y won their independence, and
established the best government the world ever saw. But there are men in
this country who hate that government, who have plotted against it, and
who have brought about the present Great Rebellion to destroy it. I have
witnessed some of the battles which have been fought during this war,
although I have not been a soldier, as my grandfather was, and I shall
try, in this volume, to picture those scenes, and give correct
descriptions of the ground, the marching of the troops, the positions
they occupied, and other things, that you may understand how your
father, or your brothers, or your friends, fought for the dear old flag.

CHAPTER I.

HOW THE REBELLION CAME ABOUT.

Many of you, my young readers, have seen the springs which form the
trickling rivulets upon the hillsides. How small they are. You can
almost drink them dry. But in the valley the silver threads become a
brook, which widens to a river rolling to the far-off ocean. So is it
with the ever-flowing stream of time. The things which were of small
account a hundred years ago are powerful forces to-day. Great events do
not usually result from one cause, but from many causes. To ascertain
how the rebellion came about, let us read history.

Nearly three hundred years ago, when Elizabeth was Queen of England, Sir
Walter Raleigh sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to explore the newly
discovered Continent of America. Sir Walter was a sailor, a soldier, and
one of the gentleman attendants of the Queen. He was so courteous and
gallant that he once threw his gold-laced scarlet cloak upon the ground
for a mat, that the Queen might not step her royal foot in the mud. At
that time America was an unexplored wilderness. The old navigators had
sailed along the coasts, but the smooth waters of the great lakes and
rivers had never been ruffled by the oars of European boatmen.

Sir Walter found a beautiful land, shaded by grand old forests; also
fertile fields, waving with corn and a broad-leaved plant with purple
flowers, which the Indians smoked in pipes of flint and vermilion stone
brought from the cliffs of the great Missouri River.

The sailors learned to smoke, and when Sir Walter returned to England
they puffed their pipes in the streets. The people were amazed, and
wondered if the sailors were on fire. So tobacco began to be used in
England. That was in 1584. We shall see that a little tobacco-smoke
whiffed nearly three hundred years