Lyon Nathaniel: Signed (1 results)
More imagesPublished by Benicia, Ca. August 29, 1853. 1853
- Signed
Seller: William Reese Company, New York, U.S.A.William Reese Company
Contact seller5-star sellerA brief but warm autograph letter by Nathaniel Lyon, a controversial figure most remembered as the first Union general to be killed during the Civil War, written during his posting on the California frontier in the early 1850s. Lyon (1818-61) was a Connecticut native and a graduate of West Point. He fought in the Seminole Wars a…nd with most distinction in the Mexican-American War, during which he was promoted to Captain. After the war he was posted to the frontier, where his violent temper and reputation for harsh punishment extended beyond his subordinates, most notably in the case of the Bloody Island Massacre of 1850, where Lyon's unit killed more than 200 Pomo tribe civilians in retaliation for a violent robbery. In 1854 he was dispatched to Kansas where he viewed the violent internecine conflict over the slavery question first-hand. A Free-Soil man (if not an abolitionist), his experiences there solidified his hatred of the pro-slavery faction. In May of 1861 he was made a Brigadier General of volunteers while stationed in Missouri, and organized pre-emptive attacks against Confederate sympathizers in the nominally neutral state. His campaign culminated in the Battle of Wilson's Creek, where he was killed in battle and inflamed the public spirit as a martyr to the Union cause. In this letter, Lyon writes to a George Work of San Francisco, apparently a close friend by the tone. He is being sent to the Rogue River region to protect American interests in the ongoing conflict with indigenous tribes which had been growing steadily deadlier since the Gold Rush, and would soon come to a head in the Rogue River War of 1855-56. It reads in full: "Dear Work, We have just received orders to go up to the rogue River country where are the Indian difficulties of which you have seen some accounts in the papers within the past few days. We shall leave this place this evening by the Sacramento Steamers and go as far as possible by water. When we may return or whether at all is uncertain should we be gone long, I shall hope to hear from you anything addressed to me at 'Fort Reading' will reach me. Please see Brown and Eddy and say my respects to them and bid them a 'good by' for me. I will write to you as opportunity offers. Yours Truly, N. Lyon." The recipient of the letter is unclear, but it is likely one of two equally ill-fated men. One George Work would be the first sheriff of Tuolumne County, who served in that role from 1850-1852. The early days of Tuolumne County were as rough-and-tumble as they come, and its first sheriff did his best to impose order on a landscape of outlaws and mob justice. True to form, Work was killed in a shootout at a saloon in 1854. The other George Work was a fellow Connecticut resident, of an age with Lyon. He was a former schoolteacher turned wealthy merchant at the start of the Civil War, but in 1864 volunteered for the navy, where he was assigned a post as assistant paymaster on the USS Tecumseh. He was on board that ship when a torpedo sank it in the Battle of Mobile Bay, and his remains were never retrieved. We know that Lyons corresponded with the latter George Work as late as 1859, when he wrote to him regarding the constitutional crisis in Kansas, though it is not clear whether Work ever visited San Francisco. The envelope that accompanies this letter is addressed to George Work at San Francisco and postmarked June 11 at Benicia, and likely contained a different letter from Lyon to Work. An autograph letter from one of the Union's most remembered generals, penned during his controversial tenure on the California frontier. Old folds, light staining. Very good.
