Many gentlemen have placed at our disposal sketches, letters, documents,
and valuable material. Our acknowledgments are duly expressed in these
pages. There are a few to whom we feel peculiarly indebted. – Col. Philo
B. Buckingham; Capt. T. F. Vaill of the Second Artillery: Lieut.-Col.
William S. Cogswell of the Fifth ; Chaplain H. S. DeForest of the Eler-enth; Capt. II. P. Goddard of the Fourteenth ; Capt. Ilenry G. Marshall and Enoch E. Rogers of the Fifteenth; Chaplain V C. Walker of
the Eighteenth ; Capt. Luther G. Riggs of the Twenty-second ; Lieut.-Col.
David Torrance of the Tweuty-ninth ; Licut. J. H. Lord of the Second
(three-months' troops); and Johu M. Douglass, Esq., for an admirably-
written chronicle of the part borne by the citizens of Middletown.
It is hoped that no critic will be so nujnst as to compare this volume with the vast and eloquent unwritten history of the war. Kcenly will the friends of many noble men feel that we have failed to portray the self-deny- ing lives and valiant deeds of their heroes; but they can not more than we do. Bany, even of tlie worthy, are numeless here ; for tlieir story has never been told us, and is unrecorded. The whole can not be written. Our facts and incidents are ouly illustrative, not exhaustive. They may not always be the most noteworthy; but they are the best at our command. It is hoped that some compensation for any omissions of this kind may be found in the fact that we have maintained the local character of the work by introducing as much personal incident as conld be added without burdening the narrative. Few books arc ever published that are so full of individual achievement and experience.
We present this volume, however, with confidence, because we feel, that, whatever may be its defects of coustruction, much will be preserved in it which would otherwise be lost, and mncli brought to the notice of the whole State, wbich has liitherto becn known to few outside of town or neighborhood. It may tend to moderate the extravagant estimate which local partiality sometimes places on individuals ; but it can hardly fail to exalt the general impression of the average patriotism and efficicucy.
Deeds of daring and devotion now ennoble the records of every town, A filial gathering of these seeds of history should have a present value in nourishing State pride and stimulating a generous public spirit. And it can not but be prized as a record of ancestral sacrifice by the generations to come, when grandchildren shall cluster around the chair of thic gray-haired volunteer, and listen while he tells once more low he carried the fag at Gettysburg, and when the venerable dame shall resort to the old bureau fragrant with memories, and gaze again through the mists at the blue coat worn by one who went to battle with her blessing, and died joy. fully that the Republic might have a second birth.
