To send forth this book to the reading public without some sort of preface would be doing violence to a very ancient custom,"a custom more honored in the observance than in the breach." We did not write this book for pleasure nor pastime, but to contribute our mite in the direction of getting into cold type that part of the story of the great war between the States, from 1861 to 1865, that is recorded only in the memories of the men and officers of the line, and if we succeed in entertaining the reader for an hour or two in our descriptions of great battles or pathetic scenes incident to the life of a soldier, or cause a smile to dance on the face of the old or young, like sunlit shadows chasing each other on the wavelets of a mountain lake, we will have done well. Lt. R.M. Collins 15th Texas Cavalry