Major General William H. Emory Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

During the American Civil War, William Hemsley Emory (1811-1887) served as a brigade commander in the Union's Army of the Potomac (1862) before being transferred to the Western Theater, where he commanded a division in the Port Hudson and Red River campaigns in Louisiana (1863-1864). Returning to the East, Emory was Commander of the 19th Corps, which performed badly in the Shenandoah Valley (1864), especially during the Battle of Cedar Creek, during which Emory and his forces were saved by the arrival of General Philip Sheridan. After the War, Emory held a number of posts, including commander of the Department of the Gulf (a Reconstruction assignment that included overseeing soldiers in Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi), but Sheridan removed him from command and saw that Emory was retired in 1876. Emory, who had graduated from West Point in 1831, was a civil engineer who had specialized in exploration and conducting border surveys along the Texas-Mexican border (1844), the U.S.-Canadian border (1844-1846), the U.S.-Mexican border (1848-1853) and the Gadsden Purchase (1854-1857). He was married to Matilda Wilkins Bache, the great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin.