Although not in exact accord with my own inclination, I have been induced, by the solicitations of friends in the army and in civil life, to permit the publication of the following pages.<br><br>The very kind and flattering reception given to my other books by the public and press encourages me to hope that an equally indulgent greeting may be extended to this volume, which is a miscellany of fugitive recollections - a compilation of random sketches written in leisure hours during a period of several years, and which will be found somewhat desultory and disconnected; yet, as they, for the most part, are records of the results of long personal experience in a sphere of life that has hitherto found but few chroniclers, they may hereafter possess some historic significance.