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My Personal Recollections of the War, Burns, William H. 1861, 1862 AND 1863. [St. Paul: Minn.: Railroader Printing House, 192_]. 43 pp. First edition. Original cloth. A very good copy of this excessively rare account of service in the 9th New York Volunteer Infantry (Hawkins Zouaves). This work is not recorded in any of the standard Civil War bibliographies. Not in DORNBUSCH, NEVINS, NICHOLSON, etc. OCLC locates only one copy at the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul, the town in which this memoir was published. Obviously, this work was printed in a severe limitation for private gift distribution to family and friends. The Hawkins Zouaves took part in the campaign up the York Peninsula (in Virginia) in the summer of 1861, participated in the capture of Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and for the next few months engaged in raiding along the northern shore of Albemarle Sound. In one of these expeditions these troops fired the little town of Winton, N.C., said to be the first town burned by the Federals in the war. In the summer of 1862, the regiment went to Fredericksburg, marched into Maryland for the Sharpsburg campaign, returned to Virginia, and later marched into southeastern Virginia to operate around Suffolk until mustered out in May, 1863. Burns was discharged with his unit on 23 May 1863, but remained in the service and was later appointed as drill instructor to the 2nd Regiment District of Columbia Volunteers. He was also in the detail of men at the hanging of Mrs. Surratt, Harold, Payne and Azertott on 7 July 1865. The battle descriptions in this work are exceptional and quite graphic. A little known, but important work.

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