Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is a very rare copy of the Manual of Arms for Light Infantry Arranged for the Zouave Cadets, written by Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth, a close personal friend of the 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln and the first Union officer to die in the American Civil War. He was killed while removing a Confederate flag from the roof of the Marshall House in Alexandria, Virginia.

This example is named to Captain George W. Chambers, who served as a captain in the 2nd Virginia, Stonewall Brigade, Confederate States of America. The book was gifted to Chambers by Alfred Madison Barbour, a Virginia lawyer, one-term delegate in the Virginia House of Delegates and also in the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861. He may be best known for his role as Superintendent of the Harpers Ferry Armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) during John Brown's raid.

The book is in great shape but there are modern scribbles on some pages from a child. The book is inscribed on the interior cover:

To
Capt. Geo. W. Chambers
from his true friend
Alfred M. Barbour
Sept 11th, 1860

As Chambers was an officer in a Virginia regiment, it makes sense he would know Barbour. Although Barbour voted against secession, he became a major in the Confederate States Army and served as a quartermaster during the American Civil War.

The book has scribbles on some of the blank pages and the Children’s drawings do not cover or obfuscate any of the writing.

The combination of the September 11, 1860 presentation inscription, Captain George W. Chambers attribution, Alfred M. Barbour association, Harpers Ferry connection, 2nd Virginia Infantry and Stonewall Brigade service, and Ellsworth authorship gives this volume unusually strong historical significance. Rather than being simply a prewar drill manual, it represents a tangible connection between several individuals positioned on opposing sides of the national crisis only months before the Civil War began.