In the autumn of 1871, I began the collection of materials for the book which is just completed; at a time when many original sources existed from which to draw. Since that time, no opportunity wherein I might see and talk with persons who were in the Black Hawk campaigns has been lost, and from those interviews I have been able to gather information, old letters, commissions, muster rolls and papers obtainable by no possible system of correspondence.

I have endeavored to be thorough, and to be thorough has required space. I deplore the necessity which forbids an expression of thanks to each individual by name who has contributed documents, valuable portraits and information from which this work has been constructed. I thank them all as generously as I have borrowed, which has been much. Especially must I thank Mrs. Catherine Buckmaster Curran, of Alton, Illinois, who furnished me with a complete set of papers, without which I could never have finished my work as it should be finished.

Mrs. Colonel William Preston Johnston, of New Orleans, who, at great inconvenience and sacrifice of time, secured a copy of the journal kept by Lieut. Albert Sidney Johnston during his service in those campaigns.