Report of Major General W. T. Sherman, U.S.A., to the Committee on the Conduct of the War

[no place]: [no publisher], 1866. First Separate Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Octavo, 391pp. This is one of only a handful of copies Sherman had bound separately from a lengthier report issued in 1866: "Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War 38th Congress, 2nd Session, Washington D.C. 1866 (supplemental report) Part 1 Reports of Sherman, Thomas." Bound in contemporary 3/4 leather with marbled boards, all edges marbled. Front inner hinge cracked, held by a thread. Leather is rubbed along extremities, corners are worn. Bookplate of Rowland Edmund Prothero, pasted to ffep. Prothero was a notable British journalist, author, and politician. A rare presentation copy, SIGNED by Sherman on the half title page, "Compliments to Col. Hamley. British Army. London. / of W. T. Sherman Lt. General U.S. Army. Saint Louis, Mo.  March 16, 1867." In Alexander Innes Shand's biography, The Life of General Sir Edward Bruce Hamley (London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1895), it is noted that Sherman had a few copies of his report bound separately and sent to Benjamin. Moran, Esq, an American diplomat in London. In a letter to Moran (see vol. I, p. 185), Sherman writes, "Dear Sir, --I take the liberty of mailing to you five copies of a report of mine recently printed by order of Congress, which will be found in the series of the Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, but a few copies were bound separate, of which I send you five: one for yourself; one for George Hooper, Esq., who sent me his volume through you; one for Col. Hamley, whose volume I received from you; one for the U.S. Club, and a spare copy. This is not a real report, but is a compilation of letters selected out of my letter-books, and designed to show how and when ideas and plans originated." Hamley answered and acknowledged receipt of his copy of the signed report from Sherman on April 12, 1867 thusly: "General, -- Permit me to thank you for your courtesy in sending me your report, which receives great additional value as coming from yourself and bearing your autograph. Permit me also to express my satisfaction, in the interests of military science, at finding that a commander so eminent is willing to discuss with critics his own successful operations..." (vol. 1, p. 187). Among the rarest and most significant Civil War volumes to be published by an American General, and this copy with a meaningful presentation inscription. Not in Broadfoot, and untraced at auction. OCLC records perhaps six holdings which match this collation, all thus presumably among the small number of copies that Sherman had personally commissioned. Whether any of these bear similar presentation inscriptions by Sherman is not noted in any holdings. .