Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 07.djvu/595

Rh leading officers of the United States army, and some of the ablest military critics in Europe, as well as prominent Confederates in every State of the South, have spoken in high terms of our Papers. The press generally has echoed the sentiment of the New England Historical Register, that "no library, public or private, which pretends to historical fulness, can afford to be without these volumes," and of the London Saturday Review, that they "contain a mass of information relative to the late war, without a careful study of which no historian, however limited his scope, should venture to treat any fragment of that most interesting story."

But one of the most emphatic tributes to the value of these publications was contained in a letter from a distinguished Prussian officer, who, after seeing our Papers, avows his purpose of suppressing the first volume of his "History of the Civil War in America," and writing it over again.

have continued to be of the most cordial and pleasant character. The Secretary of War, the Adjutant-General, Colonel R. N. Scott, who has charge of the compilation of the records; General Marcus J. Wright, who is agent for the collection of Confederate reports, &c.; Mr. A. P. Tasker, who is keeper of the Confederate archives and has charge of the copying, and indeed all of the officers and clerks of the Department, have shown a cheerful alacrity in affording us every facility desired, and it has been to us a pleasure to reciprocate in every way in our power their kindness.

We regret that we cannot realize our hopes of last year, that we should be able to report at this time that the obligations of the Society have all been fully met. Our receipts have met the expenses of the current year, but they have fallen off (owing chiefly to the sickness of our most efficient agent, which deprived us of his services for the larger part of the year) considerably from what they were last year, and we have been unable, therefore, to liquidate our old debt which has lapped over from year to year.

The following summary will show our receipts and disbursements from October the 29th, 1878, to October 29th, 1879: