The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. New York: American Bible Society, 1863. Pearl 32mo. Original blind-stamped black cloth (or cloth-grain leather), gilt-lettered “TESTAMENT” to spine; approximately 12 cm tall.

A Civil War soldier’s pocket Testament, translated out of the original Greek with former translations diligently compared and revised, issued by the American Bible Society (instituted 1816). The book opens with a patriotic presentation leaf headed “To the Defenders of their Country!” and “Presented by the New York Bible Society, March, 1863,” printed with a hand-colored or chromolithographed American flag in red, white, and blue. Below the flag is Psalm 91:1–2 (“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High…”) followed by a column of scripture references chosen to comfort and steady men going to war—Exodus 17:11, 2 Chronicles 14:11, Ephesians 6:11–18, Colossians 3:23–24, 1 Corinthians 9:25, James 5:12, Luke 12:4–5, Luke 15:10, and John 3:16.

These small Testaments were distributed by the thousands to Union troops through the Bible Society network during the war, and survivors are prized as personal relics of the conflict. The present copy carries a poignant association: a contemporary newspaper clipping of the sentimental poem “Our Secret Drawer” by Isabella Law (from the British weekly Once a Week) has been laid in opposite the presentation leaf, on the theme of memory and cherished keepsakes of the past. Manuscript funeral notes are present in the rear.

Condition: well-worn as expected of a carried wartime copy. Binding rubbed with chipping to the spine ends, leaves toned, the laid-in clipping creased and chipped at the edges. A genuine and evocative Civil War-period artifact.   [ss][ph:L]

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