Lot 253E email save

LEE, Robert E. Report... lee's first independent

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[caption title]. Washington: 29 January 1838. 13pp., 8vo (212 x 140 mm). Two large lithographed folding maps. 25th Congress, 2d Session, Senate Doc. No. 139. Disbound. Condition: foxing to the text, minor separations at folds of maps, ink numerical notation on title. robert e. lee's first independent assignment as a young officer in the army corps of engineers and his first published report. Lee was sent out west to the Mississippi River to find a solution to two problems: rapids in the vicinity of Des Moines were preventing steamboat navigation into the Upper Mississippi and a growing sand and silt island was threatening to cut off the entrance to the harbor at St. Louis. Arriving in St. Louis in August 1837, Lee proceeded to make a detailed survey of that stretch of the river and by the beginning of December had come up with plans to resolve both problems. Before proceeding, however, he issued this report. The large maps were drawn by M. C. Meigs and Henry Kayser after surveys by Lee and were lithographed by W. J. Stone. "A difficult task had been brilliantly performed, and the fullest praise for it had been accorded him. From that time onward he had the biggest esteem of his superiors. The opportunities that were to come to him in Mexico were created in St. Louis" (Southall & Freeman, Lee, p. 45). Scarce.

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