CHAPTER XXVI.
IN THE HOSPITAL.
The Kind of People an Army is made up of. Gentlemen and Blackguards. The Demoralization of Warfare. How I managed to keep out of Difficulties. The Value of a Fighting Reputation. A Quarrel with a drunken General. I threaten to shoot him. My Illness, and the kind Attentions received from Friends. I am admitted to the Empire Hospital. The Irksomeness of a Sick-bed. I learn that my Lover is in the same Hospital, and resolve to see him as soon as I am convalescent.
N army is made up of all kinds of people, the rougher element of masculine human nature, of necessity, predominating; and not the least of the evil effect of a great war is, that it tends to develop a spirit of ruffianism, which, when times of peace return, is of no benefit to society. A man who is instinctively a gentleman, will be one always, and in spite of the demoralizing influences of warfare; but one who is only a gentleman by brevet, and whose native black guardism is only concealed on ordinary occasions by a superficial polish of cultivation, will be apt to show himself a black guard at the earliest opportunity amidst camp associations.
Such men are usually cringing sycophants before their superiors, bullies to those who are under them, shirks when fighting is going on, and plunderers when opportunities for plunder are offered. It is creditable to the American people, as a class, that the great armies which contended with each other so earnestly during four long, weary years of warfare, were disbanded and dismissed to their homes with so little injury to society; for, under the very best auspices, war is not calculated to make men good citizens, while it is pretty certain to make those who are ruffians and blackguards already, worse than they were before they took up arms.
During the time that I wore the uniform of a Confederate officer, I was, of course, brought into contact with all sorts of
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