Excerpt from Bascom Clarke the Story of a Southern Refugee<br><br>For years I contemplated publishing the incidents of my early life in book form, especially during that period when the nation's fate was at stake and I, an orphan, alone with God and poverty, found myself in the land of my country's enemies, who proved such good friends that through their acts, a reconstructed rebel, whose soul had been filled with treason and hatred, came to cast his first vote for the Hero of Appomattox.<br><br>While away from business cares a few years ago in California, I prepared from memory - a family trait of many generations - manuscript containing many incidents of my life, which I had intended publishing under a nom de plume, and which, stripped of Mr. Whelan's sugar coating, are absolutely true. After completing the manu script, two facts presented themselves: The story, to be of interest, could not be disguised, the identity of the sub jcet must needs be disclosed. This would have made it of so personal a nature that I abandoned the idea. Sub mitting the manuscript for Mr. Whelan's consideration, he took possession of it and insisted on clothing it in the uniform of a story, instead of a narrative of events.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.