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Preface.
the task of making a record of the events of the late
Civil War in our Republic is not a pleasant one for an American citizen.
It would be more consonant with his wishes to bury in oblivion all knowledge of those events which compose the materials of the sorrowful story of a strife among his brethren, of terrible energy and woeful operations.
But that privilege is denied him. The din of the conflict was heard all over the world, and people of all nations were spectators of the scene.
The fact cannot be hidden.
It has become a part of the history of the inhabitants of the earth, and will forever occupy a conspicuous place in the annals of mankind.
What remains for the American citizen to do, is to see that the
stylus of history shall make a truthful record.
I imposed upon myself the task of making, so far as my ability and an honest purpose would permit, a correct delineation of the events of the conflict, carefully drawn by the pen and pencil, for the consideration and advantage of posterity.
I entitle my work
A history of the civil War, but I ask for it no higher consideration than that of a faithful chronicle, having the form of history, and aspiring to perform its highest duty, namely: to inspire mankind with a love of justice and a hatred of its opposite, and of every thing that impedes the onward and upward march of humanity.
Taking it for granted that the reader, with the facts plainly set before him, is capable of forming just conclusions, I have confined my labors chiefly to the recording of those facts; and have only given opinions and speculations concerning their relations, and the evident motives of the chief actors in the drama, sufficient for hints for thought and premises for reasoning, without enlarging
