A Victorious Union

A Victorious Union

The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Victorious Union, by Oliver Optic
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Title: A Victorious Union SERIES: The Blue and the Gray--Afloat
Author: Oliver Optic
Release Date: June 25, 2006 [EBook #18678]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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VICTORIOUS UNION ***

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THE BLUE AND THE GRAY--AFLOAT
Two colors cloth Emblematic Dies Illustrated Price per volume $1.50

TAKEN BY THE ENEMY WITHIN THE ENEMY'S LINES ON THE
BLOCKADE STAND BY THE UNION FIGHTING FOR THE
RIGHT A VICTORIOUS UNION
THE BLUE AND THE GRAY--ON LAND
Two colors cloth Emblematic Dies Illustrated Price per volume $1.50
BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER IN THE SADDLE (In Press) A
LIEUTENANT AT EIGHTEEN (In Press) (Other volumes in
preparation)
Any Volume Sold Separately. Lee and Shepard Publishers Boston

[Illustration: "Christy leaped upon the rail." Page 181.]

The
BLUE AND THE GRAY
Series
[Illustration]
By Oliver Optic
A VICTORIOUS UNION

The Blue and the Gray Series
A VICTORIOUS UNION
by OLIVER OPTIC
Author of "The Army And Navy Series" "Young America Abroad,

First And Second Series" "The Great Western Series" "The Woodville
Stories" "The Starry Flag Series" "The Boat-Club Stories" "The
Onward and Upward Series" "The Yacht-Club Series" "The Lake Shore
Series" "The Riverdale Stories" "The Boat-Builder Series" "Taken by
the Enemy" "Within the Enemy's Lines" "On the Blockade" "Stand By
the Union" "Fighting for the Right" "A Missing Million" "A
Millionaire at Sixteen" "A Young Knight-Errant" "Strange Sights
Abroad" etc.
BOSTON
LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers 10 Milk Street
1894

Copyright, 1893, by Lee and Shepard All Rights Reserved
A Victorious Union
Type-Setting and Electrotyping by C. J. Peters & Son, Boston S. J.
Parkhill & Co., Printers, Boston

To My Friend
FRANK L. HARRIS
Who came from the cold of the Arctic regions, where he was a member
of the Hayes expedition, and went into the heat of the War of the
Rebellion, serving as a Naval officer until the end of the strife,
To whom I am greatly indebted for much valuable information relating
to his profession,
This Book
Is Gratefully Dedicated.

PREFACE
"A VICTORIOUS UNION" is the sixth and last of "The Blue and the
Gray Series." While the volume is not intended to be a connected
historical narrative of the particular period of the War of the Rebellion
in which its scenes are laid, the incidents accurately conform to the
facts, and especially to the spirit, of the eventful years in which they are
placed, as recorded in the chronicles of the great struggle, and as they
exist in the memory of the writer. It is more than thirty years since the
war began, and thousands upon thousands of the active participants in
the strife as soldiers and sailors, including nearly all the great
commanders, have passed on to their eternal reward. Thousands upon
thousands of men and women have been born and reached their
maturity since the most tremendous war of modern times ended in A
Victorious Union. The knowledge of the stirring events of those four
years of conflict, and of the patriotic spirit which inspired and underlaid
them, has come, or will come, to at least one-half the population of this
vast nation of sixty-five millions from the printed page or through the
listening ear. The other moiety, more or less, either as children or
adults, lived in the period of action, saw the gathering battalions, and
heard or read the daily reports from the ensanguined battle-fields.
In some of the States that remained loyal to the Union throughout the
long struggle, a military parade had been regarded by many as
something very much in the nature of a circus display, as "fuss and
feathers," such as tickled the vanity of both officer and private. Military
organizations, except in our small regular army, were disparaged and
ridiculed. When the war came, the Northern people were unprepared
for it to a very great degree. The change of public opinion was as
sudden as the mighty event was precipitate. Then the soldier became
the most prominent and honored member of the community, and
existing military bodies became the nucleus of the armies that were to
fight the battles of the Republic.
During the last thirty years the military spirit has been kept alive as a
constituent element of patriotism itself. The love of country