“THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LITHOGRAPHS POSSIBLE”: 89 COLOR PLATES OF THE FLAGS CARRIED BY THE U.S. ARMY DURING THE CIVIL WAR, HANDSOMELY BOUND FOLIO VOLUME IN GILT-STAMPED THREE-QUARTER CALF

UNITED STATES ARMY. Flags of the Army of the United States Carried During the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, to Designate the Headquarters of the Different Armies, Army Corps, Divisions and Brigades. Philadelphia: Burk and McFetridge, 1887. Folio (12 by 15-1/2 inches), modern three-quarter polished brown calf, raised bands, marbled endpapers; housed in a custom slipcase. $7500.

First edition, publisher's special large folio edition containing two additional chromolithographed plates of Regimental Colors and the Engineer Battalion, along with the lithographed title and 87 chromolithographed plates designating flags carried by the U.S. Army during the Civil War and double-page title for Tabular Statements Showing the Names of Commanders of Army Corps, Divisions and Brigades.

This special edition features two full-page color lithographs of flags, a double-page Tabular Statements title page and a 12-page Index, along with the separate title page for Flags of the Army of the United States and its "87 full pages of the most beautiful lithographs possible, so fine that not only the colors but the textures and fabrics are clearly distinguishable. Many have just one figure to a page but numerous others display groups of small flags" (Bennett, 42). Included are the individual flags that flew over the headquarters of Custer, Burnside, Grant, Reynolds, Averill, Kilpatrick and others. With a total of 89 chromolithograpahed folio plates, erratum slip for the Red Star Brigade flag; without publisher's advertising slip. Title page "Flags of the Army of the United States… 1887" with "Copyright 1888 by Brig Gen. S. B. Holabird" on the verso.

Only a few leaves with tiny bit of expert archival marginal reinforcement. A fine copy, beautifully bound.