I should be glad to have you write to me again, and if it is not painful to you, to come sometime to see us. You must know that all that concerns you and your wife, whom we too knew as a "radiantly beautiful, graceful and modest woman," concerns us. With high regard and good wishes that time will bring peace to your wounded heart, believe me, Faithfully yours, ADELE S. BURLESON. I have two objects in undertaking this work: _First._ That I may leave to you, your children, and their descendants, some evidence of who and what their forebears were. _Second._ To give our collateral relatives something that may interest and possibly encourage them. As far as practicable, I shall tell the story chronologically, dividing the narrative into three periods: first, my childhood, and up to the time of the Civil War, when I was commissioned in the army; second, the period of the Civil War up to my marriage; and, third--by far the most important--our history as man and wife for nearly forty-nine years. It may be my narrative runs too much to sentiment--but there is sentiment in our Flag; in the Declaration of Independence; in the Constitution--but we can not make them commercial assets. It was sentiment that caused the armies of the "Blue and the Gray" to amaze the world with the most sanguinary and chivalrous war ever waged during all the tide of time; and it was sentiment that in a few years brought these foes together as one harmonious people. The want of sentiment caused the Goths and Vandals to degenerate into what their name now implies. The same may be said of the Hessians of our War for Independence. The want of sentiment required 300,000 British soldiers, and half as many American mules, three years to overcome 40,000 Boers imbued with sentiment, which brought peace without vainglorious victory. ANSON MILLS. * * * * * I am appending at the end of this book three papers which Mrs. Mills assisted me in preparing, as follows: "Organization and Administration of the Army;" "Address to the Society of the Army of the Cumberland;" "Address to the Order of Indian Wars." FOREWORD I am eighty-three years old, having lived two-thirds of the constitutional life of this great Republic, which I believe the greatest institution for self-government ever devised. Counting service as a cadet, in the line of the army proper, and as a Boundary Commissioner, I have served fifty-four years, nine months and four days in the United States Army; longer, I believe, than any other officer.