Publisher's Synopsis
In presenting to you this record of our military life and of the time we passed in the service of the Government, we have done it with the hope that our efforts will be appreciated by you. Our desire has been to make this a record, which we can leave behind us after we are gone, to those who may come after us. We have done our best to make it reliable and correct. There may be mistakes in it-undoubtedly there are; but the general statements are correct, we know, while the incidents recounted are true, as many of you will aver after you have read them. We have had to labor under great difficulties in preparing for your inspection and benefit these pages, and at times have almost become discouraged, but we persevered, and at last succeeded in getting them into a shape which we thought would warrant us in placing them in the hands of the printer, and distributing them among you. Between the covers of the book you will find not only a record of our marches, battles, and bivouacs, but also a complete roster of the Regiment, showing what became of every man who, on the 3rd day of September, 1862, was mustered into the service of the United States in the 125th Illinois; whether he died on the field of battle, was taken prisoner, transferred to other organizations, or was mustered out with the Regiment at Chicago, when only 343 of the original one thousand who filled the Regiment when we left home, answered to their names. If he is buried in any Government Cemetery, the number of his grave is given. Hoping that our endeavors to make, for the regiment, a record which shall be not only valuable but also entertaining, and one which shall meet with your approbation, we place it in your hands for perusal. But be assured that not one word has been written in these pages with the intention of wounding any one's feelings in the least. Far from it! We have too much good feeling for those lads who with us marched through "Dixie," to do anything to give them pain. Again, hoping you will be pleased with our endeavors we remain
