THE author has composed this work under many and severe difficulties. The materials were collected in Richmond, while the author was burdened with the heavy duties of public journalism.
After this explanation, and in the third volume of his work, it is, perhaps, unnecessary for the author to repeat that he has not sought literary ornament, or attempted a high standard of historical composition. He has only designed to make a faithful compendium of events, which will illustrate, for the present, what is most interesting in the American War, and serve as a foundation for future and more enlarged inquiries. It may be that these, his unambitious labors, will be appropriated by others, who will rear upon them a superstructure of their own; but he cherishes the hope that he is not. destined to lose to others the benefit of his early records, and that he may, at some future time, be able to compose a work on the American War, worthy of its importance, and its relations to the interests and philosophy of the present generation.