Adam Badeau's Volume III, Military History of U.S. Grand , 1881 edition

BADEAU’S VOLUME III MILITARY HISTORY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT, 1881,

(GRANT, Ulysses S.) BADEAU, Adam. Military History of Ulysses S. Grant, from April 1861 to April 1865. New York: D. Appleton, 1881. Thick octavo, contemporary three-quarter dark green morocco, raised bands, marbled boards, endpapers and edges.

First edition, mixed issue of aide-de-camp Badeau’s important “eyewitness estimation of Grant’s performance during the war,” with a stipple-engraved portrait frontispiece of Grant from a photograph by Gurney & Son, and 10 folding maps

A contemporary of Ulysses S. Grant once described him as “the concentration of all that is American” (Theodore Lyman). This important early military biography of Grant was written by Adam Badeau, who served on his staff during the Civil War. Though Badeau’s admiration for his general might suggest a lack of objectivity, historians have noted that “Badeau’s style is matter of fact without the embellishment or glorification typical of some early works. The accuracy is impressive… The author does not digress or reflect on matters, so the volumes have a technical precision that is both valuable for its truthfulness… and for delivering an eyewitness estimation of Grant’s performance during the war” (Eicher 486). First published between 1868 and 1881, this work has become particularly valuable for its first-hand accounts of the 1864 campaigns and the surrender at Appomattox.
Text, frontispiece and maps generally fresh with light scattered foxing, minor repairs to fold lines of several maps, very lightest edge-wear to contemporary boards. An especially handsome near-fine copy.