Excerpt from The History of the Forty-Eighth Regiment: New York State Volunteers, in the War for the Union; 1861-1865
To My Comrades:
The most gifted of modern women has written that, "If you would love a woman without ever looking back upon your love as a folly, she must die while you are courting her; and if you would maintain the slightest belief in human heroism, you must never make a pilgrimage to see the hero."
I hope that in all your homes that double sarcasm is doubly contradicted. This book - which is the poor record of your heroic deeds - has been written chiefly that your children, who daily "see the hero," may know his history, and when they can no longer sec you. that they may still possess the story of your most glorious years.
Three years ago, when 1 was requested to become the historian of the regiment, I consented conditionally that some one should be procured to write the historical sketch, while I would edit the book and see it through the press. For a while it seemed that we had succeeded in procuring the very services we needed from an officer who had been with the regiment through most of its career. But vexatious delays occurred, and finally, to our great disappointment, an entire miscarriage. Nothing remained but the abandonment of the enterprise - which all lamented - or my assuming the task. With great reluctance I therefore undertook it.
I had but little time to give to it. and moreover I felt myself disqualified by the subordinate position I had held in the regiment to write its history.
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