LETTER OF MAJOR GENERAL EDMUND P. GAINES, TO THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, IN REPLY TO THEIR RESOLUTIONS OF COMPLIMENT ON HIS ASSUMING THE COMMAND OF THE EASTERN DIVISION.

[New York]: W.C. Bryant & Co., Printers to the Board of Aldermen, [1846]. 24pp, stitched. Light to moderate foxing, Good+.

Gaines had won his fame in the Army during the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Second Seminole War. "He made the arrest of Aaron Burr and was a witness at the latter's trial" [DAB]. President Polk had appointed Gaines to command the Eastern Division of the U.S. Army. He chose New York City as his permanent headquarters, instead of Troy or Philadelphia, and the Board of Aldermen honors him here for his "judicious selection." Gaines's Letter recounts his "intimate personal acquaintance with [Polk] of nearly twenty years, beginning with the very commencement of his high political career in the noble State of Tennessee, of which we have both been citizens from childhood."
Gaines notes "the importance of this great sea-port, in a commercial and military point of view." Describing his career, Gaines says, "I am indeed an OLD soldier, having no senior in point of rank in the army." He is older in age than everyone except "three honored veterans." He orates on "national defence," the "singleness of purpose" to which he has devoted his career.
AI 46-2724 [4]. OCLC 24122876 [7- NYHS, Yale, Harvard, Huntington, U TX, Boston Athenaeum, Boston Public] [as of April 2015]. Item #31959

Price: $275.00

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