Recollections of Seventy Years.
Galena: The Gazette Publishing Company, 1899. Hardcover. 8vo. Original green blind-embossed cloth, gilt. 304pp. Frontispiece, decorative endpapers. Errata slip tipped in. Very good. Mild bit of faint edgewear; single missing leaf (pp. 15-16) provided with expert modern facsimile on period paper. Item #34194
Tight and handsome first edition of this quite scarce memoir by one of Galena, Illinois' famed nine generals (U.S. Grant among them), which William E. Parrish describes: "Although the great bulk of these memoirs recounts Chetlain's experiences as a soldier, the book also contains many insights of wartime Galena, Ill." Chetlain (1824-1914) was supposedly the first Illinoisan to volunteer in the Civil War, and formed a regiment with his friend Grant; he participated in a number of major battles, and rose to the rank of brevet brigadier general; after the war he entered banking in Chicago, serving as director of the Chicago Stock Exchange. Discreet ex-library, the only markings being a small blind-embossing on the title page and, on the front pastedown, the tasteful bookplate of Chetlain's hometown library: Galena, Illinois. Even better, this copy was given the library in 1961 by the Hughlett family. Samuel Hughlett (1808-64) was an early Galena settler who owned smelting furnaces on a branch of the Galena River (now named the Hughlett Branch); he inherited many slaves from his father's Kentucky plantation, but brought them to Galena and manumitted them. Hughlett is mentioned a number of times in this volume. A sharp copy of this scarce title with a choice local connection. FLAKE 1264. NEVINS II, 145.
Price: $200.00