contest to the conclusion it reached, by the surrender of the armies under the command of Lee and Johnston.
Bad as was the situation at the time of which I am writing, and worse as it was shortly made by the surrender of Vicksburg, and other disasters in the west, and by the lamentable conclusion of Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania, the Confederates fought on for two years longer, with a heroic contempt for defeat, that won for them the admiration of the world. History does not record any such magnificent resistance as the South made ; and however opinions may differ with regard to the original merit of the quarrel, not even the bitterest enemies of the Confederate cause can refuse to admit that it was defended with splendid courage.
But it is no part of my purpose to produce a history of the war. The story of the great contest has been written by abler pens than mine. I only aim at giving in plain language an unadorned narrative of the personal experiences of a single adherent of the Confederacy experiences which gain their chief interest from the fact that they were different in a marked degree from those of any other participant in the war on either side, and I can only hope that the story of my adventures has proved sufficiently attractive to the reader to induce a perusal of it to the end.
