[BIOGRAPHY]. ROBINSON, Fayette. Mexico and Her Military Chieftains, from the Revolution of Hidalgo to the Present Time. Comprising Sketches of the Lives of Hidalgo, Morelos, Iturbide, Santa Anna, Gomez Farias, Bustamante, Paredes, Almonte, Arista, Alaman, Ampudia, Herrera, and De La Vega. Illustrated with Twelve Portraits and Engravings. Philadelphia: Published by E.H. Butler & Co, 1847. [i-v] vi-ix, [3], [13] 14-343 [1, blank], [1] 2-8 (ads) pp., 12 plates, including frontispiece. 12mo (18.7 x 12 cm), original charcoal grey printed wrappers (portrait of Taylor on lower wrap), sewn. Wrappers slightly chipped and reinforced with tape along joints, otherwise very fine except for light foxing to text. Rarely encountered in wrappers. With ink signature of Erastus Evans on upper wrapper.

First edition, issued the same year as the cloth bound option. Garrett & Goodwin, pp. 268-269. Haferkorn, p. 70. Kurutz & Mathes, p. 165: “Robinson narrated the causes and principal campaigns, presented short biographies of several general officers, and covered efforts to end the war through diplomacy.” Palau 271084. Raines, p. 176. Tutorow 3233.

Includes an account of the engagement of the Texas Navy under the command of E.W. Moore and the Mexican Navy off Campeche in April of 1843. This was the first time that steam and sail vessels had ever been in combat against each other, and the first time Paixhan guns were used in naval combat.

According to the ad of the rear wrapper of this same publisher’s 1847 Taylor and His Generals (q.v.), this volume cost 50 cents and by the time Taylor and His Generals had appeared 8,000 copies had been printed.