Unsigned Civil War-era book: The C.S.A. and the Battle of Bull Run (A Letter to an English Friend) by J. G. Barnard. First edition. NY: D. Van Nostrand, 1862. Hardcover bound in red publisher's cloth with gilt titles, 6.25 x 9.25, 136 pages. Complete with all five fold-out maps bound into the rear. Condition: VG-/None, with significant rubbing and some scattered staining to boards, bumped corners, a few stains to textblock, and a few small repairs to maps; the binding is tight and the majority of inner pages are very clean.
John G. Barnard was a career engineering officer in the US Army, serving as Chief Engineer of the Army of the Potomac at the outset of the Civil War. In 1862, the New York Times reviewed this work: 'The reputation alone of Maj. Barnard as an officer of the highest ability in his arm of the military profession, identified with so many of the finest engineering achievements of the country, would secure to him a large audience for any utterance he might wish to give in that direction. What he has to say on a topic of such universal interest as the repulse of the National forces in front of the rebel works at Manassas, will be listened to with the utmost attention. What Maj. Barnard here presents was, he tells us in his preface, commenced in February in a letter to a friend in England, through whom alone he expected it to reach publicity. That style of composition he found it impossible to maintain as he proceeded with the task, and hence he varies it, retaining the epistolary form, however, to the end. Maj. Barnard appends to his letter copies of the plans of the field which accompanied Gen. McDowell's official report; a very accurate plan recently made under his own directions by Lieut. H. L. Abbott, of the Topographical Engineers, who served with Gen. Tyler in the battle; a third plan prepared by Gen. W.F. Barry, Chief of Artillery in the Potomac army, and still another very curious one published in Richmond soon after the action. The volume is a most valuable memento of a memorable event in our history, and has been very handsomely presented by the publisher.'
