away to Blakely: but the author continues to count them as if still forming part of Spanish Fort garrison.
But despite the defects of the work, some of which we have endeavored to illustrate, it is a valuable addition to the history of the times, and will probably be the accepted authority on that side about the essential history of the last great battle of the war between the States, as it is not probable that anybody else will have the painstaken industry and, at the same time, the direct personal interest in the subject to embody in a form so permanent the events of a campaign so brief and so bootless—a campaign which was begun when scarce a hope was left of that independence for which we had fought four years and was ended after Lee's surrender at Appomattox had enshrowed in the pall of utter despair every heart that could feel a patriot's glow throughout all our stricken land.
Because it was my honor to command that Confederate army at Mobile, and my privilege to share its fortunes to the very end, it is my duty to record its story. I cannot do so more briefly than in the narrative I now reproduce, which was originally written by me soon after Mr. Davis, our late honored President, was released from arrest on account of his participation in the war of secession.
He had entrusted me with the command of the Department of the Gulf and the defence of Mobile. I felt a soldier's natural desire to inform him how that trust had been executed.
General Andrews' book and excellent maps, in connection with the report and comments herein given, will afford to the military reader all that is essential to a proper understanding of the last great battle which has yet been fought to uphold the rights of the States against the encroachments of the Federal power.
Major-General late Confederate Army.
To Hon. Jefferson Davis.
Late President Southern Confederacy:
My dear sir—I avail myself of your permission to narrate to you the history of the last great military operation between the troops of the Confederate States and the troops of the United States.
Immediately after the battle of Nashville, preparations were commenced for the reduction of Mobile. Two corps which had
