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CONSCIOUS of its deficiencies, the editor presents this result of his labors to his fellow townsmen. Although the work is largely a compilation of facts and figures touching the history of Georgia's metropolis from its founding to this good year, and no special merit of originality is claimed for it, the reader will find much in these pages as is not elsewhere easily accessible in printed form — matter authentic and valuable for reference. Particularly is this true of the war history recorded with great fidelity and no little detail in the first volume. The facts therein contained were gathered from original sources — Federal and Confederate — mostly direct from field orders, reports and correspondence. The task involved a vast deal of research and reading, but the editor feels compensated by the belief that a fuller or more reliable narrative of the famous "Atlanta Campaign," from Dalton to Jonesboro, was never written.

The second volume, which deals with post-bellum and modern Atlanta, will, we believe, be found to be brought down to date in preserving a record of the city's upbuilding and remarkable progress. The past decade has completely metamorphosed Atlanta physically. Her rehabilitation after the ruthless legions of Sherman passed through her ashes to the sea was not more magical, if we may use the word, than has been her rapid transformation in this latter conquest of peace. It is surprising, at first blush, but nearly all of the better buildings of Atlanta, business and residential, have been constructed within less than the past ten years, and this means the practical rebuilding of the city and its wide expansion in that short space of time. It goes without saying that, under such progressive conditions, Atlanta has been making history very fast of late.

The enterprise of the publishers in the way of handsomely illustrating Atlanta of today, will, we are sure, be appreciated by subscribers to these volumes. Many of the views are the first and exclusive, while some familiar ones are seen from a new viewpoint.

We cannot close these few prefatory words without acknowledging with sincere appreciation our indebtedness to Col. E. Y. Clarke and Mr. Wallace Putnam Reed, distinguished pathfinders and record keepers of Atlanta's short but wonderful annals. Acknowledgments are also made for valuable assistance in the work of compiling these volumes to Mr. Lucian L. Knight, literary editor, and Frank L. Fleming, assistant city editor of the Atlanta Constitution.

Thomas H. Martin. Atlanta, October, 1902.