Confederate Military History. Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry

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      It is fit that a few words be said here regarding the authorship of these volumes, in a general way to express the gratitude of the publishers for the hearty co-operation and patriotic spirit of all the distinguished gentlemen who have contributed to this work, and specially to note briefly those facts regarding the life of each that commend them alike to the confidence of the South and the high regard of the student who seeks historical authority.

      Hon. J. L. M. Curry, LL.D., who writes upon “The legal justification of the Southern States in their ordinances of secession, and the honorable course of the Confederate States government in the conduct of the war,” has had a long and eminent career familiar to the people of the South. During the important period, 1857 to 1861, he represented his Alabama district in the Congress of the United States, and upon the secession of his State he was elected a delegate to the first provisional Congress, at Montgomery, and a member of the first Confederate States Congress, at Richmond. After the close of his term he served in the field in Georgia and Alabama. Subsequently he entered upon religious and educational work, was president of Howard college. a professor of Richmond college, Virginia, and since 1881 general agent of the Peabody educational fund. During the first administration of President Cleveland he represented the United States as minister to Spain, and his experiences in that country are related in one of the several contributions which he has made to literature.

      Prof. William R. Garrett, author of the history of the South as a factor in the formation and extension of the Constitutional Union, is a Virginian by birth and was graduated at William and Mary college. He enlisted as a private in Col. B. S. Ewell's regiment, but soon afterward became captain of an artillery company which won the praise of Gen. J. E. B. Stuart at the battle of Williamsburg. His subsequent service was as adjutant, first of a battalion of partisan rangers in Tennessee, and later of the Eleventh Tennessee cavalry regiment, until he was surrendered with General Forrest at Gainesville, Ala. Returning to Virginia, he became master of the grammar school of William and Mary college, but in 1868 he made his home in Tennessee, where he has devoted his talents to the cause of education. He has been State superintendent of public instruction, was president of the inter. national meeting of the National educational association at Toronto, and is professor of American history at Peabody normal college, editor of the American historical magazine, vice-president and chairman of the historical committee of the Tennessee association of Confederate soldiers, and member of the committee on history of the United Confederate Veterans.

      Gen. Clement A. Evans, in addition to the editorship of these volumes, has contributed a monograph upon the civil history of the Confederate States, treating specially of the political events of the period, also a brief general view of the military history. General Evans is familiar to the people of the South, through his gallant service in the army of Northern Virginia-at the close commanding Gordon's division; his prominence in the national organization of United Confederate Veterans, and his distinction as a citizen of the great State of Georgia. His lucid and forceful exposition of the history of the Con. federate States government, in its relation to the States, the people, and other national governments, is an essential part of this historical library.

      Lieut. William Harwar Parker, of gallant record both in the navies of the United States and Confederate States, just before the close of his life contributed to this work the sketch of the Confederate States navy which appears in the final volume. A practiced writer on historical, and scientific subjects, no one could have been found better qualified to present, in the brief space which could be allotted, an account of the gallant deeds of the navy. He entered the service of the Confederate States after twenty years connection with the old United States navy, during which he had participated in the war with Mexico, and sailed upon the first cruise, in the Pacific, of the Merrimac. His gallant performance of duty on the North Carolina coast early in 1862, was followed by memorable service in the famous battle of the ironclads in Hampton Roads, and on the Palmetto State in Charleston harbor. Subsequently he organized and was superintendent of the Confederate States naval academy until the close of hostilities. In the course of his subsequent career he served as president of the Maryland agricultural college, and as minister of the United States to Korea during the first administration of President Cleveland.

      “The morale of the Confederate armies,” a chapter demonstrating the high character of the Confederate soldier, his unflinching endurance of hardship, unyielding allegiance to principle, and unfaltering obedience to orders, is the subject of a chapter of the final volume, from the pen of the gifted Confederate chaplain, Rev. John William Jones, D. D. His career in the army, first as a private soldier, afterward as chaplain of his Virginia regiment, and of A. P. Hill's corps, army of Northern Virginia, marching with the soldiers, going with them into battle, and ministering to them in hospital, from Harper's Ferry to Appomattox, qualifies him in an exceptional manner for an adequate treatment of this subject. His life since the war has been consecrated to religious and benevolent work in the South, and to preservation in literature of the memories of the great conflict for Southern independence.

      Gen. Stephen D. Lee, who entered the Confederate service as an officer of artillery, from South Carolina, rose to great prominence in that army at the time of the battle of Sharpsburg; then being sent to the Mississippi river, defeated Gen. W. T. Sherman at Chickasaw bayou; was afterward in command of the department of Mississippi and East Louisiana, and from Atlanta to Bentonville commanded Hood's corps of the army of Tennessee, with the rank of lieutenant-general. Since the close of the war he has devoted himself to the vital interests of his beloved South, along the line of technical education, and for several years has been president of the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical college. He is thoroughly in sympathy with the Confederate soldier, and is honored by the order of United Confederate Veterans with the rank of lieutenant-general and the position of chairman of the historical committee. General Lee has prepared for the final volume of this work an able statement of the political history of the South since the war, and an enthusiastic resume of its present material development and prospects.

      Gen. Bradley T. Johnson, the gallant organizer and leader of the Maryland Line, distinguished in many of the battles of the army of Virginia, one of the most brilliant regimental and brigade commanders under Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee, and for a time in command of division, is the author of the military history of Maryland, a subject which he is eminently qualified to handle. With a facile pen he has traced the history of his State, in so far as it was involved in the Confederate war.

      Col. Robert White, of Wheeling, W. Va., a distinguished attorney familiar to the veterans of the South through his prominence in the order of United Confederate veterans as major-general commanding the West Virginia division, is a native of Hampshire county, of the original State of Virginia. As a captain of volunteers he reported to Col. T. J. Jackson at Harper's Ferry in the spring of 1861. Subsequently he raised a battalion of cavalry within the enemy's lines, which he commanded with gallantry, finally becoming colonel of the Twenty-third Virginia cavalry, of which his battalion was the nucleus. At the close of hostilities he had a record of gallant participation in fifty-six cavalry fights. In the preparation СКАЧАТЬ