Gen. Joseph Wheeler, of Alabama, who has prepared for this work an account of the part taken by his State and her people in the great conflict of 1861-65, is beloved by all the people of the South, as he has been since his days of gallant leadership as one of the great cavalry generals of the Confederacy. His laurels were won, and his rank of lieutenant-general attained, before he had reached the age of thirty years. The middle period of his life was given to the civil interests, the restoration of the prosperity, and the re-establishment of the political status of his people, whom he has continuously represented in the United States Congress. In the past year, and just after he had prepared the Alabama war history for this work, he renewed his military reputation as major-general of United States volunteers, commanding the cavalry in the Santiago campaign of the war with Spain, and attracted to himself, in addition to the love of the South, the admiration and pride of fellow-citizenship of the people in all parts of the united nation.