[American War of Independence: Tarleton’s Raiders (in fact Tarleton’s Legion).] Autograph text of newspaper advertisement by Sir Banastre Tarleton, for his ‘Southern Campaigns in America [...] by Major General Tarleton.'

Tarleton has become a quasi-mythical figure in the early history of the United States, his actions misrepresented and his character traduced. See his entry in the Oxford DNB, and the magnificent portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the National Portrait Gallery, London. The present item is 1p, landscape 12mo, on one side of an 18 x 10.5 cm piece of gilt-edged watermarked laid paper. In fair condition, aged, worn and lightly creased, with central horizontal and vertical folds, and evidence of mount on the blank reverse. Undoubted in Tarleton’s hand (with his characteristic capital C’s and T’s), it reads: ‘Advertisements / For the papers } The first directly / In the press, and [last four words deleted] Speedily will be published, The second edition, of the Southern Campaigns in America, With a preface, containing thoughts on military and political subjects, by Major General Tarleton’. The actual title of Tarleton’s book - published in London by Cadell in 1787 - is ‘A history of the campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Provinces of North America. By Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton, Commandant Of The Late British Legion.’ Interestingly enough, there is no record of a second edition. Note: A fragment of a letter fetched 42860 at Swann's in 2018.