EDITORIAL PARAGRAPHS.
Our Fourth Volume begins with this number, and we think we can safely promise that it will surpass in interest and value either of the volumes which have preceded it. We will begin in our next number the publication of a series of papers on the battle of Gettysburg, which will be simply invaluable to all who desire to know the truth concerning that great battle; and these will be followed by able papers on other battles and campaigns. "We have scarcely touched our series of original MS. reports, and shall, from month to month, continue to publish the more important of these. In a word, we desire to make our Papers indispensable to all who would know the truth concerning our great struggle for constitutional freedom.
But we earnestly beg that our friends will help us by sending papers of interest on any thing concerning the war, and by securing for us subscribers to our Monthly.
The Burning of Twenty-seven Boxes of Confederate Documents in North Carolina the other day, which those in charge of them had intended to send to our Archives, is but another sad illustration of the danger of allowing valuable material to remain in private hands.
A distinguished Confederate officer wrote us last year that a fire had just destroyed invaluable reports, &c., which he had intended to send us, and we fear that other such examples will be needed to convince our friends that the right thing to do with such material is to send it at once by express to J. Wm. Jones, Secretary Southern Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia.
Remember, that where our friends have material which they are not willing to donate, we will be glad to receive it as a loan, to be carefully preserved and held subject to their order.
Mr. W. B. McEwen, a former agent of our Society in Georgia and Alabama, would find it to his interest to communicate at once with this office, and any friend knowing his whereabouts would confer a favor by informing us without delay.
Our Bound Volumes (3 of which are now ready), are very neatly gotten up, and we are not surprised that many subscribers prefer to take their numbers bound, rather than in pamphlet form. We would advise all such, how-
