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Sale 24
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Lot 227
Bogart, John (1836-1920) Engineer during the Civil War; best known for park planning and improvements in New York and other cities, including Brooklyn's Prospect Park; consultant for hydro-electric development from Niagara Falls; prepared plans for the first subway system in New York, and tunnels under the Hudson River to Jersey City and Hoboken.
Twenty-one letters (96+ pages), dated from Jan. 1864 through April 1867; 11 are datelined "Fort Monroe, Va." (1864-66) and 10 datelined Brooklyn, NY (1866-67), where he had gone to take charge of the Prospect Park project; one letter is missing first page, and one page has edge tears, but overall Very Fine. All letters are to Miss Emma Jefferis, West Chester, Pa. Most with original transmittal covers. Included is a description of Jefferson Davis during his imprisonment at Fortress Monroe. A few excerpts: (Fort Monroe, June 11, 1864) "I suppose you are interested in the Philadelphia Fair…Capt. James says it will be a greater success than the New York Fair was….Gen. Grant's army has moved to the James River and consequently this is now the depot for his supplies. There are very many soldiers going and coming, both well and wounded….I saw so many sad things when Gen. McClellan's army was here that I hoped this would not again be the base….(Fort Monroe, Mar. 7, 1866) "I look up out of the window by me and standing on the parapet of the Fort with the officer of the guard I see the incarnation of the rebellion. Mr. Davis [Jefferson Davis] is taking his usual walk and every day it is pleasant he stands awhile on the parapet and looks out over the waters. He is a wonderful man, strongly asserting the right of what he has done, and most interesting in conversation in regard to the mighty events he has lived through…." (Fort Monroe, Apr. 19, 1866) "…calling for me to go to Hampton to lay out a cemetery wherein are to be collected the remains of the soldiers who are buried in this vicinity….quite a serious disturbance this week at Norfolk, begun by a collision between some white persons and the members of a procession of colored people celebrating the passage of the Civil Rights bill. Several persons were killed….(Fort Monroe, June 17, 1866) "…a dispatch from New York asking whether I would accept a situation as Engineer upon a new Park to be laid out for the City of Brooklyn…I had been appointed by the Board of Commissioners of the Prospect Park of Brooklyn….This Park has some six hundred acres and is to be laid out in the same general style as the New York Central Park…The appointment is a professional compliment…."
Estimated Value $1,200 - 1,500.
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| Realized $1,610 |
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