Four Years in Rebel Capitals
Item #83046
DeLEON, T(homas) C. Four Years in Rebel Capitals: An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy, from Birth to Death. Mobile: Gossip Printing Company, 1890. 1st ed. 8vo. [2], 6, vii, [1], 11-376 pp. Orig. cloth. Only light rubbing to the binding. A trifled cocked. Light foxing, principally to the fore-edge. Contemporary owner's name on the dedication page. Very good or better. Howes D-241. Nevins II, p. 218. In Tall Cotton 40. "Writing years after the war, but from notes kept during the struggle, the author gave his account maturity of judgment, comprehensiveness, and perspective" - Coulter 123. Both Nevins and Harwell echo this assessment. Tipped in at the front is a lengthy ALS dated 8/22/1890 from James B. Fry (USMA 1847, Civil War staff officer, and later military historian) commenting on the book. While Fry finds that DeLeon has some qualities as a writer he takes issue with size of the book, calling it "rather wordy." More noteworthy, unlike Coulter nearly a century later, Fry finds some fundamental flaws in DeLeon's judgement and perception: "he views the grand features of `our late unpleasantness' through the thick haze of intense Southernism, and that deprives some parts of his work of historical value... To maintain, as he does in effect, that McClellan was the best and Grant the worst of the Federal Generals strikes me as nothing short of nonsense..." An interesting assessment by a contemporary that challenges modern historians and bibliographers' views.
Price: $400.00