Thomas A Edison and His Talking Machine.................326 The Soldier's Farewell..................................180 Troops Going to Manila..................................373 Uncle Ned...............................................149 United States Military Wagon............................035 Warning the Inhabitants.................................332 Wesley Merritt and His Staff............................199 West Point..............................................293 What Caused the War-The Negro and Cotton................057 Wounding of General Stonewall Jackson...................178 INTRODUCTION. [Illustration: 9021] OOKS without number have been written upon the Civil War. There will probably be many more, for it is a fruitful theme. Many of them are faithful and accurate presentations of the great deeds done in that war. But whether large or small, they are all imbued with a desire to perpetuate that love of our country which should become one of the absorbing passions of the soul. It is a truth worth remembering--that the man who is a traitor to his country will be a traitor to all the relations of life. Our land, young as it is, has received an awful baptism of fire and blood. It sprang into being amid the anguish of the Revolution, and before it had achieved a century of freedom, it was plunged into one of the saddest conflicts which ever desolated a nation--the conflict between brothers, speaking the same tongue, living under the same government, and enjoying the same great privileges. But from that terrible ordeal it has emerged, and we are once more one in aim and purpose, and have taken our stand among the proudest nations of the earth, their equal in intelligent achievements, religion and progress. The little book we offer our young readers is the simple story, told in plain language, of a boy who was really in the army--one who left a pleasant home, as did thousands of others, a mere lad, loving his native land, knowing her need of strong hands and willing hearts to defend her. His purpose was noble, his mind fresh and ready for impressions; the scenes of those days are as ineffaceable as though written on marble, and not even the corroding touch of time can eat them away. So the present volume has been penned, that the boys and girls who read its pages may know of the hardships and self-sacrifice of the boys of those days--how cheerfully they enlisted to uphold the “starry flag,” whose folds shall ever “float o'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.”