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A History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Provinces of North America.
Dublin: Printed for Colles, Exshaw, White, H. Whitestone, Burton, Byrne, Moore, Jones, and Dorn, 1787. 8vo, early full gilt tree calf, re-backed with original spine laid down, marbled endpapers. vii, [blank], 236 pp. [bound with] London: Printed for J. Debrett, (Successor to Mr. Almon) opposite Burlington-House, Piccadilly, 1783. Title leaf, [i]–xvi, [vi], 260 pp., folding table, errata leaf. Lacking the two ad leaves. Bookplate on front paste-down. CONDITION: Very good, adhesive stains bleeding through bookplate. A sammelband combining the Dublin edition of Sir Banastre Tarleton’s account of the British campaign in the southern colonies during the Revolutionary War with the first edition of Charles Cornwallis’s defense in response to Sir Henry Clinton’s attempt to blame him for the British defeat at Yorktown. The notoriously ruthless commander of a cavalry unit, Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton served in America from 1776 to 1781. His narrative is one of the primary British accounts of the Revolution from the British perspective. “The work begins with D’Estaing’s fruitless attack on Savannah in the autumn of 1779, and proceeds with great minuteness of detail to give the military events of the Carolinas and Virginia down to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, October 19, 1781. The history is in general a compilation of the official letters of the British officers, both in the sea- and land-service, and of the American and French commanders, which had appeared in the newspapers…This book has great value, especially because it contains many documents that cannot be found elsewhere without great labor” (Church). Following his participation in the first Charleston campaign, as well as the New York and Philadelphia campaigns, Lieutenant-General Earl Cornwallis joined Sir Henry Clinton in the south, serving as second in command. When Clinton returned north, Cornwallis went on to defeat forces under General Horatio Gates in the Battle of Camden, in South Carolina, on August 16th, 1780—a major victory. However, the tide of British fortune soon turned, when the Americans won victories in the Battle of King’s Mountain, the Battle of Cowpens, the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, and finally at Yorktown. Cornwallis’s effort to counter Clinton’s attempt to lay the blame on him for defeat at Yorktown relies primarily on the publication here of their correspondence during the campaign. REFERENCES: For Tarleton, Howes T37; Sabin 94397; Church 1224 for the London ed.; Reese, Revolutionary Hundred 85 for the London ed.; ESTC N8398. For Cornwallis, Sabin 1681; Adams, American Controversy 83-29; Howes C781.An Answer to that Part of the Narrative of Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Clinton, K. B. Which Relates to the Conduct of Lieutenant-General Sir Earl Cornwallis During the Campaign in North-America, in the Year 1781.
Item #8934
Price: $2,750.00
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