people whom we both had known. It told of me much that I could not
otherwise have willingly set down, even if the matter had appeared to me as
it did to him, which was not always the case; also my friend chanced to
have been present at scenes which deeply concerned me, but which, without
his careful setting forth, would never have come to my knowledge.

A kindly notice, writ nine years before, bade me use his journal as seemed
best to me. When I read this, and came to see how full and clear were his
statements of much that I knew, and of some things which I did not, I felt
ripely inclined to take up again the story I had left unfinished; and now I
have done so, and have used my friend as the third person, whom I could
permit to say what he thought of me from time to time, and to tell of
incidents I did not see, or record impressions and emotions of his own.
This latter privilege pleases me because I shall, besides my own story, be
able to let those dear to me gather from the confessions of his journal,
and from my own statements, what manner of person was the true gentleman
and gallant soldier to whom I owed so much.

I trust this tale of an arduous struggle by a new land against a great
empire will make those of my own blood the more desirous to serve their
country with honour and earnestness, and with an abiding belief in the
great Ruler of events.

In my title of this volume I have called myself a "Free Quaker." The term
has no meaning for most of the younger generation, and yet it should tell a
story of many sad spiritual struggles, of much heart-searching distress, of
brave decisions, and of battle and of camp.

At Fifth and Arch streets, on an old gable, is this record: