Provenance: Marshall D. Krolick Collection

Cavalry Tactics. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1864. 8vo. Extensive diagrams, many folding. Original tan cloth. 

Ink inscription to front free end paper reads: "Presented To Captain / M. E. Jones Co. 'E' 8th Illinois / Cavalry. By his Friend / Major Edward Russell / 8th Ills Cav March 15th 1865"

WITH No. 1090 - Monument where the first Shot was Fired. Stereoview on yellow cardstock mount. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: W.H. Tipton, [after 1886]. View titled in negative. Photographer's imprint and series title "Artistic Stereo Gems of Gettysburg Scenery" printed to mount recto.

A fine cavalry tactics presented to Marcellus Ephraim Jones (1834 - 1900), an officer of the 8th Illinois Cavalry who is regarded as the soldier who fired the first shot at the Battle of Gettysburg. Also included is a fine stereoview of the monument, erected in 1886, that commemorates his heroic actions. 

Jones enlisted as a Sergeant in Company E of the 8th Illinois Cavalry, called "Farnsworth's Abolitionist Regiment" by President Lincoln. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant on 5 December 1862, the rank he held at the start of the Gettysburg Campaign. On 1 July 1863, Jones was in command of one of the regiment's sentry posts on the Chambersburg Pike, the main road of approach for General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. He saw the cloud of dust to the west, indicating the approach of the Confederates, and reportedly borrowed Corporal Levi S. Shafer's carbine, firing a shot at "an officer on a white or light gray horse." The 8th and their brigade then performed a fighting withdrawal to McPherson's Ridge, delaying Henry Heth's Confederate Division. 

Jones would go on to be promoted to 1st Lieutenant in July, 1864, and again to Captain in October. This fine Cavalry Tactics manual, useful for the new Captain, was gifted to him by a fellow officer of the 8th Illinois Cavalry, Edward Russell. He enlisted as a Quartermaster Sergeant in Company F in September 1861 and saw consistent promotion throughout his campaign, achieving the rank of Major on 5 January 1865. 

Notably, the 8th Illinois Cavalry aided in the hunt for John Wilkes Booth and served in Lincoln's honor guard while he lay in state in the rotunda. 

A fine association copy of the important regiment. 

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