The Twin Seven-Shooters. [Illustration: CHARLES F. MANDERSON Colonel 19th Ohio Infantry. Brevet Brigadier General Volunteers, U. S. A.] The Twin Seven-Shooters. BY CHARLES F. MANDERSON LATE COLONEL 19TH OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY, BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL VOLS., U.S.A. [Illustration] F. TENNYSON NEELY 114 Fifth Avenue 96 Queen Street NEW YORK LONDON Copyright, 1902, by CHARLES F. MANDERSON, in the United States and Great Britain. Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London. All Rights Reserved. _The Twin Seven-Shooters._ “_We came into the world like brother and brother,_ ‘_And now let’s go hand in hand, not one before another._” --DROMIO, in “Comedy of Errors.” INTRODUCTION. The telling of this truthful story of the Great War comes from the numerous requests of comrades, who knew somewhat of the presentation, the capture and the return of the pair of revolvers that came together after a quarter of a century of separation and after they had been carried and used under two flags. Their restoration could not have been had under any other condition than that which came about at the close of our gigantic struggle. The Civil War was waged on both the Federal and Confederate sides with an intensity and manly vigor characteristic of the race that sprang from the loins of the Puritan and the Cavalier. The immense hosts that combated upon so many dreadful fields, with the incident sacrifice of life and limb, while actuated by the desire to win, by comparison with which individual loss counted as nothing, were never prompted by personal hatred or ill will. They fought to obtain the result desired, and when the end came, with its feeling of exultation by the one and of depression by the other, there was mutual respect and common consideration, that led naturally to a reunited country and the placing of the Great Republic in its present position as the Chiefest of Nations. The story permits a description of two great battles--that of Murfreesboro, or Stone’s River, and of Chattanooga, or Mission Ridge--the first-named one of the hardest fought fields of the War, and the last, one of the most spectacular. The recital of these calls for no explanation, and I hope the personal equation of the story needs no apology. CHARLES F. MANDERSON, Late Colonel, 19th Regiment Ohio Infantry. B’v’t Brig. Gen. Vols., U.S.A. PROLOGUE.