Description
First edition of the Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, belonging to Colonel Hudson Fitch, a prisoner of war at Andersonville Prison.
Octavo, [two volumes], 584pp [Vol. I]; 647pp [Vol. 2]. Publisher’s deluxe three-quarter morocco binding, gilt title on spines, raised bands with decorative gilt compartments, marbled leaf edges. Light rubbing to tips of the spines, bumped edge along top of Volume I. Both volumes with frontispiece portrait of Grant with tissue covers. Both volumes are complete, with over 50 illustrations, maps, and fold-out facsimile documents. Ownership stamp on rear free endpaper of each volume.
(Eicher 492) (Dornbusch II: 1986)
Both volumes are inscribed on the front free endpaper: “Hudson Fitch / Toledo, Ohio / Late Co. D. 125. O.V.I / 14th Brig-2nd Div., 4th A.C. / Army of the Cumberland.”
An exceptional set.
Colonel Hudson Arthur Fitch (1846-1928), two weeks before his eighteenth birthday, enlisted as a private in the 125th Ohio Infantry. He was soon promoted to sergeant, then second lieutenant. His regiment joined in Sherman’s Atlanta campaign, but Fitch was captured on August 26, 1864, and imprisoned at Andersonville Prison – the South’s deadliest Civil War prisoner-of-war camp. He survived imprisonment and was exchanged, rejoining his unit until mustered out at Camp Irwin, Texas, in September 1865.
After the war, Fitch settled in Toledo, entered railroad service (later working with the Toledo & Ohio Central Railway), and remained a prominent veteran and civic figure until his death at age 82.
