AMERICA. THE WAR: PAST, PRESENT, AND PROBABLE FUTURE. BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF A DISCOURSE DELIVERED AT THE CONCERT HALL, LIVERPOOL. BY F. D. SIEMMS, A NATIVE OF LIVERPOOL, WHO SERVED AS AN OFFICER IN THE ARMY OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES TO A VERY RECENT PERIOD, BEING AN EMBODIMENT OF HIS EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS DURING A PERIOD OF EIGHTEEN MONTHS AS AN OFFICER OF ARTILLERY

[Liverpool?, 1864. 24pp. Disbound, with wrapper remnants along spine. Good+.

Siemms says, "Without any previous intention of being a soldier, either in the army of the North or South, yet I found myself one fine day an officer in the army of the Southern Confederacy." He gives some details of his unit's movements and briefly discusses different engagements while noting his frustration at the North's exaggeration in reporting its successes. His war experience was brief: "My military life ended" when he was taken prisoner "at Bull's run" and held as a prisoner until the British flag brought his release.
Presenting himself as something of (truncated) an expert, he says, "the negroes are far better off than a certain class of poor people in many European countries." He says 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is filled with exaggeration and "downright untruths." He exposes "the false pretence that the North was fighting for liberty," and says the press has greatly exaggerated the North's progress in the field.
Frederick David Samson Siemms [1844-1907] was born in England, but it is unclear how he ended up in the United States or fighting for the Confederate Army. His military records show that he enlisted on May 13, 1861, at the age of 17 years, for a period of 12 months as a private with 1st Artillery Virginia Confederate with Capt. Johnson H. Sands' Company, [Co. B, Henrico Artillery], Virginia Light Artillery. His occupation was dentist and optician. Company muster rolls show he was discharged on July 20, 1862. [Military records of Frederick D. Siemms, Fold3 website; Soldier and Sailor's Database at National Park Service website; The Commercial Gazette of London, June 4, 1890, Page 6.]
OCLC 4844821 [1- U Rochester] as of March 2025. Not in Bartlett or Sabin. (Inventory #: 40909)