it will be observed that Doctor Moore has avoided politi Cal 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 narra tive, 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. In these personal sketches, limited though they be, Doctor Moore has shown that he understands how biography should be written.
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 ac count 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.
Philadelphia, October 25, 1866.