The third volume (1883) is translated and edited by Col.  John S. Nicholson of Philadelphia, and covers the eventful year 1863,—­the operations and movements on the Rapidan and the disaster to the union arms at Chancellorsville,—­the movements upon Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and the retreat of Lee’s array to Virginia.  Closer attention is paid, in this volume, to the legislation, administration, finances, resources, temper, and condition generally of the North and the South, and valuable accounts are given of the organization at the North of the signal corps, the medical and hospital service, the military telegraph, the system of railroad transportation for military purposes, the soldiers’ homes, and the sanitary and other commissions.

As a whole, and so far as published, the work purports to give an accurate account of what took place in all quarters of the theatre of war, and is generally successful.  It never errs on the side of partisanship, but occasionally through ignorance or misapplication of facts.  From first to last, it is an honest and straightforward narrative, at times eloquent and at times vivacious.  The reader is bored by no flights of rhetoric; but students will always lament a lack of philosophical tone and critical appreciation of men and events.  The maps and plans, which are numerous and are furnished from official sources, are all that could be desired.

  REMINISCENCES OF FORTS SUMTER AND MOULTRIE IN 1860-61.  By Abner
  Doubleday, Brevet Major General, U.S.A. 1 vol. 12mo pp. 184.  New York,
  Harper & Brothers.

The author bore an honorable and responsible part in the actual outbreak of hostilities between the national government and the revolted states, and in this book he gives a simple and faithful recital of some of the more important facts.  Though so misrepresented by certain critics, the book is not an attack on Major Anderson’s character; on the contrary, it clearly shows, and attempts to show, that that commander firmly subdued all considerations and devices which seemed inconsistent with his duty as a soldier of the United States, and held himself ready to be sacrificed to the trust given him.  General (then Captain, 1st artillery U.S.A.) Doubleday was at Fort Sumter during the bombardment, and, as might be expected, his volume gives many incidents of the life of the little besieged band, and of the siege itself, which appear here for the first time, and which throw fresh light upon the conduct and principles of both parties to the conflict.  As a personal narrative, it is one of the most charming and instructive relating to the war.  The book was published in 1876.

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ASSESSMENT INSURANCE.

By G.A.  Litchfield.