“They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.” Tim O’Brien (Vietnam)
This was a different war, an earlier war. Our Civil War. This book was published in 1863 for the officers responsible for all government property issued, though how they could be held accountable for the whereabouts of all this property after a battle, I find impossible to understand.
For reenactors and serious scholars of the Civil War, The Eclectic Reader offers this gem for $125, $100 if purchased before Christmas. $50 of that amount will be donated to the Fort Collins Cat Rescue and Spay Neuter Clinic.
The front free endpaper is inscribed with the name Geo. W. Dixon, Corinth, Mississippi, 1864. The Siege of Corrinth occurred on April 29-May 30, 1862. It was a Union victory. This book was acquired from the estate of Mike Dixon.
There are only two copies of this ordnance on the internet. This one looks like it was carried during the Civil War and is definitely not in perfect condition. Within the pages it includes some paper sketches, some guinea hen feathers, and a bitters ad, whose significance can only be guessed.
For further information, a modern history: “Civil War Ordnance,” by Robert Gregory, published in 2012, is considered the definitive work on the subject.
The Eclectic Reader 