NATIONAL HISTORY OF THE WAR FOR THE UNION, Cibil, Military and Nabal. FOUNDED ON OFFICIAL AND OTHER AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS. EVERT Agustu DUYCKINCK, Author of " National Portrait Gallery of Eminent Americans," " Cyclopedia of American Literature,” Etc. Illustrated with Highly-Finished Steel Engravings. INCLUDING BATTLE SCENES BY SEA AND LAND, AND FULL-LENGTH PORTRAITS OF NAVAL AND In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. THE Publishers submit this record of the WAR FOR THE UNION with a few words of acknowledgment to their Subscribers for their support during its progress. Undertaken at an early period of the conflict, when its duration could not be calculated, the work has been steadily prosecuted, chapter by chapter contemporaneously with the rapid march of events. Relying mostly upon original documents which will always retain their value, the narrative has been proportioned to the importance and length of the struggle; while the Artists have presented in a series of more than seventy engravings, the most remarkable incidents and most important personages who have figured in the national history during this unprecedented struggle. In attaining this result, the Publishers have had to encounter many mechanical difficulties growing out of the interruptions of labor, and the increased price of materials, consequent upon the war; but they have never suffered these embarrassments to interfere with the steady progress of the work. One thing has been constantly kept in view, to exhibit as far as opportunity at the time allowed, the merits of the conflict as set forth in important State papers and other public documents by the parties on either hand Thus by the side of the messages of President Lincoln will be found those of the leader of the Rebel Confederacy, and, where such materials were accessible, the dispatches and reports of rival commanders. Nor has it been attempted generally to sit in judgment upon the merits or pretensions of individuals, officers or statesmen, in the thronged arena of the conflict. It has been thought sufficient to exhibit prominent facts and results, leaving the decisions and awards of fame to the judgment of the reader. But one thing, it is believed, has never been lost sight of the paramount claims of national allegiance and unqualified patriotism. This is a test upon which all lovers of their country will be agreed; that whatever allowances may be made for minor differences, they must all yield to the safety and welfare of the whole where the interests of the nation are at stake, in the maintenance and preservation of the UNION. |