This is a round, unvarnished tale of a few hundred heroes from a border State, who stepped bravely to the front when their rights of manhood, of freedom and of citizenship, under what should be one protecting ?ag, enfolding all in its embrace, were threatened. Their identity was lost in the great gathering no herald ever blew his trumpet in the market — place or on the housetops and told the story of their deeds to an assembled people, their statues do not stand in any national Walhalla, crowned with the laurel — they were born, they lived, they fought, they died — that was all. And so this book seeks to rescue them from the oblivion into which in coming years they might fall, to tell of their self sacrifice and their heroism in short, to be a simple story of four years in the lives of true and brave-hearted men. And yet, to make the story rounded and complete, and to give a reason for the position which they took and the sacrifices which they made, it is necessary to go back a little way and speak brie?y of the causes which led up to the great struggle, and. How, when the blast of war sounded in their ears, these men never hesitated, but stood on the side of justice and liberty.