The Life of Col. James Gardiner / Who Was Slain at the Battle of Prestonpans, September 21, 1745

The memoir traces the life of a military officer from family origins and schooling through active service and successive promotions, recounting campaigns, moral struggles, and a decisive religious conversion. It presents personal letters and intimate recollections of domestic relations, the subject's conduct in command, and a close friendship with the author. The narrative emphasizes sustained devotion, charitable works, and spiritual discipline, follows later deployments and returns, and records a revival of religious feeling, growing apprehensions of death, and his ultimate death in battle, with appendices that preserve additional documents and reflections.