Description
Signed first edition of The Santiago Campaign 1898 by Major-General Joseph Wheeler, inscribed to American portrait painter William Homer Leavitt.
Octavo, xviii, 369pp, [1]. Original navy blue cloth, title in gilt on spine. No additional printings listed. Solid text block, rubbing to cloth, faint foxing to endpapers and edges. With a frontispiece portrait and tissue guard, as well as six fold-out maps in fine condition. Signed on the front flyleaf “To Mr. Wm Homer Leavitt. / With sincere regards of / Joseph Wheeler / Newport August 24th 1901.”
Joseph Wheeler (1836-1906) served as a cavalry general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and a general in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars. Between his military service, Wheeler served from 1885-1900 as a Democratic Representative for state of Alabama. The recipient of this book, William Homer Leavitt (1868-1951), was an American society portrait painter best known for his portrait of (and connection to) William Jennings Bryan. Leavitt married Bryan’s daughter, but was subsequently sued for divorce in 1909 after moving to Paris. Following the divorce, William Jennings Bryan gained custody of his two grandchildren and cared for them during his time as the United States Secretary of State.
