NOTES TAKEN DURING THE EXPEDITION COMMANDED BY CAPT. R.B. MARCY, U.S.A. In the Summer and Fall of 1854

[Texas]; Parker W.B

Published by Philadelphia Hayes & Zell 1856

About this Item

First Edition. 8vo, publisher's original brown cloth, the spine lettered in gilt, the covers blocked in blind and with a central ornamental seal in blind. xii, 242.[6 ads.] pp. A very good copy, very well preserved, the binding tight and strong, the text-block clean and very pleasing, a little bit of rubbing to the head of the spine panel, a small unobtrusive discoloration to the bottom of the rear cover. FIRST EDITION. In March 1852 Marcy was assigned the command of a seventy-man exploring expedition across the Great Plains in search of the source of the Red River and directed to "collect and report everything that may be useful or interesting." Second in command of the Marcy expedition was Capt. George B. McClellan. Among Marcy's scouts was Jim Ned, a Delaware Indian whom Marcy called "the bravest warrior and the most successful horse thief in the West." Between May 2 and July 28, 1852, Marcy's party crossed a thousand miles of previously undocumented Texas and Oklahoma territory, discovering numerous valuable mineral deposits as well as twenty-five new species of mammals and ten of reptiles. Marcy also recorded a prairie dog town that covered 400,000 acres. He reportedly discovered the sources of both forks of the Red River, as well as the Palo Duro and Tule canyons, which he became the first White man to explore. The expedition encountered and documented the little-known Wichita Indians and compiled the first Wichita dictionary. It also returned with information on Cynthia Ann Parker. Eastern newspapers erroneously reported that Marcy died at the hands of the Comanches. Marcy's 1852 expedition has been called the most significant of his career and "the best organized, best conducted, and most successful" venture into the region to that date. It was the first to locate the headwaters of the Red River, which Zebulon M. Pike, Stephen Long, and Thomas Freeman had all previously searched for and failed to find. Marcy's report on his expedition, Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, In the Year 1852.With Reports on the Natural History of the Country, supplemented by a handsome collection of lithographs, was published in 1853. It quickly became a classic of Western Americana. In 1854 Marcy surveyed Indian reservations in northern and western Texas, and in 1856 he explored the headwaters of the Big Wichita and Brazos rivers. His report of the 1856 expedition was published by the United States Senate. Seller Inventory # 33101

Bibliographic Details

Title: NOTES TAKEN DURING THE EXPEDITION COMMANDED ...

Publisher: Philadelphia Hayes & Zell 1856

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: 1st Edition