been urged to commit to paper my anecdotes and reminiscences.

Unfortunately, I have not the power of efficiently describing in words
the pictures that are hung up in the long gallery of my memory: a man
may see very distinctly the landscape before him, yet he may be unable
to delineate that which he gazes upon and is intimately acquainted with.
A viva voce narrative of an incident told to a friend in conversation
may pass muster, and one is able to fill up any gaps in an imperfect
description; but it always occurred to me that I had no right to task
a reader's time and patience unless I could put before him what I had
to say in a lucid and complete form; I therefore refrained from committing
myself to print. I have at length, however, yielded to the suggestion
of friends, and written down some anecdotes in the best way I could.
Soldiers are not generally famous for literary excellence, and when
I was young, the military man was, perhaps, much less a scholar than
he is at the present day; but I hope that the interest of the matter
will make up for any deficiency of style.

In going over more than half a century, and treating of men, women and
events, it was necessary to leave out many anecdotes which would, perhaps,
have been more interesting than most of those that I have given; for
I would not willingly offend, or hurt the feelings of any one, and I
wish to respect the memory of the dead, as well as to take into consideration
the sensitiveness of the living. My Reminiscences, it will be seen,
are nothing more than miniature illustrations of contemporary history;
and though the reader may find here and there scraps of biographical
matter, I confine myself to facts and characteristics which were familiar
to the circle in which I moved, and perhaps are as much public property
as the painted portraits of celebrities.