SO BLUNDERING was the attempt of [General Ambrose E.] Burnside on [Fredericksburg] December 13, 1862, and so easily was he beaten, notwithstanding the immensity of his force and power of his arms, that it seemed on our side rather a skirmish than a battle, though of the enemy the slaughter was terrific. Under the flag…

GENERAL LEE had nothing of nepotism about him, but meted out the evenest justice to all, except that he did not promote his relatives as rapidly as he did others. His son Robert served as a private in the ranks of the Rock-bridge Artillery, sharing with his comrades of that crack corps all their dangers,…

[ONE NIGHT in the early summer of 1863, just after the failure of the naval attack on Fort Sumter], as we walked back to the White House through the grounds between the War Department buildings and the house, I fancied that I saw in the misty moonlight a man dodging behind one of the trees.…

WHILE FEAR OF AN ATTACK…. held the city of Washington in its grasp, the Negroes cowered under the great war comet blazing in the sky. The Woodwards had an old slave named Oola, said to be a native African. She was tall and large of frame, with gray-black skin wrinkled yet drawn tight over forehead…