MILITARYREMINISCENCES
OF THE CIVIL WAR
BY
JACOB DOLSON COX,A.M., LL.D.
Formerly Major-General commandingTwenty-Third Army Corps
VOLUME I.
APRIL 1861--NOVEMBER 1863
PREFACE
My aim in this book has been to reproduce my own experience in ourCivil War in such a way as to help the reader understand just how theduties and the problems of that great conflict presented themselvessuccessively to one man who had an active part in it from the beginningto the end. In my military service I was so conscious of the benefit itwas to me to get the personal view of men who had served in our own orother wars, as distinguished from the general or formal history, that Iformed the purpose, soon after peace was restored, to write such anarrative of my own army life. My relations to many prominent officersand civilians were such as to give opportunities for intimate knowledgeof their personal qualities as well as their public conduct. It hasseemed to me that it might be useful to share with others what I thuslearned, and to throw what light I could upon the events and the men ofthat time.
As I have written historical accounts of some campaigns separately,it may be proper to say that I have in this book avoided repetition, andhave tried to make the personal narrative supplement and lend newinterest to the more formal story. Some of the earlier chapters appearedin an abridged form in "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," and theclosing chapter was read before the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion.By arrangements courteously made by the Century Company and theCommandery, these chapters, partly re-written, are here found in theirproper connection.
Though my private memoranda are full enough to give me reasonableconfidence in the accuracy of these reminiscences, I have made it a dutyto test my memory by constant reference to the original contemporaneousmaterial so abundantly preserved in the government publication of theOfficial Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Where the seriesof these records is not given, my references are to the First Series,with the abbreviation O. R., and I have preferred to adhere to theofficial designation of the volumes in parts, as each volume thenincludes the documents of a single campaign.
J. D. C.
NOTE.--The manuscript of this work had been completed by GeneralCox, and placed in the hands of the publishers several weeks before hisuntimely death at Magnolia, Mass., August 4, 1900. He himself had readand revised some four hundred pages of the press-work. The work ofreading and revising the remaining proofs and of preparing a generalindex for the work was undertaken by the undersigned from a deep senseof obligation to and loving regard for the author, which could not finda more fitting expression at this time. No material changes have beenmade in text or notes. Citations have been looked up and referencesverified with care, yet errors may have crept in, which his well-knownaccuracy would have excluded. For all such and for the imperfections o