Confederate Soldier Inscribed Novel

Baroness Jemima von Tautphoeus. Quits; A Novel. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1860. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Later edition. Period ink inscription to interior front board reads: "C.H. West Jr. / Charleston, S.C. / Hd qr. Csn. Forces, Drewrys Bluff Va."

A soldier inscribed copy of the fourth and final novel of Irish author Baroness Jemima von Tautphoeus (1807-1893), whose novel explores how the mind may protect someone from frivolous society.

Owned and inscribed by C.H. West Jr. of Charelston, South Carolina who enlisted on 15 September 1863 as a private into Company A of the 27th South Carolina Infantry. In 1864, the regiment moved into Virginia and fought at the Battle of Drewery's Bluff on May 12-14th, likely when Private West made this inscription. The regiment would go on to fight in several more bloody engagements including Cold Harbor, Deep Bottom (8 killed, 22 wounded, 113 missing), and Weldon Railroad (2 killed, 22 wounded, 71 missing).

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Ephemera, Books, Novels, 19th Century, Literature]