Campaigns of a Non-Combatant

George Alfred Townsend
a Non-Combatant,, by George
Alfred Townsend

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Title: Campaigns of a Non-Combatant, and His Romaunt Abroad
During the War
Author: George Alfred Townsend
Release Date: November 5, 2007 [EBook #23340]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT, ***

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CAMPAIGNS
OF

A NON-COMBATANT,
AND HIS
ROMAUNT ABROAD DURING THE WAR.
BY GEO. ALFRED TOWNSEND.
NEW YORK: BLELOCK & COMPANY, 19 BEEKMAN STREET,
1866.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.
SCRYMGEOUR, WHITCOMB & CO.,
Stereotypers,
15 WATER STREET, BOSTON.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Transcriber's note: Inconsistency in hyphenation in this etext is as in|
|the original book. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
TO
"Miles O'Reilly,"
Who saw the war as vividly as he sang it; and whose aims for the peace
that has ensued, are even nobler than the noble influence he exerted
during the struggle, these chapters of travel are inscribed by his friend
and colleague.

PREFACE.
In the early part of 1863, while I was resident in London,--the first of
the War Correspondents to go abroad,--I wrote, at the request of Mr.
George Smith, publisher of the Cornhill Magazine, a series of chapters
upon the Rebellion, thus introduced:--
"Few wars have been so well chronicled, as that now desolating
America. Its official narratives have been copious; the great
newspapers of the land have been represented in all its campaigns;
private enterprise has classified and illustrated its several events, and
delegates of foreign countries have been allowed to mingle freely with
its soldiery, and to observe and describe its battles. The pen and the
camera have accompanied its bayonets, and there has not probably been
any skirmish, however insignificant, but a score of zealous scribes have
remarked and recorded it.
"I have employed some leisure hours afforded me in Europe, to detail
those parts of the struggle which I witnessed in a civil capacity. The
Sketches which follow are entirely personal, and dwell less upon
routine incidents, plans, and statistics, than upon those lighter phases of
war which fall beneath the dignity of severe history and are seldom
related. I have endeavored to reproduce not only the adventures, but the
impressions of a novitiate, and I have described not merely the army
and its operations, but the country invaded, and the people who inhabit
it.
"The most that I have hoped to do, is so to simplify a campaign that the
reader may realize it as if he had beheld it, travelling at will, as I did,
and with no greater interest than to see how fields were fought and
won."
To those chapters, I have added in this collection, some estimates of
American life in Europe, and some European estimates of American
life; with my ultimate experiences in the War after my return to my
own country. I cannot hope that they will be received with the same

favor, either here or abroad, as that which greeted their original
publication. But no man ought to let the first four years of his majority
slip away unrecorded. I would rather publish a tolerable book now than
a possibly good one hereafter.

CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT,
AND HIS
Romaunt abroad during the War.
CHAPTER 1.
MY IMPRESSMENT.
"Here is a piece of James Franklin's printing press, Mr. Townsend,"
said Mr. Pratt to me, at Newport the other day,--"Ben. Franklin wrote
for the paper, and set type upon it. The press was imported from
England in 1730, or thereabouts."
He produced a piece of wood, a foot in length, and then laid it away in
its drawer very sacredly.
"I should like to write to that press, Mr. Pratt," I said,--"there would be
no necessity in such a case of getting off six columns for to-night's
mail."
"Well!" said Mr. Pratt, philosophically, "I have a theory that a man
grows up to machinery. As your day so shall your strength be. I believe
you have telegraphed up to a House instrument, haven't you?"
"Mr. Pratt," cried I, with some indignation, "your memory is too good.
This is Newport, and I have come down to see the surf. Pray, do not
remind me of hot hours in a newspaper office, the click of a Morse
dispatch, and work far into the midnight!"
So I
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