Facts and Falsehoods Concerning the War on the South, 1861-1865

Elizabeth Avery Meriwether was the author of many books, giving accurate and vivid descriptions of historical incidents of importance in the South. Her plots were widely regarded as skillfully conceived and developed, told with remarkable vigor, and true pictures of conditions that were passing away, making her books important additions to the literature of old Southern life.

“Facts and Falsehoods Concerning the War of the South of 1861 and 1865,” which she wrote under the pen name George Edmonds and first published in 1904, was considered by Meriwether herself to be the most valuable book that she ever wrote or could write, because in it she told the truth about historical events:

“This little work is offered. It does not aspire to the dignity of History. It is mostly a collection of facts under one cover, which I trust will prove of use to the future historians of the South. Perhaps the fittest title to this work would be “A Protest Against Injustice”—the injustice of misrepresentation—of false charges—of lies. The feeling of injustice certainly inspired the idea of this work. The greater number of the facts herein laid before the reader were not drawn from Southern or Democratic sources, but from high Republican authorities. Part first of this work presents Abraham Lincoln to the people of this generation as his contemporaries saw and knew him. The characteristics portrayed will be a revelation to many readers.”