OF THE GREAT REBELLION: COMPRISING HEROIC ADVENTURES AND HAIR- SPIES, AND REFUGEES; DARING EXPLOITS OF SMUG- WITH INCIDENTS OF FUN AND MERRIMENT IN CAMP AND FIELD. TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN; FATE BY LIEUTENANT-COLONEL CHARLES S. GREENE. LATE OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY. With Illustrations. Philadelphia: PUBLISHED BY JOHN E. POTTER & CO., 1866. 23352.e. 101, ENTERED according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1864, b☛ JOHN E. POTTER, in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District of the State of Pennsylvania. COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET. PREFACE. IN the quick succession of surprising events which have characterized our country's history since the outbreak of the great rebellion, it has been beyond the power of any one to retain more than fragmentary, disconnected impressions of scenes and incidents which would prove a valuable addition to one's stock of information, could they but be permanently located in memory's storehouse. Detailed histories and official records must, of necessity, be resorted to for the graver and weightier matters connected with our present struggle for a national existence; of such, fortunately, there bids fair to be no lack. The earnest inquirer after the outline facts of the contest will be at no loss to discover a variety of sources whence he may glean all that he desires. Of the comparatively minor movements in the great drama, however, there exists, at present, nothing which can be regarded as a fitting repository. While the deeds and misdeeds of the more prominent actors on the busy stage are chronicled in formal phrases of eulogium or censure, the almost innumerable multitude of incidents of adventure and daring the items of personal endurance and suffering-the details of peril by flood and field-the rollicking, luxuriant humor of the camp, cropping out in word and act—the heroism of the hospital-the devotion of friendship-indeed, the large majority of individual cases, among the less known and famous, which, in reality, serve to make the present war what it is have thus far been consigned, if noticed at all, to the columns of the newspaper, one day read and the next day forgotten, or to the pages of the letter, intended for but few eyes. This ought not so to be. He who would form a correct opinion as to the present rebellion as a whole, must carefully examine the various parts which compose it. In this view, scarcely anything bearing upon the contest can be deemed insignificant or trivial, nothing, certainly, "common or unclean." To rescue this class of incidents from oblivion, to present them in an attractive garb, carefully discriminating between fact and fancy, to collect what else would be fugitive and ephemeral in a permanent and acceptable form-these were the objects contemplated in the preparation of the following pages. They cannot fail to prove of interest to all. They narrate of our common humanity, when most sorely tried and tempted, whose manifestations have ever, since man was, stirred the blood and enkindled the heart. They record deeds in sympathy with which "the common pulse of man keeps time." Not a moment of the hours of enforced leisure which have been directed to the selection, condensation, and arrangement of the pages which follow is regretted by the compiler. He knows not that he could have been better or more pleasantly employed. To the thousands of loyal men and women, whose prayers, wishes, and efforts go forth so earnestly and incessantly for the cause of right and truth, the cause of our common coun try, and of man wherever found, this book is submitted, with the confident assurance that it contains much, at least, that all desire to remember, and little, if any, that deserves to be forgotten. |