“THE MOST AMBITIOUS AMERICAN MILITARY MISSION TO EUROPE DURING THE ANTEBELLUM ERA”: DELAFIELD’S REPORT ON THE ART OF WAR, PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED WITH NEARLY 80 PLATES (MANY LARGE AND FOLDING), FROM THE LIBRARY OF THEN-COLONEL AND FUTURE PRESIDENT JAMES A. GARFIELD, TWICE BOLDLY SIGNED BY HIM, DURING THE CIVIL WAR, AND WITH HIS BOOKPLATE

(GARFIELD, James) DELAFIELD, Richard. Report on the Art of War in Europe in 1854, 1855 and 1856. Washington: George W. Bowman, 1860. Quarto, original blind-stamped brown cloth rebacked with original spine and endpapers preserved. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition, Senate issue, of Delafield’s “large and elegantly illustrated” report on the Crimean War and European military practices, complete with 80 plates, maps and plans—over half folding and many quite large—hand-colored lithographed title page and hundreds of in-text diagrams. From the library of President James Garfield, twice boldly signed and dated by him during the Civil War, on both the front and rear pastedowns (“Camp Chas, October 21, 1861”), from a time when he was a Union Colonel, leading men and engaged in fierce fighting, and with his bookplate.

“Early in 1855 Secretary of War Jefferson Davis selected Delafield”— former superintendent of West Point and at the time a member of the army’s Board of Engineers for Fortification—“to head a board of officers… to observe the conduct of the Crimean War and report generally on the military art in Europe… The officers carefully examined the battlefields with the aid of British officers, and they toured a wide variety of military installations in Russia, Germany, the Austrian Empire, France, Belgium and Great Britain. On their return in April 1856, the members set about compiling reports on their specialties, which were eventually published by order of Congress. Delafield’s large and elegantly illustrated volume appeared in 1860 and emphasized fortification and the conduct of the siege of Sevastopol, but it also included information on a range of other topics related to the ‘art of war,’ including small arms, gun carriages, the design of barracks and hospitals and military schools. The Delafield board was the most ambitious American military mission to Europe during the antebellum era. Early in the Civil War, the Union government tried to suppress circulation of Delafield’s report, lest the Confederates use its detailed drawings and data to design their own fortifications” (ANB).

Copies are found with varying numbers of plates; this copy complete with 43 folding maps and plans, several quite large (Plate 3, a map of Paris, measures 30 by 32 inches; Plate 8, of Sebastopol, measures 28-1/2 by 40-1/2 inches); 34 black-and-white plates (17 lithographed views, most folding); three folding tinted lithographs; and numerous in-text diagrams. Also with additional hand-colored engraved title page. Senate issue, preceding the House of Representatives issue by one year.

Expert restoration to original cloth, a few expert repairs to maps. A very good copy, with distinguished provenance.