extremes. At first we could endure no comparison for the young commander of the Army of the Potomac but with Napoleon; after a time we could scarcely hear without impatience any defense of him from the gross charges of cowardice and treason. At first we denounced the man who fought Belmont and Pittsburg Landing as a drunkard and an incapable; now we echo the words of Sherman that he is the legitimate successor of Washington, and believe him the greatest General of the century or the continent. It is not by any reflection of such popular verdicts that honest History can be written. Yet I have experienced too many proofs of the generous consideration given by our people to honest convictions, to have any doubt as to the kindly reception they will extend to these frank statements of opinions that have not been formed without much study, and are not expressed without conscientious care. It is doubtless impossible, in a work of this magnitude, to avoid errors. No page not even the briefest sketch of a cavalry company or independent battery-has gone to the printers without being carefully revised or rewritten. The rosters of the regiments have been first taken from the rolls of the Adjutant-General, then compared with the War Department Volunteer Register, and finally corrected and enlarged in almost every case by some officer of the organization concerned; every page has been again and again revised. After all, in so many names, and dates, and brief accounts of great transactions, many errors must have escaped notice; but it may be safely affirmed that, in the main, the record of Ohio soldiers as here presented, is incomparably more complete and correct than any, official or unofficial, that is elsewhere accessible. It has been earnestly desired to add to the work an unique collection of incidents in the war, narratives of personal experience, sufferings in Southern prisons, and the like—the materials for which were mostly furnished by Ohio private soldiers. But the work has already swelled far beyond the limits to which it should have been restricted; and it becomes an unfortunate necessity to omit this further illustration of the lives and works of the men in the ranks. For the same reason some mention of the Western gunboat service must be left out. I am specially indebted to Major Frank E. Miller (of Washington C. H., Ohio) for intelligent and valuable assistance in reducing to shape the vast mass of material placed in my hands by the publishers. He has also prepared the exhaustive index which accompanies the volumes. Hon. William T. Coggeshall, Private Secretary to Governor Dennison (who has since died at his post as United States Minister to Ecuador); Hon. William Henry Smith, Private Secretary to Governor Brough, and subsequently Secretary of State; F. A. Marble, Esq., afterward Private Secretary to Governor Brough and to Governor Anderson, and Edwin L. Stanton, Esq., of the War Department, have placed me under obligations for valued assistance in many ways. I have also to thank the Adjutant-General and the Governor of Ohio for access to any documents among the State archives which it was needful to consult. Finally, to a whole host of the soldiers of Ohio, for the kindness which loaded me with whatever facts were asked, and for the delicate consideration which intrusted these to me to be used according to my own sense of fitness, I can never sufficiently express my obligations. No General or other officer of Ohio has failed to furnish whatever I sought; and no one (with a single exception) has asked that any feature in his career should be concealed or any other extolled. And now as this labor, which for nearly two years has engrossed my time, is brought to an end, I lay aside the pen regretfully. Here are many pages, and many efforts to do some justice to features in the war history of our noble State. No one can better understand how far they fall short of the noble theme. And yet-who can write worthily of what Ohio has done? CINCINNATI, December 24, 1867. W. R. HER STATESMEN, HER · GENERALS, AND SOLDIERS. BY WHITE LAW REID, IN TWO VOLUMES, VOLUME I:), HISTORY OF THE STATE DURING THE WAR, AND THE LIVES OF HER GENERALS. "I conceive that in these latter times the scale upon which we measure warlike prowess has been brought down "Whoever has committed no faults has not made war."-MARSHAL TURENNE PUBLISHERS: MOORE, WILSTACH & BALDWIN, 25 WEST FOURTH STREET, CINCINNATI. NEW YORK: 60 WALKER STREET. 1868/ |