1861-64, 1864-66, 1867-69
The Diary of Gideon Welles 1861-64, 1864-66, 1867-69
Houghton Mifflin, 1911.
First edition, three volumes. 8vo. Blue cloth with gilt rules to covers and gilt titles to spine. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Each volume with frontispiece under tissue guards, and further black and white plates. A very good set, only slightly rubbed to spine ends and corners, vol. I with extensive pencil underlining to the text. Vol III a small section of underlining to page 275.
Gideon Welles was the Secretary of the United States Navy from 1861 to 1869 and a cabinet member during the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. His development of the Navy into a force that could successfully execute blockades of Southern ports was a key factor in the North's Civil War victory.
Welles is renowned for his extensive American Civil War era diaries, James McPherson (Professor Emeritius of US History, Princeton University) describing them as "one of the most important building blocks for our understanding of the Civil War."
Stock ID: 46340
