In this autobiography, John Reynolds recounts his fascinating life story and reflects on the major events and ideas of his time. The book covers a wide range of topics, from politics and society to religion and philosophy. Reynolds provides a unique perspective on the world of the mid-19th century, and his insights remain relevant to this day. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

While fighting his way toward Atlanta, William T. Sherman encountered his biggest roadblock at Kennesaw Mountain, where Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee held a heavily fortified position. The opposing armies confronted each other from June 19 to July 3, 1864. Hess explains how this battle, with its combination of maneuver and combat, severely tried the patience and endurance of the common soldier and why Johnston's strategy might have been the Confederates' best chance to halt the Federal drive toward Atlanta.

In 1890, General Francis A. Walker, president of both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the American Statistical Association, wrote There is reason to wish that all citizens, from the highest to the lowest, might undergo so much of training in statistics as should enable them to detect the errors lurking in quantitative statements regarding social and economic matters which may ... be ad dressed to them as voters or as critics of public policies. [E A. Walker, 1890; reprinted in Noether, 1989] It has been more than a century since Walker stated his wish, but progress has been slow, just as advancement in the establishment of statistical principles and methodology has been laborious and difficult over the centuries. We have tried to describe the milestones in this development and how each generation of scientists built on the heritage and foundations laid by their predecessors. Many historians dismiss the "great man theory," which alleges that giant "leaps of human knowledge are made by great thinkers who transcend the boundaries of their times; great scientists don't leap outside their time, but somewhere else in their own time" (Hevly, 1990). We found this to be the case in the history of statistics. Even the innovative writings of Karl Pearson and Sir Ronald Fisher that became the foundation of modern mathematical statistics were the outcome of two centuries of antecedent ideas and information.