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Latey, John Lash (editor) : The Illustrated London News. No. 1108. Vol. XXXIX. Saturday, September 14, 1861. AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

(London: George C. Leighton, 1861)

400 x 280 mm; magazine, disbound from volume XXXIX, without wraps (as issued), and contained within a film fronted bag; pp. [263-286]; several woodcuts. Regular light browning; some soiling and fingering throughout; some glue remnants to stitching. News in this number includes the Queen's visit to Ireland (with illustrations), and the progress of the American Civil War, with information up to the 31st of August, as reported in New York. The front page illustration is "Texan Rangers (Federalists) reconnoitring between Alexandria and Fairfax, Virginia." Further American Civil War illustrations are: "Quartermaster's department - killing bullocks in the Federal camp, Virginia" (p. 271), "Union troops attacking Confederate prisoners in the streets of Washington" and "Arrest of Mr. Faulkner, late United States' Minister to France, at Brown's Hotel, Washington, on the charge of treason" (p. 283). Some excerpts from the explanatory information on the pictures: 'Scarcely anything more picturesque can be conceived than a troop of these rangers (as depicted on our first page) galloping wildly through the woody ravines of Virginia, between Alexandria and Fairfax, their carbines held ready for action at a moment's notice. To see them rattling along, draped in their loose ponchos, their stern, bearded faces shadowed by the overlapping sombreros, one might almost fancy them a troop of Cromwellian cavalry in grim pursuit of Cavaliers. … There was a general impression among the disorganised Federalist soldiers after the battle of Bull Run that their wounded had been inhumanly treated by the Confederates. Many cases of cruelty were narrated, with much circumstantiality, in the Unionist journals. Some of them, it is to be feared, were but too true. Among the first to feel the consequences of the anger aroused by the recital of these deeds of cold-blooded cruelty were some wretched prisoners paraded through Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, two days after the engagement. It was with the greatest difficulty their guard defended them from the attacks of the demoralised Union men.'

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