BOSTON
GEORGE M. SMITH & CO.
1887
Copyright, 1887,
By John D. Billings.
Electrotyped
By C. J. Peters and Son, Boston.
BERWICK & SMITH, PRINTERS, BOSTON.
DEDICATION.
To my comrades of the Army of the Potomac who, it is believed, will find rehearsed in these pages much that has not before appeared in print, and which it is hoped will secure to their children in permanent form valuable information about a soldier’s life in detail that has thus far been only partially written, this work is most affectionately dedicated by their friend,
The Author.
PREFACE.
During the summer of 1881 I was a sojourner for a few weeks at a popular hotel in the White Mountains. Among the two hundred or more guests who were enjoying its retirement and good cheer were from twelve to twenty lads, varying in age from ten to fifteen years. When tea had been disposed of, and darkness had put an end to their daily romp and hurrah without, they were wont to take in charge a gentleman from Chicago, formerly a gallant soldier in the Army of the Cumberland, and in a quiet corner of the spacious hotel parlor, or a remote part of the piazza, would listen with eager attention as he related chapters of his personal experience in the Civil War.