Excerpt from Gleanings From Southland: Sketches of Life and Manners of the People of the South Before, During and After the War of Secession, With Extracts From the Author's Journal and an Epitome of the New South Shortly after publishing my work, "Hospital Life," I sent a copy of the book to Mrs. Gen. Robert E. Lee. As soon as she perused it she wrote to me, saying: "I am thankful some one has kept a record of our trials." She also said she wished I had had the book published in the North, for she was certain that if the people there would read it they would have some idea of our suffering, and the facts so given would have a good tendency. It is with the same idea in view that I now offer this volume to the public. I have given our thoughts and feelings as they were at the time of our terrible struggle, feeling assured that no generous minded man or woman but will say they were natural under the circumstances. Being the victors, the Northern people can well afford to listen to our side of the story. While visiting in the North, although treated with the greatest kindness, many circumstances served to show that there was need of just such a work as "Gleanings from Southland." I have every reason to hope it will be the means of making the two sections better known to each other than they now are. I sincerely trust that the people of this great land of ours may be long united in spirit as well as in name, and hope, in the words of our beloved priest-poet. Father Ryan, that "The graves of the dead with the grass overgrown, May yet form the footstool of liberty's throne; And each single wreck in the war-path of might Shall yet be a rock in the temple of right." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.