Henry L. Abbot Family Papers
Catalog Record: http://lccn.loc.gov/mm2002084936
General International Standard for Archival Description
Manuscript Division Library of Congress Washington, D.C.
Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2007
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Henry L. Abbot Family Papers 1770-2001 (bulk 1832-1870)
9 containers plus 3 artifact containers and 1 oversize
Abbot, Henry L.
Biographical History for: Henry L. Abbot Family Papers 1770-2001 (bulk 1832-1870)
Biographical Note Henry L. Abbot Date Event 1831, Aug. 13 Born, Beverly, Mass. 1854 Graduated second in his class, United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. 1854-1855 Second lieutenant, United States Corps of Topographical Engineers, Office of Pacific Railroad Explorations, Washington, D.C. 1855 Assisted in railroad survey in California and Oregon 1856 Married Mary Susan Everett (died 1871) 1857 First lieutenant, United States Corps of Topographical Engineers 1857-1861 Assisted Captain Andrew A. Humphreys on survey of the Mississippi River delta and coauthored their Report upon the Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi River (1861) 1861-1862 Assistant topographical engineer, staff of General Irvin McDowell, United States Army Wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run, Va. Assisted General John G. Barnard, chief engineer for the Department of Washington, in constructing forts south of the Potomac River Aide-de-camp to General Barnard in the Peninsular Campaign, Va. Chief topographical engineer for Major General Nathaniel Banks’s expedition to New Orleans, La. 1863-1865 Colonel, First Connecticut Artillery, United States Volunteers, in defense of Washington, D.C. Captain, Corps of Engineers, United States Army Commanded siege artillery for United States armies operating against Petersburg and Richmond, Va. 1865 Mustered out of the volunteer service with brevet rank of major general and returned to regular duty in the Corps of Engineers with rank of major 1866-1886 Colonel, Corps of Engineers, United States Army 1888-1895 Member, Board of Ordnance and Fortifications, United States Department of War 1895 Retired from active service 1897-1904 Member, technical committee, and consulting engineer, La Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama (New Panama Canal Co.) 1904 Brigadier general, United States Army, retired, by Act of Congress 1905-1906 Member, board of consulting engineers appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to prepare plans for the Panama Canal 1905-1910 Professor of hydraulic engineering, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 1927, Oct. 1 Died, Cambridge, Mass.
Scope and Content Note The papers of the family of Henry Larcom Abbot (1831-1927) span the years 1770-2001, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1832-1870. Correspondence, diaries, memoirs, military records, financial and legal records, genealogical material, photographs, writings, clippings, and mementos comprise the major part of the collection. The material is arranged alphabetically by type of material or name of creator and chronologically thereunder. Artifacts and oversize material are arranged and described according to the containers and folders from which the items were removed. Correspondence, diaries, and memoirs of Henry L. Abbot and other family members constitute the core of the collection. Most of the letters were exchanged between Abbot and his wife, Mary Susan (“Susie”) Everett Abbot, and mother, Fanny Larcom Abbot, and reflect primarily his service in the Union army and family and social activities in Massachusetts during the Civil War. A graduate of the United States Military Academy and a career officer in the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Abbot served as a topographical engineer and Union officer throughout the war and earned numerous promotions. He was wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run, assisted with the design and construction of fortifications around the city of Washington, and served in the Peninsular Campaign. In 1863, he was commissioned colonel commanding the First Connecticut Artillery volunteers and led the siege artillery for the Union armies operating against Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia, in 1864-1865. In his letters, Abbot discreetly described movements of the army, concerns about Abraham Lincoln’s administration, African-American soldiers, religion, and Union commanders. His caution was due not only to military exigencies but also to his wife’s admonitions concerning his political differences with her family, apparently ardent abolitionists, who also had access to his letters. Abbot wrote of his achievements and occasionally of the technology of the ordnance he commanded such as larger projectiles that weighed as “much as the cannon of ten years ago.” In a letter dated July 16, 1864, his father Joseph Hale Abbot, a mathematics professor and school principal in Beverly, Massachusetts, discussed causes of the war, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, Ulysses S. Grant’s situation in Virginia, and the presidential aspirations of General George McClellan. Letters from Henry L. Abbot’s mother and wife focus on family matters and the childhood activities of his son Frederic V. Abbot. Letters also discuss the death of Abbot’s brother Edward Stanley Abbot in action at Gettysburg in 1863 and social receptions in Washington, D.C., in the 1850s, including a description of William Wilson Corcoran’s greenhouse and gallery of paintings. Diaries and memoirs in the collection include reminiscences by Emily Everett, Henry L. Abbot’s mother-in-law. A resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, her memoirs span most of the nineteenth century with family vignettes such as helping her grandfather adjust his powdered wigs, town personalities, childhood adventures, births, and deaths. The collection also contains a journal by Abbot’s mother recording his childhood development from 1832 to 1840 and photocopies of Abbot’s Civil War diaries for 1864-1865, including his detailed index to his diaries now in the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mementos, ships logs, maps, and biographical material comprise a file pertaining to Henry Larcom, shipmaster and Abbot’s maternal grandfather. Most of the items relate to Larcom’s survival of the wreck of the Margaret (ship) in the Atlantic Ocean in 1810. Ensnared in the confiscation of American shipping by the French during the Napoleonic Wars, Larcom and his vessel had been detained by French authorities in Naples. Unable to secure release of his vessel or its cargo, Larcom and several other American masters were permitted to return to Massachusetts on the Margaret. The ship capsized in a squall in the middle of the Atlantic, and Larcom survived over a month on the open sea before his rescue by a passing vessel. The actions of the crew during the ordeal were questioned by survivors, and several accounts of the incident are in the biographical material. Printed matter includes a recollection of the event by his daughter, Fanny Larcom Abbot, published in 1871. A shawl, rope, and kerchief salvaged by Larcom from the wreck, a pocketknife, a bound nautical volume, a “burning glass,” and a wallet comprise the mementos. Although Henry L. Abbot published extensively in various technical journals and books, only a few of his writings are contained in the collection . His survey of the Mississippi River delta, Report upon the Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi River coauthored with Andrew A. Humphreys, was translated and reproduced throughout Europe. The collection includes an Italian review of the report with a congratulatory letter from William Henry Seward, secretary of state, and a commemorative centennial reissue by the Corps of Engineers in 1961. An unidentified notebook, circa 1828, with numerous stories, poems, and commentary is contained among the miscellaneous writings.
file
Biographical material
Abbot, Frederic V., 1922-1928, undated
Abbot, Henry L., 1850, 1913-1952, undated
Broadsides and certificates, 1865, 1913, 1925 See Oversize
Clippings, 1850, 1864, 1902-1905, 1923-1992, undated
Correspondence
1870-1963, undated
Diaries and memoirs
Abbot, Charles Greeley, 1958
Abbot, Fanny Larcom, 1832-1840
Abbot, Henry L. (photocopies)
Index, 1850-1918
Abbot, Marion (“May”) Stanley, 1895
Everett, Emily, 1816, 1887-1890, 1905
Miscellaneous
1949, undated
Financial and legal records, 1828, 1849, 1861-1922, 1941-1989
Genealogy
Notes, 1851-1941, undated See also Oversize
Printed matter
Slave records, 1814
Larcum, Henry
Biographical material, 1817, 1903, 1968, undated
Logbook, Betsy (ship), 1800
Lunar observations and journal, Rover (schooner), 1816-1821
Maps, 1981, undated See also Oversize
Mementos, circa 1810, 1847, undated See Artifacts
Miscellany, 1869, undated
Navigation notebooks, 1770, 1796
Printed matter, 1809, 1844, 1871
Shipping invoices, 1819
Mementos
Lincoln, Abraham, 1865, undated See Artifacts
Military insignia and medals, 1865, 1918, undated See Artifacts
Military reunions, badges, 1886-1916 See Artifacts
Miscellaneous, 1782, 1872, 1930-1932, undated See also Artifacts
Military records
Abbot, Frederic V., 1919-1920, undated
Abbot, Henry L., extracts from The War of the Rebellion re Abbot, 1861-1865
Set I
Set II
Vols. 1-2
Vols. 3-4 and Addenda
History of the First Connecticut Artillery and of the Siege Trains of the Armies Operating against Richmond, 1862-1865, 1893
Extract from Board of Engineers report re Fort Carroll, Md., 1864
“Notes on the Status of the Corps of Engineers,” 1885
Petersburg National Military Park, Va., 1951
Writings
Book, Family Letters of General Henry Larcom Abbot, by Catherine C. Abbot
Correspondence and notes, 1928-1994, undated
Drawings, undated
Photographs, undated
Text, 2001
Abbot, Charles Greeley, 1930-1966, undated
Abbot, Henry L., 1861-1864, 1912, undated
Others, circa 1828, 1840, 1861, 1953, 1960
Poetry, 1852, 1863, undated
Artifacts
Larcom, Henry
circa 1810 (Container 6)
1847, undated (Container 6)
Lincoln, Abraham, 1865, undated (Container 7)
Military insignia and medals, 1865, 1918, undated (Container 7)
Military reunions, badges, 1886-1916 (Container 7)
Miscellaneous, 1782, 1876, undated (Container 7)
Oversize
Broadsides and certificates, 1865, 1913, 1925 (Container 1)
Genealogical notes
Chart, undated (Container 4)
Maps
North Atlantic Ocean, 1821 (Container 6)