he author’s purpose in preparing this historical treatise was to correct certain prevailing misconceptions concerning the ideals and motives which prompted our Southern leaders to engage our people in a bloody contest of arms with our Northern neighbors, and by a truthful presentation of some generally unknown data, thus remove any stigma which might unjustly have accrued to their memory because of a distortion of certain facts surrounding their participation in the War Between the States.

The author’s interest in this subject was intensified by the fact his minister-father was a personal friend of General “Stonewall” Jackson and often entertained the general and his wife in the manse at Winchester, VA.

Dr. Graham, a former president of the Hampden-Sidney College, and for twenty years the beloved pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Florence, South Carolina, is well qualified for this self-imposed task, both from the standpoint of scholarship and personal integrity. Because of his burning desire to clear the gallant leaders of his beloved Southland of the unjust charge of petty prejudice and political inconsistency, the arduous task of research and investigation necessary for the preparation of a historical paper of this kind has been for the author, a labor of love.