Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. INTRODUCTION. THE great war over-Ficedom's battle begun and ended -the public mind has a strong desire for a clear and reliable narrative of the varying events which occupied four years of our national existence, and finally achieved a great end. At the cost of much blood and treasure, of all evils that can afflict a nation, none is greater than that of civil war, if not only for the sorrows it causes and the heartstrings it breaks, but for the heavy legacy of crushed feeling which it bequeaths, and the material penalty of heavy taxation which it inevitably and invariably inflicts. It is easier to forgive than to forget, and a true history in which nothing is extenuated, nor any thing set down in malice, must go a great way in mitigating angry feelings, by dissipating prejudices or false impressions created or confirmed by the pen of exaggeration. Knowing the honest purpose of Doctor James Moore, and appreciating the ability, research, industry, and Christian feeling which he has brought to the composition of the following pages, I can have no hesitation in complying with his publisher's request, to introduce him in a few lines, confident that his own merits of impartiality and ability will speedily be recognized by his readers. He is no mere civilian, writing of what he merely saw in the far distance, and forming a book out of military despatches and newspaper correspondence, but he has himself served in the war, in his professional capacity, and has had personal experience of what he here describes. The materials for a history of the late war are so numerous (3) that he who has to use them must feel himself almost overwhelmed by their bulk. The despatches of military and naval commanders must form the natural as well as the surest foundation for such a work, and not a single instance can be shown in which any officer, reporting upon what had been done under his own command, has tortured facts to his own advantage, claimed unmerited credit for his men, or exaggerated or underrated the valor or the strategy of the enemy. Such materials, however impartial, are not sufficient -the historian has to compare them with accounts of the same events written by opposite commanders, and has further to examine the immense mass of information conveyed in the communications from the numerous and intelligent corps of able writers and impartial observers, commonly known as war correspondents. The value of this latter information can scarcely be too highly estimated. The war correspondence of American journalism, throughout the dreadful four years of national affliction, was often diffuse and desultory, being almost invariably written in extremest haste and under very frequent circumstances of discomfort and difficulty, but it was earnest, graphic, and full of interest, relating many incidents of action, and portraying numerous traits of character, observed and noted on the instant, which would otherwise never have been made public. The competition between the writers ensured a great degree of accuracy, for one account might be said to test the truthfulness of another. The deep loyalty and personal gallantry of the war correspondents was sur passed only by their ability and alacrity. As a class, they may be said to have been created by the Mexican war of 1845-47: they matured in the war of the Crimea, in 1853–55; but their efficiency was most powerfully evidenced in our own civil war of 1860-65. It will be observed that Doctor Moore has avoided political discussion in this volume. In the opening chapter he has stated, in an impartial manner, the admitted causes of the civil war. His duty, in his necessarily limited space, was to present a true and readable, because intelligible narrative, of the events of the late contest-the greatest that the world has seen in any time or country. That he has done this, I am confident, having read most of the book while it was passing through the press, and I take the liberty of recommending it on this account. The biographical sketches, which form an appendix to the history, will be found full of interest, and will help the reader to judge of the events here recorded. When the leading incidents of a great man's life are known to us, we feel an interest in his career not usually awakened in favor of a stranger. His past enables us to foresee how his present will result, and both become prophetic of the future. these personal sketches, limited though they be, Doctor Moore has shown that he understands how biography should be written. In There is no occasion of adding more, by way of introduction to this history, save to say that its author, as will be seen, exhibits singular power in describing battle scenes. His account of Bull-Run, the siege of Vicksburg, the Three Days' fight at Gettysburg, and the final achievements of the Army of the Potomac-" on this line, all the summer”—are graphic and masterly. R. SHELTON MACKENZIE. Philadelphia, October 25, 1866. |