These books tell thrilling stories of the personal life and heroic deeds of Americans in the great struggles of Colonial times, the Revolution, 1812, and 1861, which have welded together and built up the American nation. They are full of a close human interest and a dramatic quality which cannot be imparted in compact histories, although these tales are usually founded upon actual historical events. They enlist and hold the attention of readers, and they also clear the historical perspective and convey lessons in courage and patriotism. Mr. George Cary Eggleston’s successful “Strange Stories from History” deals in part with heroes of other nations, but these books, while similar to that in many respects, tell of those whose gallant deeds gave us the America of to-day. The following are the titles: STRANGE STORIES OF COLONIAL DAYS. By Francis Sterne Palmer, Hezekiah Butterworth, Francis S. Drake, G. T. Ferris, Rowan Stevens, and others. STRANGE STORIES OF THE REVOLUTION. By Molly Elliot Seawell, Howard Pyle, Winthrop Packard, Percival Ridsdale, and others. STRANGE STORIES OF 1812. By W. J. Henderson, James Barnes, S. G. W. Benjamin, Francis Sterne Palmer, and others. STRANGE STORIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. By Robert Shackleton, W. J. Henderson, Capt. Howard Patterson, U.S.N., L. E. Chittenden, Gen. G. A. Forsyth, U.S.A., and others. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Transcriber’s Note: Minor punctuation errors (e.g. periods instead of commas) have been corrected without note. Inconsistent hyphenation and capitalization have not been corrected. Illustrations have been moved to directly after the corresponding paragraph. An advertisement has been removed from the beginning of the book, as there is an identical one at the end, and a duplicate title page has been removed from between the introduction and the beginning of Chapter I. Decorative italics (e.g. on chapter subtitles) have not been represented in the plain-text versions of this book. The following corrections were made to the text: p. 32: extra hyphen removed (Tommy-Five-Canoes to Tommy Five-Canoes) p. 152: Jar to Jaar (_Nieuw Jaar_) p. 159: He to he (he seized a silver bowl) p. 165: thout to thou (canst thou not me trust) p. 166: missing close quote added (“There was no fun in calling on a parcel of old _vrouws_,”) p. 174: extra close quote removed (lash of the slave-whip.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Project Gutenberg's Strange Stories of Colonial Days, by Various