HISTORY OF MORGAN'S CAVALRY, WITH TWO PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION INSCRIPTIONS FROM CONFEDERATE OFFICERS

DUKE, Basil W. History of Morgan's Cavalry. Cincinnati: Miami Printing and Publishing, 1867. Octavo, original green cloth. $6000.

First edition, illustrated with engraved frontispiece portrait and several full-page maps, presentation/association copy with two presentation inscriptions: the first, an autograph inscription from a Confederate commander to a participant in many of the same battles as Morgan, reads "Genl. Wm. J. Hardee from M. Jeff Thompson"; the second, in an unidentified hand, passes the book along to a fellow Confederate officer: "Presented to Wm. K. McConnell by Lt. Gen. W.J. Hardee, Selma, Ala. July 13th, 1869."

"This is a classic work about John Hunt Morgan's legendary cavalry exploits, written by Morgan's brother-in-law and a brigadier general in his own right… A focused military narrative of Morgan's operations, the work is valuable for Duke's eyewitness recollections recorded soon after the war" (Eicher 1060). Duke assumed Morgan's command after Morgan's death in 1864. Sabin 21167. Howes D548. Nicholson, 251. Dornbusch III:1229. Wright D907. Gen. Hardee was a Georgia planter from the end of the war until his death in 1873. During the war he participated in a number of the same battles as John Hunt Morgan, including Shiloh, the siege of Corinth, and the Murfreesboro and Tullahoma campaigns. In this book, Hardee appears most prominently in the description of the battle of Shiloh, where he commanded Morgan. Although Meriwether Jefferson Thompson (1826-1876) was given command of a brigade and sometimes a division of regular Confederate troops late in the war, he was never commissioned as an officer in the CSA. He was one of the leading Missouri secessionists and elected brigadier general of the 1st Division of the Missouri State Guard in July 1861. Forced out of Missouri for most of the War, and fighting variously in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee, his unit became known as the Swamp Rats and he as the Swamp Fox. William K. McConnell, serving as sergeant-major in the 30th Alabama, was commended for his services at Port Gibson and at Champion's Hill. He was commissioned captain by 1864, and evidently promoted to lieutenant colonel by the end of the war.

Interior with scattered foxing, marginal dampstaining to front half; wear to cloth, front inner hinge just starting. Very good condition.