A few months ago I received an email from a visitor to the site who was the great-great-grandson of Marcus Comstock, Company A. He had a hardcover copy of Benson J. Lossing’s A History of the Civil War. This copy was issued by the War Memorial Association in New York in 1912 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Civil War.
On the inside cover is a hand-colored image of Comstock (post-war). I’ve seen 3 of these now – some have post-war images, one has a war-time image, all hand-colored. The majority of this set seems to be found in the original, 16-part softcover set that seems to have been issued on a weekly basis. I’m guessing that it was through a subscription since the Catalogue of Copyright Entries issued by the Library of Congress in 1913 shows these parts being issued each week during summer 1912.
So here’s the question, for anyone who might read this and be able to shed light on it: is it possible that these hardcover copies with the hand-colored and lettered images inside the front cover were done as part of a subscription/sales effort to increase the sale of the bound version? It makes sense – if I were a veteran of the war or the relative of one, this would make the book that much more interesting to me.
If you know, leave a comment. Thanks to Ed Comstock for sharing it with me.
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