The papers here collected were read by the Regimental Historian, from time to time, at Annual Re-unions of the 9th Indiana Cavalry. They are printed at the request of the boys of the regiment, and are for their benefit.
Combined, they give, as seen from the standpoint of the individual who narrates, the principal events in which the regiment took part, but do not even refer to many skirmishes in which it participated with the forces of Wheeler, Forrest, Rhoddy, and other Confederate Cavalry leaders, in the Department of the Cumberland, and "brushes" with guerrillas in the Military Division of the Mississippi,—"affairs" unimportant from the insignificance of the numbers engaged, but in which the most soldierly qualities were often displayed.
The papers were not all prepared by the Historian: with those he did not write he has, with the full consent of the respective authors, made such changes as he thought proper.
The paper by J. A. Brown, corporal Co. L, on "Sulphur Branch Trestle," appears as written by him, without a verbal change.
The other paper upon the same subject is made up of accounts furnished by Col. Lilly and Capt. J. B. Harrod, Co. B.
While the writer assisted in making up the detail sent upon that unfortunate expedition, it was not his fortune to go with it.
The very able and graphic chapter upon the Hood Campaign is from the pen of Capt. O. B. Hayden, Co. D.
The account of the Lynnville fight appears substantially as given by Capt. Harrod.
If in these sketches it appears that too much stress is put on minor matters, and things of importance but lightly stated, it should be remembered that the statements are made from individual observations, and the shading must be looked at from the observer's angle of observation.
Hereafter, if the boys desire, the story of the regiment may be further told.