War of the Rebellion - Battle of Chickamauga Official Records 1890 in 4 Vols

 "The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies" Prepared, Under the Direction of the Secretary of War, By Lieut. Col. Robert N. Scott, Third U.S. Artillery, and Published Pursuant to Act of Congress Approved June 16, 1880. Series I - Volume XXX in Four Parts (Part I, Part II, Part III & Part IV are all present and in this lot). Washington: Government Printing Office, 1890. First Edition. THIS IS NOT A REPRINT!!

Rather than selling the individual books and separating each "Volume", we will be offering them complete with all their parts. The original complete set of Series I was 53 volumes, but some of the volumes consisted of up to 5 parts (books), they were released over the years and Series I ended around 1898-9, but then there were more records found, thus there was a Series II which followed this into the early twentieth century. This lot consists of: Part I and Part II being the reports. Part III & Part IV being the correspondence.

As alluded in the title, these books are quite literally the orders, correspondence, reports, etc., of both the Union and Confederate Armies, and thus documents and records, with no bias, the literal events as they unfolded in real time on the battlefield. Most of these reports were made in the days following the occurrences, while the memories were still fresh, not the re-hashed and well-thought out reminiscences of the major players in their twilight years.

Each volume lists the contents of all of the preceding volumes, and has the summary of all of the principle events included in the current volume. The "Reports" section is loaded with organizational data and charts, etc.,  scattered through all of the documents. The reports also serve to cite and recognize distinguished services of individuals, organizations, as well as describing events, needs, plans, and proposals.

Please note this four book set serves to document the now legendary and epical "Battle of Chickamauga" which made and broke many military, political and personal careers. General Thomas's (The Rock of Chickamauga) defensive strategy is still studied at West Point, he was in a hopeless situation, assumed command, picked his ground, and turned a panic-fueled retreat into a controlled withdrawal, thus saving an army.

Operations in Kentucky, Southwest Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Alabama and North Georgia August 11 thru October 1863

Following are some of the battles, campaigns, events which are covered in this particular volume (there are far too many to list them all):

Raid on the Mississippi Central Railroad from the Big Black River, Miss. to Memphis Tenn, with skirmishes at Payne's Plantation near Granada Miss....Expeditions from PaducahThe East Tennessee CampaignExpedition from Fort Pillow to Jackson Tenn.Skirmishes at Summertown and Lookout Mountain TennSkirmishes in front of ChattanoogaExpedition from Messinger's Ford, Big Black River, to Yazoo City, MissExpedition from Corinth Miss. into West Tennessee with skirmish at Swallow Bluffs TennChalmer's Raid in West Tennessee and North MississippiMajor-General U.S. Grant assumes command of the military division of the MississippiChickamauga Campaign

and much, much more.

Some of the correspondents who are documented in this work are:

President Abraham LincolnU.S. GrantWilliam Tecumseh ShermanJefferson C. DavisJ.A. GarfieldW.S. RosecransLorenzo ThomasGeneral George H. ThomasMajor-General Gordon GrangerFrank S. BondMajor-General BurnsideGeneral HalleckE.M. StantonC.A. DanaThomas J. WoodJohn T. WilderGeorge P. BuellE.H. HobsonNathan Bedford ForrestJerome B. Robertson - C.S. ArmyGeneral Benjamin G. HumphreysGeneral Joseph WheelerGeneral Joseph HookerThomas C. HindmanWilliam H. JacksonMajor General Sam JonesBrig-General Shackelford

and many, many others.

The above are just a sampling gleaned from the pages of this work and gives just a small flavor of what can be found in this work. What makes it  truly remarkable, is that these are the actual orders and reports from the field and not not the politcally correct intrepretation of an academic who wouldn't know the difference between a parrot gun and a mortar. This is what really occurred, it does this fairly to both sides, both North and South and puts more humanity to these events than any other book or document ever will.

The index to this work is quite an achievement, you have to remember this was before computers and the capacity to have everything cross referenced, not only the recipients or authors of the documents, but also mention of third parties are included from the text. After you review the index, you will understand why this set was years in its' compilation and released over a 30 year span.

This is an invaluable tool for the researcher, historian, or Civil War buff, and in these new bindings, these books should be around for at least another hundred plus years.

Condition: These ex-libris books and its (1166)+(942)+(1110)+(858)  pages is in excellent condition, the pages exhibit modest toning, there is no noteworthy foxing, soiling, damp-staining to the pages. The bindings are new, the hinges covers and spine cover are all new, all of which is well represented in scans below. This is the original 1890 book in brand new bindings and covers, however, the books appear to have been bound at two different book makers and the spine text and shape is different on one of the four. This is probably the reason we were able to get these in such great condition and offer them at such a low price. There is a "mock-up"  of the text requested on each title page, but none of them are what they ordered.

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