Description:

CAMILLE A. J. POLIGNAC
(1832 - 1913) French Confederate major general who served on the staffs of Beauregard and Bragg, fought with distinction in the Red River Campaign. Sent by the Confederacy in 1864 to request recognition and intervention by Napoleon III but arrived too late. The last living Confederate major general at the time of his death. Rare fine content A.L.S. concerning the financing of a proposed canal in Panama, 4pp. 8vo., Olivet, France, Jan. 2, 1889 to former C.S.A. Gen. MARCUS J. WRIGHT (1831-1922) who was wounded at Shiloh, returning to fight at Chickamauga and Atlanta. He later compiled the Official Records of the Civil War. In part: '...I at once handed your letter to Mr. Ferdinand de Lesseps [(1805-1894) French diplomat and promoter of the Suez and Panama canals]...[he] told me he did not think there was much to be done in that way...he thinks advisable to avail the issue of the general assembly of shareholders...I also gathered from my conversation with him that he has failed in obtaining help or encouragement from the most prominent 'capitalists' in America...I pointed out to him that failing such the American public might be appealed to...If you can afford evidence...that the American public would come to the recue...I sh'd take great pleasure in handing any documents you might send me not only to Lesseps but rather to the new set of men who have now practically assumed the leadership of the business...' Fine condition. In May 1879, a congress of 136 delegates (including Lesseps) assembled iand voted in favor of the creation of a Panama canal, which was to be without locks, like the Suez Canal and Lesseps was appointed president of the Panama Canal Company. Work on the canal began in 1882. However, the technical difficulties of operating in the wet tropics dogged the project. Particularly disastrous were recurrent landslides into the excavations from the bordering water-saturated hills, and the death toll from malaria and yellow fever. In the end, insufficient financial capital and financial corruption ended the project.

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May 4, 2025 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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