William H. Hodgkins (1840-1905). The Battle of Fort Stedman (Petersburg, Virginia) March 25, 1865. Boston: privately printed, 1889. 

8vo. Folding frontispiece map. Original brown cloth gilt-lettered. FIRST EDITION.

INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR to front free endpaper: "William A. Nye, Esq., / Bourne, Mass., / in honor of his father who died a true soldier defending his guns in Fort Stedman, March 25, 1865. /  with best wishes of / Wm.H. Hodgkins. / Boston, Feb. 4, 1891."

WITH Autograph letter signed by Hodkins to William A. Nye. Boston, Massachusetts, 4 February 1891. 1 page, 8vo. 

An uncommon first edition account of the Battle of Fort Stedman, the last serious attempt by Confederates to break the Siege of Petersburg in the final weeks of the war. 

A beautiful inscription by the author is made out to William A. Nye (1840-1917), the son of Ephraim Bassett (1826-1865), who was killed during the battle. Ephraim enlisted in the 5th Massachusetts Light Artillery at the end of 1861. He was promoted to quartermaster sergeant and again to second lieutenant on 25 February 1864, which transferred him to the 14th Massachusetts Light Artillery. 

His regiment was serving in the Artillery Division commanded by John C. Tidball in John G. Parke's IX Corps. Although the Confederates initially gained ground, it was the barrage of the IX Corps that repulsed its lines and won the day for the Union. As Hodgkins wrote in his presentation letter to Ephraim's son William: "your father...died as a brave man would choose to die - as his post of duty. Those who were in Stedman that morning will never forget him." 

An uncommon account enhanced by the fine author's inscription honoring a soldier's heroic death. 

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