The Winfield Scott letter and Brevoort House

                                    

In going through a box of papers, I found yet another inventory list for the library's historical archives and artifacts. This inventory refered to the  letter in the Library's collection from General Winfield Scott. The inventory stated that the location to which the letter was sent, Brevoort House, was at one time associated with the Library's benefactor, Isaac Hagaman and his brother, Theodore.

Above: Inventory stating-
Letter signed by Winfield Scott from West Point,
Sept. 10, 1864  Envelope included  Mailed to Brevoort House
(associated with Hagaman brothers at one time)


The  letter from General Scott, can be seen below.

Letter Above: West Point Sept. 10, 1864 
 Dear Sir,
I thank you for your note.
I believe I have engaged apartment higher up town. 
Yours with esteem, Winfield Scott 

Envelope: To A. Clark Esq. Brevoort House, N.Y. 

The Brevoort House Hotel was located in New York City, where the Hagaman brothers owned and operated their own hotel, the Albermarle at 1101 Broadway.  I had seen no reference in any documentation linking Isaac or Theodore Hagaman to Brevoort House.  And the question arises was Isaac Hagaman somehow involved in the management of the Brevoort House Hotel or was he perhaps staying there?

I have not yet found a connection between the Hagaman brothers and the Brevoort House. Nonetheless, I found that the Brevoort House Hotel was the location for General Scott to be honorably addressed by a committee appointed by the Chamber of Commerce. 

According to the Richmond Time's Dispatch of November 18th, 1861, accessed through Tufts University's Perseus electronic resource, (referenced at the end of this post), the Brevoort House Hotel was the site of an honorable address to General Scott by a committee appointed by the Chamber of Commerce, on the occasion of his retirement from the Union Army. 

            The committee appointed by the Chamber of Commerce to present their resolutions
            of respect to General Scott met yesterday at 9 1/2 o'clock, at the Brevoort, and paid
            their respects to the General.  

General Scott's retirement took place following a major defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run, and excerpts from his poignant speech at that time can be seen below:       

            Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Chamber of Commerce: Sweet is the language of praise, when it comes from a high source of intelligence and moral worth; and sweet is the consciousness of having labored through a long life to deserve such praise. The measure is full and overflowing. This great calamity which has come upon our country — this great rebellion — found me far advanced in life, and by the labor and anxieties which it threw upon me has broken the down. I stand before you quite a wreck. Had this calamity occurred some three or four years earlier, it would have found me yet in a state of vigor, in a condition to render some service to my country, to meet that rebellion; and I think and flatter myself that I should have met it with considerable success.

Although it has thrown me hors du comdat myself, I have the happiness of saying to you — and my opinion may be of some little value upon that subject — that I have left in the field a large, noble, and patriotic army, for it is filled with many of our best citizens, officers, and men, commanded by Generals of very great merit — Generals capable of commanding and enchaining victory to their cars. I have left in the field young and vigorous men competent to do all the duties which their country can require of them--a Major-General McClennan,full of science and genius, and already of respectable experience. I have left Major-General Halleck,  another officer of genius and science, and judgment and discretion, who cannot fail to meet all the wishes of his Government and his country. Besides those Major-Generals, we have many Brigadiers and Colonels of high worth. I do not, therefore, despair of the cause of the Union Nay, I am confident of the triumph of that within some reasonable time. I should hope by the following spring that the rebellion would be suppressed; I should hope in a short time more that our Union might be re-established in fraternity and made beautiful, and I trust made so firm as to endure forever. That Union has commanded all my affections; the Union is my country; I have known no country but the Union; I owe my allegiance to nothing but the United States of America, and I mean to die in that allegiance.

  http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2006.05.0325%3Aarticle%3D4