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(History of the
Revolutionary War), and that
Captain John Smith, the
Virginia explorer, had explored the
Susquehanna river as far north as the
Wyoming Valley (
Harper's Magazine, November, 1860), and who draws so largely on his imagination, and is so much controlled by his prejudices in his
History of the Civil War, cannot be considered an entirely trustworthy historian.
But because
Mr. Lossing's histories have flooded the
North, and are largely accepted as authentic narrations of events, it is due to the
Confederates and the cause for which they so long and nobly battled, against such fearful odds, that the truth be made known and
Mr. Lossing's misstatements exposed.
It is earnestly to be hoped that the facts presented in this paper will forever set at rest the malicious slander so often repeated against the Confederates, by many who are so willing to believe anything against them, of having authorized the use in military warfare of such atrocious and barbarous missiles as “explosive and poisoned” musket or rifle balls.
