"But here the written record stands
Of all that time of glory,
And bright through every age shall live
These names in song and story.
"Willard Glazier wrote his name
First in war's deeds, then slipping
His fingers off the sword, he found
The mightier pen more fitting.
"Read but the book—'twill summon back
The spirits now immortal,
Who bravely died for fatherland
And passed the heavenly portal!"
Such was the demand for the work that one hundred and seventy-five thousand copies of it were sold, and we may safely predicate that in the homes of thousands of veterans scattered all over the land, the book has been a source of profound interest in the help it has afforded them in recounting to family and friends the thrilling events of their war experience.
CHAPTER XXIX.
"BATTLES FOR THE UNION."
"Battles for the Union." — Extracts. — Bull Run. — Brandy Station. — Manassas. — Gettysburg. — Pittsburg Landing. — Surrender of General Lee. — Opinions of the press. — Philadelphia "North American." — Pittsburg "Commercial." — Chicago "Inter-Ocean." — Scranton "Republican." — Wilkes-Barre "Record of the Times." — Reading "Eagle." — Albany "Evening Journal."
"Battles for the Union,"—published by Dustin Gilman and Company, Hartford, Connecticut—was the next work that emanated from our soldier author's prolific pen. The most stubbornly contested battles of the great Rebellion herein find forcible and picturesque description. "I have endeavored," Glazier writes in his preface to this interesting work, "in 'Battles for the Union' to present, in the most concise and simple form, the great contests in the war for the preservation of the Republic of the United States;" and as evidence of the manner in which this task was undertaken, we shall again present to the reader some passages from the work itself.
As an illustration of descriptive clearness and force, combined with conciseness and simplicity of narrative, we present the opening of the chapter on Bull Run:
"The field of Bull Run and the plains of Manassas will never lose their interest for the imaginative young or the patriotic old; for on this field and over these plains are scattered the bones of more than forty thousand brave men of both North and South, who have met in mortal combat and laid down their lives in defence of their principles.