THE object in writing this volume, is to give in a clear and lucid manner the history of THE SECOND REGIMENT PENNSYLVANIA RESERVE VOLUNTEER CORPS, and an insight into the life of a soldier. To connect it properly with the movements of the army, it is deemed necessary briefly to sketch the campaigns of the " ARMY OF THE POTOMAC," under Generals MCCLELLAN, BURNSIDE, HOOKER, MEADE and GRANT, from its formation. until June, 1864, when the regiment's term of three years expired and it was mustered out. The short, arduous and decisive campaign of "The Army of Virginia” under General POPE, is also sketched."
The Author's journal, kept on the field, and his "Picket" letters in the Sunday Transcript, written on the spot with the official reports of Commanders, furnish the material. If the recital of the incidents of the camps, the marches, the bivouacs, the battles and the joys, the sorrows, the pleasures, the sufferings, the glories and the defeats, will revive in the memory of the participants, the scenes gone by, or interest the reader, it will be the highest source of gratification to the author.