ROBERT EDWARD LEE From a daguerreotype probably made when he was colonel of cavalry, U. S. A., now in possession of the Virginia Historical Society, Richmond. From the portrait as commander-in-chief, VOLUME FOURTEEN THE CIVIL WAR FROM A SOUTHERN STANDPOINT BY THE LATE WILLIAM ROBERTSON GARRETT, A. M., PH. D. PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN PEABODY NORMAL Author of: The South Carolina Cession and the Northern Boundary of AND ROBERT AMBROSE HALLEY Author of: War History of the "Memphis Appeal"; Relics of the Mound PRINTED AND PUBLISHED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY BY EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION THE war between the States gave rise to an enormous literature which is each year increasing in bulk. The majority of the items of this vast accumulation of historical contribution is absolutely partisan, and of the rest we do not find half a dozen that are unbiased and at the same time virile. Neutrality seems attainable by emasculation. alone. Reflection will show the cause for this state of affairs; reason will demonstrate that when sentiment causes and maintains a conflict, no relation of the struggle that does not reflect the sentiment is a faithful presentation of the consequent war. Historians have found it easy to reflect one side or the other, but not to give both. Believing that the reason for this was sound, THE HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICA did not seek to present in one volume the views of the North and the South. The editor held it important that the story of the North should be told by a man of the North, while that of the South should be related by a native of that section, and that both sides should be presented by men identified with the great internecine strife. The editor was confirmed in this opinion by the fact that of all the general histories not one so presented the narrative of the Civil War, and it seemed most fitting that in this, the first history of North America, the initiative should be taken in recording the opposing views of sections whose struggle made the years from 1860 to 1865 the most vital in the history of the United States. After consultation with certain of the surviving leaders of the Lost Cause, notably General Stephen D. Lee and General John B. Gordon, the work of preparing the volume giving the Southern side of the history of the Civil War was assigned to the distinguished scholar, William Robertson Garrett, of Nashville, whose work in the field of Confederate history, and notably his contributions to the military history of the Civil War, had given him a prominent place among Southern historians. Dr. Garrett had completed the text of almost half of the volume and had made copious notes for the remainder when he died suddenly of angina pectoris in the city of his residence. He had so far anticipated the fatal result of his physical weakness, which continually interrupted his labors, that some two weeks before his death he wrote to the general editor of The History Of North America naming as his literary executor Dr. Halley, in whose knowledge and ability, as well as Southern sympathies, Dr. Garrett had perfect confidence. The history of the Civil War from the Southern standpoint is, then, the work of two men, both thoroughly qualified for their task. The late Dr. Garrett was essentially of the old school, that to which Jefferson Davis belonged; Dr. Halley is, while in direct touch and hearty accord with the South of ante-bellum days, nevertheless a representative of what the late Henry Grady called the New South. No happier combination of authorship could have been made, for while the present volume is essentially Southern, while it is true to the traditions of the past, it is keenly alive to the necessities of the present and to the interests of the future. This volume will come as a surprise to those who look for a bitter and biased work. It will also be a disappointment to those who expect to find in it the petty scandal that is always the aftermath of struggle—be that struggle political, military, or other. On the contrary, the present work is a calm and dispassionate presentation of the war ast seen by men of judicial mind. This presentation has, naturally, two sides. One of these is the philosophy of the |