RICHARD AND RHONDA: Letters from the Civil War (44th NY and 43 USCT Regiments)

BOOK DESCRIPTION: 4to, 125 pgs, mounted frontis, illustrations, index. Stated first edition. Blue cloth with gilt titled cover and spine; Dust Jacket as issued. Limited to 1000 copies. CONDITION DESCRIPTION: Fine. Interior clean, no marks, tight. Unclipped DJ is near fine in mylar sleeve. CONTENTS DESCRIPTION: Very nice publication of a Union soldier's personal correspondence with his friend/fiancee and other family members in upstate NY. Richard Phillips enlisted as a private into the 44th NY Infantry. He later served as an Officer with the 43rd US Colored Troops and on the western frontier. His letters are organized in three groups; Enlistment to Gettysburg; Gettysburg to Richmond; and Reenlistment for Frontier Duty. Included with the letters are excerpts from Phillips' published narrative, My Part in the Conflict (Courier Press, 1925) and History of the 43rd Regiment, U.S.C.T. (1866), providing a connected narrative. Phillips served in the 44th New York Infantry in the Virginia campaign until wounded at Little Round Top at Gettysburg. Following his recovery, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the 43rd US Colored Troop (USCT) and commanded his troops, building bridges and other work in the Virginia campaigns of 1864. Phillips later served in Texas and Arkansas following the war.…