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BENJAMIN CROWNINSHIELD’S COPY OF MCCLELLAN’S CAVALRY MANUAL

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Crowninshield was an officer the 1^st Massachusetts Cavalry and later wrote its regimental history. Member of a socially prominent Boston “brahmin” family and Harvard-educated, he enlisted in the 1^st Mass. Cavalry as a 2nd lieutenant in November 1861, rose to 1^st lieutenant, captain, and major, served as aide-de-camp to Sheridan, and received a brevet to colonel after mustering out in late 1864. His account of Sheridan and the Battle of Winchester was published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1878 and is available online. The regiment was extremely active, serving first in South Carolina as part of the Department of the South, and then joining the Army of the Potomac in time for Antietam and all its subsequent campaigns. It suffered battle deaths in killed or mortally wounded of 6 officers and 93 enlistedmen, quite high for a cavalry unit, and a gruesome reminder of their extensive combat record.

Titled “Regulations and Instructions for the Field Service of the U.S. Cavalry in Time of War,” the book authored by McClellan and published by Lippincott in Philadelphia in 1861. It is bound in cloth covers with impressed floral designs and a U.S. shield at center. The spine is worn, with losses, and loosening things a bit, but shows some of the gilt embossed title and the text appears complete, with various fold-out plates and some handwritten notes by Crowninshield. He inscribed it in pencil on the flyleaf: “Benjamin Crowninshield / Boston Massachusetts / 1^st Cavalry.”

Among Crowninshield’s acquaintances at Harvard was W.H.F. “Rooney” Lee, son of Robert E. Lee. This proved somewhat awkward for the younger Lee after he was captured in 1863 and Crowninshield, then acting as provost marshal, tried to be solicitous and offer assistance.

The manual has 215 numbered pages, 6 fold-out plates, 10 plates of bugle calls, and 8 pages of advertisements for other books at the back.

This is an interesting cavalry manual in itself and is tightly associated with an officer with some active service and an interesting military and personal history.  [sr][ph:L]

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