A set of War Department General Orders, 1862-1863, including the Emancipation Proclamation. Washington: January 1862-December 1863. Three volumes especially bound for Captain John H[orne] Young of the 15th United States Infantry in full pebbled morocco with cover decoration in gilt and lettering in blind, the edges stained red, housed in three morocco backed cases. 7 x 4 1/2 inches (18 x 11.5 cm); The first volume comprises the General Orders of the War Department, Adjutant General’s Office, Numbers 1-217, 6 January 1862 to 30 December 1862, all printed except number 20 which is in contemporary manuscript, one folding table, at front is the Index of General Orders, Washington: GPO, 1863. General title page, 99 pp. The following two volumes comprise General Orders of the War Department, Adjutant General’s Office, Numbers 1-400, 2 January 1863 to 28 December 1863, all printed, one folding table, with a few Special Orders or Circulars at the end, a few of these in manuscript, at front is the Index of General Orders, Washington: GPO, 1863. General title page, 16 pp. The first volume with much annotation in ink, some with ink signatures of Asst. Adjutant General E.D. Townsend, many in the 1863 series docketed at Nashville in that year, some with tri-hole punches at gutter, a few trimmed within docketing, labels removed from pastedowns, some light thumbsoiling but the text very clean overall; the first volume rebacked to match.

Provenance: The front free endpapers with faint pencil inscriptions to Captain Young from Wm. A. Webb (?); Captain John Horne Young (name stamped to covers and a few pencil signatures of Young or a family member within); sold Christie's New York 15 December 2005, lot 33.

A rare complete collection of the original War Department General Orders of 1862-63, including the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation (General Order No. 139, September 22, 1862) and the official Emancipation Proclamation issued as General Order No. 1 on 2 January 1863. According to Eberstadt, the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation is the fourth printing overall and the first issued to the military and the Emancipation Proclamation is the fifth edition overall. President Lincoln waited until the Union had repelled the Confederates at Antietam to issue the preliminary proclamation which took effect on the first day of 1863. The proclamation is noted for its direct and decisive language:

"By the President of the United States of America ... That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom."

This order certainly would have been seen as a critical moment in the war the generals and captains who received the order. Beyond the Emancipation Proclamation, these volumes provide a fascinating glimpse into the day-to-day of those soldiers, generals and captains such as John H. Young of the 15th Regiment. The bindings, annotations, docketing from Tennessee, and manuscript copies within these volumes render them a powerful artifact of the Civil War.

Eberstadt 12; Grolier Club, One Hundred Influential American Books, 71; Streeter 1751.