first edition Hard Cover
1881 · New York
by Davis, Jefferson
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1881. First Edition. Hard Cover. Good/No Jacket. First edition (Howes D-120). Includes all fold-out maps. Ink name and date on front endpaper (Geo. W. Smith Jr., June 24th 1881) with his embossed stamp on frontispiece margin of each volume (stating Geo. Smith, Jr., Attorney at Law, Hagerstown, MD.). 3 inch tear to spine head of second volume, minor loss from corners of each volume, hinges of both volumes weakening. xxi, 707; xvii, 808 pp. 4-page publisher ad follows text in each volume. 8vo. Complete in two volumes. Includes engraved portraits (two frontispieces, 18 in text), four maps in text, and 13 fold-out maps of numerous battles. The President of the Confederacy, upon his release from prison in 1867, attempted to justify the position of the South. Jefferson Davis examines the question of states' rights and offers a detailed account of the movement toward secession and confederation. An entire volume is dedicated to the 'deplorable fact of war' - victories, defeats, and the final 'subjugation of the Confederate States' with all the attendant evils arising from the bitter hostility between victor and vanquished. An important contribution to an understanding of the political, social, and military forces at work during the Civil War years, and a unique appraisal of the American Civil War. Douglas Freeman thought it unique enough to comment in Lee's Lieutenants that it is "[not] nearly so accurate as President Davis thought it was." Regardless of one's perspective, thought, a historically significant book.
(Inventory #: 2346544)