HERE’S A SCARCE ANTIQUARIAN 1^st EDITION CIVIL WAR & ANTEBELLUM AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NAVAL HISTORY BOOK WRITTEN BY A PROMINENT OFFICER SERVING IN THE FEDERAL and CONFEDERATE NAVIES TITLED:

“RECOLLECTIONS OF A NAVAL OFFICER, 1841-1865”

By Captain William Harwar Parker (1826-1896)

(Civil War Midshipman, United States Navy and Post-War Lt. Commander, United States Navy

Published by Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883

The text outlines Parker's career in both the United States and Confederate navies, serving in the Mexican War and the Civil War. "An excellent, straightforward account by the Superintendent of the Confederate Naval School" Nevins I, p.231. Largely concerned with the Civil War, although a fair amount is devoted to his experiences in the Mexican War. Following his military service, Parker became president of the Maryland Agricultural College and was appointed minister to Korea.

The featured book includes two pencil signatures on the first flyleaf and title page

SIGNED BY AMERICAN SCIENTIST

SAMUEL LEWIS PENFIELD

(1856 – 1906)

THE MOST FAMOUS MINEROLOGIST OF THE 19th CENTURY

AMERICAN ANALYTIC CHEMIST, MINERALOGIST, AND CRYSTALLOGRAPHER WHO FIRST OBTAINED THE CHEMICAL STRUCTURES OF MORE THAN TWO DOZEN NATURALLY OCCURRING MINERALS.

BIOGRAPHY OF SAMUEL LEWIS PENFIELD 

Samuel Lewis Penfield (January 16, 1856 – August 12, 1906) was an American analytic chemist, mineralogist, and crystallographer who first obtained the chemical structures of more than two dozen naturally occurring minerals.

Penfield prepared for college at the Catskill Academy and the academy at Wilbraham, Massachusetts. He matriculated at Yale in the Sheffield Scientific School in 1873, graduating with honors in 1877 and becoming a scientific assistant in chemistry and in mineralology. Except for brief periods abroad, in Germany (where he trained in crystallography), his entire subsequent career was to be at Yale. In early work, He analyzed the then-new so-called Branchville phosphates, fairfieldite and fillowite, as well as samples of chabazite and rhodocrosite from the same locality. He was soon known as expert in analyzing minerals containing fluorine.

Penfield became assistant professor of mineralogy in 1888, and was advanced to full professorship in 1893, soon taking charge of the mineralogical department. Among minerals whose chemical composition he was instrumental in elucidating (often in collaboration with others) were the new minerals Nesquehonite, Canfieldite, Pearceite, Clinohedrite, Hancockite, Glaucochroite, Graftonite, as well as known minerals that existed in samples but were unanalyzed: Monazite, Herderite, Howlite, Connellite, Aurichalcite, Argyrodite, Cookeite, and a long list of others, including notably Turquoise in which the occurrence of copper in this phosphate was explained. Of eighteen minerals that he discovered and named, just two were later shown to be duplications of ones previously discovered. 

Penfield's scientific work may be summarized as comprising mineralogical investigations of great abundance, variety, accuracy, and importance. The thoroughness with which his work was carried out is also particularly striking. In some cases, he was able to predict the existence of minerals not yet discovered. Penfield insisted on careful purification of every mineral he analyzed and gave a full statement in each of his papers of just what purification procedure he used. He often checked his methods by the analysis of material of known composition. 

His honorary memberships included Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1893), Foreign Correspondent of the Geological Society of London (1896), Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1900), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Corresponding Member of the Royal Society at Göttingen (now Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities), Member of the Scientific Society at Christiania (now the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, 1902), Corresponding Member of the Geological Society at Stockholm, and Foreign Member of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain (1903).

Penfield remained unmarried for twenty years after his graduation from college and lived in an apartment in South Sheffield Hall. He was married in 1897 and died in 1906.

Recollections of a Naval Officer, 1841-1865.

PARKER, WILLIAM HARWAR

COPY SIGNED BY, SAMUEL LEWIS PENFIELD, THE MOST FAMOUS MINEROLOGIST OF THE 19^th CENTURY

William Harwar Parker (1826-1896) writes about his career in the United States and Confederate Navies, which began in 1841 at the age of 14. This book contains his first-hand accounts of serving on numerous ships and taking part in various battles. It is a particularly valuable primary source for information regarding the operations of the Confederate Navy throughout the Civil War. From the website of the Naval Historical Center: "William Harwar Parker was born in New York City on 8 October 1826, the child, grandchild and ultimately brother of Naval officers. He became a U.S. Navy midshipman in 1841, served in the South Atlantic and, during the Mexican War, was a participant in operations against Veracruz, Tuxpan and Tabasco. Parker graduated in the Naval Academy class of 1847 and was assigned to the sloop of war Yorktown in African waters. In the decade following that ship's loss in 1850, he performed coast survey duties, was an instructor at the Naval Academy, and had sea service aboard USS Cyane in the Caribbean area and in the steam frigates Minnesota and Merrimack in the Far East and the Pacific. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1855.

As the Federal Union broke up in 1861, the Parker brothers followed separate paths. Foxhall remained in the U.S. Navy, while William "went south" to join the Virginia Navy and, in June 1861, the Confederate Navy.

He commanded the gunboat Beaufort into 1862, taking part in the Roanoke Island battle on 7-8 February 1862 and the actions in Hampton Roads on 8 March and 9 March 1862. In mid-May, he served at Drewry's Bluff when the batteries there were attacked by Union warships. After several months' shore duty, First Lieutenant Parker was sent to Charleston, S.C., where he was Executive Officer of the ironclad Palmetto State and participated in her attack on Union blockaders in January 1863. In October 1863, he became Superintendent of the Confederate Naval Academy, based on board CSS Patrick Henry in the James River, Virginia. He also commanded the ironclad Richmond. In April 1863, as the Confederate Capital at Richmond, Virginia, was evacuated, he led the Naval Academy's Midshipmen as a guard for their failing Government's archives and treasury. Following the end of the Civil War, William H. Parker was Captain of a Pacific Mail steamship, served as President of the Maryland Agricultural College, and was Minister to Korea. An accomplished author, he also published several works, among them the generally delightful "Recollections of a Naval Officer 1841-1865". He died in Washington, D.C., on 30 December 1896."

Book Condition: Hardcover, Very Fine, Xvi, 372 pages, hardcover cloth binding, title page loose, front hinge cracked but both holding on, text very fine.

The book comes with the biographical material about Penfield pictured in the listing photos.

A RARE ANTIQUARIAN AMERICAN MILITARY HISTORY BOOK.

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