Interesting unsigned book: Anecdotes of the Revolutionary War in America, with Sketches of Character of Persons of the Most Distinguished, in the Southern States, for Civil and Military Services by Alexander Garden. First edition. Charleston, SC: printed for the author by A. E. Miller, 1822. Hardcover bound in three-quarter red morocco with marbled boards, 6.25 x 9.25, 459 pages. Book condition: VG/None, with rubbing to boards and the bookplate of Joel Davis Madden, Jr., affixed to front pastedown.
The author, Alexander Garden, joined the Continental Army in 1780 and served as a cornet in Lee's Legion under 'Light Horse Harry' Lee. In 1781 he was promoted to major and served for the remainder of the war as an aide-de-camp to General Nathanael Greene. He offers sketches of both men here, in addition to a multitude of other famed characters of the American Revolution—Moultrie, Sumter, Gadsden, Rutledge, Lafayette, Jones, Cornwallis, Arnold, and more.
Joel Davis Madden, Jr., left Princeton University in 1905 and moved west to make his fortune in the railroad industry. He went on to become an executive with the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and died suddenly in 1928 at the age of 41. His book collection, offered by his granddaughter, has not been publicly offered or privately sold in a century.
