1894

Copyright, 1893, by Lee and Shepard
_All Rights Reserved_

A Victorious Union

Type-Setting and Electrotyping by
C. J. Peters & Son, Boston
S. J. Parkhill & Co., Printers, Boston

To My Friend

FRANK L. HARRIS

Who came from the cold of the Arctic regions, where he
was a member of the Hayes expedition, and went
into the heat of the War of the Rebellion,
serving as a Naval officer
until the end of the strife,

To whom I am greatly indebted for much valuable
information relating to his profession,

This Book

Is Gratefully Dedicated.

PREFACE

"A VICTORIOUS UNION" is the sixth and last of "The Blue and the Gray
Series." While the volume is not intended to be a connected historical
narrative of the particular period of the War of the Rebellion in which
its scenes are laid, the incidents accurately conform to the facts,
and especially to the spirit, of the eventful years in which they are
placed, as recorded in the chronicles of the great struggle, and as they
exist in the memory of the writer. It is more than thirty years since
the war began, and thousands upon thousands of the active participants
in the strife as soldiers and sailors, including nearly all the great
commanders, have passed on to their eternal reward. Thousands upon
thousands of men and women have been born and reached their maturity
since the most tremendous war of modern times ended in A Victorious
Union. The knowledge of the stirring events of those four years of
conflict, and of the patriotic spirit which inspired and underlaid
them, has come, or will come, to at least one-half the population
of this vast nation of sixty-five millions from the printed page or
through the listening ear. The other moiety, more or less, either as
children or adults, lived in the period of action, saw the gathering
battalions, and heard or read the daily reports from the ensanguined
battle-fields.

In some of the States that remained loyal to the Union throughout the
long struggle, a military parade had been regarded by many as something
very much in the nature of a circus display, as "fuss and feathers,"
such as tickled the vanity of both officer and private. Military
organizations, except in our small regular army, were disparaged and
ridiculed. When the war came, the No