Lamson of the Gettysburg: The Civil War Letters of Lieutenant Roswell H. Lamson, U.S. Navy.

MCPHERSON, James M. and Patricia.

Item Number: 138028

New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

First edition of this work by the author of Battle Cry of Freedom. Octavo, original half cloth, illustrated. Boldly signed by both James and Patricia McPherson on the front free endpaper. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket, bookplate. Jacket design by Kathleen M. Lynch. Jacket illustration handtinting by Cathy Saksa.

Roswell Lamson was one of the boldest and most skillful young officers in the Union navy. Second in the class of 1862 at Annapolis (he took his final exam while at sea during the war), he commanded more ships and flotillas than any other officer of his age or rank in the service, climaxed by his captaincy of the navy's fastest ship in 1864, USS Gettysburg. Now, in Lamson of the Gettysburg, we have the war-time letters of this striking naval figure. What's more, these are letters of exceptional quality. James M. McPherson, co-editor of the collection with his wife Patricia and one of America's preeminent Civil War historians, writes that "few sets of letters equal and none surpass those of Lamson for richness of description, scope of coverage, or keenness of perception and analysis." Indeed, the McPhersons term Lamson's correspondence "the best Civil War navy letters we have ever read or expect to read."