Battles and Victories of Allen Allensworth

Boston: Sherman, French & Company, 1914. 1st ed. Hardcover. Very Good. frontis (photo of Allensworth), (12), 429p. Original red cloth. 20 cm. Evidence of removal of a small label near the base of the backstrip. Edges and corners lightly rubbed. Spine slightly sloped and covers slightly sprung at top. No jacket. Allensworth, 1842-1914, an African American, was born enslaved in Kentucky. Most of the first half of this book details Allensworth's efforts to survive enslavement. Allensworth finally escaped for good during the Civil War. He subsequently enlisted in the U. S. Navy and mostly served on board the USS Tawah on the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers before his discharge in 1865. He became a Baptist preacher and served churches in Kentucky. He also got interested in politics and served as a delegate from
Kentucky to the Republican National Conventions in 1880 and 1884. An appointment as a chaplain in the U. S. Army was confirmed by the U. S. Senate in 1886. He served in that capacity with the 24th Infantry, one of the four African American regiments during that period, for the next 20 years. By the time he retired in 1906, he had become the first African American soldier to reach the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Politically and philosophically he seems to have been in the BTW camp. He was a founder of Allensworth, an all Black town in California, in 1908. The town had some early success but 1914 was the beginning of the end for the town. While this book was in press, Colonel Allensworth died after being carelessly run over by a motorcyclist. The Santa Fe Railroad moved its stop from Allensworth to Alspaugh, a nearby white town. Allensworth also began having severe water shortage by 1914 which seems to have been caused at least partly by a regional water company's failure to drill enough wells to adequately supply the African American town's water needs. Population declined, never to recover, and economic opportunity withered. The state of California created Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park in 1976 on part of the land. This book is quite scarce in commerce despite the fact that OCLC lists more than three dozen copies in libraries. (Inventory #: 93534)