The country has heard much of the heroism and sacrifices of those loyal youths who fell on the field of battle; but it has heard little of the still greater number who died in prison pen.

It knows full well how grandly her sons met death in front of the serried ranks of treason, and but little of the sublime firmness with which they endured unto the death, all that the ingenious cruelty of their foes could inflict upon them while in captivity.
It is to help supply this deficiency that this book is written.

It is a mite contributed to the better remembrance by their countrymen of those who in this way endured and died that the Nation might live.

It is an offering of testimony to future generations of the measureless cost of the expiation of a national sin, and of the preservation of our national unity.
This is all.

I know I speak for all those still living comrades who went with me through the scenes that I have attempted to describe, when I say that we have no revenges to satisfy, no hatreds to appease.