EXCEEDINGLY RARE PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION FIRST EDITION OF SHERMAN AND HIS CAMPAIGNS, 1865, INSCRIBED TO A UNION OFFICER IN THE YEAR OF PUBLCATION BY GENERAL SHERMAN

(SHERMAN, William Tecumseh) BOWMAN, S. M. and IRWIN, R. B. Sherman and His Campaigns: A Military Biography. New York: Charles B. Richardson, 1865. Octavo, original blind-stamped pebbled green cloth rebacked with original spine laid down. Housed in a custom chemise and clamshell box. $11,000.

First edition of this major early account of Sherman's Civil War campaigns—an especially rare presentation/association copy inscribed in the year of publication by General Sherman to an officer who was with the Union army in 1865 when Columbia, North Carolina surrendered—Sherman's inscription reads: "To Col. L.E. Yorke, U.S. Army, With the Compliments of W.T. Sherman, Maj Genl. Saint Louis, Mo. Novr. 11, 1865." This seminal history draws on military reports by Sherman, revealing his plain-spoken eloquence in statements such as "War is hell, and you cannot refine it," with steel-engraved frontispiece, seven full-page portraits and five full-page maps.

Written and published immediately after the Civil War, this contemporary military history of Sherman and his leadership was completed with the assistance of figures such as Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis and Sherman himself—whose blunt eloquence is revealed here through statements such as "War is hell, and you cannot refine it" (225). Describing Lincoln's estimation of his general, Bowman and Irwin write that "no one enjoyed Sherman's peculiar spice more than he did… [Sherman's] honest, candid, outspoken and enterprising character were such as Mr. Lincoln most needed, and most admired… Even Sherman's frank, bold and honest opposition to measures favored by Mr. Lincoln himself pleased him… Lincoln greatly admired Sherman" (484-5). The volume's preface notes: "The events treated are, in some instances, perhaps too recent for enlightened and impartial criticism… The editors believe, however, that laboring with a sincere and constant desire to attain correctness, they have… succeeded in establishing the essential outlines." Dornbusch II:2433. Sabin 7096. This exceptional presentation/association copy is inscribed by Sherman to Lt. Colonel L.E. Yorke, who was in Columbia, North Carolina in February 1865 when the city surrendered to Sherman. Yorke, then serving as Major General John A. Logan's inspector general, is cited in the memoir of Major General Oliver Otis Howard. In noting the fires that had swept through the city, Howard stated: "The destruction of certain Confederate public property… for furthering the interests of the war—was committed to me in Sherman's specific undertaking… [and] was accomplished by my inspector general Lt. Col. William E. Strong… to aid him in his work he had Logan's inspector general, Lieutenant Colonel L. E. Yorke" (Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard). The responsibility for of Columbia's destruction "remains hotly debated today" (Columbia Museum of Art). With fascinating inked marginalia and light annotation, attributed to Yorke. Bookplate of Philip Hinkle.

Interior fresh with light edge,wear, scattered foxing, original expertly recornered, rebacked with original spine and endpapers preserved. An excellent very good presentation, copy, exceedingly rare inscribed with Union Army association.