Boldy Signed Letter of Brigadier General Irin McDowell

Boldy Signed Letter of Brigadier General Irin McDowell - Inventory Number: DOC 306

Irin McDowell (1818-1885). Mexican War veteran: Union brigadier general who led a force of 80,000 in the First Battle of Bull Run. The defeat turned into a rout, humiliating the North and forcing them to reconsider their expectation of a 90-day war. As a major general and corps commander in the Second Battle of Bull Run, he was again defeated. Relieved of his command, he was later exonerated, though he held no further field command during the course of the Civil War. ALS, 4pp.

San Francisco, Dec 15, 1880. On "Hdqrs. Mil. Div. of the Pacific & Dept. of California, Presidio of S.F., Cal™ letterhead, he writes to E. W. Sloughton in NYC. a letter of apology. In part, "Of course you are indignant, and justly so, that anyone intentionally or blunderingly should have said anything in disparagement even of your conduct as minister to Russia, when your whole course there - both official and personal- was so much to the credit of yourself and your country... General [James] Garfield mentioned it in the course of our confidential conversation as something that had come to him in a general way...I read with great interest and great pain Mrs. Sloughton's letters to Mrs. McDowell, and am so sorry for the distress this matter has caused her..." Much more. Boldly signed. Normal folds. A Fine example.

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Inventory Number: DOC 306