OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC A CRITICAL HISTORY OF OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA OF THE WAR 1861-1865 BY WILLIAM SWINTON AUTHOR OF "DECISIVE BATTLES OF THE WAR," "OUTLINES OF THE REVISION AND RE-ISSUE NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1882 From the PRINCE DE JOINVILLE (François d'Orleans). I firmly believe that your book will live as a true and able record of one of the most gigantic and stubborn military efforts. . . . For me, whose fortune it was to be associated with the infancy of the Army of the Potomac, and who spent so many happy days in the field with her, I have read with emotion the long account of her deeds, trials, suffering, and final success, so feelingly told; and I thank you for the satisfaction I experienced. From HON. WM. H. SEWARD. It is a great subject you undertook in writing the history of the Army of the Potomac. But I knew your ability and candor so well as to feel assured you would treat the great theme as it deserved. In this I have not been disappointed, for I discern the vastly different character of your excellent and judicially considered History from the great mass of ephemeral productions on the subject. From PROF. D. H. MAHAN, late Professor of Engineering at West Point. Mr. William Swinton, in his work, "Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac," has not only shown himself the worthy Polybius of that army, but has placed himself on a level with our best modern lay military historians. From HENRY WARD BEECHER. If any one will know the mechanism and anatomy of battle, let him read our American Napier, William Swinton. From MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK. I have read your "History of the Army of the Potomac," and consider it the most valuable addition to the military criticism of the War that has yet appeared in print. By one who has been so long identified with that army as myself it can readily be perceived that you have endeavored to write the truth. I may add that I believe the Army of the Potomac has been fortunate in its historian, and that your array of facts will not hereafter be surpassed in accuracy. From MAJOR-GENERAL W. B. FRANKLIN. It tells the story nearly as it is believed to-day by the honest actors in the scenes and incidents which it narrates. It is a matter of astonishment to me that you have been able to make so impartial an account. From MAJOR-GENERAL D. N. COUCH. You have put forth a truthful record-a new era in American military writers. "You need not fear what man can do to you." From JEFFERSON DAVIS. The fairest and most careful of the Northern writers on the war. From ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. The exciting scenes and stirring events of the battle-fields have been quite graphically described by many writers, but by none so far, as I have seen, with greater ability or more impartiality than by Mr. William Swinton in his two works. Upon the whole I regard these two works from his pen as the best and most accurate chronicle of the military operations which he undertook to describe that I have met with from any quarter. |