The memoirs that follow owe their inception not to any personal inclination to authorship, but to the many requests and suggestions that have been made to me.
It is not my intention to write an historical work, but rather to interpret the impressions under which my life has been spent, and to define the principles on which I have considered it my duty to think and act. Nothing was farther from my mind than to write an apology or a controversial treatise, much less an essay in self-glorification. My thoughts, my actions, my mistakes have been but human. Throughout my life and conduct my criterion has been, not the approval of the world, but my inward convictions, duty, and conscience.
The following pages of reminiscences, written in the most tragic days of our Fatherland, have not come into being under the bitter burden of despair. My gaze is steadfastly directed forward and outward.
I gratefully dedicate my book to all those who fought with me at home and in the field for the existence and greatness of the Empire.
