Description
Original World War I-era hardcover edition of Infantry Drill Regulations, United States Army, 1911, corrected to April 15, 1917, incorporating Changes Nos. 1 through 19.
Published by the Military Publishing Company of New York, this volume reproduces the official regulations issued as War Department Document No. 394 by the Office of the Chief of Staff. Its April 15, 1917 correction date falls only nine days after the United States declared war on Germany, placing this edition at the opening of America’s World War I mobilization.
What distinguishes this copy is its period soldier identification. The front endpaper is inscribed:
Private E. N. Hume
Battery C, 1st F.A.
The “1st F.A.” designation refers to Field Artillery, giving the book identifiable military ownership and a direct connection to an individual soldier and unit.
The volume presents the drill, command structure, field formations, and combat doctrine taught to the early 20th-century United States Army. Subjects include:
- School of the soldier, squad, company, battalion, regiment, and brigade
- Close-order and extended-order formations
- Commands, signals, marching, and deployment
- Leadership, reconnaissance, fire direction, attack, and defense
- Skirmish formations and field entrenchments
- Machine guns, patrols, night operations, and camp procedures
- Manuals of the saber, bayonet, tent pitching, and bugle
- Printed musical notation for historic Army bugle calls
The book retains its original dark blue cloth-covered boards and gilt-stamped cover title. It is also accompanied by a handwritten militaria-collector letter dated February 1, 1971. The letter discusses collecting early Army uniforms, medals, insignia, badges, patches, and military publications dating before 1935, adding another documented chapter to the book’s collecting history.
The cover shows expected rubbing, scattered marks, edge wear, and fraying at the spine ends and lower corners. The interior has normal age toning and occasional spotting. The pages remain readable, the illustrated contents and bugle-call section are present, and the volume remains together.
An appealing provenance-enhanced example for collectors of World War I militaria, United States Army history, Field Artillery material, early military doctrine, historic bugle music, and antique military books.
Please view all the photos for the ownership inscription, accompanying letter, contents, binding, and overall condition.
NEB
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