t
want being among the people are untrue, and we purposely avoid
searching for the truth of such assertions. The design of the author,
in this little book, has been to open the eyes of the people to the
truth. If he has painted the trials of the soldiers wife more highly
colored than reality could permit, it has been because he desired to
present his argument with greater force than he could otherwise have
done; and yet, if we examine well the picture he presents; take it in
its every part, and look on each one, we will find that it does not
exaggerate a single woe. We have seen far greater scenes of
wretchedness than those narrated herein; scenes which defy
description; for their character has been so horrible that to depict
it, a pen mightier than a Bulwer's or a Scott's would be necessary.

The tale which the reader has just finished perusing is taken from
scenes that _actually occurred_ during the present war--except,
perhaps, that part which relates the tearing of the mother from the
bedside of her dead child. In every other respect all that is narrated
in the foregoing pages are strictly true, and there are parties now in
the South, who, when they read this work, will recognize in
themselves, some of the characters represented herein. The Author
would rejoice, for the sake of humanity and civilization if the tale
he has written was only a fiction of his own imagining; but did it not
contain truths the work would never have been written. No other object
than that of calling attention to the vast misery and wretchedness
which at the present time of writing abounds in the South, prompted
the Author to pen the pages which you have perused. He has witnessed
them himself; he has seen the soldiers wife absolutely starving, and
from a slender purse has himself endeavored to relieve their
necessities. To present before the world the fact that there are
thousands in our midst who are in _absolute beggary_, has been the
object of the writer, and to call on those who are able to do so, to
aid these unfortunates, is his purpose. This book is an appeal to the
Rich in favor of the Poor. It is the voice of Humanity calling upon
Wealth to rise from her sluggish torpor and wrest the hungry and
threadbare victim from the grasp of Famine, and drive desolation from
our midst. If this call is answered; if the wealthy awake to their
duty and save the wretched beings who are in our midst, then the
Author will have gained a richer reward