The whole nation was excited, last spring, at the revelations made before the President and the Cabinet at Washington, by the survivors of General Mitchel's secret Railroad Expedition, sent into the heart of the Confederacy almost a year before. Of the twenty-two daring adventurers who took their lives in their hands and penetrated the enemy's country, eight were executed, and the others, after suffering untold hardships, finally succeeded in re-crossing the lines and reaching their regiments in the Union army. They each received a medal of honor from the hands of the President.The narrative of the long captivity, attempts at escape, sufferings and sorrows, of these heroic soldiers, is told with a graphic power which at once rivets the reader's attention. Nothing in the history of our country is more startling than this adventure, nothing so heart-touching as the protracted trials and privations of the prisoned adventurers, as related by the pen of the gifted author of this work.The book is illustrated by a fine steel portrait of the author, and several exquisite wood engravings, and printed in the highest style of typographical beauty.