"There is little consolation in relating the particulars of the hostile operations along the northern borders of the United States, by Confederate solders from Canada, who were assigned to this service by the authorities of the Confederate States in 1864. And yet the authentic narrative of this desperate warfare which recalls and includes the cruel phases of the deplorable conflict may be due to the survivors and the dead of the North and the South who were military foes, and may serve as a lesson and a guide to the present and future generations of our reunited country in determining the price of peace and the pretexts for war."--Introduction