manuscript notes by Wool. A worn fragment of a cover sheet describes it as "a history of the early life of Major General John E. Wool . . . arranged for publication," suggesting that the notes on Baylies' work were added after Wool's 1863 promotion and retirement.

Another draft is written in a clean secretarial hand on unbound folding sheets, 40, [21] sheets, and covers some events through 1813, but also ends in mid-sentence and appears to be missing some leaves. It contains just brief notes in Wool's hand on the cover sheet.

The third draft is another clean secretarial copy, [11], 53, [24] manuscript leaves, bound with ribbon, with a few short edits and notes in Wool's hand.

Also included are 48 manuscript pages of notes and extracts on Queenston Heights, in a mix of Wool's hand and a secretarial hand. Included is what appears to be a partial draft of a profile on Wool for the United States Democratic Review, November 1851, page 435, titled "Political Portraits with Pen and Pencil." It consists of 4 manuscript pages in an unknown hand, mostly relating to the Battle of Queenston. Much of this draft is unpublished, but the phrase "under the high excitement of martial enthusiasm" appears both here and in the published article.

With--a few related items from Wool's papers.

Matthias P. Coons. Autograph Letter Signed to Wool from a fan. 6 pages. A long patriotic effusion on Wool's career: "I most truly and faithfully believe that you are now the only living man by the help of God that can be instrumental in saving this once beloved and glorious country." Brooklyn, 1 July 1861.

Wool's retained draft Autograph Letter to Benjamin Franklin Edmands, general in the Massachusetts state militia. 3 pages. Complains that he has not yet received a commission: "Zeal, integrity, loyalty, and love of country are not always passports to confidence or position." Troy, NY, 3 August 1861. With a clean secretarial copy of the same.

Wool's Autograph Manuscript memorial to the United States Congress requesting his back pay which had been "improperly and illegally withheld." 6 pages. No place, circa 1861.

Hugh McCulloch. Letter Signed as Secretary of Treasury to John J. Knox in the Treasury Department, concerning an investigation of the San Francisco Mint; Wool is not mentioned. [Washington], 23 June 1866.