1856 War Department Survey -- RAILROAD ROUTE, Mississippi River to Pacific Coast

Description: Measuring about 9" x 11-3/4", and paginated in sections, this hardback book is Volume 3 in a series titled "Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practical and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, Made under the Direction of the Secretary of War in 1853-1854." It is dated 1856 and printed in Washington by A. O. P. Nicholson. The Secretary of War at the time was Jefferson Davis, who later became President of the Confederate States during the Civil War. Volume 3 opens with 36 pages of "Extracts from the (Preliminary) Report of Lieutenant A. W. Whipple, Corps of Topographical Engineers, upon the route near the 35th Parallel, with an Explanatory Note by Captain A. A. Humphreys, Corps of Topographical Engineers." The remainder of the book contains Parts I-IV of the six-part "Report of Explorations for a Railway Route near the 35th Parallel of North Latitude, from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast" by Lieutenant A. W. Whipple assisted by Lieutenant J. C. Ives. So let's examine those four parts in more detail: - Part I, titled simply "Itinerary", is 136 pages long and breaks down into 16 chapters describing the route taken by the expedition. - Part II is "Report on the Topographical Features and Character of the Country", 77 pages. - Part III, 127 pages, is "Report upon the Indian Tribes" by Lieut. A. W. Whipple, Thomas Ewbank, Esq., and Prof. William W. Turner. - Part IV, 175 pages, is "Report of the Geology of the Route." This section also includes the two foldout maps that are shown in the last three pictures, one of which is torn (as shown in the last picture). Of some historical interest is the handwritten inscription on the first title page, which is shown in the fourth picture. If I'm seeing it correctly, it reads "Revd. Samuel Newell, from Henry W. Davis, from Hon. J. C. Allen, H. R." I'm not sure who Revd. Samuel Newell was, but Henry Winter Davis was a Congressman from Maryland, and James Cameron Allen was a Congressman from Illinois, and both were serving in the House of Representatives at the time of publication of this report. The whole inscription seems to be in the same handwriting, so it's unclear who actually wrote it. It is in mostly very good condition for its age, but it has some issues, which I'll list as thoroughly as I can. First, I happened by chance to notice that a plate had been cut out at the beginning of the "Itinerary" section, which prompted me to do a deep cross-check against the lists of illustrations, yielding - to the best of my ability - the following results. First, in the "Itinerary" section, three full-page plates are missing (and identified as missing by check marks in pencil on the List of Illustrations page). And another two full-page plates are missing from the "Indian Tribes" section. Plus, pages 27-30 are missing from the "Indian Tribes" section, and, due to an apparent binding error, pages 67-70 (also in the "Indian Tribes" section) are present but separated. Another "present but separated" feature is the top part of pages 163-164 in the "Geology" section, which has been torn off but is still present, as shown in the fourth from last picture. Other than that, there are some weak spots in the binding, even some old repairs, as well as some staining and foxing to the pages, some creased pages and page corners, and some scuffs and edge wear on the cover, including some paper loss around the edges, and splits started at the top and bottom of the spine. International Buyers – Please Note: Import duties, taxes, and charges are not included in the item price or shipping cost. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. 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Price: 185.34 USD

Location: Gorham, Maine

End Time: 2024-12-01T16:39:35.000Z

Shipping Cost: 10 USD