Edited By
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for theSouthern District of New York.
Press of Geo. C. Rand & Avery,
540 Broadway.
To
The Women of the South
I Inscribe This Volume
They have lost a cause, but they have made a triumph! They have shownthemselves worthy of any manhood; and will leave a record which shallsurvive all the caprices of time. They have proved themselves worthy ofthe best womanhood, and, in their posterity, will leave no race whichshall be unworthy of the cause which is lost, or of the mothers, sistersand wives, who have taught such noble lessons of virtuous effort, andwomanly endurance.
W.G.S.
Several considerations have prompted the editor of this volume in thecompilation of its pages. It constitutes a contribution to the nationalliterature which is assumed to be not unworthy of it, and which isotherwise valuable as illustrating the degree of mental and artdevelopment which has been made, in a large section of the country, undercircumstances greatly calculated to stimulate talent and provokeexpression, through the higher utterances of passion and imagination.Though sectional in its character, and indicative of a temper and afeeling which were in conflict with nationality, yet, now that the Statesof the Union have been resolved into one nation, this collection isessentially as much the property of the whole as are the captured cannonwhich were employed against it during the progress of the late war. Itbelongs to the national literature, and will hereafter be regarded asconstituting a proper part of it, just as legitimately to be recognized bythe nation as are the rival ballads of the cavaliers and roundheads, bythe English, in the great civil conflict of their country.
The emotional literature of a people is as necessary to the philosophicalhistorian as the mere details of events in the progress of a nation. Thisis essential to the reputation of the Southern people, as illustratingtheir feelings, sentiments, ideas, and opinions--the motives whichinfluenced their actions, and the objects which they had in contemplation,and which seemed to them to justify the struggle in which they wereengaged. It shows with what spirit the popular mind regarded the course ofevents, whether favorable or adverse; and, in this aspect, it is even ofmore importance to the writer of history than any mere chronicle of facts.The mere facts in a history do not always, or often, indicate the trueanimus, of the action. But, in poetry and song, the emotionalnature is apt to declare itself without reserve--speaking out with apassion which disdains subterfuge, and through media of imagination andfancy, which are not only without reserve, but which are too coercive intheir own nature, too arbitrary in their influence, to acknowledge anyrestraints upon that expression, which glows or weeps with emotions thatgush freely and freshly from the heart. With this persuasion, we can alsoforgive the muse who, in her fervor, is sometimes forgetful of her art.
And yet, it is believed that the numerous pieces of this volume will befound creditable to the genius and culture of the Southern people, andhonorable, as in accordance with their convictions. They are derived fromall the States of the late Southern Confederacy, and will be foundtruthfully to exhibit the sentiment and opinion prevailing more or lessgenerall