Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[4] into argument or endeavoring to forestall the judgment. For the assistance of that judgment, there will be found in the concluding chapter of this work an outline history of the settlement of our country; of the growth of the nation; of the system of slave-labor, and its influence upon society; of the cotton-plant, and its relations and power; of immigration from Europe, and its results; and of the alienation of feeling produced by controversies on the subject of slavery. These are elements of the great Cause, of which the civil war was the Effect.

Satisfied that the Rebellion was the work of a few ambitious men, who for selfish purposes, and without excuse, conspired to overthrow the Republic, I have given prominence to their sayings and those of their co-workers and abettors, not with a partisan spirit, to keep animosities alive (for I would gladly blot their utterances from the memory of man), but that posterity may know, and profit by the knowledge, how and by whom the people of a group of States were deceived, and cruelly wronged, and arrayed against their government, which has been seldom accused, and never convicted, of a single act of injustice or oppression.¹ It seemed just to the loyal people of the land everywhere to make this record, and in their name to disclaim these utterances as being any indication of the spirit and temper of the American people.

The Republic has survived the strife within its bosom, and it now bears on, in the great procession of nations, its precious burden of Free Institutions and Democratic Ideas, as nobly and vigorously as ever. The Union has been preserved, and its broad mantle of Love and Charity covers all its children with its ample folds. There should be no more strife — no more alienations; for the true interest of each individual of the family is the highest interest of all. If the sorrowful Past may not be forgotten (and it is best that it should not be forgotten), let the remembrance of it be a chastening monitor and tutor; and let all who feel aggrieved be willing to forgive.

Wishing to secure the advantages of a personal knowledge, by actual examination, of the principal battle-fields of the war, and the topography of the regions over which the great armies moved, and to make sketches of whatever might seem useful as illustrations of the subject, I did not begin the preparation of this work for the