Recollections of Seventy Years.

CHETLAIN, Augustus L.

$650.00

Item Number: 132334

Galena: The Gazette Publishing Company, 1899.

First edition of Major General Chetlain’s Civil War memoir. Octavo, original cloth, patterned endpapers, frontispiece portrait. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, “For Eugene F. Estey Esg. with the best wishes of the author.” In near fine condition. Uncommon in this condition and signed.

Union Army general Augustus Louis Chetlain was the first man in Illinois to volunteer at the outbreak of the American Civil War. On April 16, he was part of a meeting held in Galena to raise a volunteer company and, with Ulysses S. Grant, was prominent in its creation. When Grant declined the post, he suggested for Chetlain to be elected as the company's captain. In Springfield in late April the 12th Illinois Infantry was organized, and Chetlain's company was added to it. On May 2 he entered the Union Army as captain of the 12th Illinois, and the next day, he was elected the regiment's lieutenant colonel.