7177

THE

(08

AMERICAN CRISIS;

OR,

Pages from the Note-Book

OF A

STATE AGENT DURING THE CIVIL WAR.

BY

JOHN LEWIS PEYTON,

BACHELOR OF LAWS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA,

CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE WISCONSIN STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN, ETC.
LATE LIEUT.-COLONEL 18TH N. G. OF CHICAGO.

SAUNDERS, OTLEY, AND CO.,

66, BROOK STREET, W.

1867.

[All rights reserved.

198

LONDON:

WILLIAM STEVENS, PRINTER, 37, BELL YARD,
TEMPLE BAR.

TO THE

REV. F. W. TREMLETT, M.A., LL.D., PH.D.,

IN ADMIRATION

OF HIS GENEROUS SYMPATHY FOR

A GALLANT RACE,

STRUGGLING FOR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE;

HIS UNBOUNDED KINDNESS AND HOSPITALITY TO ALL

CONFEDERATE EXILES;

AND HIS TRULY CHRISTIAN AND UNCEASING EFFORTS TO RESTORE PEACE,

PROSPERITY AND HAPPINESS TO A DISTRACTED COUNTRY;

This Little Work

IS DEDICATED

WITH THE AUTHOR'S SINCERE REgards.

PREFACE.

AN exiled citizen debarred from the dearest of privileges-epistolary correspondence-yet desirous of preserving such impressions as would prove of interest to absent relatives, had no alternative than to keep a journal.

Thus, on my arrival in Europe, in 1861, as the Agent of a Confederate State, I began to jot down some of the incidents of the early days of the war, and of my voyage out; such descriptions of scenes visited, such reflections on social subjects, such facts connected with the secret