67. LARSON, James. Sergeant Larson, 4th Cav. San Antonio: Southern Literary Institute, 1935. [14], 326 pp., frontispiece portrait (photographic), text illustrations after the author’s sketches. 8vo (23.7 x 16 cm), original blue gilt-decorated cloth. Moderate wear and staining to binding, spine faded, front hinge starting, pastedowns lightly foxed. Ink ownership inscriptions of Wilhelm Victor Keidel on limitation page and p. 100. Keidel (1825-1870) was the first doctor and judge in Gillespie County and founder of the town of Pedernales.

            First edition (#55 of 300 copies) of this uncommon and obscurely published memoir of service with the 4th Cavalry, edited and with an introduction by Annie Larson Blum, Sergeant Larson’s daughter. Coulter 284. Dornbusch II:1618. James Larson (1841-1921) was born in Wisconsin and enlisted in the U.S. Army in St. Louis, where for more than a year he saw frontier service with officers like John Sedgwick and J.E.B. Stuart fighting Native Americans, mostly in the vicinity of Fort Riley. During the Civil War he saw much fighting in the campaigns in Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama. At the end of the war, he accompanied his unit by boat from New Orleans to Matagorda Bay and marched from there to San Antonio. ($150-300)

Auction 21 Abstracts