tters amid arms,
while passion was hottest, and men were too excited to care for the
exact truth, had trained this cool-headed scribe to critical treatment
of rumors and reports. Furthermore, he knew the value of first
authorities and of contemporary writers and eye-witnesses. He
discounted much of the writing done after the war in controversy, for
political ends, for personal vanity, or to cover up damaged
reputations. He knew both the heating and the cooling processes of
time. I remember when, about 1890, after he had finished making a set
of scrap-books of soldiers' letters, reminiscences and newspaper
reports of the battles of the war, how heartily he laughed when, with
twinkling eyes, he remarked on the tendency of some old soldiers "to
remember a good deal that never happened." As his experience with
the pen deepened, he became more rigid in his requirements as to the
quality of the information which his books gave. Those who have read
especially his four later volumes on the war, will note that at the
end of each chapter he gives the sources of authority for his
statements and judgments. In a word, Carleton was a man who, having
mapped the irrigated country and the stream's mouth, resolutely set
his face towards the fountains to find them. There is an increasing
exactness and care in finish, as his works progressed.

The decade from 1870 to 1880 was a busy one for this author, not only
in his home study, in the Boston libraries, but also with the pen and
with voice. The formation of the Grand Army of the Republic, and the
establishments of Posts all over the country, and especially in the
Northern States, created a demand for lectures on the war. The
soldiers themselves wished to study the great subject as a whole,
while their wives and children and friends were only too glad to
support the movement for the gathering of Post libraries, or the
collection in the town public libraries of books relating to the war.
The younger generation needed instruction as to causes, as well as to
results. Carleton was everywhere a favorite, because of his
personality, as well as of his wide and profound acquaintance, from
actual observation, of the great movements which consolidated nations.

Years before becoming a war correspondent, Carleton had longed to be
an orator who could sway thousands by the magic of his eloquence. More
than once, after hearing Edward Everett, Rufus Choate, Wendell
Phillips, and such masters of audie