Society, together with the remarkable series of
articles entitled "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," written by
the leading participants on either side, are a perfect mine of wealth
to the historical student. I need hardly add that the memoirs and
biographies of both the Federal and Confederate generals, of Lee,
Grant, Stuart, Sherman, Johnston, Longstreet, Beauregard, McClellan,
Hancock, Pendleton and others, are a necessary complement to the
Official Records.

Nevertheless, with all this mass of information at my command, had it
not been for the exceeding kindness of the friends and comrades of
Stonewall Jackson, I much doubt whether I should have been able to
complete my task. To the late Major Hotchkiss, his trusted staff
officer, whatever of value these volumes may contain is largely due.
Not only did he correct the topographical descriptions, but he
investigated most carefully many disputed points; and in procuring
the evidence of eye-witnesses, and thus enabling me to check and
amplify the statements of previous writers, he was indefatigable. Dr.
Hunter McGuire, Medical Director of Jackson's successive commands,
has given me much of his valuable time. The Reverend J.P. Smith,
D.D., Jackson's aide-de-camp, has rendered me great assistance; and
from many officers and men of the Stonewall Brigade, of Jackson's
Division, and of the Second Army Corps, I have received contributions
to this memorial of their famous chief. Generals Gustavus Smith,
Fitzhugh Lee, Stephen D. Lee, and N.G. Harris, Colonel Williams,
Colonel Poague, and R.E. Lee, Esquire, of Washington, D.C., all
formerly of the Confederate States Army, have supplied me with new
matter. Colonel Miller, U.S.A., most courteously responded to my
request for a copy of the services of his regiment, the First
Artillery, in the Mexican war. The late General John Gibbon, U.S.A.,
wrote for me his reminiscences of Jackson as a cadet at West Point,
and as a subaltern in Mexico; and many officers who fought for the
Union have given me information as to the tactics and discipline of
the Federal armies. The Reverend J. Graham, D.D., of Winchester,
Virginia; Dr. H.A. White, of Washington and Lee University,
Lexington, Virginia, author of an admirable life of General Lee; and
the Hon. Francis Lawley, once Special Correspondent of the Times in
the Confederate States, have been most kind in replying to my many
questions. To Major-General Hildyard, C.B., late Commandant o