Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/213

Rh to the beginning of the civil war, and “The Popular History of the United States,” by W. O. Bryant and S. H. Gay, which is written with animation and is profusely illustrated. Among works illustrating particular periods or passages in the general history of the country may be mentioned the “Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution” and “Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812,” by B. J. Lossing; the “History of the United States Navy,” by James Fenimore Cooper; histories of the war of 1812 by O. J. Ingersoll (1782-1862) and Lossing; the “American Archives” and other works by Peter Force; “Our First Hundred Years” (1874 et seq.), by O. Edwards Lester; and numerous minor productions by W. L. Stone (1792-1844), John Armstrong, W. H. Trescot, Brantz Mayer, Winthrop Sargent, Richard Frothingham, jr., J. T. Headley, J. Sprague, Frank Moore, and others. The war of 1861-'5 has given rise to a large class of works, most of them necessarily ephemeral, but some of which deserve special mention as histories or sources of history. Prominent among these are “The Rebellion Record” (1861-'71), edited by Frank Moore, a vast collection of documents in 12 volumes; “Reports of the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War;” “Annals of the United States Christian Commission,” by Lemuel Moss; “The American Conflict,” by Horace Greeley; “History of the American Civil War,” by J. W. Draper; “History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,” by Vice President Henry Wilson; “The Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac” and “The Twelve Decisive Battles of the War,” by William Swinton; “Report of the Army of the Potomac,” by Gen. George B. McClellan; and “Memoirs of Gen. William T. Sherman, by Himself.” All of these represent the Union side of the conflict, while on the confederate side the following are the principal works: “The War between the States,” by A. H. Stephens; “History of the War of Secession,” by J. F. H. Claiborne; “Southern History of the War” and “The Lost Cause,” by E. A. Pollard; “Narrative of Military Operations,” by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston; “Personal Reminiscences” of Lee, by J. W. Jones; lives of Lee and of “Stonewall” Jackson, by J. Esten Cooke; and various books by Alfriend, Howiston, H. A. Wise, G. O. Eggleston, and others. The list of histories of single states or groups of states, of special territorial districts, or of institutions, presents many works of merit. At the head of these perhaps stands the “History of New England,” by J. G. Palfrey (born 1796), of which four volumes, embracing the events previous to 1741, have been published. The subject is treated with more fulness than in the work of Bancroft, and in a style of singular purity and finish. To this class belong the valuable “Geography and History of the Mississippi Valley” by Timothy Flint (1780-1840), the “History of the Discovery and Exploration of the

Mississippi” and other works by J. G. Shea, the “New England History” by C. W. Elliott, those of the New Netherlands by E. B. O'Callaghan, of New York by John Romeyn Brodhead, of Connecticut by Theodore Dwight and by G. H. Hollister, of North Carolina by F. L. Hawks, of Kentucky by Mann Butler, of Louisiana by Charles Gayarré and by F. X. Martin, of Oregon and the N. W. coast of North America by Robert Greenhow, of South Carolina by W. G. Simms, of Texas by H. Yoakum, of Rhode Island by S. G. Arnold, of Virginia by Charles Campbell, of Western Massachusetts by J. G. Holland and by R. R. Howiston, of Delaware by Francis Vincent, of Maryland by James McSherry, of Indiana by J. B. Dillon, of Pennsylvania and New Jersey by J. R. Sypher, of Wisconsin by W. R. Smith, of Kentucky by Lewis Collins, and of Illinois by Alexander Davidson. Of the numerous minor works of this class, the elaborate history of Boston by S. G. Drake, and of Westchester county, N. Y., by Robert Bolton, and that of Harvard university by Josiah Quincy, may be cited as examples. The history of the aboriginal tribes has been ably treated by S. G. Drake, whose “History and Biography of the Indians of North America” was the first attempt at an impartial narrative of the subject, and is a valuable repertory of facts; by T. L. McKenney and James Hall, who published a costly illustrated “History of the Indian Tribes of North America;” by George Catlin; by W. L. Stone; by L. H. Morgan, author of “The League of the Iroquois;” and especially by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793-1864), whose works, although they come perhaps more naturally within the departments of travels and ethnography, evinced a more intimate acquaintance with the history, languages, and customs of the North American aborigines than any others then published. His elaborate “Historical and Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States,” the most considerable work of the class then undertaken, is in 6 vols. 4to. The works relating directly or indirectly to the history of the United States include O. W. Upham's account of the Salem witchcraft in 1692, R. S. Ripley's “War with Mexico,” E. D. Mansfield's “Mexican War,” G. W. Kendall's “Santa Fé Expedition,” and Theodore Irving's “Conquest of Florida.” Among American authors whose labors have been prosecuted beyond the limits of local or domestic history, no name stands higher than that of William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859), the historian of the Spanish conquest and civilization in the new world, and one of the most graceful writers of the English language. His histories of the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella and Philip II. of Spain, and of the “Conquest of Mexico” and the “Conquest of Peru,” and his sequel of Robertson's “History of Charles V.,” exhibit remarkable depth and accuracy of