1859 Gem Of The Season With Confederate Missouri Guard Soldier 1862 Inscription

Amazing full page inscription written June 5, 1862 by a member of the Missouri guard who fought for the Confederates of the South in the American civil war. The inscription states the following and I have included questions marks in place where the word cannot be determined. Won't you accept this little tribute of paternal????? Proffered to you with all the love gushing emotions which kinship can produce in a grateful soldiers mind- and let me suggest that hereafter, when in the stern realities of life, whatever fate may be in store, flushed with victory or driven farther from home, on the march or in the still watches of the night in camp, memory will revert to my stay at your father's house and that time and distance will only mellow the golden tinted hues which that fond and grateful memory will see Christians around the????

And permit me to indulge the hope, that, farther still in the near distant hereafter, when disencumbered of this earthly clay I shall enjoy a spiritual reunion in the blessed land of light and happiness the fact that you were all kind to this sick and travel worn soldier will add a few rays of brightness to that halo of glory which will encircle all your brows as a reward for good deeds done upon the Earth and which eternity will not dim. For Miss Addie Elam Mo. New York: Leavitt & Allen, Nd, ca. A fine binding, beautifully illustrated with ten full page engraved mezzotint plates, mostly by Sartain.

The work also includes a chapter, "Benedict Arnold and Major Andre", pp 274-280, by J. Small 4to, frontispiece, engraved half title, 288pp, all edges gilt. Fine binding, with ornate gilt stamped and embossed covers, both covers and spine with ornate decorative floral designs. Some fox spotting mostly at margins of some plates.