Description
First edition of Washington The Soldier, inscribed by General Henry B. Carrington.
Octavo, xx, [2], 431pp, [ix advertisements]. Blue cloth, title stamped in gilt, portrait in gilt on front panel. Top edge gilt. Light rubbing to tips of the spine, front corners bumped. Complete with frontispiece portrait of Washington, four illustrated plates and 20 battlefield maps.
Inscribed by Gen. Carrington on the front free endpaper: “With regards of the author. Henry B. Carrington – U.S. Army / Hyde Park, Mass / Jany 11 1899.”
General Henry B. Carrington (1824-1912) was a Union Army officer and commander of Fort Phil Kearny during Red Cloud’s War. In 1866, Carrington led U.S. forces into the Powder River country to protect the Bozeman Trail and established Fort Phil Kearny in present-day Wyoming. During the Fetterman Fight of December 21, 1866, when Captain William J. Fetterman and 80 men were killed after leaving the fort, Carrington maintained that Fetterman had disobeyed orders not to pursue beyond Lodge Trail Ridge.
Later investigations largely cleared Carrington of blame, though the controversy followed him for the rest of his life.
