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When I look back at my initial efforts to unravel the tangled skein and recall the groping and floun dering, I am amazed that I ever had the courage to go forward. I had entered the military service at an early age, at the close Of the great Civil War in which the family, like many others in the border states Of the Confederacy, had divided and cast its fortunes on opposing sides in the fratricidal conflict. The knowledge which comes in normal times as traditions from the passing generation was lost to me, and when I had fully awakened to the fact, nearly all those who could have aided in the research had passed away.
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