[MILITARY] -- [CHOLERA OUTBREAK]. SCOTT, Winfield. Autograph letter signed ("Winfield Scott"), to Brigadier General Henry Atkinson. Headquarters North Western Army, Chicago, 18 July 1832.
Sale 1192 - American Historical Ephemera & Photography
Lots 1-294
Jun 15, 2023
10:00AM ET
Lots 295-567
Jun 16, 2023
10:00AM ET
Live / Cincinnati
Estimate
$300 -
$500
Sold for $1,008
Sold prices are inclusive of Buyer’s Premium
Lot Description
[MILITARY] -- [CHOLERA OUTBREAK]. SCOTT, Winfield. Autograph letter signed ("Winfield Scott"), to Brigadier General Henry Atkinson. Headquarters North Western Army, Chicago, 18 July 1832.
4 pages, 4to, on a bifolium, some staining, a few short tears.
WHAT A CALAMITY HAS COME UPON THE EXPEDITION!
"Cholera was a disease of conquest in Chicago, making its first known appearance in 1832 with Winfield Scott’s troops who had been sent to subdue Black Hawk and his allies. This swift-moving disease could kill within hours of contraction. Victims felt sudden cramps, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, and often death due to dehydration" (Encyclopedia of Chicago).
Winfield Scott writes to Atkinson: "Since I wrote you on the 13th all my intelligence from Detroit has been disastrous. The detachments of Lieut. Colonel's Cummings & Twiggs, & that of Major Payne have suffered dreadfully from choler & were on the 13th encamped- the second & third near Fort Gratiot, & the first below Detroit. The steamers Clay & Superior, refused to proceed with infected troops. ...Repeated orders have been sent to separate the well from the sick...I learn also, that death & pannic have stopped the navigation above Detroit & that all our medicines & hospital stores & many other essential supplies were shifted from a seamer to the Schooner Napoleon, which lies in the river below Huron, without master or crew. ...I can collect small force of regulars, un-infected and unsuspected of infection, together with a surgeon, medicines & tents... We have lost from the four companies of artillery about 53 men & two officers (Lieuts Gustavus Brown & McDuffie by cholera... What a calamity has come upon the expedition! I sank my own grief of heart in the general disappointment of the government & country." During the outbreak at his post
Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana, and Historical Documents
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