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1847 Emory Map of the Battle of Los Angeles during the Mexican War in Pasadena

BattleLosAngeles-emory-1847
$125.00
Sketch of the Battle of Los Angeles Upper California, fought between the Americans and Mexicans January 9th, 1847. - Main View
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1847 Emory Map of the Battle of Los Angeles during the Mexican War in Pasadena

BattleLosAngeles-emory-1847

A map of a Mexican-American War battle that took place in Pasadena.

Title


Sketch of the Battle of Los Angeles Upper California, fought between the Americans and Mexicans January 9th, 1847.
  1847 (undated)     6.5 x 8.75 in (16.51 x 22.225 cm)     1 : 47200

Description


This is an 1847 William Hemsley Emory map of the Battle of Los Angeles, California, which occurred on January 9, 1847. The map depicts the American contingent led by Commodore Robert F. Stockton in the final day before the force reached 'Pueblo de Los Angeles'. Although only a sketch, the map details the last engagement between Stockton's contingent and the Californians under the command of Jose Maria Flores.
The Battle of Los Angeles
This final engagement took place at La Mesa (located in modern-day Pasadena), after Flores and his men had suffered a defeat in the Battle of San Gabriel. The march on January 9th began at 9 a.m. and followed closely followed the same route as today's Olympic Boulevard. Californian scouts and small raiding parties harassed the advancing troops, but nothing more serious materialized. That changed after Stockton's column entered La Mesa, a wide plain south of Los Angeles. Flores and his men appeared on a high crest to the right of the Americans, who had a ravine on their left. The American forces, commanded by General Kearny, formed a box around their supplies and livestock, and prepared to be charged. After an exchange of artillery fire, the Californians charged and tested all sides of the box, but to no avail. The Americans' superior firepower was too much for the attackers. After the Californians withdrew, the American force continued across La Mesa and eventually forded the Los Angeles River close to what is today the Washington Boulevard crossing.
Census and Publication History
This map was engraved by Augustus Kollner from a sketch by William Hemsley Emory and published in 1847. Though fairly well represented in institutional collections, this map rarely appears on the private market.

CartographerS


William Hemsley Emory (September 7, 1811 - December 1, 1887) was an American surveyor, civil engineer, and Army officer. Born in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, Emory graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1831, was assigned to the Fourth Artillery, and resigned from service in 1836 to pursue civil engineering. He returned to the army in 1838 to serve in the newly-formed Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. During the Mexican-American War, Emory served in the Army of the West under the command command of Stephen Watts Kearny. While serving with Kearny, he kept a detailed journal that was then published as Notes of a Military Reconnaissance from Fort Leavenworth to San Diego and soon became an important guidebook for the route to Southern California. After the war, Emory served as part of the team that surveyed the United States-Mexican border. When the American Civil War started, Emory was stationed in Indian Territory and immediately realized the likelihood that Confederates would capture him and his men. To avoid this, Emory quickly secured the services of Black Beaver, the famous Lenape warrior, to guide them out of the territory. Emory and his troops, on their way from Fort Washita to Fort Leavenworth, captured a number of their Confederate pursuers, which were the first prisoners taken during the war. Emory then served in the Army of the Potomac, in the Western Theater, and in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1854. After the war, Emory held the post of commander of the Department of the Gulf during Reconstruction and, in September 1874, President Ulysses S. Grant ordered Emory to New Orleans, where he successfully negotiated a peace with the white supremacist paramilitary organization the White League, which led to the White League being disbanded. Emory married Matilda Wilkins Bache on May 29, 1838 in Philadelphia, with whom he had two sons, both of which served in the United States armed forces. Matilda Bache was Alexander D. Bache's sister. Alexander Bache was one of the most influential superintendents of the United States Coast Survey. More by this mapmaker...


Augustus Theodore Frederick Köllner (1812 - December 10, 1906) was an artist, engraver, and lithographer based in Philadelphia. Born in Wurttemberg, Germany, Köllner began his career in Germany, working as a book illustrator in Stuttgart and Paris in the late 1820s and 1830s before immigrating to the United States in 1839. After settling in Washington, D.C., Köllner worked as a lithographer for the Haas firm, working on advertisements, bank notes, and city views. He moved to Philadelphia in 1840 and tried unsuccessfully to establish himself as a portrait painter. After this misstep, Köllner became the second chief artist of P.S. Duval and William Huddy's 'U.S. Military Magazine' (1839 - 1842). Throughout the 1840s, Köllner worked as a lithographer for many different Philadelphia based lithographic firms, including Duval, J.T. Bowen, Frederick Kuhl, Thomas Sinclair, and Wagner and McGuigan. Between 1847 and 1848, Köllner began working for the lithographic firm Brechemin and Camp, for whom he designed all genres of lithographs and advertised his own lithographic views based on his annual summer sketching trips along the East Coast. His work also began to be published in the seminal series 'View of American Cities', published between 1848 and 1851 by Goupil, Vibert, and Company. While working for Brechemin and Camp, Köllner was responsible for creating the multi-foot Dripp's map of New York City. Kollner established his own firm in 1851 and worked on a wide range of projects, including advertisements, labels, city and landscape views, and maps. During the Civil War, Köllner enlisted in the cavalry in 1863 and later sold photographic reproductions of the etchings he did as a soldier. He produced his last series of landscape lithographs entitled 'Bits of Nature' in 1878, but focused mostly on his watercolor work during the late 1870s. Köllner retired in the early 1880s, but continued to make sketching trips around the Philadelphia area. Köllner married Mary Sheek (c. 1821 - 1899) in 1843, and they had several children, three of which survived infancy: William, Clara, and Josephine. Köllner died on December 10, 1906. Learn More...

Source


United States Senate, 'Message from the President of the United States to the Two Houses of Congress, at the Commencement of the First Session...December 7, 1847.', 30th Congress, 1st Session, No.1 (Washington: Wendell and Van Benthuysen) 1847.    

Condition


Very good. Even overall toning. Light soiling. Light wear along original fold lines. Blank on verso.

References


OCLC 15528875.