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1872réf. 149519Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co 1872. Rare and remarkable autograph book compiled by West Virginia senator and industrialist Henry Gassaway Davis 1823-1916 containing 289 historic autographs including seven presidents seven vice presidents and scores of members of the Senate House of Representatives and presidential cabinets as well as a few other 19th-century notables. Octavo bound in full crushed levant morocco by the Harcourt Bindery with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands gilt ruling to the front and rear panels gilt-scrolled inner dentelles stamp-signed by the Harcourt Bindery all edges gilt title page printed in gilt. With Davis' ownership signature and subsequently that of his daughter to the title page "H. G . Davis 1872" and "Grace T. Davis 1887" Miss Davis was 18 in 1887. The book has approximately 300 unnumbered pages but only the first 144 which were numbered in pencil by hand at some point include the autographs generally three on each side of a page most often including the person's home state or in the case of cabinet members their office title. The highlights of the album are the signatures of seven presidents representing a half-century of American politics: U. S. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Grover Cleveland Benjamin Harrison twice William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Also included are seven vice presidents - Hannibal Hamlin Schuyler Colfax Henry Wilson William A. Wheeler Levi P. Morton Garrett A. Hobart and Charles W. Fairbanks - and one first lady Frances F. Cleveland. With the later presidents' autographs are several examples of partial cabinets including: Harrison Secretary of the Treasury Charles Foster Secretary of War Stephen B. Elkins Attorney General William H. H. Miller Postmaster General John Wanamaker Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy Secretary of the Interior John W. Noble and Secretary of Agriculture Jeremiah M. Rusk Cleveland Secretary of State Walter Q. Gresham Secretary of the Treasury John G. Carlisle Secretary of the Navy Daniel S. Lamont Attorney General Richard Olney Postmaster General Wilson S. Bissell Secretary of the Navy Hilary A. Herbert Secretary of the Interior Hoke Smith and Secretary of Agriculture J. Sterling Morton McKinley Secretary of State John Sherman Secretary of the Treasury Lyman J. Gage Secretary of War Russel A. Alger Attorney General Joseph McKenna Postmaster General James A. Gary Secretary of the Navy John D. Long Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson and Secretary of the Interior Cornelius N. Bliss and Roosevelt Secretary of State John Hay Attorney General Philander C. Knox Postmasters General Charles Emory Smith and Henry C. Payne and Secretary of the Interior Ethan A. Hitchcock. Others significant names include influential members of the House and Senate many of whom were celebrated veterans of the Civil War. These include: Hamilton Fish William M. Evarts Charles Sumner David Davis Simon Cameron James G. Blaine George S. Boutwell Augustus H. Garland Roscoe Conkling Ambrose Burnside John A. Logan John B. Gordon Carl Schurz Wade Hampton John T. Morgan Henry W. Slocum and William Mahone. Interestingly one page features the autographs of James Cardinal Gibbons Archbishop of Baltimore and famed agnostic lecturer Robert G. Ingersoll. In fine condition. A remarkable collection spanning half a century of American politics. J.B. Lippincott & Co unknown
1862réf. 806901/03/1862. In it he also pays for his servants 3 of whom were black; An extreme rarity the first such document we can find having reached the market in a quarter century The battle of Fort Henry in Tennessee took place on February 6 1862 and an obscure and virtually unknown brigadier general named Ulysses S. Grant captured the fort and opened the Tennessee River to Union movements. This early in the war Union victories of any kind were scarce and this one was probably the most consequential of the war to date. Grant then moved directly on Fort Donelson entrapping the place both by land and sea from February 11-16. On the morning of February 15 the Confederate commander Simon B. Buckner sent a note to Grant requesting an armistice and asking terms of surrender. Buckner was expecting to give up the fort but get his soldiers paroled so they would not be prisoners of war. Grant refused to give terms but demanded unconditional surrender. The Confederates surrendered the next day the 16th. This victory opened the Cumberland River an important avenue for the invasion of the South to Union operations and Grant became instantly famous earning the nickname ""Unconditional Surrender"" Grant. President Lincoln took note of the fact that in Grant he had a general who could win. On February 20 1862 Lincoln promoted Grant to the rank of Major General a prerequisite to Grant's being able to command a large army. However Grant’s very successes at Forts Henry and Donelson incurred the jealousy of his superior Gen. Henry Halleck who was in command of the whole Western Theater of war. Grant not yet realizing the peril Halleck's opposition placed him in knew Nashville was wide open with little in the way of defensive forces. Though Halleck had expressly forbade him to advance Grant ordered Union forces to enter Nashville. It fell on February 25 with Gen. Don Carlos Buell accepting the city's surrender. Nashville thus became the first Confederate state capital to fall into Union hands. Over the next week thousands of Union soldiers poured into the city and Grant took a boat upriver from Donelson to Nashville to confer with Buell. Halleck saw the taking of Nashville not as Grant recognizing and seizing an important opportunity but as willful disobedience of an order. And Grant's unauthorized trip to see Buell there only added to Halleck's anger. <img class=""alignnone wp-image-32063 size-post-window"" src=""https://cdn.raabcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/20240907140939/Grant-March-1-1862-1-1-1600x348.jpg"" alt="""" width=""1600"" height=""348"" /> So on March 1 1862 Halleck decided to tie Grant's hands by ordering him to return to Fort Henry and from there to launch an expedition up the Tennessee River to the state of Mississippi. The objective was the destruction of several key railroad bridges. Grant was to “avoid any general engagement with strong forces” and was told that it was “better to retreat than to risk a general battle.” Grant went to Fort Henry as ordered but did not communicate with Halleck directly. The next day Halleck complained to Gen. McClellan that he had heard no word from Grant for a week and that “his army seems to be as much demoralized by the victory of Fort Donelson as was that of the Potomac by the defeat of Bull Run.” On March 4 Halleck relieved Grant from his command writing him: “You will place Maj. Gen. C. F. Smith in command of expedition and remain yourself at Fort Henry.” Grant was shocked. “Thus"" say Grant's Memoirs ""in less than two weeks after the victory at Donelson the two leading generals Halleck and McClellan in the army were in correspondence as to what disposition should be made of me and in less than three weeks I was virtually in arrest and without a command.” Grant turned over command to Smith on March 5. Even as he did so he felt intensely frustrated and longed for action writing on the same day “I have not been well for the last ten days and don’t see that I will be much better until I can get to moving again.” Grant and Halleck exchanged letters after which Grant on March 11 demanded that Halleck relieve him from duty altogether in order to clear his name. ""There is such a disposition to find fault with me that I again ask to be relieved from further duty until I can be placed right in the estimation of those higher in authority."" Perhaps this letter caused a change of mind or it may be that Halleck just could not risk loss of the popular Grant altogether. In any event surprisingly he refused and instead told Grant he would receive a new command writing him ""You cannot be relieved from your command. There is no good reason for it…Instead of relieving you I wish you as soon as your new army is in the field to assume the immediate command and lead it on to new victories."" Just four days later Grant was actually given a new command - he was placed in charge of Union forces in Tennessee. He proceeded to Pittsburg Landing Tennessee and arriving on the 17th established a wide camp with his forward units around Shiloh Church some 2.5 miles south of Pittsburg Landing. He wrote ""I at once put all the troops at Savannah in motion for Pittsburg Landing knowing that the enemy was fortifying at Corinth and collecting an army there under Johnston. It was my expectation to march against that army as soon as Buell who had been ordered to reinforce me with the Army of the Ohio should arrive; and the west bank of the river was the place to start from. Pittsburg is only about twenty miles from Corinth…When all reinforcements should have arrived I expected to take the initiative by marching on Corinth and had no expectation of needing fortifications though this subject was taken into consideration."" He reported to Halleck on his troop dispositions and imminently awaited reinforcements so he could move against Corinth. Halleck meanwhile continued to nitpick at Grant for supposed failure to discipline his troops properly. The month of March was a significant one in Grant's career one that saw the tables turn twice on him. First in the flush of his great successes at Forts Henry and Donelson he was victimized by jealousy and relieved of command. Then when all seemed lost he was given an even greater command. And as he assumed that command and awaited reinforcements so he would move on Corinth he was unwittingly actually preparing for the Battle of Shiloh one of the most fateful of the war. <img class=""alignnone wp-image-32064 size-post-window"" src=""https://cdn.raabcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/20240907141021/Grant-March-1-1862-2-1600x657.jpg"" alt="""" width=""1600"" height=""657"" /> Document signed Pittsburg Landing Tenn. April 2 1862 being a voucher for his own pay and expenses and those of his four private servants for the period from March 1 to March 31 1862. His pay was $220 per month and he received $52 per month for the pay of his servants. Forage for his seven horses came to $56 for the month. He received $10 per month as a clothing allowance and he was entitled to ""double rations for commanding army in the field"" which came to over 1000 rations for the month. The rations called ""subsistence"" cost $316.20. At the end the document recites that Grant has received a total of $654.20 from the paymaster and he has signed ""U.S. Grant Maj. Gen. Commanding Army in the field."" Interestingly Grant's four servants are named and their skin color height and eye and hair color given. Frank was white; and Dan Jim and Sam were black. The voucher is docketed on the verso. This is the first signed voucher for Grant's pay during the Civil War that we have seen. Research in public records going back 40 years discloses one previous monthly voucher having reach the market and that was a quarter century ago. On April 6 1862 just four days after signing this document the Confederates commenced the Battle of Shiloh by bursting through Union lines and threatening to drive Grant's men back into the Tennessee River. Historians differ on whether Grant was at fault in being surprised but it is clear that Union forces only escaped being routed with the arrival of Buell's army. The next day the Union recaptured the initiative and drove the Confederates back in disorder. The battle was essentially a draw while also being the bloodiest battle yet to occur on the American continent. When the news reached the North where expectations had been high a storm of abuse broke out against Grant who was held responsible. He may well have not deserved the blame but he admitted reassessing the war after Shiloh. He wrote “Up to the battle of Shiloh I as well as thousands of other citizens believed that the rebellion against the Government would collapse suddenly and soon if a decisive victory could be gained over any of its armies. Donelson and Henry were such victories.But when Confederate armies were collected which not only attempted to hold a line farther south.but assumed the offensive and made such a gallant effort to regain what had been lost then indeed I gave up all idea of saving the Union except by complete conquest.” <img class=""alignnone wp-image-25018 size-post-window"" src=""https://cdn.raabcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/20231204144051/Folder-site-11-1600x1327.jpg"" alt="""" width=""1600"" height=""1327"" /> hardcover
1599réf. 007445Bologna Francesco De Franceschi, Baptista Ballagamba, Giovanni-Battista Ferroni, Nicolai Tebaldini 1599 in folio cuir Satisfaisant
1885réf. 145720New York: Charles L. Webster & Company 1885-86. Exceedingly rare first edition of the autobiography of Ulysses S. Grant the 18th President of the United States which focusing mainly on his military career during the Mexican War and the Civil War entirely singular owned and annotated by Grant's close friend and most esteemed general: William Tecumseh Sherman. Octavo 2 volumes bound in the original full deluxe tree calf with gilt titles and elegant tooling to the spine gilt ruled borders to the front and rear panels gilt inner dentelles all edges gilt engraved portrait frontispieces illustrated with numerous facsimile letters 2 folding maps and wood engravings. William Tecumseh Sherman evidently read thes volumes in great detail making marginal notes on at least 18 pages in Vol. I several of them signed with his initials. On the last page of Vol. I Sherman wrote: "Read at St. Louis Mo. Dec 5 6 1885. This account of the Civil War is wonderfully accurate and him. W.T.S." Many of the notes are small corrections and additions by Sherman. On a passage regarding the Yazoo Pass Expedition on page 435 of Vol. I Sherman pointedly writes: "This conforms literally to my memoirs on the point most contested by Grant's pretended friends. W.T.S." He provides further thoughts regarding political interference on the next page: "If Grant had gone ahead living off the country we would have been inside of Vicksburg by Christmas 1862 the distance from Grenada to Vicksburg is little more than the circuit we afterward made from Bruinsberg via Jackson to Vicksburg --- This was my understanding when we parted at Oxford and the intervening country was better supplied with hay hominy. W.T.S." On p. 440-441 Grant wrote about the need to assign politically-connected John McClernand as Corps Commander: "I would have been glad to put Sherman in command to give him an opportunity to accomplish what he had failed in the December before; but there seemed no other way out of he difficulty for he was junior to McClernand. Sherman's failure needs no apology." In the margins Sherman's distinctive hand writes passionately: "because it was no failure at all." There is only one marginal annotation in Vol. II; however an autograph note is laid in at p. 123 supplying Sherman's recollection of Grant's first meeting with Lincoln which corroborates Grant's account. While Sherman was not present at the meeting between Grant and Lincoln he almost certainly heard about what transpired from Grant himself. The note reads in full: "Grants Memoirs Vol 2 Page 123 A good story is very correct. 'Si non vero ben trovalo.' Even if it is not true it is well conceived. This is the conversation between Genl. Grant President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton at the time he was addressed to command all the Armies of the U.S. Grant said in his usual quiet manner 'Mr. Lincoln I am told that several well planned campaigns in Virginia have been marred by interference from Washington viz from the Secretary of War or the President now if I am to command I must insist that no military order be issued to any detachment or part of the Army except through me' Mr. Lincoln in his inimitable way turning to Stanton said 'Stanton you and I have been running this machine for two years and have not made a brilliant success. I guess we had better trust this little man' Grant and then then and there the promise was made. And it is to the credit of Mr. Lincoln to say that he kept his word literally never interfering or making any order even when Washington was in real peril from Early's Army in 1865." Grant's insistence that there would be no political interference was likely particularly important to General Sherman who famously hated politicians. In good condition with detaching of the front boards and spines of each volume detaching of the rear board and separation of the folding facsimile letter at p. 312-313. Copies bound in highly polished gilt tree calf are extremely rare with only three other copies known. The first prospectus of Grant's Memoirs listed only 4 bindings: fine cloth full sheep fine half morocco and full Turkey morocco. The only other copy of Grant's Memoirs bound in tree calf was sold at auction - a copy presented to Mark Twain by Julia Grant and inscribed by both. Only two other known copies are located in private collections. To date no copies bound in the tree calf have been traced to institutional collections. As Grant died before publication was complete the only copy that he saw before his death was a prospectus bound in cloth; the extant tree calf copies suggest that the binding was perhaps reserved exclusively for presentations made by Julia Grant. Even the copies presented by publisher Mark Twain to his friends and colleagues were bound in one of the other available bindings. Though this copy bears no presentation inscription by Julia Grant Mark Twain or anyone else it is plausible that one of these figures would have sent the copy directly to General Sherman. After his second presidential term and world tour President Grant was stripped of nearly all of his life's earnings by conman Ferdinand Ward. Grant had forfeited his and his widow's military pension when he resigned as general to assume the presidency and his recent throat cancer diagnosis brought him deep concern about how his wife and family would manage financially after his death. In this moment of crisis Sherman rushed to Grant's aid and assisted him in restructuring his debt ensuring that Grant was able to keep his most prized possesions. Most importantly Sherman also encouraged Grant to do what he should have done years ago - write his memoirs. By June 1884 Grant had begun publishing articles on his major engagements of the Civil War for 'Century Magazine' which paid him $500 for each submission. The articles were received with great enthusiasm and Grant met with the magazine's representatives in early September to arrange for the publication of his memoirs. However when Samuel Clemens popularly Mark Twain learned of the potential arrangement with 'Century Magazine' he convinced Grant to sign with his own subscription publishing company which was able to offer Grant 70% of the net profit made from the sale of his memoirs. This rate was exorbitantly higher than what 'Century Magazine' had proposed. Grant began writing his memoirs in earnest racing against the illness to finish and ensure his family's financial stability. During this time Grant welcomed Sherman's repeated visits. On December 24 1884 Sherman wrote to his wife Ellen: "Grant says my visits have done him more good than all the doctors" Flood p.395. Grant with the moral support of Sherman lived to finish the memoir dying five days after its completion. Widely considered the finest military narrative ever published the memoirs were a national bestseller and Grant's widow Julia would eventually receive nearly $450000 about ~$14000000 today in royalties from their sale. Charles L. Webster & Company hardcover
