Excerpt from The First New York (Lincoln) Cavalry: From April 19, 1861 to July 7, 1865 The work has been done in intervals of leisure in an almost constant occupation. The material has been taken from the diary of the writer, regularly kept during the entire four years; from letters written home. And from diaries and communications of comrades. For the details of related events all avail able authorities have been freely consulted. It is an attempt to do justice, no more and no less, to worthy men and boys who promptly responded to the Presi dent's first call for volunteers, or who rather anticipated a call for volunteer cavalry. It has not been the purpose to make a conventional or pretentious book. The purpose has been to represent as nearly as possible the men and conditions of the regiment as they actually were. And to narrate events as they actually took place. The career of the regiment was not an unbroken succession of brilliant charges. Nor were the officers and enlisted men all knights without fear and without reproach. But they did good service to the country, and the record of what they did, though imperfectly made up, deserves to be preserved. The minor incidents may not be of historical import ance. Some of them are given as showing the characters of the men, and the nature of their experiences. 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.