# Is "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War" by Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (editors) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War by Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (editors) (The Century Co., 1887) is identified by: The material originated as 'The Century War Series' of illustrated articles solicited from Union and Confederate participants and run in The Century Magazine from 1884 to 1887, then gathered into four quarto volumes titled Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: Being for the Most Part Contributions by Union and Confederate Officers. The material's true first appearance was serial, as articles in The Century Magazine (1884-1887); the four-volume Century Co.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The material originated as 'The Century War Series' of illustrated articles solicited from Union and Confederate participants and run in The Century Magazine from 1884 to 1887, then gathered into four quarto volumes titled Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: Being for the Most Part Contributions by Union and Confederate Officers
- The Century Co. dated volumes I-II 1887 and volumes III-IV 1888 on their respective title pages, so a complete first-edition set shows both dates across its four volumes
- The Century Co. sold the set through subscription canvassers in a range of simultaneous trade bindings — publisher's cloth (commonly olive-green, gilt-stamped and blind-decorated) as well as deluxe half-leather bindings — so binding material alone does not establish priority among first-edition sets
- Publisher imprint reads The Century Co.
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (editors) |
| Publisher | The Century Co. |
| Year | 1887 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The material originated as 'The Century War Series' of illustrated articles solicited from Union and Confederate participants and run in… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The material originated as 'The Century War Series' of illustrated articles solicited from Union and Confederate participants and run in The Century Magazine from 1884 to 1887, then gathered into four quarto volumes titled Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: Being for the Most Part Contributions by Union and Confederate Officers. The Century Co. dated volumes I-II 1887 and volumes III-IV 1888 on their respective title pages, so a complete first-edition set shows both dates across its four volumes. The Century Co. sold the set through subscription canvassers in a range of simultaneous trade bindings — publisher's cloth (commonly olive-green, gilt-stamped and blind-decorated) as well as deluxe half-leather bindings — so binding material alone does not establish priority among first-edition sets.

## Is this the true first?
The material's true first appearance was serial, as articles in The Century Magazine (1884-1887); the four-volume Century Co. book edition (vols. I-II 1887, vols. III-IV 1888) is the first book-form printing.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The Century Co.'s later abridged 'Grant-Lee Edition' repackaged the same material in a different volume count, and 20th-century publishers (e.g., Thomas Yoseloff, 1956) reprinted the text again; neither of these later sets is part of the 1887-88 first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Battles and Leaders of the Civil War* by Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (editors) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/battles-and-leaders-of-the-civil-war
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.