Page:Memoirs of Henry Villard, volume 1.djvu/13



circumstances of the composition of this Autobiography of the late Henry Villard are set forth in his own words on page 373 of Volume II. The events of his youth in his native land before coming to the United States he chose to describe in his mother tongue. This portion of his memoirs his family edited and published for private distribution two years after his death, under the title, "Heinrich Hilgard-Villard: Jugend-Erinnerungen, 1835-1853" (New York, 1902). A brief abstract of this charming and highly interesting narrative constitutes the Introduction of the present volumes.

Seven of the eight books written in English are in the first person. Unable, by reason of his rapidly failing health, to finish the memoirs upon the scale of the ante-bellum period, Mr. Villard devoted his last summer to a compendium of the period from 1863 to 1900 written in the third person (Book VIII). He originally intended to make a record for his family, with possible publicity that others might profit by the lessons of his life. As he proceeded and arrived at his experiences in the Civil War, he began, as he explains, to feel the ardor of the historian, and, using the Official Records of both sides in the greatest of American conflicts, he described the various campaigns in which he took part, or was especially interested, with great elaboration and obviously for the public eye. The importance of his observations in the field and of his laborious researches determined the inclusion of these studies, notwithstanding their bulk, in the present publication. A detailed exhibition of his relations to the development of the far Northwestern States may some day also find its way into print.

A work occupying so many years in preparation amid