Recollections of Seventy Years

Galena: The Gazette Publishing Company, 1899. Hardcover. 8vo. Original green blind-embossed cloth, gilt. 304pp. Frontispiece, decorative endpapers. Errata slip tipped in. Very good. Mild bit of faint edgewear; single missing leaf (pp. 15-16) provided with expert modern facsimile on period paper. Tight and handsome first edition of this quite scarce memoir by one of Galena, Illinois' famed nine generals (U.S. Grant among them), which William E. Parrish describes: "Although the great bulk of these memoirs recounts Chetlain's experiences as a soldier, the book also contains many insights of wartime Galena, Ill." Chetlain (1824-1914) was supposedly the first Illinoisan to volunteer in the Civil War, and formed a regiment with his friend Grant; he participated in a number of major battles, and rose to the rank of brevet brigadier general; after the war he entered banking in Chicago, serving as director of the Chicago Stock Exchange. Discreet ex-library, the only markings being a small blind-embossing on the title page and, on the front pastedown, the tasteful bookplate of Chetlain's hometown library: Galena, Illinois. Even better, this copy was given the library in 1961 by the Hughlett family. Samuel Hughlett (1808-64) was an early Galena settler who owned smelting furnaces on a branch of the Galena River (now named the Hughlett Branch); he inherited many slaves from his father's Kentucky plantation, but brought them to Galena and manumitted them. Hughlett is mentioned a number of times in this volume. A sharp copy of this scarce title with a choice local connection. FLAKE 1264. NEVINS II, 145.