The Campaigns of Walker’s Texas Division – J. P. Blessington – 1875 | First Edition, Confederate Memoir

The Campaigns of Walker’s Texas Division by J. P. Blessington is an intensely personal account of the Confederate infantry division known as Walker’s Greyhounds, a force comprised entirely of Texan regiments that operated in the Trans-Mississippi Theater during the American Civil War, presented here in its first edition. Published in 1875 in New York by Lange, Little & Co., this military memoir serves as both a soldier’s chronicle and an artifact of postwar Southern nationalism. Blessington, a private in the 16th Texas Infantry, records the experiences of marching, encampment, and combat in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas with vivid immediacy. The book is a primary source rich in supplemental content, incorporating Federal military reports, biographical sketches, and patriotic verse. Notably, the volume is among the earliest and most detailed firsthand narratives to emerge from Texas Confederate veterans and is particularly valuable to scholars of Civil War historiography, especially those focusing on the often-overlooked Trans-Mississippi operations such as the battles of Jenkins’ Ferry and Milliken’s Bend.

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Campaigns of Walker’s Texas Division. By a Private Soldier.
• Author: Joseph Palmer Blessington
• Publisher: New York, Lange, Little & Co.
• Edition: First edition, 1875
• Binding: Green blind-stamped cloth, gilt spine titling
• Format: Octavo (8vo), single volume
• Size: ~ 9 in x 6.25 in (23 cm x 16 cm)
• Collation: 314 pp
• Contents Include:
  • Battles of Milliken’s Bend, Jenkins’ Ferry, Mansfield, and Pleasant Hill
  • Biographical sketches of Confederate officers
  • Extensive quotations from Union military reports
  • Poetry and Southern patriotic verse
• Reference(s): Howes B 533; Jenkins 17; Nevins I:61

Condition:

Very Good. Binding remains secure; cloth shows moderate rubbing to the boards and edges, with a small chip from the foot of the spine. The text block is tight and intact, with mild age-toning and scattered foxing that is more concentrated on the preliminary leaves. No missing pages noted.

Why Collect This?

• First edition of very scarce Confederate regimental memoir from Texas
• A significant primary source documenting Trans-Mississippi Confederate operations
• Of interest to collectors of Civil War memoirs, Texas history, and Lost Cause literature

Item Number: # 31153