THE CONFEDERATE SPY: A STORY OF THE WAR OF 1861.
BYR. H. CROZIER, A. M.,
FORMERLY CAPTAIN OF COMPANY I, 33D REGIMENT MISSISSIPPI VOLUNTEERS. "Verily there is nothing so false that a sparkle of TRUTH is not in it." Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy.GALLATIN, TENN: R. B. HARMON.
1866.Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1866, by R. H. CROZIER, A. M., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Middle District of Tennessee. JOHN P. MORTON & CO., STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS, LOUISVILLE, KY.
DEDICATED
TO THE Surviving Members of Loring's Division.
- "They left the plowshare in the mold,
- The flocks and herds without a fold,
- The sickle in the unshorn grain,
- The corn half garnered on the plain,
- And mustered, in their simple dress,
- For wrongs to seek a stern redress:
- To right those wrongs, come weal, come woe—
- To perish, or o'ercome the foe."
PREFACE.
IT is with extreme diffidence that the author of the following pages ventures before the intelligent public in the character of a novelist. Whoever writes any thing in these days, when the press is already teeming with ephemeral literature, must suppose that the effusions of his mind are above the thousands that come forth every hour. But the author of this unpretending little volume has too much modesty to lay claim to any such superior excellence, especially in a first effort. He does not publish the book with the humble hope that it will rank with even the ordinary works of mediocrists in the world of romance. The author has only one object in view. He submits the book to the judgment of the patriotic southern public, with the hope that it may help to supplant the poisonous northern literature which has for so many years flooded the South, and villified the southern people and their institutions. The time has now come when there ought to be a change. The South must have a literature of her own. If we could not gain our political, let us establish at least our mental independence.
We appeal, therefore, to the southern people; to their dignity; to their sense of justice to themselves; and we ask them no longer to encourage the yellow and the red-backed trash of the North, in which the attempt is made to hold up the South as the butt of the civilized world. Soon thousands of tales will come forth from the vile den of New England, containing scandalous page: 6-7[View Page 6-7] caricatures of our beloved South, and of the misfortunes of our late Confederacy. Do not buy them, southern reader! Do not insult the memory of your noble dead by enriching northern writers, who make sport of their bloody graves! If you must read novels, we ask you, for the sake of your dead heroes, to read those which do not abuse and villify your ancestors, yourselves, your institutions, your religion—all that you hold dear and sacred!
The following story is founded upon facts, or rather it comes nearer being a narrative of facts. We have dealt with living characters. The main errors in our book, taken even as a history, consist chiefly in points of chronology and locality. The author confesses that he has taken advantage of the privilege allowed to all novelists, in this respect, and has located and dated scenes in order to maintain the connection of the story, and preserve its unity. The author claims no great credit for the construction of the plot. Unfortunately, it constructed itself. We are indebted very slightly to our imagination. The incidents herein related are nearly all actual occurrences, however horrible they may appear. Perhaps an apology is due to the reader for the profanity which so frequently occurs throughout these pages. All we have to say is, that the Yankee character can not be correctly delineated without it.
Southern reader, you now know our object. Will you sustain us? Will you encourage southern writers? If so, "prove your faith by your works."
THE AUTHOR.
PANOLA COUNTY, MISS., May 27, 1865.