Collection Scope and Content Note

Journal-account book (1823) kept by George Talcott, U.S. Army Ordnance Department, while on an official surveying trip through Ohio, Kentucky,. and Tennessee; one letter to Talcott from Winfield Scott (1842) concerning a recently invented machine for throwing shot; thirty-six Mexican War letters, chiefly to Talcott at Washington, D.C. from Benjamin Huger, Scott's chief of ordnance, concerning the capture of Vera Cruz, the march on Mexico City, the storming of Chapultepec, and the numerous difficulties encountered on this campaign, but also from Alexander Brydie Dyer, describing the action taken to quell the Taos uprising and other events, and from Josiah Gorgas, George Douglas Ramsay, and other officers; one diary (1841-1842) of Talcott's son, Sebastian Visscher Talcott, kept during the official survey of the Northeastern boundary of the United States. Also, personal and business correspondence and accounts, estate settlement papers, deeds, bills, and miscellaneous papers of the related Talcott, Shearman (Sherman), Bogard, and Gibson families; fair copies of 17th and 18th century wills and inventories. Places represented include Braintree, Essex County, England; Glastonbury, Wethersfield, Connecticut; Albany, Canandaigua, New York City, Rochester, and Utica, New York; and Danville, Illinois.