Literary notices.
Army of Northern Virginia Memorial volume. Compiled by Rev. J. William Jones, D. D., Secretary Southern Historical Society, author Personal reminiscences of Lee, etc.--at the request of the Virginia Division Army of Northern Virginia Association. We are indebted to the publishers, Randolph & English, Richmond, for a copy of this book, which is now ready for delivery. It is a book of 348 pages, and contains: 1. A report of the great Lee Memorial Meeting in Richmond in November, 1870, with the splendid orations delivered on the occasion by President Davis and others. 2. Reports of the annual reunions of the Virginia Division Army of Northern Virginia, together with the addresses of Colonel C. S. Venable in 1873; Colonel Charles Marshall in 1874; Major John W. Daniel in 1875; Captain W. Gordon McCabe in 1876; Leigh Robinson, Esq., in 1877; Colonel William Allan in 1878; and General Fitzhugh Lee in 1879. 3. A carefully-prepared Roster of the Army of Northern Virginia. 4. A statement of the Relative Numbers of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac at their principal battles. As to how the compiler has done his work we may not speak; but we may say that these splendid addresses should find a place in every library. The publishers have done their part of the work in really superb style. The printing (executed by our printer, Mr. G. W. Gary) is as fine a specimen of such work as can be found; while the paper, binding and general get up of the book reflects the highest credit on the taste and skill of the publishers. The book is sold for $2, $2,50, $3.50 and $5, according to binding, and will be mailed, or sent by express, to any address on receipt of the price. The five-dollar edition contains the best steel engraving of General Lee we have ever seen, and a beautiful Confederate battle-flag, and is superbly bound in fine diced Russia. Orders may be sent either to the Publishers or to the Compiler Box 61, Richmond, Va.
Scribner's monthly for January has been received and is a rich number, beautifully illustrated and full of good things. “The United States Life Saving Service,” “Success with Small Fruits.” “Young Artists' Life in New York,” “The Acadians in Louisiana,” “A Revolutionary Congressman on Horseback,” “American Arms and Ammunition,” [95] “A Personal and what came of it,” “Topics of the Time,” “Home and Society,” and other articles are very cleverly done and beautifully illustrated. But we were especially interested in Extracts from the journal of Henry J. Raymond, the famous Editor of the New York Times. This number gives a vivid descriprion of his visit to Army of the Potomac in January, 1863, his private intercouse with Generals Burnside, Sumner, Wadsworth, and other officers, and a good deal of the inside history of the battle of Fredericksburg, the plan of Burnside to cross the river again below Fredericksburg, which was prevented by a telegram from Mr. Lincoln, and the celebrated “stick in the mud expedition,” which was defeated before the column reached the place of crossing. Mr. Raymond tells a good deal of the dissensions among the generals of the Army of the Potomac at this time, and narrates a good many things which form pleasant reading for an old Confederate, and some of which we may hereafter have occasion to quote. Scribner is certainly among the very best of our monthlies, and it is just to say that is not often marred by such unfair and unjust attacks on our section as Dr. Holland had last year, and for which our Southern papers generally took him so severely to task.
The American art review monthly, published by Estes & Lauriat, Boston, has been sent us by the Agent, Henry Fleetwood, 27 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, Maryland. It is admirably gotten up, is illustrated with superb steel engravings, and is a work in which artists and all lovers of art would delight, and which might very appropriately find a place in our libraries, or on our centre tables. This is the second number of the Review, and if its able art criticisms, beautiful engravings, and valuable information about art and artists are to be taken as an earnest of what future numbers are to be, we can most cordially commend it as a valuable auxiliary, which at the same time pleases and cultivates the taste of our people.
The Magazine of American history, edited by John Austin Stevens, Esq., and published by A. S. Barnes & Co., New York, has been for several years one of our most valued exchanges. The December number contains interesting papers on The battle of Buena Vista, The case of Major Andre, The seventy-six stone house at Tappan, Arnold the Traitor and Andre the sufferer — correspondence between Josiah Quincy, Jared Sparks and Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, and other articles of interest and value. We cannot agree to all that the distinguished editor writes (especially when he gets an opportunity of indulging his partisan bitterness against the South) and may take an early opportunity of expressing our dissent; but the Magazine is admirably edited, beautifully gotten up, and is of great interest to the general reader and value to the student of history.
[96] The Atlantic monthly, published by Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, is conducted with very great ability, and contains much of varied interest and value. We cannot, of course, always agree with the sentiments of its articles; but we have been reading it with great pleasure and are prepared to accept the assurance of its publishers that it will be more readable than ever during the coming year.
The South Atlantic, published at Wilmington, N. C., by Mrs. Cicero W. Harris, editor and proprietor, is a very well conducted and creditable Magazine, which we should be glad to see in every home and library of the land. The contents of the December number (we have not yet received the January number) are: Carmelita (continued), W. H. Babcock; Who was Robin Adair?--------; Athens to Trieste, W. C. Johnstone; Trial of Titus Oates, John W. Snyder; Unreturning — A Poem, J. L. Gordon; Notes on Southern Literature,--------; Thiers (continued), Th. von. Jasmund; His Only Love, A. L. Bassett; A Legend of the Roanoke — A Poem, P. Copeland; Editorial — The American Cyclopaedia; Recent Literature — Babcock's Poem's, Petals, Hand Book of Church Terms. In Notes on Southern Literature the writer could not, of course, make any complete catalogue of the books that have been written by Southern men since the war, yet one is surprised to find omitted from the list given Rev. Dr. A. T. Bledsoe's able discussion of the secession question in “Is Davis a Traitor?” Rev. Dr. Dabney's life of Stonewall Jackson; John Esten Cooke's Life of Lee, and Military biography of Stonewall Jackson; Colonel Charles C. Jones' “Siege of Savannah,” Chatham artillery, Life of Commodore Tatnall, &c.; General Basil W. Duke's History of Morgan's cavalry ; General Jordan's Forrest and his campaigns, Admiral Semmes' Service Afloat; Boykin's Life of Howell Cobb; Handy's United States Bonds; Stevenson's Southern side of Andersonville; Brevier's First and Second Confederate Missouri brigades; Hodge's First Kentucky brigade; Wilkinson's Blockade Runner; Alfriend's Life of Jefferson Davis; Miss Emily Mason's Popular life of General R. E. Lee; Hotchkiss and Allan's “Chancellorsville” with their superb maps; General J. A. Early's Memoirs of the last year of the War; Miss Mary Magill's Women, or Chronicles of the War, and her History of Virginia; and a number of other similar books. If another had written them we should have added to the list, Jones' Reminiscences, anecdotes and letters of General R. E. Lee, and the Army of Northern Virginia Memorial volume, but we, of course, would not violate good taste by mentioning them in such illustrious company. We thank the writer for kindly mention of the Southern Historical Society, and we trust that its seven volumes of back numbers may find a place in many libraries this year.
