Ueber die Bewaffnung, Ausbildung, Organisation und Verwendung der Reiterei [provenance: Captain Wm. C. Rawolle, 2nd U.S. Cavalry]

Berlin, Germany: Friedrich Luckhardt, 1883. Hardcover. Very Good. [2], 96 p.; 23 cm. Contemporary maroon, pebble-grain cloth spine with marbled paper over boards. Gilt-tooled spine title: Über Bewaffnung und Ausbildung der Reiterei. All page edges marbled. Bookdealer's label on verso of front free endpaper for Gustav E. Stechert, New York. Former owner's label on front fixed endpaper: Captain Wm. C. Rawolle, 2nd U.S. Cavalry. William Charles Rawolle, born in Prussia in or about 1841, joined the Union Army in June 1862 and was commissioned as a captain. He distinguished himself at the battles of South Mountain and Antietam in Sept. 1862, while serving as aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Samuel D. Sturgis, commander of the 2nd Division, 9th Army Corps. Sturgis praised Rawolle: "He was invaluable at all times, carrying orders, placing the artillery in favorable positions, bringing up ammunition, and making himself useful in every department." Rawolle accompanied Sturgis out west and then to Tennessee, and participated in the fighting in Jan. 1864 around Dandridge, Tenn., again garnering high praise from Sturgis. On 6 June 1868 Rawolle was commissioned a 2nd Lieut. in the 2nd Regiment U.S. Cavalry and by 1876 he held the rank of 1st Lieut., Co. B, 2nd Cavalry, but was transferred that month to Co. K, 2nd Cavalry. He participated in the Souix Wars, and by 1880 he was married and stationed at Fort Custer, Montana. He died on June 10, 1895, at Brooklyn, NY. In Very Good Condition: edges lightly rubbed; small nick out of marbled paper over front board along lower edge; shadow in upper right-hand corner of title page from bookdealer's label on facing page; small pencilled checks in margins of a few pages; otherwise pages are clean and tight. A very scarce book on the German cavalry by military writer Fritz Hoenig with an interesting American military provenance.