Union Army Pass--Rare & Also Quite Intriguing

As many of you are aware, I've devoted quite a lot of time to the Civil War. We produced the Young Readers' History of the Civil War for Penguin Publishing and primarily for schools and libraries. The series was by far the most successful publishing project I've undertaken.

The series consisted of 7 books, 2 of which I wrote and my business partner (and wife) Christine Laing handled the overall editorial management and editing of the books, including the need to rewrite two of them. I had made a poor decision when I hired the writer for those two books. Mistakes in hiring can cause all sorts of problems, but in this case it was a bit of a disaster, but fortunately my partner didn't put a bandaid on the manuscript, but rewrote it.

Those two books and the five others won a total of more than a dozen national awards and several were selected as among the best nonfiction young readers' books for the year they were published. All told, the 7 books sold nearly 700,000 copies. That is simply an overwhelming number for any author and publisher, not just us! The books were published in hardcover and softcover and Scholastic printed most of them for their school program--which meant an instant 35,000+ more copies for each book they chose to publish.

I also wrote a third Civil War book and over some 40+ years I have sold a great many artifacts of all types from the war. This item is rare and very intriguing. I have sought out passes for civilians and soldiers allowed to travel briefly during the war, often to return to their homes. I find that they always seem to have a little extra information that is interesting. In this case, pretty harsh language is included should the soldier not return by the appointed day.

What's quite odd and rather foreboding is the last sentence: HE WILL REPORT TO CAMP...OR BE CONSIDERED A DESERTER. Wow, that is harsh and I've never seen such language in the many passes I have studied and sold over the years.

If you collect Civil War history this is a real treasure As always, I will ship this flat and well protected--and at no charge to the buyer.