is essential to the reputation of the Southern people, as illustrating
their feelings, sentiments, ideas, and opinions--the motives which
influenced their actions, and the objects which they had in contemplation,
and which seemed to them to justify the struggle in which they were
engaged. It shows with what spirit the popular mind regarded the course of
events, whether favorable or adverse; and, in this aspect, it is even of
more importance to the writer of history than any mere chronicle of facts.
The mere facts in a history do not always, or often, indicate the true
_animus_, of the action. But, in poetry and song, the emotional
nature is apt to declare itself without reserve--speaking out with a
passion which disdains subterfuge, and through media of imagination and
fancy, which are not only without reserve, but which are too coercive in
their own nature, too arbitrary in their influence, to acknowledge any
restraints upon that expression, which glows or weeps with emotions that
gush freely and freshly from the heart. With this persuasion, we can also
forgive the muse who, in her fervor, is sometimes forgetful of her art.

And yet, it is believed that the numerous pieces of this volume will be
found creditable to the genius and culture of the Southern people, and
honorable, as in accordance with their convictions. They are derived from
all the States of the late Southern Confederacy, and will be found
truthfully to exhibit the sentiment and opinion prevailing more or less
generally throughout the whole. The editor has had special advantages in
making the compilation. Having a large correspondence in most of the
Southern States, he has found no difficulty in procuring his material.
Contributions have poured in upon him from all portions of the South; the
original publications having been, in a large number of cases, subjected
to the careful revision of the several authors. It is a matter of great
regret with him that the limits of the present volume have not suffered
him to do justice to, and find a place for, many of the pieces which fully