Active Service
Louisville, KY: Courier-Journal, 1917. 1st Edition. 8vo. Good. Item #18942
Scarce 1st Edition, first-hand Civil War memoir.
"At the age of 19, Castleman entered into Confederate service. An obituary reports that he later repented of his support of slavery.
During the Civil War, Castleman recruited 41 men in his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, who went to Knoxville, Tennessee, to form the Second Kentucky Cavalry company under John Hunt Morgan and Basil W. Duke.
Castleman was promoted to major in 1864. He led guerrillas in the attempted burning of supply boats in St. Louis, Missouri and was arrested in October 1864 at Sullivan, Indiana. He was convicted of spying and conspiring to destroy government property in violation of the laws of war, and sentenced to death, but his death sentence was suspended by Abraham Lincoln. Following the war, Castleman was exiled from the United States, and studied medicine in France. He was pardoned by president Andrew Johnson and returned to Kentucky in 1866."
Beige cloth. Square tight binding. Clean interior. Binding rubbed and worn with cloth to spine and top sunned. Endpapers with just a hint of separation at gutter.
Presents handsomely in archival mylar.
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