Notes on the Rebel Invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania

CIVIL WAR   |   Michael JACOBS

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Notes on the Rebel Invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania
Notes on the Rebel Invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania

"THE AIR WAS FILLED WITH LINES OF WHIZZING, SCREAMING, BURSTING SHELLS AND SOLID SHOT": FIRST EDITION OF JACOBS' POWERFUL 1864 ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, NOTES ON THE REBEL INVASION, 1864, WITH LARGE FOLDING MAP

(CIVIL WAR) JACOBS, M[ichael]. Notes on the Rebel Invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania and the Battle of Gettysburg July 1st, 2d and 3d, 1863. Accompanied by an Explanatory Map. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1864. Small octavo (4-3/4 by 7-1/2 inches), original gilt and blind-stamped brown cloth; pp. 47.

First edition of Jacobs' dramatic eyewitness report of Battle of Gettysburg, a bloody contest destined to "compare, in magnitude and far reaching consequences, with any of the great battles of modern times," with folding chromolithograph map of the battle outlined in color, in original cloth.

Clergyman Michael Jabobs was a professor of mathematics at Pennsylvania (now Gettysburg) College in 1863 when he witnessed the Battle of Gettysburg, His Notes on the Rebel Invasion, one of the earliest and best eyewitness accounts of the battle, begins with a record of Saturday, June 20, when the townspeople were warned to "arm themselves and to be ready, at a moment's warning, for the defence of their homes and of the state." Jacobs writes of orders to evacuate the town, and of bridges and farms destroyed or seized by Rebel forces. On Wednesday, July 1, he reports that General Reynolds was "shot through the head… by a Rebel sharpshooter" and the next day, with Rebel soldiers barricading the streets, observes it was now brutally evident that "the contest would be a hard and bloody one." On July 3rd, he speaks of brutal shelling so fierce that it seemed "as if the very heavens had been rent asunder… The air was filled with lines of whizzing, screaming, bursting shells and solid shot." As Jacobs ends his account, he concludes that "this battle of three days will compare, in magnitude and far reaching consequences, with any of the great battles of modern times." Introduction by Charles Krauth. Sabin 35502. Dornsbusch III:2091. Nicholson, 421.

Text fresh; folding map, inner hinges and spine with expert repairs.

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