This is an abridged edition of Mrs. Logan’s classic Reminiscences of a Soldier’s Wife. What the author called there the “grateful features” of her experience—the political cauldron of Washington, the cruel choices im­posed by the Civil War, the hard-fought election campaigns, the social seasons of the nation’s capital, as well as the inception of the woman’s suffrage movement—have now become vital parts of Americana.

 

In rearranging the materials in this volume, Mr. Adams gives new emphasis to those portions that are of the greatest historical interest. He summarizes the recollections of the years 1838 to 1859 in a Prelude and those of 1877 to 1923 in a Postlude. Thus the actual reminiscences included in this book set into dramatic focus the crisis of the Civil War, the intensified partisan feelings of Reconstruction, and the “new order” of the Grant era.