Antique Ornate Victorian First New Hampshire Regiment Civil War Gilt 1st Ed Book For Sale

New Hampshire answered the call in 1861. Nearly thirty years later, the regiment’s own chaplain told the story.

This is an original 1890 first edition of The First Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers in the Great Rebellion by Rev. Stephen G. Abbott, published by the Sentinel Printing Company in Keene, New Hampshire. It is a substantial 511-page Civil War regimental history, housed in vivid blue cloth with a gilt flag-and-arms design on the front and gilt lettering on the spine. The cover is a beauty.

Abbott takes the reader beyond a simple account of marches and camp life. The book follows New Hampshire’s response to the outbreak of war, the formation and campaign of its First Regiment, and the people who shaped those first anxious months. Its contents include the route of the regiment, statistical tables, biographies, portraits, and illustrations. Chapters also address the political climate at the outbreak of war, the bombardment of Fort Sumter, the Massachusetts Sixth in Baltimore, picket duty, Harpers Ferry, New Hampshire’s Irish community, and the regimental band.

For a collector, its appeal is both historical and visual: a New Hampshire account written by the regiment’s chaplain, printed in the state, and preserved in its original blue-and-gold binding. The pictured portraits give faces to names that might otherwise survive only in a roster. The signatures beneath the portraits are printed reproductions, not hand-signed blue cloth binding with attractive, bright gilt decoration and spine lettering.

1890 first edition. An appealing copy for a Civil War, military history, New Hampshire history, or genealogy collection.