WHEELER.. 479
ADMIRAL FRANKLIN BUCHANAN.. 483
REAR-ADMIRAL RAPHAEL SEMMES. 484
COLONEL HENRY TOOLE CLARK.. 494
COLONEL ZEBULON B. VANCE.. 494
BRIGADIER-GENERAL MILLEDGE L. BONHAM... 496
Preface.
This work is the result of contributions by many Southern men to the literature of our country that treats of the eventful years in which occurred the momentous struggle called by Mr. A. H. Stephens “the war between the States.” These contributions were made on a well-considered plan, to be wrought out by able writers of unquestionable Confederate record who were thoroughly united in general sentiment and whose generous labors upon separate topics would, when combined, constitute a library of Confederate military history and biography. According to the great principle in our government that One may result from and be composed of Many — the doctrine of E pluribus unum--it was considered that intelligent men from all parts of the South would so write upon the subjects committed to them as to produce a harmonious work which would truly portray the times and issues of the Confederacy and by illustration in various forms describe the soldiery which fought its battles. Upon this plan two volumes — the first and the last-comprise such subjects as the justification of the Southern States in seceding from the Union and the honorable conduct of the war by the Confederate States government; the history of the actions and concessions of the South in the formation of the Union and its policy in securing the existing magnificent territorial dominion of the United States; the civil history of the Confederate States, supplemented with sketches of the President, Vice-President, cabinet officers and other officials of the government; Confederate naval history; the morale of the armies; the South since the war, and a connected outline of events from the beginning of the struggle to its close.
The two volumes containing these general subjects are sustained by the other volumes of Confederate military history of the States of the South involved in the war. Each State being treated in separate history permits of details concerning its peculiar story, its own devotion, its heroes and its battlefields. The authors of the State histories, like those of the volumes of general topics, are men of unchallenged devotion to the Confederate cause and of recognized fitness to perform the task assigned them. It is just to say that this work has been done in hours taken from busy professional life, and it should be further commemorated that devotion to the South and its heroic memories has been their chief incentive.
Clement A. Evans, Editor.
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It is fit that a few words be said here regarding the authorship of these volumes, in a general way to express the gratitude of the publishers for the hearty co-operation and patriotic spirit of all the distinguished gentlemen who have contributed to this work, and specially to note briefly those facts regarding the life of each that commend them alike to the confidence of the South and the high regard of the student who seeks historical authority.
Hon. J. L. M. Curry, LL.D., who writes upon “The legal justification of the Southern States in their ordinances of secession, and the honorable course of the Confederate States government in the conduct of the war,” has had a long and eminent career familiar to the people of the South. During the important period, 1857 to 1861, he represented his Alabama district in the Congress of the United States, and upon the secession of his State he was elected a delegate to the first provisional Congress, at Montgomery, and a member of the first Confederate States Congress, at Richmond. After the close of his term he served in the field in Georgia and Alabama. Subsequently he entered upon religious and educational work, was president of Howard college. a professor of Richmond college, Virginia, and since 1881 general agent of the Peabody educational fund. During the first administration of President Cleveland he represented the United States as minister to Spain, and his experiences in that country are related in one of the several contributions which he has made to literature.
Prof. William R. Garrett, author of the history of the South as a factor in the formation and extension of the Constitutional Union, is a Virginian by birth and was graduated at William and Mary college. He enlisted as a private in Col. B. S. Ewell's regiment, but soon afterward became captain of an artillery company which won the praise of Gen. J. E. B. Stuart at the battle of Williamsburg. His subsequent service was as adjutant, first of a battalion of partisan rangers in Tennessee, and later of the Eleventh Tennessee cavalry regiment, until he was surrendered with General Forrest at Gainesville, Ala. Returning to Virginia, he became master of the grammar school of William and Mary college, but in 1868 he made