Mar 27, 2014 - Sale 2342

Sale 2342 - Lot 388

Price Realized: $ 2,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
EXCEEDINGLY RARE MANUAL FOR COLORED TROOPS (MILITARY--CIVIL WAR.) U.S. Infantry Tactics for the Instruction and Maneuvers of the Soldier, a Company, Line of Skirmishers, and Battalion, for the Use of Colored Troops. 370 pages; [63] plates, many folding, plus engraved music. Some fading to the once purple cloth with a few spots on the upper cover, still an exceptional copy. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1863.
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Additional Details

first edition, rare. no copy at auction in the last twenty-five years. The pagination of this thick little pocket manual is a little unusual. Following the 370 pages of text and engraved music -- 48 pages of drum-beats and bugle-calls -- there follow 63 engraved plates, numbered separately for 'school of the soldier,' 'School of the Battalion' etc. This is the first and only such manual, printed and bound specially for the use of Colored Troops. The reason that this volume is so scarce might be due to the fact that, aside from its binding, title-page and the short notice by Edwin M Stanton, following the title-page, it is virtually identical to the manual issued in 1861. It is entirely possible that only a small number were bound thus to please the advocates of the use of colored troops. Otherwise, the 1861 manual could have served as well and very possibly did. Stanton's notice, dated March 8, 1863 states: 'This system of United States Infantry Tactics, prepared under the direction of the War Department for the use of the colored troops of the United States Infantry, having been approved by the President, is adopted for the instruction of such troops. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary War.'