Excerpt from A Critical History of the Late American War I purpose, from a standpoint hitherto unattempted, to write out a History of the War of the Rebellion. In the multitudinous works now before the public, all that is needful has been said in regard to the causes which led to that memorable scene of terror, tears, and blood, and to matters of detail in respect to our battles and campaigns, and to our unexampled national expenditure. My plan pertains, not at all to the causes and delaz'ls of facts as they actually occurred, but to the conduct of this war. In this war the nation lost more than half a million of precious lives, accumulated upon its hands hardly less than a mil lion of its maimed and pensioned soldiers, expended many billions of treasures, and has loaded itself down with a present debt of upwards of two thousand millions of dollars. W'hat the nation needs to be informed about is, not how this war was, but how it should have been, con ducted, and whether such an appalling expenditure of time, life, limb, and treasure was needed in bringing the conflict to a successful termination. One fact is undeni able, that another such war - a war as protracted and as wasteful of life and treasure - as this would ruin the nation. It is hardly to be expected that our national patriotism, or prudence, would endure such another draft upon time, blood, and treasure, and a doubling up of the debt under which we are now groaning. Yet, amid the possibilities of the future, it would imply infinite presumption to affirm, or calculate upon, the impossibility of another such a national catastrophe. If the war was wisely, and es pecially most wisely, conducted, the nation needs, as her guides in the future, to understand the facts and the reasons for the same. If, from its beginning to its close. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.