Beschreibung:

[SLOCUM, JOHN STANTON] [WILLIAMS, ALONZO and ARNOLD, OLNEY] A Hero. Sans Peur et sans Reproche. In Memoriam. Providence, R. I.: Livermore & Knight, 1886. First edition. Original pressed-card wrappers simulating a Civil War hardtack biscuit. 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches; 9 string-bound onion-skin leaves; frontispiece portrait. Wrappers detached. Very scarce; no auction records traced and only one copy listed in WorldCat. Issued to attendees of the Rhode Island G.A.R. "Grand Fair and Bivouac," which raised funds to erect a monument to Colonel Slocum, commander of the Second Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. On July 21, 1861, he led his regiment at the front of the Union Army's first assault on Confederate positions during the first Battle of Bull Run (Manassas). As the Confederate forces retreated, Slocum climbed onto a fence and shouted "Forward!" to his troops, and was subsequently struck with three bullets and carried away, mortally wounded. After the Union Army's eventual defeat by Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Slocum and other wounded men who could not be moved were captured along with the surgeon who cared for them. When Slocum and his second in command Major Sullivan Ballou died several days later, they were buried near Sudley Church. When the Confederates abandoned Manassas nine months later, the Governor of Rhode Island, William Sprague, personally led a contingent to recover the remains of Rhode Island soldiers. Both Slocum and Ballou's remains had been exhumed and desecrated by the 21st Georgia Infantry, apparently in revenge for the 2nd Rhode Island's initial victory. Both men's remains were removed to Providence and buried in Swan Point Cemetery where the memorial to Slocum was eventually erected. Not in Dornbusch, Howes, Nevins/Robertson/Wiley. C Estate of Arnold 'Jake' Johnson