coffee all the time, nor could battle shocks come any longer every few
weeks. The sudden collapse of the Confederacy, and the ending of the
war, was like clapping the air-brakes instantaneously upon the Empire
State Express while at full speed. While the air pressure might stop
the wheels, there was danger of throwing the cars off their trucks.

It took Carleton many months, and then only after strong exertion of
the will, careful study of his diet and physical habits, to get down
to the ordinary jog-trot of life and enjoy the commonplace. He
occupied himself during the latter part of 1865 in completing his
first book, which he entitled "My Days and Nights upon the Battle
Field." This was meant to be one in a series of three volumes. He had
written most of this, his first book, in camp and on the field. In
form, it was an illustrated duodecimo of 312 pages, and was published
by Ticknor and Fields, and later republished by Estes and Lauriat.

It carries the story of the war, and of Carleton's personal
participation in it in the Potomac and Mississippi River regions, down
to the fall of Memphis in the summer of 1862.

After this, followed another volume, entitled "Four Years of
Fighting," full of personal observation in the army and navy, from the
first battle of Bull Run to the fall of Richmond. This was a more
ambitious work, of five hundred and fifty-eight, with an introduction
of fifteen, pages. It contained a portrait and figure of the war
correspondent, with pencil and note-book in hand. Published by
Ticknor and Fields, it was reissued in 1882, by Estes and Lauriat,
under the title of "Boys of '61." Carleton completed a careful
revision of this work about a fortnight before his golden wedding, for
another edition which appeared posthumously in October, 1896.

Meanwhile, Mr. Coffin had reentered the work of journalism in Boston.
This, with his books and public engagements, as a lecturer and
platform speaker, occupied him fully. In the summer of 1866 the
shadows of coming events in Europe began to loom above the horizon of
the future. The great Reform movement in England was in progress. The
triumph of the American war for internal freedom, the vindication of
Union against the pretensions of State sovereignty, the release of
four million slaves, the implied honor put upon work, as against those
who despised workmen as "mudsills," had had a powerful reaction upon
the people of Great Britain. These now clamored for