Printed & Manuscript Americana

An accomplished and honest facsimile by William F. Stratton of Revere’s famous 1770 engraving of the Boston Massacre, with an imprint line added for transparency. “It copied the original Revere print as faithfully as any engraver could copy it”–Brigham, Revere pages 71 and 76.

The second engraving of Trumbull’s famous battle scene, after Müller’s 1798 effort. The central figure is the mortally wounded patriot Major General Joseph Warren. British Major John Small, who had previously served with some of the rebel officers in the French and Indian War, is shown preventing one of his men from bayonetting the dying man. General Israel Putnam can be seen to the far left.

A British satirical print, depicting a comical battle taking place in the folds of a woman’s fashionably enormous hair. The troops fight under the flags of a monkey and a duck, while a naval battle rages in her lower tresses. Matthew Darly was a popular London print-seller, while his wife Mary apparently did much of the engraving. The print was possibly taken from the 1776 book “Darly’s Comic-Prints of Characters, Caricatures, Macaronies, etc.” “Of inestimable interest and, so far as the writer knows, no copy has come to light in this country”–P. Lee Phillips, “A Rare Caricature of Bunker Hill,” Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine 52:7 (July 1918), page 391-4. Cresswell 697; Dolmetsch, Rebellion and Reconciliation 37.

As the British prepared for an imminent assault on New York in August 1776, an intense and dramatic storm hit Manhattan. For three hours the storm cloud sat immobile above the city, with the thunder more of a continuous rumble than a series of crashes. Lighting strikes killed more than a dozen soldiers, as vividly described in David McCullough’s best-seller “1776” (pages 155-6). The next morning, the British landed in Brooklyn, and five days later came the Battle of Long Island which gave the British control over Manhattan. Offered here is a letter written in the midst of this drama.

The letter was written by Abraham William de Peyster (1742-1799) to his brother. He starts by announcing the death of their mother Margretje Janse Roosevelt de Peyster (1709-1776), and explaining the difficulty of moving her body for burial in New York, “whenever the times will admitt of it, which at present are truly woefull and calamitous round that distressed and devoted city.”

Yet more startling was the sudden death on 21 August of their nephew William de Peyster, the son of their brother William. Young William, an ensign in the 1st New York Regiment, had been out when the storm hit, and taken shelter in a tent full of fellow soldiers: “Sitting on Wednesday evening just after dark in Capt. Abr. Van Wyck’s tent in their encampment on the south side of James Delancey’s house in the Bowery Lane in company with the Capt. and Mr. Peter Vergerou, a leutenant in the same rigement, to which place they all three had but just before fled to avoid the most awfull storm of rain, thunder and lightning within the memory of man. While sitting together, Heaven was pleased to visit them with a flash of lightning which killed them all on the spot and almost instantaneously.” Another officer found young William clinging to life and “had him bled as soon as a surgeon could be procured, but all was vain.” Uncle Abraham had viewed the body and reported that “the lightning had struck him at first on the right side of his head, about an inch above the tempel, and had left its effects all along that side of his face & neck. His left leg and thigh was much brused, and the right side of his breast.” The funeral “was by the general ordered to be on the evening before on account of the enemy having landed and a battle expected in Kings County.”

De Peyster adds in a postscript that “5000 Hessians have penetrated almost to Flatbush and a battle hourly expected.” That battle came quickly, just three days after this letter was written, in which the British gained control of Manhattan for the duration of the war.

Includes a proclamation offering pardons to double enlistees in the Continental Army, signed in type by General Washington; a lengthy act regarding inoculations in Massachusetts hospitals; an act for the payment of Continental troops signed in type by John Hancock; and a threatening notice to Tories from the pseudonymous uber-patriot Joyce Junior. Brigham, Paul Revere’s Engravings, page 201 (illustration of similar cut by Revere).

The selectmen of Danbury, CT request funds to buy blankets for the company of Danbury troops then a month into the bleak winter at Valley Forge: “Dr. State Connecticut to Select Men Danbury, 7 blankets dd Capt. Chapman’s Co., Colo Swift’s Reg’t, as per Ensign Thomas Storrs, rec’d, 6£ 6s.” Colonel Heman Swift, commander of the 7th Connecticut Regiment then at Valley Forge, was a friend of Washington’s. Captain Albert Chapman was one of his company commanders. Eli Mygatt (1742-1807), a militia colonel in Danbury, signs for the receipt of the funds.

Joseph Woodbridge (1750-1809) was writing to his brothers in Norwich, CT, who dealt in rum, sugar, flour and other staples. Discussing another merchant, he writes that “Eliot has on board him a heavy load, 12 hogsheads of your sugar and rum. . . and as he has been wanting to come some time . . . & as the enemy keep a very sharp look out, and as you have formerly talk’d of insuring, would advise you to get the same immediately done, as young beginners ought not (as I have heretofore mentioned) to expose too much of their interest at this perilous time, to the dangers that attend transportation by water.”

John Chaloner was a Philadelphia auctioneer who served as a civilian Assistant Purchasing Commissary at Valley Forge, per the Valley Forge Legacy Muster Roll Project. Colonel Henry Hollingsworth served as a forage master for the Continental Army during this period, and made efforts to send provisions from Elkton, MD around British lines to Valley Forge, under the direct orders of the Commander in Chief–General Washington sent him three letters regarding the urgent need for supplies from Valley Forge in February 1778 per Founders Online.

This invoice includes 25 expense lines submitted by the town of Wallingford to the State of Connecticut for the support of individual families, each with a “stipulated price” and a much higher “price given.” Each amount is different, suggesting that the support was rendered as needed, rather than in a fixed stipend. The docketing reads “Wallingford acct for supplying soldiers’ families,” and the first expense is for “Sundrys bought for the family of David Stone as per bill.” Some of the names are easily identified as having served in the Continental Army. Levi Munson was a lieutenant in the 6th Connecticut Regiment, and Ephraim Chamberlain a lieutenant in the 7th. One woman appears on the list, Joanna Page, who may have been a war widow. The account concludes with the payment of £914 to the town of Wallingford, signed for by Gideon Hosford.

An allegorical portrait of Benjamin Franklin, dedicated to the Continental Congress. He is shown surrounded by female allegorical figures of America, Wisdom, Prudence, and Liberty, watching as a warrior beats a crowned figure into submission. The vignette at the bottom shows a chain of 13 links, each inscribed with the name of one of the original states. Fowble 142; Sellers, Franklin pages 120-121, 195-197. 4 in OCLC, and none others traced at auction since 1932.

Rufus Lincoln (1751-1838) of Wareham, MA enlisted as a corporal at the Lexington Alarm, and was serving as a lieutenant in the 14th Massachusetts Regiment when captured near Schuylkill, NY in December 1777. As this collection shows, he was imprisoned in British-held New York, where he was paroled in Flatlands, Brooklyn by March 1779. For at least part of this time, he lodged at the home of Petrus Ammerman. He was released by 1781, when he transferred to the 7th Massachusetts as a captain and served until the end of the war.

Offered here are two commonplace books written by Lincoln while on parole in Flatlands. They contain a mix of essays and verse which he copied from books and periodicals, perhaps from Ammerman’s library. Interspersed are a few copies of important documents relating to the Revolution, particularly high-level correspondence on the negotiations for prisoner exchanges. A few items do not appear to be published elsewhere, and may be original compositions by Lincoln or his fellow prisoners.

The smaller of the two volumes contains the war-related material. Possibly original patriotic pieces include:

“Some Birth Day Verses Composed by James Moore while Prisoner on Long Island, October 30th.” Reads in part “My earthy cumforts often snatch’t away / And into darkness sunk my brightest day / And now I suffer for my country’s cause / Because we dare oppose a tyrant’s laws / But you my friends who suffer equal woo / Can best believe the pains I under goo.”

“On Redemption: A Poem Composed by James Moore While Prisoner on Long Island, the Substance Taken from a Small Peace Said to be Found in the Isle of Patmuss.”

“A New Song to the Tune Black Sloven,” which begins “Ye brave sons of freedom, assemble to day / So honest, so hearty, so happy and gay / Come joyn in the choras and chearfully sing / In prais of the land that with freedom doth spring.”

A poem which begins “What means the tolling of the Flatland bell / Or crouds of prisoners there pray tell,” apparently written on 5 April 1780.

Among the important war documents Lincoln has transcribed here, we find no other source for one: “A General State of British and American Prisoners, December 29 1779.” It is a table which counts prisoners on each side, broken out by rank. Eight officers are named at the bottom, who are not counted in the table for various reasons. Other more widely available documents which appear here in transcription include a partial transcript of proposals for a prisoner exchange drafted circa early January 1780; a letter from General Washington on prisoner exchanges dated 1 February 1780; and proposed articles of capitulation at Siege of Charleston, 1780.

Lincoln copied extensive literary material to pass the time. Most notably, poems by the trailblazing Black poet Phillis Wheatley appear in each volume, as well as the introduction to her 1773 collection of poems. It may be interesting to see that Wheatley’s book had made the trip from London to New York by 1779, and that this young patriot officer found resonance in her work, alongside passages from Addison’s Spectator, the Dictionary of the Holy Bible, Robinson Crusoe, and the Universal Gazetteer.

These papers were the property of Lincoln’s descendant James Minor Lincoln (1854-1916), who published portions in his 1904 book “The Papers of Captain Rufus Lincoln.” The larger commonplace book is described briefly in this publication as “Diary Number Three” from pages 62 to 64. The smaller commonplace book is transcribed in full in the 1904 book as “Diary Number Four” from pages 65 to 95 (although the manuscript has lost at least one final leaf since it was published). A full summary of the contents of both manuscript volumes is available upon request.

WITH–manuscript copies of additional Rufus Lincoln papers on about 40 leaves of linen or tracing vellum, apparently done at around the same time as the 1904 book. They include copies of important correspondence, and a long and detailed “Return of American Officers and Other Prisoners on Long Island, August 15th 1778.” While these documents were published in the 1904 book, the book does not include images, and the present location of the original manuscripts is unknown.

A letter by a French settler in rural Maryland during the Revolution. He describes his residence as “Montgomery County near Seneca Bridge at Spencer’s Tavern” (the only passage in English); and further clarifies his location as 25 miles from Georgetown, 30 miles from Frederick, MD, and 4 miles from the Potomac River–approximately near the location of Seneca Creek State Park in Gaithersburg today. He writes to the French consul in Baltimore, apparently a good friend, and proclaims his status as a “good Frenchman.” He urges the consul to invest in a much-needed general store in his location, and wonders of the Comte de Grasse’s naval fleet has yet arrived in Virginia. He also discusses the Great Falls of the Potomac, a ball held in Baltimore, a cock fight, and much more. Provenance: collection of Forest G. Sweet of Battle Creek, MI; Parke-Bernet sale, 22 October 1957.

This image by Robert Edge Pine, published by the artist, depicts the allegorical figure of America mourning at a monument to four martyred American generals, amid the ruins and desolation of war. Other figures bring her peace (an olive branch), liberty (represented by a cap on a pole), and plenty (a cornucopia). The original painting was done in 1778; the American generals named in the monument all died from 1775 to 1777. The message of this engraving was perhaps even more timely when this engraving was published two weeks before the Battle of Yorktown. Another engraving of this painting, done by Amos Doolittle, is thought by Reilly to be a later production. Cresswell 761b; Fowble 137, Reilly 1781-1.

This letter was written just eight days after the surrender by Cornwallis at Yorktown: “I started from my father’s just time enough to reach Baltimore at a reasonable hour, & on arriving in its vicinity, had I not been previously informed of the capture of Cornwallis & his band, I should not have known my what inference to have drawn from the roaring of cannon & discharge of musketry. I have never seen as many smiling countenances since the war as I saw that evening. The gentlemen of Baltimore dined at the court house & drank many patriotic toasts in the evening. There was an elegant illumination through this town, at least I thought it elegant, as I never had an opportunity of a similar scene. In fact, Nancy, patriotism was ablaze through the town, & I should experience very agreeable emotions, could I be induced to believe that it was the genuine rejoicings of Whiggish hearts exhibited to public view in the light of candles. But as the old adage is, ‘we must hope for the best, the worst will come.’ I had almost forgot to tell you that the presence of the ladies added considerably to the illumination.”

The author was likely Henry Ridgely Jr. (1758-circa 1800), son of Major Henry Ridgely of Anne Arundel County, MD, whose niece Ann Ridgely (1759-1850) would soon marry Dr. Francis Brown Sappington (see lots 159, 160, and 229 for related papers).

A contemporary depiction of the Battle of Flamborough Head, in which the USS Bonhomme Richard defeated HMS Serapis. It was this battle where John Paul Jones was credited with the famous words of defiance, “I have not yet begun to fight!” Here we see the Serapis and Bonhomme Richard lashed together in a death grip while the French-captained USS Alliance pours heavy fire into both of them. Both sides regarded the battle as a victory. This British print expresses gratitude to the captain of the Serapis for successfully covering the escape of a British merchant convoy. Provenance: Swann sale, 2 October 2012, lot 101.

In early 1782, with the fighting in North America almost done, the war continued in the Caribbean with a planned French assault on the British colony at Jamaica. In the Battle of the Saintes, the French and British fleets faced off near the island of Dominica over several days in April 1782, resulting in a humiliating defeat for the French. Many thousands of French sailors and soldiers were killed or captured, six ships were lost including their flagship, and their commander the Comte de Grasse was captured to be paraded before King George. The remaining French ships scattered in a desperate retreat, straggling back to port at Cap-François (now Cap-Haïtien in Haiti) over a period of weeks.

Offered here is a contemporary French listing of the first wave of 20 French ships to limp back into Cap-François on 25 April. The list is dated 12 May, although 4 additional ships not listed here arrived on 11 May.

The list is headed “Noms de vaisseaux que Mr. Le Comte d Grasse commendoit hors du combat naval quil ent avec l’amiral Rodney arrive le 12 May 1782 qui a ete des plus vifs et des plus Longs ou Mr Le Comte de Grasse perdu beaucoup de monde tant tuis que blesses et six des plus beaux vesseaux, M. de Grasse a ete fais prisonnier.” This translates roughly to “Names of vessels that Comte de Grasse commanded in the naval combat that he entered with Admiral Rodney which arrived on 12 May 1782, a long and lively battle in which de Grasse lost many men and six of the finest vessels, and de Grasse was taken prisoner.”

Benjamin Day (1746/7-1794) of West Springfield, MA graduated from Yale in 1768. In 1776, when many of his former classmates were already fighting for independence, he went to the southwest frontier to help establish a British presence in Natchez territory, a newly claimed part of West Florida in what is now southern Mississippi. The leader of this expedition was a fellow Yale loyalist, Major Timothy Dwight, Class of 1744. Day was soon commissioned as a British major himself. The British settlement at Natchez failed within a year; Day moved on to British-held Savannah and St. Augustine.

At the end of the war, Day returned to Massachusetts, and drafted this petition to the state’s congress: “Your petitioner was formerly an inhabitant of this state, but left it in April 1776 as an adventurer to settle himself and family on the river Mississippi . . . until the year of 1782, when the savages becoming troublesome he left it with a determination of returning immediately to this commonwealth . . . and wishes to become a subject thereof.” He requests to become a naturalized citizen of Massachusetts.

The request was granted and he became a successful wool dealer and hat manufacturer, resuming his place in the New England elite. Per his entry in “Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale,” four of his great-grandsons followed him to Yale.

Sabin (5899) states that only 250 were printed, of which 50 were large-paper copies. As Sabin was the publisher of the book, we will trust his authority. It was printed by Joel Munsell, as shown by his JM-monogrammed “Aldi Discipulus Albanus” insignia on the title page, and comes from the estate of its editor Franklin B. Hough. Howes B532.

First edition. A British officer’s perspective on the southern campaigns, including Charleston and Yorktown. Tarleton was the commanding officer at the Battle of Waxhaws, in which numerous Americans were killed after attempting to surrender. He here observes that his troops at Waxhaws were “stimulated . . . to a vindictive asperity not easily restrained.” “Valuable for its critical comments as well as for its narrative”–Clark Old South 317. Church 1224; Howes T37 (“b”); Sabin 94397. This copy is signed by early owner “R.A. Davenport,” likely the British biographer and journalist Richard Alfred Davenport (1777-1852).

First state. An allegory of ascendant American liberty using Roman iconography. The goddess Minerva pays tribute to fallen American war heroes amidst monuments, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence. A bonfire is fueled by crowns and scepters. In the foreground, horrified monarchs flee into the woods while a partially dismembered hydra twitches in the darkness. Much of this is explained by the accompanying prospectus, as well as a lengthy caption which was later added to the 1798 second state. Fowble 322; Reilly 1796-1; Stauffer 3344.

With–Renault & Verger. “Prospectus of an Allegorical Picture of the Triumph of Liberty.” One printed sheet, 10 x 8¼ inches, in parallel English and French; toned, worn with slight loss of text, laid down on later paper with conservator’s pencil note: “This prospectus was posted on board and taken off and mounted.” Issued two months after the plate was completed, it explains the symbolism in greater detail than the caption of the 1798 printing would. The union of French and American revolutionary ideals is stressed by the presence of Rousseau’s ashes in an urn, and “a little Genius presenting to view the Marseilles Hymn.” Within 18 months the two nations were on the verge of war. No place, 6 January 1797.

First edition of an oft-reprinted frontier soldier’s biography. Timothy Murphy (1751-1818) was raised in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania, and became a celebrated sniper in the Continental Army. He is often credited with killing British general Simon Fraser from a great distance, turning the tide at the Battle of Bemis Heights, and had many exploits as a scout among the Indians. He later became a prominent citizen of Schoharie County, NY. A 1953 novel titled The Rifleman was based on Murphy’s life.

“This very scarce pamphlet narrates a few of the adventures and feats of the Indian fighter and scout of the valley of the Mohawk. The authenticity of the stories narrated here and elsewhere, of his prowess, is better sustained than most of those illustrating the heroism of border warriors”–Field 1109. Howes S453 (“b”); Sabin 51474. None traced at auction since 2005.

This tribute to the Boston Tea Party was “sung with unbounded applause by Mr. [George H.] Andrews at the Federal Street Theatre” in Boston. The lyrics are credited only to “a gentleman of Boston,” but OCLC assigns credit to Samuel Elliot. The narrator presents himself as a plainspoken old man from the country who had participated in the revolt: “And then we went aboard the ships, our vengeance to administer / And didn’t care a tarnal curse, for any King or minister / We made a plaguey mess o’ Tea, in one of the biggest dishes / I mean, we steeped it in the Sea, and treated all the fishes.” 5 in OCLC, and none traced at auction since 1901.

This treatise on the future of American architecture was released as plans were being selected for the iconic Smithsonian Institution building in Washington. It was prepared “on behalf of the Building Committee of the Smithsonian Institution” by the chair of the committee, Robert Dale Owen (1801-1877), a former Congressman from Indiana who had secured funding for the project three years earlier. See lot 143 for another work by Owen.

This copy bears a gift inscription from James Renwick Jr. (1818-1895) “to his friend Franklin W. Smith.” Renwick was the brilliant young architect of the Smithsonian Institution and New York’s Grace Church, who had lent his drawings of both projects to be engraved for this book. He signed without a “Jr.,” but the signature is his rather than that of his architect father, suggesting that the inscription was done after his father’s death in 1863. The recipient was Franklin Webster Smith (1828-1911), who had been a young abolitionist before the Civil War and later became interested in public architecture. In 1890, Smith delivered lectures in favor of a massive National Gallery of History of Art; Renwick was enlisted to draft a detailed proposal, which Smith then promoted. The gift of this book may date from this 1890 collaboration. The gallery was never built. A later inscription is dated 1950.

American explorer Elisha Kent Kane’s Second Grinnell Expedition from 1853 to 1855 failed to find Sir John Franklin, but reached a new “furthest north” and discovered the northernmost channel between Canada and Greenland. The journey broke Kane’s health and he died in 1857. This lecture program, enhanced by a panorama by artist George Heilge and a diorama, toured across the United States and Canada to capitalize on popular interest in the expedition. Kane’s navigator Thomas Hickey narrated the adventure “in Esquimaux Costume,” accompanied by two sledge dogs which survived the expedition. The front of this broadsheet is mostly devoted to newspaper testimonials on the show, while the verso lists the entire 122-point program, from the Advance’s departure from New York, Greenland scenery, “a desperate conflict with bears,” “Graves of poor Schubert and Baker by moonlight,” the return of the survivors to civilization, and Kane’s death and funeral.

This broadsheet advertises three dates at “Junior Hall” from 18 to 20 September. This was very likely Junior Hall in Frederick, MD, with the printer being the Frederick Herald. Kane died in 1857, one of the testimonials is dated 1859, and 1860 was the next year which fits these dates on the calendar.

The renowned Hudson River School painter Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) was just becoming established as a landscape painter in 1859 when he first went west to accompany an Army transcontinental railroad survey. The resulting sketches from this and later trips were transformed into epic canvasses which made him perhaps the best-known artist of the American West by 1863. Offered here is a letter of recommendation which Bierstadt secured from the Secretary of War, helping to make this first trip possible.

“The bearer of this note, Mr. A. Bierstadt, who proposes to accompany Colonel Lander’s wagon road party, has been introduced to me as an artist and a gentleman of character, and as such I commend him to the courtesy and kind attention of the commanders of such military posts as he may visit.”

The letter writer, John Buchanan Floyd (1806-1863) of Virginia, provided active assistance to the secessionists as Secretary of War, and was later investigated for conspiracy and fraud; he later served disastrously as a general in the Confederacy.

Milford Zornes (1908-2008) was a well-established watercolor artist on the California art scene before being drafted into the Army for World War Two. This scrapbook begins with a letter from George Biddle of the War Department Art Advisory Committee, anointing him as “one of a small group of outstanding American artists to go to an active war theater, and there to obtain a graphic record of the war. . . . Our committee expects you to be more than a news gatherer. The importance of what you have to say for the historian of the future will be the impact of the war on you, as an artist, a human being.” Zornes was sent to China, Burma, and India, where he sketched scenes of civilian life. Included are 20 original pencil, ink or watercolor sketches by Zornes; 22 additional photographs of his art; 52 retained copies of V-Mail photographic letters sent home to his wife, many of them illustrated; 27 other letters; and 70 pieces of ephemera ranging from his 3-page itinerary of postings, to supply lists, to theater programs, to military personnel memoranda, to lists of art supplies. A rich documentary record of a key period in the career of a significant artist.

If you have arrived at Swann’s Americana catalog in search of Civil War diaries and Declaration of Independence broadsides, this next lot will probably not be for you.

Stuart Alan Horn (1946-2008), a Philadelphia artist and musician, was a prominent member of the mail art scene–an insular world of like-minded outsiders who exchanged Xeroxes of enigmatic collages. Some of his creations were distributed under the name Northwest Mounted Valise, including a 1975 book of the same name (included). Offered here is a large archive of his original maquettes, reproductions, correspondence, mail art received from his associates, and more. At the core are approximately 60 maquettes of varying degrees of complexity, along with a larger number of photocopied reproductions, and other material that was apparently intended for use in collage.

The small correspondence file includes a 1973 fan letter from reality show pioneer and gay icon Lance Loud; and 3 letters dated 1974-1975 from Baltimore actress Edith Massey (a John Waters regular best known as “Edie the Egg Lady” from Pink Flamingos). In her 11 March 1975 letter she announces “The picture Female Trouble is going to open in Philadelphia next month if nothing happens.”

Horn also led several bands on the Philadelphia avant-garde scene such as Stu Horn & His Invisible Band, and Horn & Hard Art. Included here are numerous show fliers (including some in maquette form), a folder of song lyrics, Horn & Hard Art’s 1978 album, and its original cover art.

In Horn’s mail art circle, work was not always signed or credited. The bulk of this archive is stylistically consistent and clearly his; also included are a smaller number of zines, newsletters, and mail art which come from other artists. Bill Griffith of “Zippy the Pinhead” fame makes 3 appearances with signed or stamped work. To provide a tenuous tie-in with Swann’s regular Americana fare, Griffith is the great-grandson and namesake of Western photographer William Henry Jackson (see lot 248).

A lengthy 2020 reminiscence of Horn can be found on longreads.com, “Find Yourself: from way back in ’80s Philadelphia, Elizabeth Isadora Gold remembers her first writing teacher, the mail art artist/lyricist Stu Horn.” Horn also makes numerous appearances in the 1995 book “Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology,” edited by Chuck Welch (included). Some of his work is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Dartmouth College.

In short, we offer a box of his stuff. Some things can’t be explained. Stu Horn probably would not have wanted us to try.

The original program for the presentation of the famed Wright Flyer at the Smithsonian. This brought to an end 45 years of feuding between the Wrights and the Smithsonian, which had for many years promoted the competing claims of Samuel Langley as the pioneer of flight. The program is illustrated with the classic 1903 photograph of the airplane in flight as well as portraits of Wilbur and Orville Wright, plus the laid-down photograph of the airplane as it appeared in its new exhibition space. Only one copy of this program is listed in OCLC–and that is held by the Smithsonian.

The archive documents the long push to create a memorial at Kill Devil Hill in Kitty Hawk, NC, the site of the first flights by the Wright Brothers. It is the personal correspondence file of Senator Hiram Bingham III (1875-1956) of Connecticut, the famed explorer of Machu Picchu who later went into politics. Often the letters to Bingham are paired with his carbon copies of his typed responses. Many of the letters are from Lindsay Warren, a North Carolina member of the House of Representatives who also took an interest in the project. The first letter here is Warren’s introduction, after learning that they had both sponsored similar legislation in their chambers on the same day. Warren’s 19 September 1927 letter names the members of the Kill Devil Hills Memorial Association, including popular pilots Byrd and Lindbergh, as well as the semi-obscure former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Other correspondents include Herta Junkers, a German woman who headed the American division of her family’s Junkers aircraft manufacturers; federal budget director Herbert Lord; numerous officials in the War and Navy departments; and especially William J. Tate, superintendent of the Lighthouse Service and a strong supporter of the project.

William Oscar “W.O.” Saunders of Elizabeth, NC headed the Kill Devil Hills Memorial Association. He was a local newspaper editor renowned for courting controvesy, often on the right side of history–he spoke out against lynching and anti-Semitism. His letter of 12 December 1927 announced that the association has secured 200 acres for the memorial. Later, Saunders published an editorial denouncing the memorial plan and Senator Bingham’s role in the project, so Bingham sent in his letter of resignation from the commission. Congressman Warren sent Bingham a letter of apology on 28 February 1929: “Mr. Saunders . . . says anything that might at the time be on his mind. I know of no one that has escaped his shafts including myself. He would walk in your office tomorrow morning and greet you with the utmost cordiality and friendship. He has long since stopped having enemies in North Carolina.” You may know a “loose cannon” like this in your own life. In response, Saunders announced his own resignation as president of the Memorial Association.

J.F. Victory wrote on 2 November 1928 with a design for the site’s plaque (photograph included). He had included a winged propeller logo at the bottom, explaining that “this is an original design with this firm.” Stapled to the photo are Bingham’s notes, suggesting that the National Aeronautic Association logo be used instead, and then when told that might delay the project a week, “approved leaving insignia off.” The plaque which remains at the site today is identical to this photograph–except that the logo has been removed.

Three eyewitnesses were brought to the site to determine the exact spot where the first flight lifted off in 1903. A photostat of their signed affidavit is included. The logistics for a special 200-person dedication weekend are also discussed–the area was not then served by roads, so a special steamer was necessary. Bingham fought to keep the memorial separate from any attached projects for lighthouse, beacon tower, or Coast Guard facilities.

Most of the letters date from 1926 to 1929. A smaller group dates from 1932 to 1934, with Bingham in his role as president of the National Aeronautic Association (he left the Senate in 1933). The memorial was officially dedicated on 19 November 1932. A carbon of a letter to Amelia Earhart urges her to attend: “If you can possibly find it practicable to change your speaking engagement, it would be most fitting and proper for you to accept the invitation to officiate at the unveiling. . . . The matter is urgent and of great important to the War Department.” The day after the ceremony, lighthouse head W.J. Tate recounted the behavior of the guest of honor at length: “Orville Wright ran true to form, looked bored and kept silent during the official glitter.” Wright was on the program for the official luncheon but stayed at Kill Devil Hill with a few locals “who knew him in the old days of struggle . . . and honestly, if he didn’t enjoy himself his looks belied his feelings.” He only showed up at the luncheon after the other guests had eaten and left. Tate also bemoans that the original Wright Flyer–“the greatest souvenir of the greatest epoch-making event in all the history of the human race, lies in a foreign museum” (see the previous lot, from a different consignor).

In addition to the correspondence, a file of photographs includes copy prints of historic 1901-1903 photographs and original photographs of ceremonies in 1928 and 1932. Ephemera include a sounding map of the Outer Banks area, annotated to show the coverage of nearby lighthouses for the Kitty Hawk site; an 8-page pamphlet, “Kill Devil Hills Memorial Association, Its Genesis and Its Aims,” circa 1927; and a printed program for the 17 December 1928 pilgrimage event.

Printed in Boston Line Type, created in 1835 as an alternative to Braille, which used embossed representations of stylized letters rather than raised dots. This volume was prepared under the direction of the inventor of Boston Line Type, Samuel Gridley Howe of the Institution for the Education of the Blind. He is better known as the husband of composer and activist Julia Ward Howe. 5 examples in OCLC, and none traced at auction.

“Bible History.” Text illustrations. [1], 254 pages. 1¾ x 1 inches, modern morocco; minor wear and toning to contents. New York: S. Wood, 1811. Rosenbach 433; Welch 856.1.

“History of the Bible.” Text illustrations. 256 pages. 2 x 1¼ inches, contemporary calf; 3rd leaf defective, otherwise minor wear; early owner’s signature to flyleaf. No other copies traced with this imprint, although very similar to Adomeit A59 with a “Sandy Hill: Hart & Hare, & J. Wright, 1825” imprint, including the same pagination irregularities. Sandy Hill, NY: James Wright, 1825.

“History of the Bible.” Text illustrations. 192 pages. 2 x 1½ inches, contemporary calf, front board detached, rear joint restitched; minor wear to contents; early owner’s inscription on front free endpaper. New London, CT: Published by W. & J. Bolles, 1831.

“History of the Bible.” Text illustrations. 192 pages. 1¾ x 1½ inches; contemporary calf, worn, lacking backstrip, boards detached, early wallpaper wrappers rejointed with waste paper; minimal wear to contents; edges tinted yellow. Cooperstown: H. & E. Phinney, 1836.

Adomeit A17, A59 (similar), A71, A89.

A petition for “un obispado en las dos Californias,” with the bishop’s salary to be funded partly through the Pious Fund of the Californias. This petition was heeded; in 1840, Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno was appointed by Pope as the first bishop of Alta and Baja California. 3 copies in OCLC.

David Curry went to the gold fields, as many did, as a partner in an incorporated mining company. The first letter is dated from Sacramento on 15 July 1849. It describes the trip over, and how his Roe Mutual Association became defunct: “Before we came to San Francisco it was understood among the most of us to dissolve the Association for reasons that we thought that their was too many together & too many officers & most of all their was too many that did not like to work.” They sold their schooner and divided their provisions–“every man goes on his own hook.” Another association led by Colonel Zabriskie had also failed: “His party of 25 is all bust up & every man for himself.” Curry then formed a small party with 5 other New Jersey men. His party plans to head out for the Yuba River for the season: “The most of us came out to make money, we must do the work. A man with a starched coller will not make his fortune here digging gold, but the red flannel & hickory shirt & one that is willing to work can get some gold.”

His 23 December 1849 letter is dated simply from “California,” and describes his trip up river “to the mines (they call it here going to see the elephant)” where “4 of our company got scared at the elephant, turned round & went back to Sacramento.” Curry spent three months working for another miner, tried to ship out on a steamer to Hawaii when rainy season hit, but then returned to mining at Mormon Island near Sacramento. There he was working for his original Association partner Mr. Poole, who was running a store, intending to stay there through the spring. He describes the mining regions as “a hard-looking place, you generly dig down from 5 to 10 feet, full of stones the ground is, then take your dirt to the river & wash it in a rocker just like a cradle & the gold settles to the bottom. I send in this letter a small piece for to remember me by.” We should make 100% clear that the gold fleck is no longer present with the letter.

Finally, a letter is addressed to David Curry from his brother John Curry, who had also gone west for mining. It is dated at Mokelumne, 16 November 1856: “I bought a interest in a mineing claim close to the flume but two weeks after buying the water got so low in the flume that we could not get water. . . . We don’t shovel much dirt in the boxes as we ground sluce. It is a very fast way of working dirt.”

“We hereby certify that Coupon No. 5, of Bond No. 6 issued by the State of California for expenses incurred in the suppression of Indian hostilities, [said Bond bearing interest at the rate of twelve per cent per annum] has been given up . . . to the Secretary of War of the United States.” None others traced at auction or elsewhere.

Edwin McMasters Stanton (1814-1869) is best known as Secretary of War during and after the Civil War. He was a successful Pennsylvania attorney with no national reputation until 1858. With a friend serving as President Buchanan’s attorney general, Stanton was selected to travel to California to represent the administration in the complex Limantour land claims. This letter was written on a steamship, six days before his arrival in San Francisco. He discusses preparations for a high-profile patent case, McCormick vs. Manny, in which the famous inventor of the reaper was suing Stanton’s client. Stanton discusses the difficulty of writing out legal briefs on an ocean steamer during a gale, and documents his journey at length: “Our engine had the same accident during the gale of Monday & Tuesday that occasioned the loss of the Central America, but it was discovered early . . . to prevent disaster. . . . We suffered no other ill consequence as yet but being badly frightened–that I consent to.” Four days later, just before arriving in San Francisco, he describes another storm in which “the sea sloshed over our hurricane deck, knocked in the ports, poured into the state rooms, and frightened everybody generally.” Stanton’s work in organizing and analyzing the existing Spanish land records soon gained him the trust of the Washington insiders, leading to appointment as Buchanan’s attorney general just two years later.

WITH–a related printed report on Stanton’s expedition: “Expenditures on Account of Private Land Claims in California,” 56 pages, unbound, uncut, and unopened. 36th Congress, 1st Session, House Ex. Doc. 84,. Washington, 22 May 1860.

AND an undated carte-de-visite portrait of Stanton by Coddington & Davidson of Warsaw, NY.

This diary records a trip by rail through much of California. The author is a seasoned lone traveler from the northeast on an annual winter trip. He seems to be looking for a Californian paradise with one eye, and looking for an excuse to mock the Californian dream with the other. He is often critical of climate, hotel accommodations, and potential for agriculture, but seems to be enjoying his constant travels despite himself, and offers a high level of descriptive detail. His mode of operation was to stay for several days in a town and make long day trips by rail. The diary starts on the train passing through Ventura. His first base of operations is Santa Barbara, from where he visits the local mission, Montecito, Carpinteria (seeing the world’s largest grape vine), and drought-stricken Naples: “at one large ranch near Naples, four men are employed to go about the ranch and skin the cattle as fast as they starve and die.” Next was a stop in Fresno: “I took a walk out to the Chinese quarter and found lots of the cusses” and then passed through the red light district: “I got service salutes from the girls, but paid no attention to them” (6 March). From there he headed toward the coast. At a layover in Tracy, “did not get any dinner at all as the place is a small one, and rum is the principal article there for sale. The hotels are no good.” (circa 8 March). Pacific Grove was his next base of operations. The hotel in Pacific Grove “is kept by a Dutchman and is very skimpily run. The proprietor is more afraid of serving a sufficiency of grub than an ordinary man is of the smallpox” (13 March). From there he saw Monterey and Point Lobos.

A short stop near Los Angeles yielded descriptions of Pasadena (“do not think I saw any place that would please me as a home . . . a slow sort of place, nothing to do but talk orange”) and Santa Monica. San Diego was next, “too new for a desirable place to live . . . It will be many years before San Diego will be a pleasant-looking place” (21 March). From there on 22 March 1898 he visits La Jolla and “Ramona House, an old tumble down adobe, the house of the hero of . . . Helen Hunt Jackson’s Indian story” (which is apparently the running theme of our fall Americana auction–see the next two lots), and then Tijuana across the border on the next day, where “the train is met by Reuben the guide (a Cleveland Negro) who runs some four horse stages from the depot to the village.” San Bernardino was his next extended stop, where he marveled at the extent of the orange groves but after repeated sampling declared that the product does “not begin to compare in flavor with the Florida oranges” (29 March), reiterating the next day “these California oranges haven’t any business with Florida fruit.” He visited Highland, Redlands, and Riverside, as well as the famed Squirrel Inn in the mountains, where he got lost in a snowstorm and nearly had to sleep outdoors. Finally he stayed briefly at Pomona and Los Angeles, from where he headed east on 8 April. His only stop on the return journey was in Colorado Springs, and he arrived in New York on 18 April to conclude his diary.

Also included is a second diary of 17 pages, 5-26 October 1898, by the same author, on a camping trip in the north country to hunt partridges. References to Mud Pond and Chamberlain Lake suggest the Allagash Wilderness in northern Maine. 3 unused period postcards from towns described in the California diary are also included.

We’ve been unable to pin down the authorship of this interesting diary. It concludes with the initials G.G.G. A careful perusal of the hotel register reports in local newspapers on his arrival days shows two promising matches. The San Diego Union and Bee of 22 March 1898 shows a G.G. Gunnell of Denver checking in at the Hotel Brewster, and the Daily Times-Index of San Bernardino of 28 March 1898 shows a G.G. Greenwell of Chicago checking in at the Stewart. Both of these are likely our man. Whether he enjoyed slightly disguising his name, or the newspapers exercised a sloppy transcription of the registers, we can find no appropriate Gunnells or Greenwells in the census records.

This souvenir booklet was issued to capitalize on the popularity of Helen Jackson Hunt’s 1884 novel Ramona, a story of injustice to the American Indians in southern California, which was set at Rancho Camulos north of Los Angeles. Lummis provides two pages of historical context, a poem titled “Camulos,” and caption leaves for each of the attractive cyanotype photographs of the ranch. This is apparently the second edition, as it was originally issued with a cyanotype title page.

WITH–another booklet by Lummis, this one unillustrated: “Record of Brigadier General James Worden Pope, U.S. Army, Retired” (caption title), 4 pages, in plain wrappers.

Robert E. Callahan (1892-1981) was the proprietor of Mission Village and then Indian Frontier Village from 1928 into the 1970s–well-known tourist attractions which operated somewhere on a spectrum between motels, museums, and theme parks. Callahan was born in Virginia with some Iroquois ancestry; he performed with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show as a boy, did some acting, wrote novels and screenplays, and then found success in the advertising world in Chicago. This enabled him to launch his dream in 1928, the Mission Village Auto Court in Culver City just north of Los Angeles. It was based loosely on the popular novel of the American Indian, Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson (see lot above). In 1962, the land was appropriated for a freeway, and Callahan launched the similar Indian Frontier Village in the Mint Canyon neighborhood of Santa Clarita, further to the north. This village slowly became defunct as Callahan aged; he was still trying to find a buyer upon his death in 1981. Portions are now owned by the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society.

This lot includes 7 scrapbooks of varying sizes kept by Callahan, plus some additional papers. One scrapbook contains mostly Mission Village promotional materials and advertisements, circa 1931-1942. Another is described as a guest book and does include extensive guest inscriptions from 1936 to 1949, but also photographs and correspondence. A more composed photo album includes shots of American Indian athlete-actor Jim Thorpe on a film set, and a Callahan production staged for the 1935 World’s Fair (both illustrated). A publicity shot of Roy Rogers and his band (Sons of the Pioneers?) is captioned “Roy Rogers, who in 1933 was Leonard Sly, and whose first rodeo experience was in his dad’s show at Ramona Village”–a story we cannot confirm. Two smaller photo albums contain mostly older images from Callahan’s early careers and journeys, about 3 x 4 inches. One includes a distant view of the famed 1910 Jim Jeffries - Jack Johnson boxing match in Reno, NV. Two large leather portfolios contain larger photo prints, and tourist brochures collected from similar attractions. An occasional older photo makes its appearance, such as a chipped well-known group shot including Geronimo and General Nelson Miles from 1901.

Also included in this collection are two of Callahan’s original screenplays, “The Girl Outlaw” and “The Boy Jockey”; a file of correspondence from 1961 to 1979, mostly regarding the launch of the Indian Frontier Village and the final effort to sell it in 1979; and a file of Mission Village promotional materials. All in all, this is a rich archive on a quintessential mid-century Californian phenomenon.

John Fujio Aiso (1909-1987) of Burbank, CA was a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School. He was drafted into the Army in 1941 as a private and assigned to teach Japanese to officers at the Military Intelligence Service Language School. He became director of academic training and was commissioned as lieutenant colonel by the end of the war. The 6,000 graduates of his program were credited with an important role in winning the war and securing the peace. After the war, he served as a judge, culminating in a seat on the California Court of Appeal. He has been inducted into the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame, and the library at the Defense Language Institute is named in his honor.

This lot includes 18 commissions, letters, and other honors received by Judge Aiso. Most notable are his oversized New York bar certificate from 1935; his California bar certificate from 1941; his army discharge certificate from 1947; his 1983 commendation from the City of Los Angeles signed by Mayor Tom Bradley; and 3 copies of an abstract of his 1983 appearance in the Congressional Record.

The photographs in this lot include 6 prints of Aiso standing with Richard Nixon, along with the negatives; 2 prints from the Moulin Rouge in Hollywood; a group of 11 8 x 10 prints from various events in his career; and 2 large formal portraits by Los Angeles photographers Elson-Alexandre and Gladser Studios.

Also included are 3 printed items: February 1956 issue of Asia Scene magazine featuring an article on Aiso (page 17); a copy of Byron Gentry’s 1962 football memoir “The Way the Ball Bounces,” warmly inscribed to Aiso; and a copy of Tad Ichinokuchi’s 1988 monograph “John Aiso and the M.I.S.”

The massive project to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable was launched in 1854 by the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company. With a line already in place from New York to Nova Scotia, the long stretch across the Atlantic from Newfoundland to London was the longest and most technically challenging, and the 65-mile stretch from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland also drew attention. Then there was the matter of laying more than two hundred miles of cable across the southern coast of Newfoundland–rugged and sparsely populated terrain carved by inlets, and even today largely untouched by roads.

This broadside aimed to find a large temporary labor force among the scattered subsistence fishermen of this isolated coast. Agents for the company were eager to sign contracts “with any parties who may be desirous to complete the Bridle Roads and Bridges, get out and distribute Poles and Braces, and distribute Wire.” Laborers from the more populated parts of Newfoundland were advised to “establish themselves in Bay de North, and Bay Despear, to Conn River, in Hermitage Bay . . . Cing Cert Bay, La Poile Bay, Guria Bay, Grandy’s Passage, and Port-aux-Basques.” Roads and bridges were to be completed by 1 January 1856, with poles and braces in place by 10 March. The engineer promised that “there is work enough for four hundred able-bodied men for 6 weeks.” No other examples of this ephemeral broadside have been traced.

This archive tells the story of a group of Canadian gold mines owned by Boston investors Sumner Stanley and Charles E. Eddy. The mines had been claimed and platted by Charles F. Eschweiler of Milwaukee in 1892, and developed from 1898 onward. The mines were all located in and near the remote town of Rat Portage (since mercifully renamed Kenora) in the western corner of Ontario, with the largest properties surrounding Hilly Lake and others located on islands in Lake of the Woods to the south.

The 8 maps show the location of the mining properties in question. One is a small color plan on tracing vellum, and the other 8 are blueprints, most of them with some hand-coloring, the two largest being duplicates measuring 36 x 35 inches. Among the other papers, most notable is a small notebook titled “Description of Canadian Gold Lands” summarizing transactions on the properties from 1892 to 1896. Also included are correspondence and typescripts of the mining patents; an account for machinery dated 1898; assay reports from 1892 and 1898, and some tangentially related estate papers. All told, an interesting gold-mining archive from a lesser-known mining region.

This is the corporate account journal of a Montana-based company which exploited resources in the southeastern part of British Columbia. As detailed in the opening pages of this journal, they acquired the Centre Star Mineral Claim in the West Kootenai Mining District, and incorporated as the Center Star Mining & Smelting Company. The mine was apparently near Rossland, BC; the mines in this area produced a mix of gold, silver, and copper.

This is not a petty ledger listing every ten cent-payment to a camp cook. The sums are large, balancing at $5,787,351.10 on the final page. Payments for plant construction are listed on the early pages, with individual suppliers named: “Hamilton Powder Co., powder & fuse,” “Ellacott & Waite, assaying,” and many more. Ingersoll Rock Drill is paid for an itemized list of machinery on page 15, ranging from $2,100 for a “16 + 18 Class A compressor” to $6.75 for a steam whistle. Walter Lightfoot is frequently paid by the ton for hauling ore to the railroad depot. The first dividends were declared in September 1898, with $1,800,200 paid out to 12 shareholders (page 59), and then final dividends of $125,108 two weeks later, prior to the “final closing” of accounts.

First American edition, followed by a lone 1795 Worcester edition. Describes a visit by Jack Idle, Anthony Greedy-Guts and friends to see eight imaginary curiosities exhibited at “Mr. Lovegood’s, No. 3 in Wiseman’s Buildings, at the upper end of Education-Road.” One is a magical “mahogany conjuring box” which could transform “one of Mr. Thomas’s little books” into a “swinging folio, very magnificently gilt and lettered.” Evans 20749; Rosenbach 116; Sabin 96131; Welch 1313.1. 5 examples in ESTC; none of either edition traced at auction.

First American edition of this popular rebus-style interpretation of biblical passages, followed by short illustrated lives of Jesus and the apostles, and a few select hymns. Another hieroglyphical Bible was produced in Worcester in 1788, which was a different composition. Evans 26651; Rosenbach 181; Sabin 53019; Welch 513.1.

7th American edition. Evans 32257; Rink, Delaware 407; Rosenbach 212 (“an attractive wall paper binding, a style for which Peter Brynberg became famous”); Welch 463.7. 5 of this edtion in ESTC.

Each letter of the alphabet is printed with an accompanying woodcut depicting London tradesmen’s cries, “j” and “u” excepted. The front cover has a wood engraving of children with sheep, while the back cover has a wood engraving of a horse, signed “A” for Alexander Anderson. Rosenbach 428; Welch 1363.

4 of the pages have folding flaps at top and bottom. Adam confronting the serpent transforms into Eve as a mermaid; a wealthy man transforms to an eerie skeleton hovering over his own death-bed; a lion transforms to a griffin and then an enormous eagle making off with an infant. At the rear is a three-masted ship flying the American flag. This elaborate toy book was originally printed in one sheet, but is here separated into 4 leaves and then restitched into a little booklet.

WITH–the last two leaves from a slightly different printing, probably Welch 1163.34, which differs only in its corner ornaments.

An illustrated version of the classic allegorical work with folding flaps to show the Christian’s progress “from this world to that which is to come.” Designed and published by the prolific Connecticut historian and engraver John Warner Barber, as one of his first publications. Some copies may have printed wrappers, not present here. Rosenbach 599; cf Welch 63 for 1819 first edition. None others traced at auction of either edition since 1914.

Philip Doddridge. “Sermons on the Religious Education of Children, Preached at Northampton.” 98 pages. 12mo, disbound and restitched; title page lacking an inch of lower corner, minor dampstaining and worming to last few leaves; early signature cropped from title page. 4th edition, and 1st American edition; 6 examples in ESTC, and none traced at auction. Evans 9378. Boston: S. Kneeland, 1763.

Isaac Watts. “Divine Songs, Attempted in Easy Language, for the Use of Children.” 52 [of 54] pages. 18mo, stitched; moderate wear, toned, lacking final leaf; in modern folding case. Later American edition. 2 in ESTC. Bristol B5999; Welch 1408.27 (listing 3 complete and 2 defective copies). Newburyport, MA: John Mycall, 1784.

Isaac Watts. “Dr. Watts’ Plain and Easy Catechisms for Children, and Preservative from the Sins and Follies of Childhood and Youth.” 96 pages. 12mo, original marbled wrappers, minor wear; minor foxing. Second Exeter edition. Evans 24992. Exeter, NH: Henry Ranlet, 1792.

“The Tragic-Comedy History of the Burial of Cock Robin; with the Lamentation of Jenny Wren.” 8 plates. 16 pages. 4½ x 3¾ inches, full early 20th-century morocco by Morrell of London; toned, minimal wear; top edge gilt. Philadelphia: Benjamin Warner, 1821. Second American edition. Rosenbach 616; cf Welch 215 (first edition).

“The Slave’s Friend,” Vol. IV, No. I, Whole No. 37.” 4 text illustrations by Anderson. 16 pages. 4¼ x 2¾ inches, printed wrappers, lacking front wrapper, restitched; minor wear and foxing. [New York: Anti-Slavery Society, circa early 1838.] Afro-Americana 9465; Sabin 82114; not in Lomazow. An issue of the first American abolitionist magazine for a juvenile audience.

“Wisdom in Miniature: or, The Young Gentlemen and Lady’s Magazine.” 14 text illustrations. [2]-30, [1] pages including outer pages laid down inside wrappers. 4 x 2½ inches, original olive wrappers, minor wear; second leaf with loss of 1½ inches from bottom corner, otherwise minor wear to contents. Philadelphia: John Adams, 1805. 32mo (103 x 65 mm). Rosenbach 312; Welch 1443.9 (“part of a large publisher’s remainder”). Not a periodical as the title may suggest, but rather a later edition of a 1796 work.

[The History of Tommy Careless; or, the Misfortunes of a Week]. 7 text illustrations. [5]-[28] pages. 4 x 2½ inches, lacking wrappers; lacking the first two and last two leaves (present in facsimile), the remainder worn and made up from two different copies. [Hallowell, ME: Published by Ezekiel Goodale], circa 1809. Later edition; Welch 678.13.

“The Hermit of the Forest, and The Wandering Infants: A Rural Fragment.” Text illustrations. [3]-29, [1] pages. 3¾ x 2½ inches, restitched, rear floral wrapper only; lacking frontispiece plate (present in facsimile) and possibly a final leaf, moderate wear. 5th American edition; Bristol B8377; Welch 673.5. This copy previously owned by the bibliographer and collector d’Alte Welch, whose signed pencil note on the inner wrapper states “frontispiece copied from Ruth Adomeit’s copy.” New York: William Durell, 1793.

“Jacky Dandy’s Delight; or, The History of Birds and Beasts.” Text illustrations. [5]-29, [2] pages. 4¼ x 2½ inches, disbound, with rear illustrated wrapper only; worn, lacking frontispiece and title page. 11th American edition; Welch 663.11 (edition identified by publisher’s ads on last 2 pages). [Hudson, NY: Ashbel Stoddard, 1805].

“The Affecting History of the Children in the Wood.” [3]-30 pages. 4 x 2½ inches, stitches removed; lacking illustrated wrappers which were paginated with the text as [1-2} and [31-32]; minor worming to final leaf, moderate wear. 6th American edition; Welch 173.6. Providence, RI: Heaton & Williams, [1804].

[“Travels of Robinson Crusoe.”] [1], [5]-28, [1] pages. 4 x 2½ inches, original illustrated wrappers, worn and laid down on paper; worn, moderate foxing, lacking title page and pages 29-30, frontispiece page 2 and final page 31 both defective and laid down on inside wrappers; early girl’s ownership inscription on frontispiece and page 26. Probably the 1st Worcester edition; later Worcester editions differ only in their title pages, but also apparently did not have printed wrappers. Page 24 notes that the bookseller is in Worcester. Evans 19599? (cf 45464); Welch 275.4? (cf 275.11, 30). [Worcester, MA: Isaiah Thomas, 1786 or 1789].

“Trip’s History of Beasts: Being a Trifle for a Good Boy.” 31, [1] pages including wrappers. 4 x 2½ inches, original illustrated wrappers, moderate wear; moderate foxing; early girl’s ownership inscription on page [2]. Welch 1345.5; 5th American edition. Albany, NY: E. and E. Hosford, 1810.

This eye-catching patriotic broadside featured an entirely hand-colored flag as its centerpiece. The title quotation comes from Treasury Secretary John A. Dix from an official order he issued on 29 January 1861. Though issued in relation to the specific case of a revenue cutter threatened by secessionists, it became a general rallying cry for Union loyalists in the early months of the war. In the upper corners are matching cuts of a cannon and flag captioned “The only compromise with traitors.” The lower half is dedicated to the text of three patriotic songs: “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “Hail, Columbia! Happy Land!,” and “Red, White and Blue” (better known as “Columbia, Gem of the Ocean”). The latter appears as a pair of slips pasted over the original printing–whether as replacement songs or correcting an errata, we do not know. We trace no other examples of this elaborate production in OCLC, at auction, in Filby & Howard’s “Star-Spangled Books,” or elsewhere.

This letter dates from very early in the war, just ten days after Fort Sumter, when Porter was serving as assistant adjutant general for the Department of Pennsylvania. Here he writes on behalf of the Union army to a Pennsylvania militia officer, urging his immediate presence–presumably in Baltimore, where Wynkoop’s troops and other units soon arrived to prevent disturbances.

“Please hasten the movement of your command and push on board the cars immediately. This is of the utmost importance that you get off immediately. I will join you at the depot. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Your obt., F.J. Porter, A.A.G.”

Porter later became a Major General, was court-martialed after his controversial role at Second Bull Run, but was exonerated in 1886.

On 2 November 1861, President Lincoln removed John Frémont as commander of the Department of the West, leaving the Missouri campaign in the hands of little-known Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant, a West Point graduate. Reporting to Grant although bearing the same rank was Brigadier General John McClernand, a political appointee and old friend of Lincoln’s from Illinois. Five days later, Grant led his two brigades on a surprise attack on a small Confederate base in Belmont, MO, across the river from a larger base in Columbus, KY. The Confederate camp was routed and destroyed, but reinforcements soon arrived to rout Grant’s forces in turn; Grant himself barely made it back aboard the transport ship.

Offered here is McClernand’s official report to Grant on the battle, written five days later. The two generals barely knew each other at this point, but grew to be bitter enemies as the war progressed. Here, McClernand does his best to ingratiate himself with Grant. Describing the bravery of his troops early in the battle, McClernand notes that “this gallant conduct was stimulated by your presence and inspired by your example. Here your horse was shot under you.” McClernand also describes the death of his Polish-American aide-de-camp, Captain Alexander Bielaski.

Below the printed text on the final page, an unknown reader pokes fun at McClernand’s self-promotion and egotism through a simple word count in manuscript: “Principal characters. The personal pronoun I, 34 times; the possessive My, 27 times . . . Me, 6 times.”

One other copy of this report traced in OCLC, at the Chicago History Center; none found at auction.

Wool was a Mexican War hero and the oldest general on either side during the war; he was relieved of his command in 1863, at the age of 79. None traced in OCLC or at auction.

The Siege of Vicksburg began with a failed Union assault on 19 March 1863. This order was issued as Union commander Grant prepared for a second assault on 22 March: “You will please move one division of your corps to Eagle Bend, on the east bank of the Mississippi River, where General Grant’s division landed, with a view to re-inforcing Major General Sherman from that point. Let there be no delay. Send them by brigades as rapidly as they can be embarked.”

The battle maps show that one division of McPherson’s corps was indeed moved rightward to Sherman’s XV Corps in time for the 22 May assault. Brigadier General James A. Tuttle’s division played a significant role in the battle under Sherman. As the repeated assaults against the formidable Confederate fortifications drew to a close, Sherman would order Tuttle: “This is murder; order those troops back.”

Ulysses S. Grant began the Civil War as a colonel, but rose quickly through a series of dramatic victories and the support of President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton. On 2 March 1864, Lincoln made him a Lieutenant General in command of the entire Union army–a rank not held by any officer since George Washington. Grant arrived in Washington to receive the honor on 8 March, and formally received the promotion at a cabinet meeting the following day.

Stanton was obviously delighted with the appointment, and this card serves as evidence. Above Grant’s stern visage are inscribed the names of three of his greatest victories (with Fort Donelson misspelled): “Donaldson, Vicksburg, Chattanooga,” with “Major General Grant” inscribed in Stanton’s hand below. On verso, Stanton has signed the card just days after the appointment: “With regards of Edwin M. Stanton, March 11[?], 1864.”

It’s obviously very unusual to find a photograph of one important historical figure, signed by another. We don’t know who Stanton signed this card for, but it seems clear that he was using the card to boast about “his” new commanding general. Three years later, Grant would temporarily replace Stanton as Secretary of War, a move which triggered Andrew Johnson’s impeachment hearings.

The Union forces took Natchitoches on 1 April, and immediately began publishing a daily newspaper despite the lack of newsprint. This wallpaper copy prints their endorsement of the Lincoln-Johnson ticket, illustrated by a flag. Another article offers a long mocking farewell to the paper’s former editor. Many of the articles are intended to convince the populace of the Union’s good intentions and lawful governance. A local man announces: “I am in the United States Army, and I don’t care who knows it; I am inclined to think the secessionists will have a hard time of hanging me now.” After a description of conscripts maltreated or killed by the Confederates, the editor conclude “To all such enslaved white men, we offer you in the name of the President, pardon and protection.”

Colonel James Hervey Simpson (1813-1883) was a West Point graduate and one of the original officers in the United States Topographical Engineers; he is most often remembered for his work in mapping and exploring a route across Utah in 1858. He commanded the 4th New Jersey Infantry from the start of the Civil War until his capture at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill under the command of General McClellan. Upon his parole from Libby Prison, he went back into topographical work. During the presidential campaign of 1864, he spoke out publicly against McClellan, who he suspected of being a Confederate sympathizer.

This letter was addressed to his brother, who had apparently quested the wisdom of calling the possible next president a traitor: “You may think me injudicious in the correspondence I have had with regard to McClellan, but believing I am in duty bound as a citizen of the U.S. to give the public any facts which I may have bearing on his past conduct which will show his unworthiness for the position of President, I have not hesitated to put myself before the public as I have. . . . He was insincere towards the government, and from this source have flown all the disasters which our army met with on the Peninsula of Va. The developments that are being made relative to the Sons of Liberty, that they were banded together to break up the government & aid the Confederates; that they were in secret conclave in the Richmond House at Chicago, at the same time the Democrats were holding their convention; that Vallandigham presided at these meetings and was the go between of the two bodies, all go to show that there was a regular plot to break down the government, and McClellan committing himself with Pendleton & men of his opinions & acts, certainly show that he was either a dolt or designedly disloyal.”

WITH–two accompanying publications which quote Colonel Simpson’s views on McClellan, as alluded to in the letter:

“Gen’l McClellan’s Record. His Sympathy With the South.” 12 printed pages, 9 x 5½ inches, on 3 stitched folding sheets; folds, minimal wear, with the beginning and end of Simpson’s contribution marked in ink, and a lone correction made in pencil. This pamphlet was issued late in the election campaign, apparently by Cincinnati Republican activist Edgar Conkling, in an effort to discredit McClellan. It features a long letter from Simpson to Conkling dated 20 October 1864. [Cincinnati, late October 1864].

Undated clipping from the Cincinnati Daily Times of Simpson’s 12 November 1864 letter to the editor, titled “A Card,” recounting how McClellan had allowed his regiment to be captured. 16¼ x 2¼ inches.

The book was published to raise funds for the troops via the Baltimore Sanitary Fair. It consists of lithographic reproductions of dozens of important manuscripts by American authors, starting with Francis Scott Key’s Star-Spangled Banner. Lincoln wrote out a fresh copy of his Gettysburg Address; this was the first appearance of the address in manuscript facsimile. Most of the great American authors of the mid-19th century were also represented–Hawthorne, Irving, Whittier, Longfellow, Stowe, Emerson, Audubon, Poe, Sigourney, Howe, Melville, Cooper, Thoreau, and many more.

A portrait of Union Major General Franz Sigel (1824-1902), famed for his ability to recruit large numbers of German-American recruits. The print was copyrighted by L. Rosenthal. None in OCLC or traced at auction; one held by Washington University in St. Louis.

Grant’s eloquent farewell to “the Soldiers of the Armies of the United States,” explicitly naming slavery as the root cause of the war. “By your patriotic devotion to your country in the hour of danger and alarm–your magnificent fighting, bravery, and endurance–you have . . . overthrown all armed opposition to the enforcement of the laws, and of the Proclamation forever abolishing SLAVERY–the cause and pretext of the Rebellion.”

Playbill for a performance at New Haven’s Music Hall of a “New Military Drama and Allegory . . . dedicated to the Grand Army of the Republic . . . for the Benefit of the Charity Funds of the G.A.R. and the support of Soldiers’ Widows and Orphans.” The extensive cast was drawn from “members of the Grand Army of the Republic, assisted by Veterans of the late Union Army, and Ladies of this City.” A synopsis of the plot is given at bottom.

The April 1862 Battle of Shiloh (or Pittsburgh Landing) in southwestern Tennessee began with Confederate plans for a surprise attack at dawn. Union Colonel Everett Peabody became suspicious and sent out a pre-dawn 250-man reconnaissance patrol which engaged with advance Confederate troops at 5:15 a.m. This gained a few critical minutes for Union troops to brace for the assault. Horace Newton Fisher (1836-1916) of Massachusetts was a Union staff officer at the battle, and was eager to correct the historical record on the details of the battle.

Colonel Peabody, whose reconnaissance played such a key role, died in the battle that day. His nephew Frank Everett Peabody (1856-1918) of Boston had possession of the colonel’s papers and corresponded with Newton about the battle. This extremely detailed letter analyzes Peabody’s role in the battle, incorporating these new primary sources, and concludes that “had it not been for Col. Peabody’s soldierly development of the enemy’s line,” the Confederates would have “found Prentisss’ camp & sentinels asleep & powerless to have resisted for even ten minutes, in which case the entire Federal camps would have been captured long before noon on Sunday.” Newton’s manuscript map shows the Confederate attack at 6 a.m., with farm fields, division commanders on both sides, roads, creeks, and headquarters all clearly depicted.

Accompanying this letter are 4 typescripts on the battle authored by Fisher. Most notable is “In Regard to when the Battle of Shiloh Commenced” in 13 pages with extensive revisions in Fisher’s own hand, noting that “this personal reminiscence is given by request of Mr. Frank E. Peabody of Boston, by dictation to his stenographer,” 16 May 1903. The corrected typescript incorporating these revisions is also included. This essay was copyrighted by Fisher’s son in 1954. Also included is a 12-page typescript, “Gen. Beauregard at Shiloh,” dated 6 April 1903 (possibly unpublished) and a 9-page typescript, “Gen. Lew Wallace’s Attack on Grant’s Memory on the Shiloh Battlefield,” 8 April 1903 (also possibly unpublished, with related news clippings attached).

“Battle of Champion-Hills (Rear Attack by Gen’l John A. Logan, May 16th, 1863).” Not matted; 1887.

“Battle of Williamsburg (Gen. Hancock’s Charge, May 5th, 1862).” Not matted; 1893.

“Battle of Corinth (Oct. 3 & 4 1862).” 1891.

“Battle of Stone River near Murfreesborough, Tenn. (Dec. 31 62, Jan 2-3 1863).” 1891.

“Battle of Chattanooga (Nov 23-25 1863).” Not matted; 1888.

“Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (June 27, 1864).” 1891.

“Siege of Vicksburg (13, 15, 17 Corps. Commanded by Gen. U.S. Grant).” 1888.

“Battle of New Orleans (January 8, 1815).” 1890.

The author Augustus Colson Jr. (1841-1919) had moved from Buffalo, NY to Savannah for business, but was clearly uneasy about the growing secession movement: “There is still a great deal of excitement on account of Lincoln’s election. They have hoisted the flag of Georgia on the drill room of one of our military companys, and on the drill room on another I saw the Stars and Stripes hoisted with the union down. There is an organization called Minute Men whose only cry is disunion. There was a man mobed and tared and cottoned last night for tampering with negros in some way.”

A satire of Southern planter culture and the new Confederacy, told in verse. No date or publisher is given, but its arrival is noted in the Delaware State Journal of 4 October 1861, attributing its publication to “the Petersons.” Sabin 88322. None traced at auction since 1922.

Eluctius William Treadwell Sr. (circa 1836-1865) served in the 19th Alabama Infantry. From the Army of Mississippi’s large encampment at Corinth, he describes the results of three nearby battles and reflects on the future struggles for a Confederate victory in the war.

First he describes an unnamed skirmish: “We have had some fighting not far from this place and killed from what they say some 40 Yankees and captured 6. . . . Our men drove them into their boats, though they tried to stop our men by retreating and drawing them in until they could with their infantry cut our men off. . . . The Yankees landed at a place called Eastport and have quite a number of men and gunboats. It is said they are 50,000 strong and are building a road to bring their artilery to this point. . . . Beauregard is cutting off the gunboats that are up this river, I mean Tennessee River. If we can do that I will be pretty well satisfied.” Two weeks later, the Confederate Army of Mississippi would launch a surprise attack from its Corinth base in what became the Battle of Shiloh.

Treadwell also offers what he has heard about the recent Battle of Pea Ridge: “We got the best of it. . . . At last acct Price had cut off the enemy’s baggage and was on one side with his army, and Pike on the other with 6,000 Indians and surrounded on another side by an impenetrable wilderness.” On the Battle of Fort Donelson, “I have seen men that was in that fight, and they say we was not whipt at all, but was surrendered without our consent or knowledge. . . . Some cried like children, while others would tear down the white flag evry time they put it up for 3 successive times.”

Finally, Treadwell makes predictions about the future course of the war: “I am sorry to know that some of our people are becoming faint at our recent reverses. As for my part, I expected such things and we will suffer more than this before our independence is won. . . . I expect this war will last for years. After some few months from this time, Lincoln will offer us some kind of wrights, which I hope we will not except unless it be to let us alone to enjoy our freedom just as we see fit. After he finds we will except nothing, he will then in my opinion rally all the force he has and come against us, and there will be the greatest battles of the world.”

This letter is unsigned, apparently because the author ran out of space and time–he concludes with a hasty line of cross-writing on the first page, suggesting an imminent attack: “We are throwing up breastworks.” Another signed letter by Treadwell written a week later was found on line (copy included).

Most of three columns of this weekly newspaper are devoted to the battle and Jackson’s death from wounds suffered there, which had occurred 5 days earlier. Jackson’s Christian faith is discussed at length. General Lee’s orders commemorating the death and congratulating his army on the victory are published in full.

A detailed report on Gettysburg fills a column and a half, concluding that “the results of the battle are undoubtedly greatly in favor of the Confederates.” Noting a series of religious meetings held for the troops, the article takes solace that “many who fell upon the bloody field of Gettysburg, had made a profession of religion, but a short time prior to the battle.” Also included is a lengthy article on Stonewall Jackson.

Alcée J. Toutant (1836-1905) settled in San Antonio, TX as a young man, began the Civil War with a Texas regiment, and later became an aide-de-camp to Mansfield Lovell, the disgraced major general who had surrendered Louisiana and spent the rest of the war without a command. He finished the war as aide-de-camp to his famous uncle, General Beauregard–more properly, Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard. Alcée’s obituary reported that “Much of the strategy displayed by General Beauregard was the outgrowth of conferences between himself with his nephew.”

The earlier of these two documents is Lieutenant Toutant’s letter to Confederate General Samuel Cooper (1798-1876), asking whether he was entitled to cavalry pay as an aide-de-camp. Though Cooper played mainly an administrative role as Adjutant and Inspector General, he was technically the top-ranking general in the army, senior to Lee, Beauregard and the rest. Cooper inscribed and signed his response in the docketing on verso: “All aides de camp are entitled to cavalry pay as lieutenants. June 23/63, S Cooper, A & I G.” One page, 9¾ x 7¾ inches, plus integral blank with docketing; minimal wear. Richmond, VA, 23 June 1863.

The other document is a pass issued to Toutant, signed by his famous uncle and commander, reading “Pass Capt. A.J. Toutant A.D.C. on his way to Shreveport & San Antonio & back. G.T. Beauregard, General.” Beauregard was at that point in command of defending against Sherman’s March to the Sea, which by then had nearly reached Savannah–an odd time to send his aide on leave to Texas. One page, 6¼ x 8 inches; separations at folds at margins of signature, skillfully backed with tissue. Montgomery, AL, 2 December 1864.

This was published by the Natchitoches Union, a bilingual French-English paper which came out from 1859 to 1864. Several issues of the newspaper were also printed on wallpaper or other “necessity paper.” This almanac makes no weather predictions, but serves as a calendar for the year 1864, with religious holidays, times for sunrise and sunset, and moon cycles notes. Text is in French including five of the seven advertisements, with the remaining two in English.

While wallpaper was sometimes used to print Confederate newspapers, and was also used for wrappers or endpapers, it is rarely seen used for broadsides. The only others noted in Parrish & Willingham are two entries for field-printed military orders (#1150 and 1567). Only one copy of the present broadside is traced in Parrish & Willingham 5140 and in OCLC, at the University of Georgia (also on wallpaper).

Lee’s eloquent “General Orders No. 9” was reprinted widely after the war in broadside and book form, and in postwar manuscript copies which Lee graciously signed, but original field printings like this are rarely seen. Paper and ink were in short supply for the defeated army, but those units which still had supplies and functioning field presses did their best to print the order for their regimental and company commanders–possibly as their last official act.

This letter’s author had fled Cherokee territory for Kansas, and remained loyal to the Union in defiance of the Cherokees’ Confederate leadership. The letter’s recipient Charles R. Gourd was also one of the Cherokees who remained loyal to the Union in defiance of the Confederate leadership; he had joined a special regiment to help retake Cherokee land for the Union. Mills wrote: “We are in a strange land, as refugees from our fair homes. . . . I would prefer to spend my means and time amongst our people, rather than among this. . . . We opposed the Lane faction, on last election, and as that party succeeded, it does me no good. . . . I firmly believe the Lane party has done the Indians much injury, and I think him unscrupulous enough to attempt to do us more. . . . I am of those who do not believe in making any concessions to any rebel state, and far less to our infernal neighbors the Choctaws, who I believe should be made to disgorge the plunder taken from the loyal Indians, at least. . . . I think that there will be an effort in the coming spring to carry the war into the Choctaw Nation . . . based on a conversation I had with General Blunt.”

This regiment had more than the usual share of interesting history. Its founding colonel until his September 1861 promotion was Lew Wallace, who later became a Major General, and then after the war authored the novel Ben-Hur. They distinguished themselves in Tennessee at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson and Shiloh, served in the Siege of Vicksburg, and closed out the war in the Army of Shenandoah. The 11th Indiana is probably unique among all Civil War regiments in having a professional sports team named in their honor: the Indy Eleven of the North American Soccer League.

Unlike many less distinguished regiments, the 11th Indiana did not produce a self-appointed regimental historian who published a thick unit history after the war. (“Three Years with Wallace’s Zouaves: The Civil War Memoirs of Thomas Wise Durham” did make it to press in 2003). George A. Simmons (1839-1925) made a considerable effort toward filling that void. He worked as a printer in Indianapolis before the war, enlisted with the 11th as a corporal in its initial incarnation as a 3-month regiment, re-enlisted as a sergeant for a three year term, and mustered out as a second lieutenant in December 1864. After the war, he became an official in the Department of Treasury in Washington.

This memoir by Simmons does not aspire to being an official regimental history. It is largely told in the first person, and makes only brief accounts of the periods when Simmons was away from the regiment–he was captured at the May 1863 Battle of Champion’s Hill and not exchanged until the end of August, and then mustered out before the regiment’s uneventful last few months of garrison duty. However, it does apparently rely upon research in the published records to keep his chronology straight. It contains numerous interesting anecdotes–navigating by the call of a lone whippoorwill while out on picket duty, Colonel Wallace’s creation of a mounted scouting squad to track enemy movements, the initial adoption of a colorful zouave uniform which was “soon discarded for the dark-blue regulation uniform,” the unit singing “John Brown’s Body” as they marched through Harper’s Ferry, sitting on picket duty after the first day’s fight at Fort Donelson and hearing the cries of the wounded on the battlefield, and much more. Wallace’s drill tactics of “keeping up a continuous fire and advance” are credited for “great saving in casualties . . . notably the case in the approaches to the works of Fort Donelson.” The manuscript is numbered erratically from pages 10 to 118 plus two appendices, with several generations of editing marks, covering the entire period of the regiment’s active service. It was likely written after his retirement from the Treasury Department circa 1915-1920.

Also included are two shorter works by Simmons. A fragmentary essay titled “General Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign” concludes with a tribute to fallen comrade Captain John P. McGrew; and an untitled 40-page essay on his Treasury Department work documents his mistreatment toward the end of his career. A most helpful lightly edited modern typescript of the two Civil War works is included with the lot.

Also included are 4 quartermaster returns retained by Simmons from the regiment dated September to December 1864; an official printed Army order from 1886 amending his official service record; a small unmounted albumen photograph of Union soldiers tearing up railroad tracks; and a circa 1900 mounted photograph of an older bearded man in military uniform, presumably Simmons.

“There is something about a review that no person can describe. It is grand and sublime beyond description. We were reviewed by Major General Howard, and just as we had got through, General Billy Sherman appeared on the field, then we had to be reviewed by that noble hero. Our division was drawn up around the edge of a large field, and when Sherman rode out into the field to acknowledge our salute, feelings that I cannot describe completely overcame me. Cynthia, I for the first time in my life or nearly the first time, shed tears. Yes, I cried and could not help it. And then, when we marched past the old hero, I shed tears again. He sat there on his horse and as the colors were drooped to him, he raised his hat and acknowledged the salute. . . . There never was a better picture.”

The author was very likely Henry Hampton Roberts (1836-1891) of Lovilla, Iowa, a sergeant in Company E of the 6th Iowa Infantry, whose wife was Cynthia Lodeska Rogers Roberts (1841-1922). He notes that the letter would be brought home via Calvin Barnard, a private in the same company, also from Lovilla, who was discharged in October 1864 after the amputation of his arm. The regiment had been part of the recently concluded Atlanta campaign under Sherman, and would soon continue with him on the March to the Sea.

Oliver Clum Lasher (1829-1894) of Hackensack and Fort Lee, NJ joined the United States Navy as an acting master’s mate in 1862. The first of these letters dated 28 February 1864 describes how he found himself in command of the gunboat USS Young America without receiving a promotion. He had been left ashore to tend the mail, but “as the Young America got to the flagship, her captain could not handle her to suit the fleet captain,” who asked “what had become of Lasher? . . . He said he was sorry for me, for he knew that I was in a scrape. . . . Our captain was ordered to another vessall whear he was under 5 officers his senior. It greived him to see me take charge of the Young America, for he was a grade above me and he thought that it was a big thing to have charge of a gun boat.”

The second letter, dated 27 April 1864, describes a recent Confederate torpedo attack on the USS Minnesota: “About 2 a.m. a small propeler about as big as a shad decked over but not so high out of the water came down the river, but she had a torpedo with her. She passed the U.S. Steam Ram Atlanta . . . and was hailed by her and answered Roanoke which signified that the Capt. of our ironclad frigate was in her, which proved false, and so she got by and drifted down to the Minesota and . . . came close under the Minesota post quarter and exploded the torpedo and the damage done was very great, but it is kept as still as possible, but I know more than I dare write, for I fear it will lead to some troubel.”

WITH–an unidentified carte-de-visite taken in Bridgewater, MA

A pair of certificates for prize money due for the capture of New Orleans, issued in 1874 and 1875

and a small leather ammunition box, 7½ x 3½ x 2 inches, produced by Ridabock & Co. of New York, patented 1878.

Elisha Norman Gunnison (1837-1880) was raised in Charleston, MA and served as a private in the 2nd New Hampshire Infantry until his disability discharge in January 1863. He was a prolific poet during and after the war. His letters home are more enthusiastic and patriotic than most. In his first undated letter, he thanks “God that he made me able, and gave me the will to fight for this glorious cause”; he describes “scouting through the bushes nights, to pick off Rebel sentries.” Not long before Bull Run, he expects to “have a big fight soon . . . expect a glorious fight.” On 13 July he announces that “we are to lead the attack on Manesses Gap under Brigader General Burnside; we are impatient for the fight, victory is perching on our banners.”

Four days after the First Battle of Bull Run, he writes “I have just come out of the hottest battle ever fought on American soil. . . . Our regt was all cut to peices, second in battle, last out.” Despite the loss, “got a sword taken from a man I killed.”

On 31 December 1861 he discusses a poem he had written “entiteled Sic Semper Tyranis, that is Lattin for so allways to tyrants.” This was years before John Wilkes Booth made the phrase a lost-cause rallying cry. On 3 May 1862, camped near Yorktown just before the Battle of Williamsburg, he describes the bravado of his regiment while being shelled: “Our boys are standing round makeing observations as coolley as can be. If a shell don’t come far enough, they will sing out ‘A little more powder, Johney,’ and if it goes too far they say ‘Shot to far that time, try it again.’” Also included is a manuscript transcript (in a much tidier hand) of Gunnison’s 1 June 1862 letter to Mr. W.H. Thomes, editor of the American Union newspaper of Boston, submitting a poem for publication along with his impressions of the Battle of Williamsburg.

Gunnison’s letters received from his sister are more compelling than most letters from the home front. Her 28 July 1861 letter in the wake of Bull Run is inspirational in its depiction of the Union troops, and urges Lincoln to “do our work by proclaiming liberty to the enslaved . . . who at this present crisis has done all the work of the South, not the whites, they have not the muscle nor the energy.”

Gunnison’s poems include the printed broadsides “To Our Sister in Heaven” and “His Last Poem: As One Whom His Mother Comforteth,” neither of which appear in OCLC; a clipping of his poem “The Battle of Bull Run” as published in the Charlestown Advertiser; as well as apparently unpublished manuscript poems. Finally, a manuscript tribute to Gunnison was written in 1880 by a Virginia minister whose home was on the battlefield at the Battle of Malvern Hill; his family had been saved by Gunnison’s kindness and heroism.

The Rev. James Hoyt (1817-1866) was a graduate of Harvard who settled in Orange, NJ as a Presbyterian pastor in 1856. He joined the Christian Commission after the end of fighting, but had several unusual adventures. He arrived to his posting with XIV Corps in Washington on 25 May 1865, and five days later found himself ministering to hospitalized soldiers, “one with a paralyzed condition of the lower limbs, one negro soldier with a pain in the head, as from neuralgy.” Hoyt was an avid genealogist and had determined that General Sherman’s mother was a Hoyt. He made two efforts to meet Sherman (see 31 May) to invite him to the next family reunion, but in vain. He did come away with a detailed description off Sherman’s headquarters camp (page 17). On 31 May, he visited the Mary Surratt house where the Booth conspirators had met, and describes it in careful architectural detail; he later visited the courtroom for the trial of the conspirators on 10 June, getting a glimpse of Mrs. Surratt. His 1 June sermon in memory of Lincoln is summarized, and on 2 June he witnesses a “sham battle” in which an entire 31st and 82nd Ohio regiments fired all of their guns while their officers were out of camp, sparking sympathetic volleys from other regiments across the division. He recounts tales of a band of a thousand prostitutes which had followed the Army from Nashville, and had been shipped back by train after they had “bred the most horrible & destructive disease.” A corps review led by General George Thomas is described at length on 4 June, as is his distribution of the famous temperance tract “The Black Valley Railroad” to a crowd of eager sinners at a grog shop on 6 June. Perhaps most noteworthy are his moving accounts of the religious meetings he led among the soldiers after one soldier offered his testimony, “he wept, and all the sympathizing assembly of veterans, hard worn & sunburnt, but not callous of feeling, melted in tears” (1 June).

On a much less uplifting note, Rev. Hoyt’s entry from the evening of 6 June is headed “Threatened by a Soldier Mob.” A crowd of drunken soldiers from the 75th Indiana stormed the Commission’s supply tent, upset that two Black soldiers had been given shirts, while one of their compatriots had been turned down: “They claimed that the money paid by their friends & others to the C.C. was meant for the soldiers (i.e. the white) & not for the niggers.” The ministers stood firm with the help of some sober soldiers nearby, and the mob walked off muttering. The next day the “ringleader of the rowdies” returned to again request a shirt, and on 8 June they were menaced by a group from Company J of the 17th Ohio with the exact same complaint. When denied, the leader struck at the tents with a club, yelling “Then let’s down with the d___d thing” and lifted his club to strike Rev. Hoyt; they later threw one of his fellow ministers to the ground and tore his coat.

In the rear of the volume are 2 pages of notes on specific soldiers who were ministered to (name, regiment, next of kin, and personal notes); 2 pages of inscriptions by his fellow chaplains; and 3 pages of notes on the history and organization of Sherman’s army.

Provenance: found by the consignor’s grandmother in an old house in Albany, NY circa the 1940s, and given to the consignor circa 1980.

This broadside announces the result of a town meeting in Haverstraw, NY regarding the town’s handling of draft exemption fees. In short, if you already paid your $25, the town would cover your exemption, but the fee going forward would be $100. Agents to receive the fees were appointed in four different villages. None traced at auction or on OCLC.