Page:Roster of General Officers (1872) by Charles C Jones Jr.djvu/9

 PREFATORY NOTE.

In consequence of the general loss and destruction of Confederate records, and a refusal on the part of the War Department to permit free access to such as have been preserved at Washington, the preparation of the following Roster was environed with no inconsiderable difficulty. The accompanying pages embody the result of much toil and inquiry. Fortunately many important wax documents, original returns and official reports still exist in private hands, and from them material aid has been derived. In not a few instances the necessary information touching the commissions and commands of general officers has been obtained either from the officers themselves or from the friends of such as fell in the Confederate struggle, or have since died. While perfectness cannot be claimed for it, this Roster may nevertheless be accepted as nearly complete. No labor like the present having been as yet attempted, it is offered in the hope that it will supply an existing deficiency and prove a convenient roll of the Confederate Dramatis Personæ of the greatest of modern Revolutions—of which, in the language of Phinius Minor, it may be truthfully affirmed, Si computes annos, exiguum tempus; si vices rerum, sevum putes. CHARLES C. JONES,

New York City, May 1st, 1876.