Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.

By Herman Melville.



1866.




The Battle-Pieces in this volume are dedicated to the memory of the
THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND who in the war for the maintenance of the Union
fell devotedly under the flag of their fathers.



[With few exceptions, the Pieces in this volume originated in an impulse
imparted by the fall of Richmond. They were composed without reference
to collective arrangement, but being brought together in review,
naturally fall into the order assumed.

The events and incidents of the conflict--making up a whole, in varied
amplitude, corresponding with the geographical area covered by the
war--from these but a few themes have been taken, such as for any cause
chanced to imprint themselves upon the mind.

The aspects which the strife as a memory assumes are as manifold as are
the moods of involuntary meditation--moods variable, and at times widely
at variance. Yielding instinctively, one after another, to feelings not