PREFACE. Several Southern histories of the late war have been given to the public since the close of hostilities, but no one has ventured to collect in a convenient and permanent form a record of the inside-life of the people of the South, during their struggle for independence. The Editor has thought that a volume of this kind-which shall tell simply and truthfully the story of the daring, the sufferings, and heroic fortitude of the people and soldiers of the South, and at the same time recall to mind the wit and humor, the quaint sayings and the rough camp jests by which those dark and trying days were wont to be enlivened -will prove a timely and useful contribution to the literature of the war. The present volume does not aspire to the dignity of history, but is devoted almost entirely to those topics which the historian must of necessity pass over in silence. The Editor has grouped together in these pages the instances of personal daring, the anecdotes, the "sayings and doings" of the Grayjackets in the army and navy, the songs and ballads, and such ac (5) counts of the home life and "internal arrangements" of Dixie, as could be gathered from the current literature of the day; believing as he does, that the everyday life and sayings of a people afford a better and more intimate knowledge of them, than can ever be gained from the dry pages of history, and that the songs and wit of the camp are equally true indices to the character of an army. The chief difficulty of such an undertaking lay in selecting from the mass before him, such material as it was thought would be most suited to the work. The limits of the book necessarily excluded much that it was desired to use, but it is believed that enough is given to make the picture complete. The incidents related in these pages are of actual occurrence, and almost every article is from the pen of some gallant soldier or sailor who proved his devotion to Dixie, by his deeds, or from one of those noble women whose faith in the cause was equalled only by their love of country. The book being of such a character, it is believed that no better title could be chosen for it, than that which it bears—a name made dear to the South by four years of glory and heroic suffering. |