The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Citizen-Soldier, by John Beatty

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Title: The Citizen-Soldier
or, Memoirs of a Volunteer

Author: John Beatty

Release Date: January 27, 2007 [EBook #20460]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE CITIZEN-SOLDIER;

OR,

MEMOIRS OF A VOLUNTEER.

BY

JOHN BEATTY.

* * * * *

CINCINNATI:
WILSTACH, BALDWIN & CO., PUBLISHERS,
NOS. 141 AND 143 RACE STREET.
1879.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by

ELLEN B. HENDERSON,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

TO MY BROTHER,

MAJOR WILLIAM GURLEY BEATTY,

WHOSE GENEROUS SACRIFICE OF HIS OWN INCLINATION AT THE

COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR, AND FAITHFUL DEVOTION

TO MY FAMILY AND BUSINESS,

ENABLED ME TO ENTER THE ARMY AND REMAIN THREE YEARS,

THIS VOLUME

IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

INTRODUCTORY.

In the lifetime of all who arrive at mature age, there comes a period
when a strong desire is felt to know more of the past, especially to
know more of those from whom we claim descent. Many find even their
chief pleasure in searching among parish records and local histories for
some knowledge of ancestors, who for a hundred or five hundred years
have been sleeping in the grave. Long pilgrimages are made to the Old
World for this purpose, and when the traveler discovers in the crowded
church-yard a moss-covered, crumbling stone, which bears the name he
seeks, he takes infinite pains to decipher the half-obliterated epitaph,
and finds in this often what he regards as ample remuneration for all
his trouble. How vastly greater would be his satisfaction if he could
obtain even the simplest and briefest history of those in whom he takes
so deep an interest. Who were they? How were their days spent, and
amongst what surroundings? What were their thoughts, fears, hopes, acts?
Who were their associates, and on which si