Description
Autograph Letter Signed, insisting on making “extensive alterations and additions” to Poole’s Memoir [of the Afghan War], insisting that he, Rawlinson, was Senior Officer at the Gate at Candahar, but not Senior Officer of the garrison “and was thus not entitled to take the credit of the successful defence”. 3 pp. 7 x 4 inches, in good condition. 1 Hill Street, Berkeley Square, 25 May 1864. Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (1810-1895), Assyriologist, continued the excavations begun by Layard. He became British minister in Persia (1859-60). Rawlinson’s published works include four volumes of cuneiform inscriptions, published under his direction between 1870 and 1884 by the trustees of the British Museum; The Persian Cuneiform Inscription at Behistun (1846–51) and Outline of the History of Assyria (1852), both reprinted from the Asiatic Society’s journals; A Commentary on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Babylon and Assyria (1850); Notes on the Early History of Babylonia (1854); and England and Russia in the East (1875). Rawlinson was appointed political agent at Kandahar in 1840. In that capacity he served for three years, his political labours being considered as meritorious as was his gallantry during various engagements in the course of the Afghan War; for these he was rewarded by the distinction of Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1844.