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OF

THE NORTH-WEST,

A RECORD OF PROMINENT PERSONS, PLACES AND
EVENTS, DURING EIGHT YEARS OF UN-
PARALLELED AMERICAN

HISTORY.

BY

STELLA S. COATSWORTH,

WITH AN

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

BY

REV. T. M. EDDY, D.D.,

LATE EDITOR OF "THE NORTH-WESTERN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE," AUTHOR OF
"PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS," ETC.

"THE mystic cords of memory stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to
every heart and hearthstone in this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the Union
when again touched, as they surely will be, by the better angels of our nature,"

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The Patriotic Citizen, the Brave, Unselfish Soldier, the Incorruptible Leader, the Tried, True Man,

and Incomparable "General,"

AND THE

PEOPLE'S PRESIDENT OF THE UNDIVIDED UNION,

THIS VOLUME

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDIcated.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

In presenting this volume to the public, the author does not come as with an uncertain enterprise. Protected and sustained by some of the strongest influences in the great commercial West, fears of its success would be superfluous; but, aside from this solid basis upon which it is issued, the work in itself contains abundant merit to commend it to the hearts of a reunited American people.

If the story be well told, it can not be too often repeated, what it cost to release and restore our enslaved, divided nation. At the request of many familiar with the art of publication, and especially by the kind advice of Harper Brothers, of New York, the author has withheld her material from the public until PEACE should be fully inaugurated. With the advent of our Peace President, that period has dawned, at least so it is beautifully sung by Vandenhoff. Peace has come, for the great warrior has sheathed his sword and demands it. Divisions are to be healed, and hands are to be clasped in amity across the graves of foe and fallen brothers; hence the best time for again relating the sad story of our struggle for freedom, and the cost of Peace.

Hailing from the family of an old Revolutionary officer, and surrounded by family ties which gave her rare facilities for usefulness, the author, being the wife of an eminent army surgeon, was thrown into the hot crater of the war at the beginning of its fiery eruption. At the side of her husband, and handmaid to his labors, she became familiar with the great struggle in its inner minutiæ; and she has invested with peculiar interest, and related with eloquence, scenes that, by

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most historians, are given as cold statistics, or passed by unnoticed.

The gifted Miss Porter tells of stern old Scotia, how the hardy clansmen held in reverence "the relics of a departed nobility," and almost worshiped the families of those who, wielding "claymore and targe," fell in defense of "loch and crag." Not less touching and beautiful is the love of the noble Americans for the deeds, the name, the graves and relics of those who wrought salvation for their imperiled country. Inheriting a love for those thrilling scenes, and richly endowed with the gifts to make herself useful whereever Providence placed her, the author has lived with great earnestness the intense period through which our people passed. As a writer, MRS. COATSWORTH has ever received favor from the public; and in the present work, where the obstacles of an ordinary campaign have been met and conquered, she has worked as bravely as she has achieved nobly. A long acquaintance with the author, and a knowledge of her true womanly character, would prompt a warmer eulogy than perhaps she would be pleased with, hence we leave all eulogy to the work itself. True, the sky can not all be photographed at once, but she has taken the stars as they shine, both great and small.

To the pen the artist becomes auxiliary, and a gallery of scenes and faces gaze upon the beholder. For the story and the way it is told, for the names it enrols, for the deeds it chronicles, for our high appreciation of the author and her work, for the artist, engraver, and publisher, it is submitted with confidence to a generous people.

'Tis no book of war, but rather a bloodless PEAce-offering. As the snowdrop looks up from its icy bed and prophecies golden summer, so this, rooted in field and hospital, blossoms in the sunshine and the soft breath of Peace. Hence it is both a memorial and a prophecy.

T. M. E.

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