Chapter I: Preface

For several years my friends among Confederate soldiers have been urging me to "write up" and publish what I know of the war. By personal solicitation and by letter this subject has been brought before me and placed in the light of a duty which I owe to posterity. Taking this view of it, I willingly comply, glad that I am permitted to stand among the many "witnesses" who shall establish "the truth," proud to write myself as one who faithfully served the defenders of the Cause which had and has my heart's devotion. I have tried to give a faithful record of my experiences, to "nothing extenuate nor aught set down in malice," and I have told the truth, but not always the whole truth. A few of these "Memories" were originally written for the _Southern Bivouac_, and are here republished because my book would have been incomplete without them.

I am very inexperienced in the business of making books, but relying with confidence upon the leniency of my friends, and feeling sure that I have no enemy who will savagely rejoice that I have written a book, I make the venture.

CONTENTS.

Introductory

PART I.

CHAPTER I. Alpha

CHAPTER II. Alabama

CHAPTER III. Buckner Hospital, Gainesville, Alabama

CHAPTER IV. Ringgold

CHAPTER V. Newnan, Georgia

CHAPTER VI. Omega

CHAPTER VII. Confederate Women

CHAPTER VIII. An Incident of the Battle of the Wilderness

CHAPTER IX. Fenner's Louisiana Battery

CHAPTER X. "Bob Wheat"

PART II. FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.

CHAPTER I. Nelly

CHAPTER II. Brave Boys

CHAPTER III. The Young Color-Bearer

CHAPTER IV. Bravery honored by a Foe

CHAPTER V. Sally's Ride

CHAPTER VI. High Price for Needles and Thread

CHAPTER VII. Bunny

CHAPTER VIII. Beauregard

PART III. AFTER TWENTY YEARS.

CHAPTER I. "My Boys"

CHAPTER II. The Confederate Reunion at Dallas

CHAPTER III. Camp Nichols

CHAPTER IV. The March of Time