During the Mexican War, President James K. Polk Appoints a Future Civil War Notable a Quartermaster in the Army: The appointee, Langdon C. Easton, would be General William T. Sherman’s Quartermaster General in the Victorious Georgia Campaign of 1864

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Letters and documents of Polk from the Mexican War have become quite scarce

Langdon C. Easton graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1838. He served in the Florida and Mexican wars, and during the Civil War. He was Chief Quartermaster of the Army of the Cumberland from December 1863, until May 1864, and of the armies commanded by Major General William T. Sherman from May 4, 1864, until the war’s end, being present during the operations of the campaign from Chattanooga to the taking of Atlanta, and subsequently at the capture of Savannah. On the march from the latter city to Goldsborough, NC, and thence to Washington, DC, via Raleigh and Richmond, General Easton acted in the same capacity. During the war he was brevetted major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, and brigadier general, ""for distinguished and important service in the quartermaster's department in the campaign terminating in the capture of Atlanta, Georgia,"" and major general, March 13, 1865, ""for meritorious service during the war."" After the war he remained in the regular army, serving as quartermaster with the rank of colonel.

Document signed, with an eagle, stars, flags and cannon, Washington, March 24, 1847, naming Easton assistant quartermaster general with the rank of captain, effective the third day of March, 1847. The document is countersigned by Secretary of War William Marcy. This was the very post Easton had wanted, as he had just the month before written a friend, “I shall be very disappointed if the war terminates without my having a hand in it. My best chance for advancement would be to obtain the appointment of Captain and Assistant Quartermaster"".

Letters and documents of Polk from the Mexican War have become quite scarce, and those documents making interesting appointments even more so.