Provenance: Marshall D. Krolick Collection

William C. Oates. The War Between the Union and the Confederacy and its Lost Opportunities with a History of the 15th Alabama Regiment and the Forty-Eight Battles in Which it was Engaged. New York and Washington: The Neale Publishing Company, 1905.

8vo. Frontispiece portrait. Original illustrated grey cloth. FIRST EDITION with "Fifth thousand" on title page as in all copies. Howes O-2; Krick 357.

A desirable first edition regimental history with notable Gettysburg content written by William Calvin Oates (1833-1910), a veteran of the 15th Alabama Infantry. Enlisting in July 1861 as the Captain of Company G. His service was eventful, attaining the rank of colonel and seeing heavy action in which he was wounded five separate times: in the arm at Rappahannock River, Virginia (19 August 1862); in the right leg at Chantilly, Virginia (1 September 1862); in the right hip, thigh, and leg at Brown's Ferry, Tennessee (28 October 1863); slightly wounded in the head at Cold Harbor, Virginia (3 June 1864); and a severe wound in his right arm requiring amputation at Fussell's Mill, Virginia (16 August 1864).

After the war, he returned to his law practice in Alabama and entered into politics, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1894, he was elected governor of Alabama in a closely fought election. Krick notes that his memoir is "one of the more interesting and important Confederate memoirs. Oates saw a substantial portion of the war and did not hesitate to report in an opinionated and detailed fashion. The portions of the book that stray from eyewitness reporting into secondary ramblings are less than reliable, but when Oates writes of what he saw himself, it is well worth reading. The Gettysburg segment is particularly significant. A marvelous roster covering every company of the 15th Alabama is one of the volume's highlights. There are also brief sketches of each company in the 4th, 44th, and 48th Alabama, and listing of company level officers."

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Books, Bibles, Soldier's Bibles, Prayer Books, Ephemera, Pamphlets, Publications, Booklets] [Politics]

Frontispiece present but detached