ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, BY

W. E. ALLEN,

IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON,

1887.

Exchange
Library

Univ. of Western

Ontario

AUG 2 2 1938

PREFACE:

AND

PLAN OF THE WORK.

It is safe to assume that no family-no intelligent man, or woman, indeed,—in the sterhood of States composing our common country, will be willing to forego the ossession of some portraiture of the more lively or personal sayings and doings which crowded themselves with such rapidity into each succeeding day of the GREAT FOUR YEARS' WAR: and, to supply that want, in the most fit and attractive form, this olume has been prepared, and is now offered,-in confident assurance of its value and popular reception,-to the AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Not only would it be a difficult task to find that man or woman whose mind has ot been thus enlisted to the most intense degree of interest in the great procession f events during the period named, but the attempt would be almost equally futile to Iscover the family circle or individual upon whom those events have not fallen, either irectly or indirectly, with a shock which memory will never efface nor time obliviate. And whilst, of these latter, it may be said the number is well nigh past enumeration, vho have spilled their blood, sundered the nearest and dearest ties, endured weariome and relentless persecution, and been brought to irretrievable penury and desolation; on the other hand, multitudes there are, who now find reason to rejoice, as Surviving participants in the grand and triumphant, though bloody and appalling train f events, which, under an overruling Providence, have doomed forever this and all iture similar attempts to destroy a Government founded in the blood and prayers of arth's wisest and best, and upon which the hopes of the world are centred.

GREAT COMPANY OF HEROIC MARTYRS! The Nation's acclaim of gratitude hails and blesses you, and the Song of Jubilee which you have put into the hearts of the eople-yea, of thrice ten millions!-shall be taken up by coming generations, and far distant lands now awaking to political consciousness, until every voice shall sing esponsive to the Universal Anthem of Manhood Vindicated, Justice Regenerated, and Liberty Enthroned.

To exhibit and commemorate the course of events thus inaugurated in crimeful mbition and sectional heresy, and culminating in a New Birth, and in a larger, stronger, ad more enduring Life to the Nation thus sought to be destroyed, the historian has thered together and woven into thoughtful chapters the documentary materials and ficial details of the Struggle; the poet's genius has lent its inspiration to the charm i glowing and melodious rhyme; and the pen of romance has indited its most touchstory of mingled pathos and horror, of principle tested, and suffering crowned with victory!

All these have their appropriate place, their peculiar usefulness and adaptation. future generations, scarcely less than the present, will read with absorbing avidity he historian's volume; the poet's ringing verse will not cease to be the keynote to arm the sympathies and rouse the heart to greater love of patriotism, freedom and ustice; and the more gushing sensibilities will find food in the well-wrought tale of art-trials not simply "founded" on fact, but the delineation of gaunt fact itself, in relation to individual cases innumerable.

PREFACE.

The character of the present work,-THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES and Incidents OF THE WAR OF THE REBELLION,—is distinctive alike from that of the sober History, the connected Narrative, and the impassioned Story. Whilst embracing all that is striking and marvellous, touching, witty and pathetic, in the scenes from which the latter have been produced, its object is not to weave together any individual theory, philosophy, or methodical detail of affairs, lu: to present, in attractive form and classification, a volume of the most thrilling, racy and wonderful incidents in the Nation's four years' experience of War, culminating in the assassination of LINCOLN, the Beloved Chief Magistrate, and in the ignominious doom of the Arch-Conspirators!

It may be remarked, in a word, that, equally to the ARMY, the NAVY, and to the CIVILIAN,-one and the same in their glorious consecration to the great cause of National Existence, are the pages of this work devoted.

Nor is this collection confined to any particular State, Section, Corps, or Department, but embraces them all. The States loyal, and those in rebellion, are here portrayed, in the scenes, incidents and episodes, which transpired in them respectively. The Army of the Potomac, of the Cumberland, of Virginia, of the Southwest, of the James, and every other, of whatever name, is alike and copiously represented. Generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Thomas, Butler, Fremont,-Admirals Farragut, Foote, Porter, Rodgers, Dahlgren, Dupont, and the rest of the great host of Chief Commanders on the Land and on the Sea,-their grand armies, corps, divisions, brigades, fleets, squadrons, etc., and the brave men under their lead,—are here duly commemorated.

The stirring deeds of the Armies and Fleets en masse, and of their officers and men individually, those momentous days and hours, those transcendent acts and movements, the memory of which will live in letters of blood before the eyes and burn like fire in the hearts of those who participated in them; these, sifted like gold, are here spread out in all their varied attractiveness. Thus it is, that the rank and file, as well as the superior officers, are made illustrious in these pages, by the valor, skill or achievement, which distinguished them,—and such instances may be said, without any strain of truth, to have characterized every regiment and crew, without exception, in the Grand Army and Navy of the Union!

A glance at the General Contents of this work will furthermore show that they comprise Anecdotes of Scenes and Events relating to several hundred battles, skirmishes and collisions, on land and sea, including every engagement of note during the prolonged Conflict; that the vessels from whose mast-head the gallant ensign waved memorably in the nation's service, have here their annals of fame and honor; and that not a single general officer, of historic fame, in either arm of the country's defence, has been lost sight of, in giving completeness to the volume as a repository of whatever is piquant, racy, marvellous, pathetic, or grand, in the different departments and fields of military operation.

the

The most famous sayings and doings in political circles, bearing upon Secession in its public and private aspects; camp, picket, spy, scout and battle-field adventures; the brilliant tactics, ruses, strategy, etc., which have made this war so remarkable even in the eyes of European military governments; thrilling feats of bravery among tarpaulins and blue-jackets; "hard-tack" and mule beef legends; recruiting, conscripting and substituting oddities; female soldiers; the harrowing sights and experiences of the hospital and prison; and all the inner-life happenings, humors and drolleries of an army;-these cover the broad pages of this richly filled volume, and, it is believed, render it, above all other works which the war has called forth, the one in especial which, for the spare hours of home reading, every soldier, seaman, citizen and family, will desire to possess.

But, in addition to the above brief summary of contents, it may be claimed for this work that it is, almost exclusively, the one specially planned for a choice and discriminating exhibition of Woman's Career in the Scenes and Events of the War! Perhaps no other fact could give such peculiar value to these pages, or secure for them such ready acceptance on the part of the reading public.

The separate volume, originally contemplated by the editor, to be devoted entirely to that deeply interesting record, has been merged with this, into one, thus adding to its departments a most attractive feature-rich, unique, and surpassing romance in its resume of startling facts and strange developments of the Perils, Valor, Amours and Devotedness specially pertaining to that sex, the wheat being carefully sifted from the chaff. The wonderful character of Woman's Career, North and South, during a four years' fratricidal war which reached all classes and penetrated every element and interest of society, and in which she herself was summoned to bear such variety and burden of experience, has no counterpart whatsoever in the history of mankind; a fact which, indeed, could not have been otherwise, when it is considered that never before, in the ages of the world, was such a contest waged, and that at no previous period was woman's social and intellectual equality with the other sex so generally admitted, or her influence so powerful and wide-spread, thus necessarily bringing her, by a coincidence truly memorable, in active identity with public affairs, in the greatest of human crises!

The part which the sex enacted, under these unparalleled circumstances, is here most amply illustrated,-excluding, of course, much that was of inferior interest, and the record will at least be adjudged a Brilliant, Romantic and Inviting one, on glancing at the Index of subjects comprised in this volume, those relating to Woman being there printed in Italics.

Not only in respect to the specialty just remarked upon, but equally with reference to all the other topical divisions of the volume, it may be asserted that no trouble, labor, travel, nor consideration of time or cost, has been allowed to stand in the way of their most complete preparation. Familiar intercourse with officials and privates, attendance at the Departments in Washington, personal observation and correspondence, all the official documents, the teeming issues of the newspaper press, in their vast and prolific range,-of all these, the editor has painstakingly and freely availed himself, during the last five years, in order to produce a work, if not absolutely perfect, yet certainly not excelled, in the quality of readableness, by any Book of the War. Of the many thousand anecdotes which have passed under his inspection, in the immense accumulation of materials named,-common to all and special to none, the contents of this volume comprise those which were found to have called forth the greatest interest and admiration on the part of the public, and which were thought to most aptly exhibit the lights and shades of the war. This was the aim and object kept in

view.

A conscientious care was justly called for, and duly exercised, in excluding those productions concerning the war, to which the pens that gave them birth affixed a retaining claim; and a faithful comparison, in that respect, of what is here brought together, with the contents of other collections, is freely invited. It was nevertheless found inherently impossible, in a vast number of instances, (out of more than seven thousand memorabilia in hand,) owing to the rapid and wide-spread publication in so many issues of the press, interchangeably, of the same anecdotes or performances, to trace out and authenticate their paternity or first source;-a difficulty still further increased by the citation, in frequent cases, of different authorities or sources for the same narration, incident, poem, etc., etc. This lack and confusion of identity, so common, and perhaps unavoidable, in the making up of anecdotical columns, selections of miscellany, poetry, and extracts from current books, for the press, did not, however, interpose any barrier to their use in a work like this. But if, arising from this circumstance, anything has thus unconsciously been appropriated for these pages which encroaches upon any exclusive and verified proprietorship, or upon any repository of avowed and genuine originality, such matter will as readily and cheerfully be eliminated from the text as it was there given a place.

With reference to those passages which involve the heated language of personal colloquy or combat, it seemed not always possible, however much to be desired, to divest them of all their excited, and even irreverent expletives, and at the same time preserve the animus of the occurrence as it actually transpired. Nor, indeed, is it a

question in ethics, readily to be answered in the affirmative, whether the recital of those ghastly scenes of blood and death, which necessarily constitute the substance of every war and of all war literature, and which are read of with such avidity, can be considered any more congenial to a correct taste and moral sensibility, than the merely verbal attestations, however imprecatory, by which they were accompanied.

As showing the extent and variety of matter contained in this volume, the simple statement will suffice, that the accompanying list of Battles, Engagements, Collisions, etc., etc., consulted in the preparation of these anecdotes, numbers several thousand; -of Generals and Naval Commanders, and of Public Vessels, many hundred ;-each list reflecting a multitude of pleasing, spicy, unique, and startling events. Besides these, there is presented a classified outline of the topical contents or special subjects pertaining to each of the Eight Parts, and a most copious Index to the leading anecdotes is placed at the close.

Of the mechanical appearance of this book, the names, enterprise and liberality, of the eminent Publishers, will at once be accepted as vouchers that nothing in the typographical and illustrative art has been omitted by them, to gratify the eye, and to render the publication one in every way deserving universal patronage.

The numerous ILLUSTRATIVE ENGRAVINGS, executed in the highest style of beauty and without regard to cost, by the most skillful artists in the country, which are here presented, constitute a feature of embellishment in no other instance attempted in books of this kind. They are of themselves alone worth the full price of the volume.