Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics; for the Exercise and Manoeuvres of Troops when Acting as Light Infantry or Riflemen (2 Volumes, Complete)
Nashville, TN: J. O. Griffith & Co., 1861. Hard Cover. Very Good binding. Item #10837
16mo. 250; 232 pp., frontis, plates. In publisher's embossed cloth with 67 numbered plates (some folding) in addition to a folding frontispiece and one other unnumbered plate. Volume I is in a brown cloth; Vol. II, in gray/green; the embossed covers are the same design. Vol. I with some light rubbing and cover wear; Vol. II is quite bright but for one point of pressure on the front cover that registers on the rear pastedown, about the size of a pencil erasure; light toning, but generally clean.
Uncommon drill manual, despite being printed a couple dozen times in the early 1860s; it was widely used during the Civil War by both Union and Confederate forces. Volume II bears the name of Col. R[odney] Mason of the 71st Ohio Infantry. Mason fled the field of Shiloh on horseback, along with the rest of his regiment in a "wild stampede" in the face of the 19th Alabama. Mason was cashiered out for this (Ohio at Shiloh: Report of the Commission, p. 37-8). Parrish & Willingham 4865; Confederate Hundred, 40 (ref).
Price: $1,750.00