The Project Gutenberg EBook of With Lee in Virginia, by G. A. Henty

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Title: With Lee in Virginia
A Story of the American Civil War

Author: G. A. Henty

Release Date: September 1, 2006 [EBook #19154]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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WITH LEE IN VIRGINIA

_A STORY OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR_

BY

G. A. HENTY

AUTHOR OF "WITH CLIVE IN INDIA," "WITH WOLFE IN CANADA," "BY ENGLAND'S
AID," "IN THE REIGN OF TERROR," "THE DRAGON AND THE RAVEN"

NEW YORK
HURST AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

PREFACE.

My Dear Lads:

The Great War between the Northern and Southern States of America
possesses a peculiar interest to us, not only because it was a struggle
between two sections of a people akin to us in race and language, but
because of the heroic courage with which the weaker party, with ill-fed,
ill-clad, ill-equipped regiments, for four years sustained the contest
with an adversary not only possessed of immense numerical superiority,
but having the command of the sea, and being able to draw its arms and
munitions of war from all the manufactories of Europe. Authorities still
differ as to the rights of the case. The Confederates firmly believed
that the States, having voluntarily united, retained the right of
withdrawing from the Union when they considered it for their advantage
to do so. The Northerners took the opposite point of view, and an appeal
to arms became inevitable. During the first two years of the war the
struggle was conducted without inflicting unnecessary hardship upon the
general population. But later on the character of the war changed, and
the Federal armies carried widespread destruction wherever they marched.
Upon the other hand, the moment the struggle was over the conduct of the
conquerors was marked by a clemency and generosity altogether unexampled
in history, a complete amnesty being granted, and none, whether sold