The Memphis Daily Appeal. Vol. XII No. 198. Memphis, Tennessee: McClanahan & Dill, 28 August 1861. 4 pages, folio, disbound. Oxidized ink inscription to upper margin. 

A rare early war recruitment advertisement published by Nathan Bedford Forrest, titled "A Chance for Active Service. MOUNTED RANGERS." The notice reads, in part, "I desire to enlist five hundred able-bodied men, mounted and equipped with such arms as they can procure (shot guns and pistols preferable), suitable to the service."

A prominent plantation owner and slavetrader before the war, Forrest surprised superior officers and Tennessee Governor Isham G. Harris when he enlisted in June 1861, as men of his station were exempted from service. He initially joined the Tennessee Mounted Rifles (7th Tennessee Cavalry) as a private. Upon seeing the poor equipage of the Confederate Army, he offered to purchase horses and equipment with his own money for a regiment. He was commissioned a Lieutenant Colonel and authorized to recruit and train a battalion of mounted rangers. This rare advertisement sought to recruit men from Memphis for the nascent battalion. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Broadsides, Ephemera, Printing, Posters, Handbills, Documents, Newspapers] 

Tear with loss and repair.