Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2007 Issue

Confederate Military History Part II from Chapel Hill Rare Books

Part Two of the Hobday Collection of Confederate military history.

Part Two of the Hobday Collection of Confederate military history.


By Michael Stillman

Chapel Hill Rare Books
has now issued Part II of its catalogue of The William Hobday Collection of Confederate Military History. The first section of this extensive collection was covered in Part I of the Hobday catalogue last fall. Offered are all types of accountings of the Civil War, or "War Between the States" as the Confederates preferred to call it (or "War of Northern Aggression" as they really liked to call it). Some of these books are well-known histories, some are biographies of notable leaders. However, the majority were written by participants not so well known, often foot soldiers of the war who felt compelled to tell their stories late in life. The result is that many bear dates from around the turn of the century, when the old warriors realized time was running out on their chance to preserve history.

Most of these books may not appear totally impartial, particularly to a Northerner. Though their cause was lost, few Confederates ever changed their minds as to the rightness of their cause. One of the great things about America is that they remained free to argue for it, even after their guns were long silenced. The losers in America's Civil War likely fared much better than will the eventual losers of civil wars in places like Iraq and Lebanon. Here in the Hobday Collection you will again hear the Confederate soldiers, officers, and historians, fighting one last time for the South, not as young men with rifles, but as old men with pens. Here are a few of the notable and obscure titles awaiting the Civil War Between The States collector.

The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government is an obvious cornerstone to a Confederate collection, though perhaps not an unbiased view. The author of this 1881 history was Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and his book has been described more as an argument for secession and state's rights, a book that perhaps conceals more than it reveals. Certainly Davis was an unreconstructed Confederate to the end, though it would not be unfair to say that any superiority the South enjoyed in its military leaders was not equaled by its executive leadership. Two copies are offered, item 56, priced at $850, and item 57, priced at $500. For a sympathetic look at Davis, there is Jefferson Davis, Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, a Memoir, by his wife, Varina Davis. Item 59. $450.

Stand Watie was the only Indian on either side to rise to the level of Brigadier General during the Civil War. Watie was long a controversial but influential leader among the Cherokees. He signed the agreement to turn over ancestral lands in Georgia to the state, earning the wrath of the majority of his tribe which resisted, and eventually was forced to Oklahoma, many dying on the way. Watie and his followers were there already, and he was lucky to escape assassination once the others arrived. In time those wounds healed, but the Civil War would again split the tribe. Watie, a planter and slaveholder, was sympathetic to southern values, and joined the Confederates. He rose to the rank of general, mainly fighting pro-Union Indians, but helping regular forces as well. He became the last Confederate general to surrender, finally conceding defeat some three months after Appomattox. Item 5 is Mabel Washbourne Anderson's The Life of Stand Watie: The Only Indian Brigadier General of the Confederate Army and the Last General to Surrender. Ms. Anderson has signed this scarcely found 1915 first edition. $500.

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    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
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    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
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    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Buzz Aldrin's FLOWN Apollo 11 Crew-Signed NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Cover. $15,000 to $20,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Lunar Surface Flown Mission Emblem Presented to Tom Stafford by John Young. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Extensive Chronology of Spacecraft From Apollo to Skylab, Signed by a Member of Every Crewed Apollo Flight and the Commanders of Each Skylab Mission. $5,000 to $8,000.
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    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800

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