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WAR STORIES FOR MY GRANDCHILDREN

Major John W. Foster      Mary Parke Foster

WAR STORIES FOR MY GRANDCHILDREN

By
JOHN W. FOSTER

WASHINGTON, D.C.
1918
PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION
The Riverside Press Cambridge

PREFACE

As they were growing up, I was frequently importuned by mygrandchildren to tell them of my experiences in the Civil Warfor the Union; and now as the great-grandchildren are comingon, their parents are asking that these experiences be put insome permanent form, as their children may never have theopportunity to hear the narrative from me. I naturally shrinkfrom giving general publicity to my personal experiences, especiallyas the field has been already so fully covered by comradesin arms; but I have consented to prepare such a narrativeon condition that its circulation be confined to the familycircles.

In preparing the narrative I have not thought it wise to trustto my memory of events which happened more than half acentury ago; and fortunately I have at hand my many letterswritten to my wife, giving in detail my experiences during myentire service in the army, and while they are in some respectstoo intimate and confidential for general publicity, they havethe merit of freedom from studied preparation and constitutean account of events as they occurred.

In this preparation I have indulged the hope that throughit our children of this and coming generations may be inspiredby a greater devotion to the American Union, for which theirforefathers hazarded their lives and endured the hardships ofwar.

John W. Foster

CONTENTS