NARRATIVE OF THE SURRENDER OF A COMMAND OF U. S. FORCES AT FORT FILLMORE, N.M. IN JULY, A. D., 1861

Boston: Printed By John A. Lowell & CO., 1886., 1886. First edition. 11" x 8 3/4" Original plain, stapled wrappers, 32 pp., introductory, maps, index. Third edition according to Howes M125 and the only edition with maps. He also notes 300 copies printed but only a few have been on the rare book market. AE locates only the 1960 Houston edition and only one copy of the 1886 edition in 1922. Eberstadt’s had a copy of the 1886 edition in 1954. In our copy, there is a long presentation note to Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.: "With the compliments of the author and request that this narrative be filed among your records of the Civil War, for the use, not only of the reading public, but for the information and benefit of the Historian and future generations." Graff 2621. Nicholson p.586. Nevins I p.126: "Important only because it recounts a singular and unknown event in an isolated region." Tis book includes eye-witness accounts of the battle at Old Mesilla, the first clash in the far west between Union and Confederate forces. In July, 1861, Texas Confederates hit the Union outpost at Fort Filmore, 40 miles north of El Paso. Under the command of Major Isaac Lynde, the fort was surrendered after very little resistance, and McKee, a young Union surgeon, privately published this bitter account. The first edition was printed in very small quantities for friends. This edition is the best edition and a well written account. McKee added an index and two maps not found in the first or second editions. All are very rare. A faint library stamp to the top corner of the front cover, minor chipping and nicks to the cover fore-edges, else a near fine, tight copy.