This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/21/2024
[CIVIL WAR]. HUGHES, Thomas. A Boy’s Experience in the Civil War 1860-1865. [Privately Printed, 1904]. 8vo. 55, [1, blank]. Presentation title-page inserted at front. Publisher’s full burgundy cloth, front board lettered in gilt (minor wear to spine edges and corners, small ink notation on ffep. Fine. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY HIM ON THE ISSUED PRESENTATION TITLE-PAGE. This copy presented to Michael Jenkins, Esq. in the author’s manuscript, with Hughes’ signature on the inserted presentation title-page. This memoir was published in 1904 and records his memory of the war. It begins with his father’s release from Federal custody in Ohio, having been jailed for expressing Southern sympathies. He describes the time his family spent in Richmond. His father’s position as a well-known physician enabled him to meet most of the key Confederate military and political figures. Hughes devotes a portion of the narrative to descriptions of these leaders, including Robert E. Lee, Jeb Stuart, Robert Morgan, and Jefferson Davis. Hughes also discusses his experiences at VMI. The final portion of his narrative covers the state of the South before and after the Civil War. He takes special aim at the northern “opportunists,” who came south to rebuild a region destroyed by war. Hughes prefers the antebellum plantation life. He describes each plantation as “a perfect community in itself,” and the slave experience as “an almost ideal life.” Quite scarce, and overlooked by Dornbusch and Nevins. Gallagher/ Hughes / Krick, In Taller Cotton 114: “His account is the only extensive memoir in print that describes life in Richmond as a teenager, and life as a cadet during VMI’s brief Richmond epoch. The title page includes printed lines for presentation (‘Presented to’ and ‘With compliments of’ ) and all copies probably were given to family members. (RKK)”.