2025-01 Raynors Historical Collectible Auctions
Absentee bidding for this session ends on Saturday, January 25, 2025 at 10:00 AM EST.
The live portion of this session begins on Saturday, January 25, 2025 at 10:00 AM EST
This 4pp letter was written by Francis (“Frank”) Markoe (1801-1872) to Frank wrote the letter to James McHenry Boyd.. Datelined; Washington , 21 May 1847, in part, “... My chief object in writing to you now is to impart a kind of secret which you may revolve in your own mind in connection with any remaining ambition you may have on the subject of going to Mexico. The President & [ Marcy have expressed a wish that he would take command of the Battalion that C. L. Jones expected to command but which was never intended to be given him. Hughes is willing to take it as Lt. Col., drill the body severely here for some time, & then proceed with them by [ ]. I spoke to him of you and he will be charmed if you will go with him. So you must see him as soon as you can. I let you know when he arrives here unless you choose to go down to W. River. When he returned he told me of it & desired me to say nothing about it because he meant to leave it to the President & Marcy to fix it their own way, but I spoke to him in reference to you immediately. Now, however, I think the matter will be generally known because this morning Major Scott, the Navy Agent, told me all about it as a thing known at the Department among many officers and I thought it well to drop you a line. Hughes was carried to the field of battle Cerro Gordo in an ambulance & lifted into the saddle so he saw all & had a fair chance of being shot, as he was talking to General Scott when a ball knocked off a mule’s head close by them. ...” Research indicates an unfortunate death later in 1847 of the recipient, James McHenry Boyd. He is mentioned by Fanny Adeline Seward in her 1862-1863 diary as “the groom” when she recounts the unfortunate story of his brief marriage: “the very day of her [Anna Barnard’s] wedding day, while on their tour, the couple stopped at a hotel, in Philadelphia, I believe. Both were preparing for dinner when the groom was stooping over his open trunk and a loaded pistol there went off and killed him!” Boyd died in December 1847.
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