Original 1809 first edition of American Artillerist’s Companion, or Elements of Artillery, presented to John Mercer Brooke by William Greene of Richmond, Virginia. It was likely given to Brooke likely sometime after his arrival in Richmond, following his resignation from the U.S. Navy. 
Brooke is well-known as a principal designer responsible for converting the USS Merrimac into the CSS ironclad Virginia.  Equally prolific in the design of ordnance, Brooke developed various projectiles, large-bore explosive shells, and armor-piercing bolts.  His works earned him several promotions and appointment as Chief of the Confederate Navy Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography.  Two of his early 6.4 inch rifled guns, reinforced with bands of wrought iron to strengthen the cast iron barrels, were completed in time to be mounted onto the CSS Virginia.
Brooke signed this book twice; once in ink on the fly leaf and once in pencil, both times noting that he had received the volume from William Green of Richmond.  Green himself had signed it once in ink over the year 1859, likely the year he himself received the book.  An earlier owner’s name appears in the flyleaf over Brooke’s inscription.  William Green was one of Virginia’s most famous attorneys and legal scholars, but was also a prolific bibliophile with a personal library of more than 15,000 volumes. Following the war, Brooke taught physics and astronomy at the Virginia Military Institute, retiring in 1899 and dying in 1906.
This is an important volume that belonged to a great innovator and inventor who helped close the gap of military technology between the North and the South during the Civil War.  Further, it is a work relevant to Brooke's expertise, and is littered with his personal notes and annotation.
[Civil War, Union, Confederate, CS Navy, Confederate Navy, US Navy, Monitor, Merrimack]