Publisher's Synopsis
The future historian of the great struggle will doubtless have ample material at his disposal; but from a vast mass of conflicting; evidence he will have to sift, combine, and arrange the grains of truth-a work to which few men of this generation are competent. But meanwhile there is much to be done in col[Pg 14]lecting evidence, especially by those who desire that justice shall be done to the South: and this evidence, it is to be hoped, will be largely drawn from private sources. History has in general no more invaluable and irrefragable witnesses for the truth than are to be found in the journals, memoranda, and private correspondence of the prominent and influential men who either acted in, or were compelled to remain quiet observers of the events of their day. Especially will this be found to be the case when posterity shall sit in judgment on the past four years in the South. From no other sources can so fair a representation be made of the conflicts of opinion, or of the motives of action in the time when madness seemed to rule the hour, when all individual and all State efforts for peace were powerless, when sober men were silenced, and when even the public press could hardly be considered free.
