AN EXPLANATION
I have been frequently urged by men in different parts of the country to write out, and give to the public, the story of St. Louis during the Civil War. Having had of late my time largely at my own disposal, I determined to yield to these earnest solicitations. But I have found the task somewhat more difficult than I anticipated. While all that I saw in St. Louis, and all in which I participated, came back to my mind with remarkable freshness and vividness, I have been compelled, because of the lapse of time since the war, to verify my recollections by wide reading and painstaking research. I have tried to weigh impartially what has been said both by those who were for, and those who were against, the Union.
Upon some points pertaining to military operations in St. Louis and Missouri, I have found considerable conflicting testimony. In such cases I have either given authorities on both sides, or, having sifted the evidence pro and con, have presented what seemed to me to be, at least approximately, the historical facts. And while in some instances I may have come short of absolute accuracy, in all my statements I have earnestly endeavored to present the exact truth.
But I have treated of the movements of troops and the acts of the general government only in so far as they immediately affected the life and experiences of those within our city. My sole object in all that I have written has been to portray as clearly and vividly as I could what transpired among us from 1860 to 1865; to note some events that preceded the war and were the harbingers of it; to reveal the currents of thought and feeling in St. Louis during the whole fratricidal struggle, and especially to point out what was peculiar to us as a community made up of the loyal and disloyal.
To my own mind it is clear that our great Civil War can never be fully understood without a knowledge of the unique experiences of a border city, and especially of St. Louis, for the possession of which both parties to our great national conflict so earnestly contended. During the long and bloody battle for the Union, my home was there, and this book is simply “an unvarnished tale” of what I saw and of work in which I shared. As a testimony I trust that it may be of some worth.
And since I intended it to be only a simple testimony, it has not been written to make out a case. I have tried to divest myself of the spirit of a partisan, and to present in an unbiased manner what I personally observed. I have endeavored to write, as the martyred President did, “with malice toward none, with charity for all.”
Galusha Anderson.
Newton Centre, Mass.
April, 1908.
For the originals of several of the illustrations in this volume the author is indebted to Miss Mary Louise Dalton, the late Librarian of the Missouri Historical Society, whose many kindnesses will always be held in grateful remembrance.