Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 03.djvu/23

Rh The following farewell order was published to the troops who remained with me after the battle of Mobile:





It is a common mistake of those who write on subjects familiar to themselves, to omit that particularity of description and detailed mention which, to one not so conversant with the matters discussed is necessary to a clear appreciation of the meaning of the writer. This mistake is all the more fatal when the writer lives and writes in one age and his readers live in another.

And so a soldier, writing for the information of the citizen, should forget his familiarity with the every-day scenes of soldier life and strive to record even those things which seem to him too common to mention. Who does not know all about the marching of soldiers? Those who have never marched with them and some who have. The varied experience of thousands would not tell the whole story of the march. Every man must be heard before the