Literary notices.
Fredericksburg — past, present and future. By Rev. Robert R. Howison. We are indebted to the author for a copy of this admirable sketch of the historic old town. With a subject of deep interest, Mr. Howison's facile pen has produced a narrative which should find a place in every historic collection.
First day of the battle of Gettysburg--an address before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. By Colonel Chapman Biddle. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia. This is a carefully prepared, admirably written, and exceedingly fair sketch of the first day at Gettysburg. We cannot admit the accuracy of all of his statements and conclusions, and yet Colonel Biddle has carefully studied both sides [in his foot-notes he makes fifty-two references to the Southern Historical Society Papers], and evidently means to tell the truth as he understands it. It is a very valuable contribution to the history of that great battle, and we could wish for many more war papers written in the same spirit of painstaking research and fair statement of ascertained facts.
Columbia — a National poem-acrostic on the American Union with Sonnets. By W. P. Chilton, of Montgomery, Alabama. New York: The Author's Publishing Company. The author evidently has poetic talent of no mean order and has accomplished this very difficult style of versification in a manner at once ingenious and pleasing. The sentiment of the poem is one of lofty patriotism, and the book, beautifully gotten up, would find appropriate place alike in the homes of “the Blue” or “the Gray.”
