12mo. [2], ix, [3], 106pp, [2]. With a terminal leaf of advertisements. Contemporary gilt-ruled sheep, contrasting red calf lettering-piece, supralibros to boards. Heavily worn, significant surface loss, upper board held by cords only, lower joint split. Title page lightly browned, else internally clean and crisp.

The second British edition of army officer James Wolfe's (1727-1759) martial vade mecum, first published posthumously in 1768.

The first part of the work is comprised of Wolfe's instructions to infantrymen stationed at towns in England and Scotland; the second part contains his orders to troops in Canada at Halifax, Louisbourg, Point Orleans, Montmorenci, Cape Rouge, and Sutherland respectively.

Wolfe, a celebrated commander and veteran of the War of Spanish Succession and the Seven Years' War, is primarily remembered for his decisive victory in 1759 over the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, an achievement which earned him the sobriquet 'conqueror of Quebec'. His subsequent demise from wounds suffered in the field guaranteed his legacy as an icon of British military might and colonial expansion. Consequently, the book commences with a succinct hagiographical sketch of his life and is appended by the text of the placard which Wolfe published on his arrival at River St. Lawrence in 1759, requesting that Canadians surrender and offering to them 'the sweets of peace amidst the horrors of war'.

The first American edition was published at Philadelphia in 1778.