Report on the Construction of a Military Road: From Walla-Walla to Fort Benton

Washington: Government Printing Office, 1863. First edition. Octavo (8 7/8 x 5 3/4 inches; 225 x 147 mm). [4], [1]-363, [1, blank], [1, errata], [5, blank] pp. With ten tinted plates and four folding maps.

Bound by the US Government Bindery in green textured cloth. Boards ruled in blind. Spine lettered in gilt and blind. A bit of browning and offsetting throughout. A few small dampstains to fore-edge and to the creases of the first and second map. A tiny hole in the cloth of the back outer hinge. Three previous owner's small bookplates on front pastedown. Overall a very good copy.

"[John Mullan was an] army explorer, road builder, and lawyer... he volunteered for assignment to the northern railway survey headed by Governor Isaac I. Stevens of Washington Territory. This began a ten-year period of exploration and road building in the Pacific Northwest that is the basis for Mullan's reputation. The army transferred Mullan to the topographical engineers, and Stevens assigned him to a party bringing supplies up the Missouri River to Fort Benton...In 1857 Stevens became the delegate to Congress from Washington Territory. Realizing that a railroad was unlikely at any time in the near future, he pushed for construction of a military road from the head of navigation at Fort Benton to the Walla Walla Valley. Congress made an appropriation of $100,000, and Stevens successfully lobbied for Mullan's appointment to head the project...On arriving in the territory Mullan found himself in the middle of a war occasioned by the defeat of Colonel Edward Steptoe's command. Mullan was attached to the punitive expedition of Colonel George Wright as an aide and topographical engineer and participated in that capacity at the battles of Four Lakes and Spokane Plain near present Spokane in 1858. With the Indians subdued, but in some cases still hostile, Mullan began his road building the next year, proceeding north from Walla Walla to Lake Coeur d'Alene, then turning east toward Fort Benton, retracing the route he had explored during the railroad survey. Additional appropriations allowed Mullan to complete the more than 600-mile route by 1863, although wagons had begun to move over the road well before completion. The road represented a major engineering effort for which Mullan deservedly received high praise (and a promotion to captain in 1862); Mullan produced two major reports and an immigrant guide during this period, 'Topographical Memoir of Colonel Wright's Campaign' (1859), 'Report on the Construction of a Military Road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton' (1863), and 'Miners' and Travelers' Guide . . . via the Missouri and Columbia Rivers' (1865)." (American National Biography Online).

Graff 2932. Howes M884. Sabin 51275.

HBS 64861.

$1,850.