The JVoi'thern Volunteers.
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��older countries the historian seems to regard the otHcers as a distinct order of men, who are alwaN's actuated by moral courage and the sense of Iionor, while he spealvs of the men as beings who are sustained In' the example of the officers, or pliysical courage, or enthusiasm. And if a retreat is de- scribed, it is said that it was the men who gave way, in spite of the exer- tions of the oflicers. This distinction is doubtless due to the fact that the officers were appointed from the no- bility and gentry, while the soldiers were conscript peasants or mercena- ries.
No such difference existed between the officers and men of our volunteers. It is true that education and social training and traditions had made a wide difference among men with re- spect to good faith in doing duty, truthfulness, unselfishness in the hour of sacrifice, and, in short, the sense of honor, and that the morale of the army depended upon the selection of men for officers who had these traits. But there was no class distinction ; that was " the best blood" that had "most iron in 't." For each officer who fell there was a man in the ranks to take his sword. It was the rule to promote from the ranks. I knew a regiment in which sixty men were promoted to be officers, and which took back at the end of the war only one of its original officers, sirch were its losses. 1 also knew a company in a three mouths regiment which fur- nished twenty-two officers from its seventy-six men to other organiza- tions. It was said of Napoleon's soldiers that each one carried a mar- shal's hCdon in his knapsack. This was more nearly true of our volun-
��teers. We had no "gentleman ap- prentice " who did duty by proxy to entitle him to a commission such as was known under Napoleon. With all this equality between soldiers and officers, the men were very subordinate and amenable to discipline. They had an inbred resi)ect for constituted authority, and they looked to the officers for the example of good con- duct.
The capacity which our people showed for war was wonderful in view of the circumstances. For half a century we had had no war which called for great levies. The militia were few in numbers and far behind the militia of to-day in disci[)liue and in the practice of the serious duties of the soldier. Military exercises in the common schools were unknown. No legion of veterans lingered on the stage like those of to-day. The old soldiers of the Mexican war were comparatively few. The whole coun- try was devoted to industry and bent upon the pursuit of wealth, and to others l)eside the misguided men of the South it seemed as if the people of the North would never sliake off the lethargy of [)eace and submit themselves to the partings, the un- certainties, the hardships, the blood- shed, the mournings of war. But the first gun that was fired u[)on Fort Sumter thundered a reveille that woke the sleeping soldier in 2,000,000 men. War then became the all en^jrossins^ trade, and, although the ai)prentice- ship was hard and full of perils, it served to train up a nation of vet- erans.
If the conduct of the volunteers during four years of war proved that the martial quality was native in
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