Description
First edition of A History Of The Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 by Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton, published in 1787.
Quarto, vii, [1], 518pp, [2pp ads]. Bound in period gray boards, title printed on label affixed to the spine. Bookseller’s description affixed to the front pastedown, dated 1921. Front hinge showing some wear, but solid. Some edge wear, points of soiling to boards. Contemporary endpapers. Includes the [2pp] advertisement at rear, and the mispagination of p. 236. Untrimmed fore-edge.
Complete with five maps (three large folding / two fold-out), with hand-colored routes of troop movements and positions. Large fold-out map at front titled: “The Marches Of Lord Cornwallis In The Southern Provinces, Now States of North America; Comprehending The Two Carolinas, With Virginia and Maryland, and The Delaware Counties. By William Faden. Geographer to the King.” All maps in near fine condition, light wear along margins, faint foxing to margins of “Siege of Charles town,” two archival repairs to closed tears. Housed in custom brown morocco clamshell case, title in gilt on spine over black morocco label.
(Sabin 94397) (Church 1224) (Howes T37)
A handsome copy.
Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton was a British cavalry officer whose Revolutionary War service was concentrated in the southern campaign. He commanded the British Legion under Lord Cornwallis and took part in the operations around Charleston, Monck’s Corner, Lenud’s Ferry, Waxhaws, Camden, and Cowpens. After returning to England, he compiled “A History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Provinces of North America,” a detailed firsthand account of the British southern campaign in the American Revolution. Written from the perspective of a British officer, the work is both a narrative of military operations in the Carolinas and Virginia and a defense of British conduct, including Tarleton’s own reputation after the controversies of Waxhaws and Cowpens.
