John H B Latrobe Letter

Consists of a one page letter from John H. B. Latrobe to a Mr. Wallis, dated March 28, 1877.

Letter to his sister, 1 September 1819, describing the cadets march to Hudson, N.Y. in August 1819; with a cover letter to USMA Superintendent Wesley Merritt, 26 May 1884.

In the aftermath of the September 1862 Battle of Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln issued the most significant presidential decree in American history, the Emancipation Proclamation, which would forever free all slaves in territory not under Union control. Nevertheless, his chief military commander in the field, Major General George B. McClellan, was outraged. Within days, two former Union officers nefariously crossed the lines into rebeldom, an initiative resulting in an elaborate subterfuge to scam Lincoln into withdrawing the Proclamation in return for nebulous promises of peace. This book tells the story, obscured in a veil of secrecy for 150 years, of the cloak and dagger chess match between Union detectives and Southern operatives in the months before emancipation become effective. Despite an ominous warning by author Herman Melville five years before, the scheme to perpetuate slavery almost succeeded, for it was engineered by a man the National Police Gazette once declared the "King of the Confidence Men."

This is the first biography of Captain Thomas Tingey, a seminal figure in the early development of the U.S. Navy. It is at the same time a biography of this important American naval figure and a history of the first quarter century of the Washington Navy Yard, which Tingey commanded for that period. It is also the story of the transition of the navy from an object of partisan discord, to an honored and beloved defender of a growing and increasingly self-confident young nation. Tingey, who came to America after a short service in the Royal Navy, contributed importantly to the success of the navy in the War of 1812 and left a legacy of naval service which many of his descendants have followed. The Captain Who Burned His Ships is designed to fill a blank in popular histories of the 19th century American navy, which have been centered on the exploits of the heroes of the Barbary campaigns and the War of 1812. It looks at the development of the navy through its construction and logistical components, in which the Washington yard and Tingey played an important role. It looks at Tingey’s contributions to the development of yard procedures and practices, his civic role in the budding city of Washington, and the tragic events of 1814, when he was forced to burn his own creation to save it from falling into British hands

Reprint of the original, first published in 1880.