The National Union Catalog [NCU] description of Perry's Recollections follows, with corrective revisions in brackets by Denise G. Jones: "The writer's life was spent in Rehoboth and Dighton, Mass., Killingby [Killingly], Conn., Plainfield, N.H., and Chelsea, Vt. [Note: He lived his final years in Ira, Vermont, where he died in 1826, and was buried.] He served in four campaigns of the French and Indian War from Massachusetts, 1758-1762 and in two campaigns of the Revolution from Connecticut, 1775-1776 [1775, and 1776-1777]."

William Abbatt's edition contains a couple of footnotes. It also contains the Advertisement/Preface by the original printer Simeon Ide that began the 1822 first edition. Abbatt thus preserved with his 1928 publiction that Advertisement beyond the very rare first editions, and was the only edition to do so for some years. It was not included in the Alden republication at around the same time. However Abbatt's Magazine of History publications were rare, too, and printed for a certain clientele: university libraries, historical societies, and a certain esoteric pool of subscribers.

Hence, Ide's Advertisement remained almost unknown until the first edition was made more wide-spread through microfilm and microfiche, and finally through the internet, beginning with The Captain David Perry Web Site, c1999-. (See this site for the Advertisement and more information regarding its significance.)

Here follows William Abbatt's Preface to his Magazine of History reprinting, quoted in its entirety:

"THE MEMOIR OF David Perry is extremely scarce: in fact we can trace but two copies of it, one sold at auction in 1927, and the second, from which our copy was made, owned by the Vermont Historical Society [VHS].

"It is an interesting record of the experiences of a Massachusetts lad, from the time he was sixteen until 1776 [1777]-- during which period he was a soldier first with Abercrombie at Ticonderoga, then with Wolfe at Quebec, then in 1762 with the British in Newfoundland and finally with Washington at the Siege of Boston.

"His descriptions, both of Ticonderoga and the Quebec expedition, are extremely graphic -- more so than others with the writer has read; and the story of the Newfoundland service is of particular interest, as of an almost unknown episode.

"In several respects his story of Ticonderoga will remind the reader of the account given by Thomas Brown, in our Number 4."

[Note: William Abbatt does not mention the winter during the Revolution in Providence, R.I., 1776-77 under Gen. Joseph Spencer, nor the War of 1812, especially regarding the Battle of Plattsburgh, NY, on land and the Battle of Lake Champlain on sea, with Commodore Thomas MacDonough's victory, that Perry remarks upon as a civilian. Source: The Captain David Perry Web Site, c1999-; see this site for more information. The full reference for William Abbatt's edition is: The Magazine of History with Notes and Queries: Extra Number - No. 137. Vol. 35, No. 1. ]

NOTE: For more information on Captain David Perry's book, click on “Recollections of an old soldier” AT THE TOP OF THIS PAGE to go to the main Recollections page. Included are a description of Perry's life and times, excerpts, links, etc.