ADDRESSES, REVIEWS AND EPISODES, CHIEFLY CONCERNING THE "OLD SIXTH" MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT

New York City, 1901. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good+ binding. A bright and attractive First Edition copy of these materials concerning the "Old Sixth" Massachusetts regiment, which consists of seven essays loosely related to the regiment. Slip "With the Compliments of B. F. Watson" stubbed in. Bud Robertson notes in Nevins that the "first recounts sketchily [the regiment's] involvement in the April 19, 1861 riot in Baltimore" [Nevins I, 175]. This copy was apparently given by Watson to Thomas E. Ballard, who notes in his own hand on p. 53 that he "was one of the men in Baltimore in 1861". In that year, Ballard was employed as a cabinet maker in a car factory in Worcester, and went to the front as a private with the "Old Sixth", and was with the regiment in Baltimore. The chaplain of the regiment, John Hanson, published an "Historical Sketch" of the regiment in 1866 in which he erroneously lists Ballard as one "slain in battle". Ballard in fact lived for decades after the war, and attended many reunions and regaled anyone who would listen to him "as one returned from the other world" [cf., http://genealogytrails.com/mass/suffolk/civilwarstories.html]. A nice association copy with one who was present at the Baltimore Riots, where occurred the first deaths by hostile action in the Civil War. From Bud Robertson's personal collection with his bookplate on the front pastedown. Red cloth with titling in gilt and all edges gilt. (Nevins I, 175). Very Good+ binding.