Narrative of Military Operations – Joseph E. Johnston – 1874 | First Edition, Confederate General Memoir

The 1874 first edition of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston’s famous, controversial memoir, Narrative of Military Operations, Directed, During the Late War Between the States. Johnston was a 19^th-century American Army officer who served as a Confederate States Army general, even though he trained at West Point. However, his military acumen was wrecked and frequently criticized by Confederate President Jefferson Davis, with whom Johnston was very displeased. Following his service time as a military officer, Johnston wrote and published his own memoir. His memoir is filled with criticism of Jefferson Davis and other officers, as well as defending his own actions and decisions during the Civil War. Notably, his account was one of the earliest and most controversial postwar Confederate accounts.

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Narrative of Military Operations, Directed, During the Late War Between the States
• Author: Joseph E. Johnston
• Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and Company
• Edition: First Edition, 1874
• Binding: Full leather
• Format: Octavo, single volume
• Size: ~ 9.5 in × 6.25 in (24cm × 16cm)
• Collation: 602, [6 ads] pp
• Illustrations: 21 engraved portraits and maps including frontispiece (15 engraved portraits, 6 maps including 1 fold-out)
• Contents Include:
  • Johnston’s defense of his military strategies and tactics
  • Critical analysis of Confederate command decisions
  • Accounts of major battles including Bull Run, Seven Pines, and the Atlanta Campaign
  • Critical commentary on Confederate leadership, particularly Jefferson Davis
• Provenance: Bookplate – Jay H. Boughton’s Library
• Reference(s): Dornbusch III, 1399; Eicher 257; Harwell 101; Howes J-167; In Tall Cotton 101; Nevins II, p.68
  • “This is one of the early classic narratives by a senior commanding general of the Confederate armies. Bitterly partisan and constructed to attack the credibility of charges brought against him… The estimates of troops are way off… he sometimes confuses events, as with several incidents in the Vicksburg campaign.” – Eicher
  • “…one of the earliest Confederate reminiscences; strongly partisan, anti-Davis, and defensive in tone.” – Nevins
  • “A vigorous defense of his own actions and necessarily, therefore, a hard-hitting attack on others, particularly on President Davis against whom he records his objections to excess.” – In Tall Cotton

Condition:

Fair. Original leather binding shows age; hinges are weak with previously repairs, resulting in stiffness. Rear board fragile and at risk of detachment. Text block secure, moderate age-toning internally, with clean, complete pages free from notable loss or damage.

Why Collect This?

• Fascinating, early Civil War memoir by a significant Confederate general
• Contains maps and documents that aren’t present in many abridged versions
• For collectors of Civil War firsthand sources and postwar memoirs

Item Number: #41731