"TO VINDICATE THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN FROM THE OBLOQUY THAT HAD FALLEN UPON IT"

BARNARD, John G. The C.S.A. and the Battle of Bull Run. (A Letter to an English Friend). New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1862. Octavo, original gilt-stamped red cloth. $1600.

First edition, with five folding maps (one with hand-colored troop positions), in fine condition.

The First Battle of Bull Run, fought only a few months into the Civil War and little more than 30 miles from Washington, D.C., resulted in a humiliating Union defeat that shocked the North and caused widespread fear that Washington itself was about to be overrun with Confederate forces. Afterward it resulted in the formation of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, tasked with investigating the failures that led to the loss, and a more general public campaign to attach blame to various northern commanders. C.S.A. and the Battle of Bull Run, written in an epistolary style ("but admittedly with extensive interpolations") was written "to vindicate the battle of Bull Run from the obloquy that had fallen upon it, and to establish a claim for it the category of well planned and well fought battles.""Barnard served as chief engineer to General Irvin McDowell, commander of Union forces in the First Bull Run (First Manassas) campaign. McDowell planned his battle on Barnard's reconnaissance. General George B. McClellan subsequently appointed Barnard chief engineer of the army of the Potomac with the rank of brevet brigadier general. During the Peninsula campaign Barnard conducted the siege of Yorktown and directed engineering operations for the approach to Richmond. His most noteworthy achievement would follow his assignment in April 1861 as chief engineer of the Washington defenses" (ANB). Bookplate. Sabin 3477. Dornbusch III:1479. Nicholson, 56. Bookplate.

A fine copy, with clean interior and fresh cloth with bright gilt.