CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR.—II.
LATE BRIGADIER-GENERAL AND BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL, U.S.V., COMMANDINGFIRST DIVISION, SEVENTEENTH CORPS.
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Facsimile Reprint Edition fromthe original edition of 1881-1883by The Archive Society, 1992.Address all inquiries to:
The Archive Society
130 Locust Street
Harrisburg, PA 17101
I have endeavored to prepare the following narrative from authenticmaterial, contemporaneous, or nearly contemporaneous, with the eventsdescribed.
The main source of information is the official reports of battles andoperations. These reports, both National and Confederate, will appear inthe series of volumes of Military Reports now in preparation under thesupervision of Colonel Scott, Chief of the War Records Office in the WarDepartment. Executive Document No. 66, printed by resolution of theSenate at the Second Session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, contains anumber of separate reports of casualties, lists of killed, wounded, andmissing, which do not appear in the volumes of Military Reports as nowprinted. Several battle reports are printed in volume IV., and in the"Companion," or Appendix volume of Moore's Rebellion Record, which arenot contained in the volumes of Military Reports as now printed. Thereports of the Twentieth Ohio and the Fifty-third Ohio, of the battle ofShiloh, have never been printed. Colonel Trabue's report of his brigadein the battle of Shiloh has never been officially printed; but it is[Pg vi]given in the history of the Kentucky Brigade from Colonel Trabue'sretained copy, found by his widow among his papers.
The Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War contain originalmatter in addition to what appears in reports of battles and operations.
The reports of the Adjutant-Generals of the different States, printedduring the war, often supplement the official reports on file inWashington.
Some regimental histories, printed soon after the close of the war,contain diaries and letters and narrate incidents which enable us insome cases to fix dates, the place of camps, and positions in battle,which could hardly otherwise be determined with precision. Newspapercorrespondents, while narrating what they personally saw, givedescriptions which impart animation to the sedate statements of officialreports.
Colonel William Preston Johnston's life of his father, General A.S.Johnston, can be used in some respects as authority. He served first inthe Army of Northern Virginia, and was, most of the war, on the staff ofJefferson Davis. He thus, after his father's death, became possessed ofa valuable collection of authentic official papers. When he waspreparing the biography, all papers of value in private hands in theSouth were open to his use.
Letters and memoranda preserved by Colonel Charles Whittlesey, and someof my own, have been of service.
I am under obligation to Colonel Scott for permission to freely read andcopy, in his office, the reports compiled under his direction. ToEx-President Hayes for the loan of a set[Pg vii] of the series of MilitaryReports, both National and Confederate, so far as printed, though notyet issued. To the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio for theunrestricted use of its library. To Colonel Charles Whittlesey ofCleveland, and Major E.C. Dawes, of Cincinnati, for the use of originalmanuscripts as well as printed reports.
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