The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1898-05-26
War Papers,.
A Valuable Book Issued by the Maine Com
mandery of the Loyal Legion.

Commandery of the State of Maine, Mill
tary Order of the Loyal Legion of the
United States, has through wise publ
cation committee brought out most val
liable book of War Papers. The book is a
large octave, containing eight pages of
title page, preface and table of contents;
three hundred and forty three pages of
reading matter; eight pages of careful
and complete index. 1he press work is
of unusual excellence, clear pleasant
type, most attractive page, beautiful
white laid paper. The binding is of dark
blue cloth, with the imprint of the insig-
mia of the order of the Loyal Legion on
the cover. There are two full page plates.
The book contains nineteen papers, ar
ranged in the order of their reading be-
fore the Commandery at meetings be-
tween the years 1888 and 1896. These
papers were all written by members of the
Commandery and are in every case per-
sonal experiences. No writer is repre-
sented by more than one paper. They
are printed almost exactly as they were
read, very few changes being necessary III
the editing Most of them display lit
erary merit fan above the ordinary de
Scrlpton of similar experiences, and a
lew llSe 70 INC SlduGdlu " tnt very HlSH-
est order of historic studies. None is
without commanding features and Inter
est. TO one whose lot forbade his enter
ing into active participation in that most
sad and glorious period of our country S
history the Civil War, the experiences
themselves are like to 90 on record in
mathematical order, as SO many skirmish-
es, battles or campaigns. They lose their
vitality their ''tesh and BLOOD signiti-
canoe, becoming merely the chronicle OF
the calendars sequence or OF geographic
cal juXtaposition. From such meaning
lessness our history is saved by the kind
of papers in this volume. Theii nature
gives them the greatest value They are
personal recolectiOns OF the most inter
esting and absorbing experiences that
ever came into the lives of the writers.
And more than that they are words Of
intimate recitation from friend to friends
in the freedom of companiouable associa-
tons. On this account they furnish the
truest kind of history, for the events and
episodes here recalled are clothed in the
garb Of living reality, born as they are
out OF favorable soil of friendly solicita-
ton, Every paper has a reality of its own.
Each presents picture of the original
episodes, adjusted to the course of future
events, by maturer judgment and more
than a generation of weighing in the mem
DRY, but preserving at the same time all
those little details of individual impress
sion which make a book Of this kind SO
clear, so real and of such unique value
The papers cover each year of the war
and carry the reader from northern Yer
mont and PASSPORT to Mobile and the Red
River expedition of 1864. The boys of
81 by General Common gives picture of
unusual value of just how the war en-
tered into the life of the youths who re-
sponded to the first call of President Lin
coin. Major Charles Ii. Boyd gives in
his ''Incident on the Coast of Maine in
1861, - an account of something done in
Passamaquoddy Bay, including belliger
ent picnic party, IN which ships We're
captured and the first Confederate flag
seen in those waters. Gettysburg is re-
hearsed again by Lieutenant and Adju
tant Charles ". Roberts, who tells his
part in the battle, his misfortune. his
kind treatment as a wounded soldier and
then d glimpse he had OF it all after
twenty-five years; by Brevet Brigader-
General Thomas w. Hyde, who gives his
Tecollecjions and incidentally many opin-
ions oI generals engaged and comparison
of Gettysburg and Waterloo: and the
work of the Seventeenth Maine is recalled
by the first part Of paper by Captain
George ". Neuill. The second part of
Captain Nerrill's paper takes the Seven
teenth Maine 20 the Wilderness, the
earnestness and excitement and hard
lighting Of which are again brought out by
IAN Experience in the Battle OF the Will
derness, by Brevet Major Holman S.
Melcheg Lieutenant Henry \. Fairbanks
tells briefly the story of four battles i'll
''The Red Liver Expedition of ISL
Commander Oliver 4. Batcheller. U.
S. n, gives an unusually interesting ac
count Of Farragut's naval fight iu Mobile
Bay, III which fight he himself was an
officer of the Monongahela. Perhaps
nothing during the war appeals more to
our sympathy than the sad prison life.
Five of these papers treat of imprison-
meht. "Twenty-two Hours Prisoner of
War in Dixie, by Brevet Major General
Henry 6. Thomas is indeed far more of
comedy than tragedy; and the strangely
What Came of It, by Brevet Major Hen
~ 5. Burrage, wherein, as the result of
all attempt Il exchange newspapers, he
was captured, and by unique chain of
circumstances held prisoner, part of the
time at Libby, dismissed from the SER
vice for dlsobedience of orders, finally re-
stored to rank and released, appeals more
to our sense Of justice than pity. But
The sad stories in ''Our Escape from
Camp Sorghum" by Lieutenant Charles
0. Hunt, In Six Prisons" by Brevet
Brigadier General Charles p Mattocks,
Personal Observations and Experiences
in Rebel Prisons, 1864, 1861" by Major
Akner Fl. Small, bring us face to face
with the possible horrors of warfare
The other side of suffering in war is
given by Major and Surgeon Seth c. Cor
don in his "reminiscences of the Civil
War from Surgeons point of View"
Major Sidney w. Thaxter's "a Remark
able Reconnaissance, gives an attractive
incident in the fortunes OF the Army of
the Potomac in the fall of 1868. Show
ing how the army closed around Rich
mond at the last, there is the brilliantly
planned, but unfortunate ''Battle of the
Crater by Captain Horace H. Burbank
the experiences of one who followed
with the Seventh Maine Battery" by
Brevet Major William B. Lapham, located
at Fort He'll and the longest paper in the
book, THE Miitary Operations on the
White Oak Road Virginia. March 81,
1861" by Brewer Major General Joshua
l.. Chamberlain. This last ranks with
apV historical na nnrS yrittap cpncarpi r