A distinguished Confederate officer who has read it, speaks of it in the highest terms, and promises us a review of it, which we hope soon to publish.
The kindly feeling of this gallant gentleman, who spent several months at General Lee's headquarters and writes of our army as he saw us, will be highly appreciated by our people, and his book has made, we are glad to learn, a profound impression in Europe. It is printed in both French and German, and an English translation is demanded.
In his letter to the Secretary, Major Scheibert makes a handsome correction of an injustice he did General Early's valley army, and expresses his indignation that this error was not corrected in the French translation as he directed it to be.
It will be a real pleasure to us to place on our shelves this able book of our distinguished friend.
The following letters explain themselves, and will, doubtless, be of interest to our readers:
August 3d, 1876.
Rev. J. Wm. Jones, D. D.,
Secretary Southern Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia:
Sir—I beg to acknowledge the receipt of the "Personal Reminiscences of General Lee," which you were kind enough to send to me with your signature.
I shall read with greatest interest that account, by one so well situated as you were, of the life and deeds of the great soldier, for whom my admiration has increased every day I have studied more closely his military achievements.
Messrs. Coates & Co. having communicated to me your letter of July 1st, I now personally apply to you for my admission as a life member of the Southern Historical Society.
I think that once the war over nothing could be more usefull to both sections of the country, nothing could better soothe the bitter feelings borne by that war, than the formation of a kind of confraternity between the soldiers of both sides who had learnt to appreciate each other, and who can now calmly discuss, for the benefit of the world, every point of the great contest which they fought with such tenacity.
It is in that spirit that I undertook the review of the military events of the civil war. The more I asserted my political sympathies with the cause of the North, the more impartial I tried to be when recording and judging military matters. It is with the sincere desire to seek the truth that I work through the conflicting documents published by both sides, and it is to facilitate that research that I ask to be admitted as a member of a society founded by Southern officers for the sole purpose of furnishing to future historians reliable information on their great achievements.
