The venerable author of "Two Wars" has been an able and gallant soldier of his country, and the simple and graphic manner in which he writes of his distinguished services, and relates the great events in which he bore a faithful part, entitle his book to the confidence of his countrymen. It is a most valuable addition to our country's history, and a book which will be of permanent use in the study of our great Confederate struggle. ELLISON CAPERS. Columbia, S. C., July 1, 1901. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Ancestry--Thomas Ffrench--Military Aspiration--Important 1 Document--Appointment to West Point--New Jersey Farm Life--Great Changes--A Real Yankee--Pennsylvania Hall--The Fashions--Capture of a Hessian Soldier--Rufus Choate and Bishop Wainwright--West Point--Cadet Life--Senator Wall--John F. Reynolds--The Boycott--Rufus Ingalls--Requisites of a Commander CHAPTER II. Graduation--Commissioned Brevet Second Lieutenant, U. S. 20 A.--Ordered to Fort Macon, N. C.--Goldsboro--Journey to Beaufort--Officers at the Fort--Life in a Casemate--Stormy Atlantic--That Oyster Supper--The Wandering Cot--Adieu to Fort Macon--Journey to Washington--Lieuts. George H. Thomas and John Pope--Weldon, N. C.--Go to West Point--Prof. Morse--First Dispatch--Hope Club, Washington--Dinner Given by Surgeon General Lawson--Appointed Aid to Gen. Scott--British Gold--Col. S. Churchill--Integrity of Old Army Officers--Leave Washington for Fort McHenry--Society in Baltimore--Chief Justice Taney CHAPTER III. Death of Hon. A. P. Upshur, Secretary of State--Calhoun 30 Appointed--Treaty of Annexation of Texas--Declaration of the State of Massachusetts--Texas Accepts the Resolution of Annexation--Formation of Army of Occupation--Transferred to Maj. S. Ringgold's Battery of Horse Artillery--Officers Sail for Aransas Pass--The Wicked Captain--Becalmed--Cross Bahama Banks--Key West--Out of Drinking Water--Fare on Board Ship--Storm--Aransas Pass--St. Joseph's Island--Maj. Ringgold's Cook--Embark for Corpus Christi--Game and Fish--Horse Racing--White Horse of the Prairies--Trip to San Antonio--The Town--Incidents of the Trip CHAPTER IV. President of Mexico Resigns, and Paredes Is Elected--Mexican 41 Troops Concentrating at Matamoras--Taylor Marches to the Rio Grande--Rattlesnakes--Mirage--Wild Horses--Taylor Concentrates His Troops at Arroyo, Colo.--Bull Fight--Mexicans Flee--Taylor Goes to Point Isabel--Join Gen. Worth--Field Works--Arrival of Gen. Ampudia--Orders Taylor to Leave--Taylor Declines--Col. Cross Murdered--Lieut. Porter Killed--Gen. Arista Arrives--Declares Hostilities Commenced--Capts. Thornton and Hardee Captured CHAPTER V.