Bidspirit auction | COLLIS, SEPTIMA M.  A Woman’s

COLLIS, SEPTIMA M.  A Woman’s War Record. FIRST EDITION. Eight photographic plates. pp. (6), 78. Original gilt boards. 12mo. New York, Kinickerbocker Press, 1889. Septima (1842-1917) was the Jewish wife of Union General and Medal of Honor winner Charles H.T. Collis. Her memoir recounts her life on the frontlines alongside her husband, as well as social life during the war and meeting with President Lincoln. Having been born in Charleston, SC, Septima remained torn by her Southern sympathies and her life with the Union army. Her brother David, a Confederate soldier, was killed at the Battle of Murfreesboro in July of 1862. Her concise memoir is one of the few accounts of female life on the frontlines of the American Civil War.   Collis’s description of Lincoln is endearing: From his pleasure at her briefly diverting him from the stress of his presidency - he confided that he was worried about his soldiers - to his ill-fitting clothes and his gentle manner. In her memoirs, Collis writes about the fondness she felt for Lincoln and about how she grieved over his assassination.  “I had learned to love Mr. Lincoln, ” she wrote. “I had seen him weep, had heard him laugh, had been gladdened by his wit and saddened by his pathos.”