Details:

Pair of original Consolidated Morning Report forms for the Battalion, 1st Regiment Pennsylvania Light Artillery, completed under the command of Major Robert M. West at Camp Key West, Florida. The reports are dated December 22, 1861 and January 24, 1862, and provide detailed tabulations of officers and enlisted men present, absent, sick, on detached service, and other personnel statistics for the battalion’s four companies. Both large-format reports are completed in manuscript and signed by Robert M. West as commanding officer. The remarks sections record changes in personnel, including promotions, transfers, and soldiers absent due to illness or detached duty.

Very good condition. Folded as originally filed.

Robert M. West (1834-1869) began his military career with the Pennsylvania Mounted Rifles before being commissioned captain of the 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery at the outbreak of the Civil War. Promoted rapidly, he became a major and later a colonel during the conflict before transferring to the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry and receiving a brevet appointment as brigadier general in 1865. After the war he served as a captain in the 7th U.S. Cavalry, where he became embroiled in a well-documented rivalry with Lt. Col. George A. Custer. Contemporary accounts by both Custer and fellow officers described West as an able but deeply troubled officer whose excessive drinking contributed to his downfall. He resigned from the Army in 1869 and died later that year near Fort Arbuckle, Kansas. These reports date from the earliest months of the Civil War, when Union forces occupied Key West, one of the South’s most strategically important ports, making them important administrative records documenting the organization and strength of Federal artillery units during the opening phase of the conflict.

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Includes a full letter of authenticity from JG Autographs, Inc.

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Reference sku: 11669 1416949-1