CHAPTER I 



Some Words to the Reader— The War Excitement in the United States— 

 The falling and the rising Military Stars — McClellan Commander-in- 

 Chief — Organizing the Army — His first Review — Visit to Washington 

 — Visiting the Camp — General Louis Blenker — German Refugees — • 

 Prince Felix zu Salm-Salm — What happened to him and to me — The 

 old, old Story — End of the chapter, and turning a new leaf. 



I SHALL not follow my diary day for day. Such a proceeding 

 would only produce tedious repetitions, and extend my book, 

 to an unjustifiable length. I do not pretend to write history ; 

 I shall give only my personal experiences, and though trying 

 my best to judge ^^ersons and events impartially, I am doubt- 

 ful whether I shall succeed, as very wise philosophers assert 

 that in women subjective feeling prevails over objective reason 

 — in a word, that their heart is always running away with their 

 brain. As I cannot help being a woman, I beg the reader to 

 excuse, on the ground of this deplorable fact, opinions and 

 views perhaps differing from his own. 



I am not writing my biography either, and I am therefore 

 dispensed from the necessity of describing my cradle, the 

 emotions I experienced in admiring my first pair of shoes, and 

 of dissecting my soul for the amusement of some curious 

 people. I confess it affords me even a malicious pleasure to 

 disappoint, in this respect, a number of persons who for years 

 have taken the trouble of inventing the most romantic and 

 wonderful stories in reference to my youth, taxing their fancy 

 to the utmost to take revenge on me for my silence. 



There are, indeed, people who resent it as an offence if a 

 person who, by chance or peculiar circumstances, has been 

 raised on the platform of publicity, does not choose to show 

 herself in the garb of an antique statue ; and who, as a cause 

 for such disinclination, attribute to her some physical or moral 



