In newspapers, in books, and on the records of the government, much has been written in disparagement of Mississippi, our people and institutions, but the facts here recorded will be their vindication. For seventy years, and more, some of these calumnies, originating with the first civil officers sent here by the United States, have stood on record, and have been received and adopted as true. They are now, for the first time, examined and refuted. In tracing our history for twenty years preceding the civil war, I have called to my aid some of our most distinguished statesmen, whose reminiscences embrace all the material facts. This constitutes the most attractive feature of the work. The portion devoted to the Indians, who once occupied our soil, has been derived from citizens who resided among them, and from my own observations when officially associated with them.v1. The biographical notices are, mainly, drawn from my own impres sions, for it has been my fortune to have grown up, from boyhood, among those whom I have described. I had meditated a detailed account of the civil war, to enable me to do justice to Mississippians, who won renown in so many battles. With this view, I have read most of the books that have appeared, particularly General Sherman's, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnson's — the highest authorities — and most of the magazines devoted to the subject. I find them interesting, but con ?iering, controversional, not conclusive; positive assertion and per emptory denial 5 full, in short, bf discrepancies that must be adjusted before either can be adopted as history.
