In the preface to his first volume (1864) he stated
frankly that "the History of the civil war will not and cannot now be
written." All that he hoped to accomplish, then, was to write a
_political_ rather than a military history of the great struggle.
He succeeded, and his work deserves to rank as one of the most valuable,
and, so far as it goes, accurate and impartial narratives of the
contest.
The first volume treats chiefly of the causes and events which
culminated in secession, while the second volume (1866) depicts, without
embellishment, the military and political victories which ended in the
restoration of peace. The author cherished the belief that the war was
"the unavoidable result of antagonisms imbedded in the very nature of
our heterogeneous institutions: that ours was indeed an 'irrepressible
conflict,' which might have been prevented."
In its _military_ portions the work is decidedly weak, and much of
interest and value is omitted. For facts, the author relied chiefly on
Moore's _Rebellion Record_, Victor's _History of the Southern
Rebellion_, (embracing important data not found in the _Record_)
and Pollard's _Southern History of the War_.
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